Faresay
Therapy, matched.

Business Plan

Confidential Faresay Ltd·25 June 2026

Internal operating plan (bootstrapped). Therapy marketplace, UK first → English-speaking expatriates worldwide → broader markets (incl. the US) later, cash-pay, 15% platform fee. Market figures are research-grounded but directional — see market-research-synthesis.md for confidence tags and sources; refresh hard numbers from primary sources before any external/investor use. Expat market sizing is qualitative pending primary research — do not quote a TAM until sourced. Last updated: [PLACEHOLDER: date]

1. Executive summary

Faresay helps internationally mobile English-speaking professionals find trusted therapists who understand the challenges of living and working across cultures. Beginning with a focused niche lets the company reach sustainable customer-acquisition economics before expanding into broader mental-health markets.

Faresay is a two-sided marketplace — discovery, trust-verified profiles, matching, scheduling, secure video, payments — between vetted, licensed therapists and self-pay clients. It operates in the UK today. The chosen beachhead after the UK is English-speaking expatriates worldwide: people in Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, the UAE, Thailand, Vietnam and across Europe who struggle to find a culturally compatible therapist who understands relocation stress, isolation, identity and belonging. Clients pay out of pocket; Faresay earns a 15% platform fee (10% for founding therapists), characterised as a technology + marketing fee, not a clinical fee-split.

The strategic logic: the US is the most competitive therapy market on earth and demand there is concentrating around insurance. The global expat segment is far less crowded, underserved for culturally-matched care, English-language by default, naturally cash-pay (often outside any local insurance system), and aligns unusually well with the founder's own life and network. Faresay wins on trust and fit, not on outspending incumbents.

This is a bootstrapped plan. Success is defined by CAC payback and contribution margin, and gated by an explicit Stage 0 proof-of-concept (§11) before any geographic expansion. Larger markets — including the US and insurance-enablement — are deliberate later options, revisited with real data, not the opening move.

2. The beachhead — internationally mobile English-speakers

Positioning: Faresay is the easiest place in the world for English-speaking expatriates to find a therapist who understands cross-cultural life — relocation stress, isolation, identity and belonging.

Why this niche: - Underserved: local therapists may not share language or cultural context; finding a trusted, English-speaking, culturally-fluent therapist abroad is genuinely hard. - Naturally cash-pay: expats are frequently outside local insurance/public systems → no payer contracting needed, which is exactly the model Faresay runs. - English by default: removes the language barrier that complicates local-market matching. - Concentrated + reachable: expats cluster in identifiable cities, communities, employers and online groups → lower-CAC, targetable acquisition. - Less crowded: incumbents chase the US insurance pool; few own "therapy for globally mobile people" as a brand. - Founder-fit: the founder lives this problem personally (§4).

Initial Ideal Client Profile (ICP): an English-speaking professional living outside their home country, employed or self-employed, paying privately, seeking ongoing (not crisis) support around relocation, work stress, relationships, identity or isolation.

⚠️ Niche risk: too-narrow a beachhead can cap growth. Mitigation: the expat wedge is an entry point, not a ceiling — the same trust + matching platform generalises to broader English-speaking markets once economics are proven (§11, §18).

3. Trust is the product (not "matching")

Everyone claims better matching; few can claim trust. Faresay's core product is confidence — clients are not buying an algorithm, they are buying the assurance that the person on the other end is real, qualified and right for them.

The trust stack (what we verify and surface): - Verified credentials — current registration with a recognised body (UK: BACP/UKCP/BPS/NCS; abroad: the relevant licensing body), number checked, expiry tracked. - Verified identity — the therapist is who they say they are. - Interviewed & quality-reviewed — manual onboarding, not self-serve listing. - Transparent experience — specialisms, cross-cultural experience, languages, approach. - Client reviews — real, post-session ratings. - Responsiveness — visible response times and availability.

Matching still matters, but it is framed as fit on top of trust, not the headline. "Better matching" moves differentiation modestly; "every therapist manually verified, licensed, interviewed and quality-reviewed" is a claim clients actually buy.

4. Founder advantage

Plans that read like a consultant wrote them don't answer the question partners and investors ask: why this founder?

The founder spent decades in high-pressure global finance while studying mental health and counselling. Having lived and worked internationally — currently based in Japan — and navigated therapy systems personally, he experienced first-hand how hard it is, especially for expatriates, to find trustworthy, culturally-appropriate mental-health support. Faresay is built from that lived problem, not a spreadsheet. [PLACEHOLDER: confirm exact background, qualifications, and any clinical/advisory credentials before external use.]

This is a strategic asset: authentic insight into the beachhead, a personal network inside the expat world, and a credible reason the founder will out-care and out-last better-funded generalists.

5. Company & product

6. Market opportunity

(UK figures and any quoted stats: see market-research-synthesis.md §0 for sources/confidence. Expat sizing is qualitative pending primary research — do not quote a TAM until sourced.) - UK (home base): an established private-therapy market with recognised registration bodies and a clear self-pay segment; the proving ground for the product and trust model. - Global English-speaking expatriates: millions of internationally mobile English-speakers across Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, the UAE, Thailand, Vietnam and Europe — many underserved for culturally-compatible, English-language therapy. Smaller than the US market, but dramatically less crowded and naturally cash-pay. [PLACEHOLDER: size by corridor with primary sources — expat population estimates, private-pay willingness, competitor density per hub.] - Broader markets (later option): large English-speaking markets and, if justified, the US (the biggest but most competitive pool — addressed only after the beachhead proves out; see §8). - SAM/SOM: the obtainable slice = expats in the first 1–2 target hubs acquirable at a CAC that pays back within an acceptable number of sessions. Quantified in financial-model.md. - Demand-constrained: as in all therapy marketplaces, the binding constraint is acquiring paying clients, not recruiting therapists — this shapes GTM (§10).

7. Competitive landscape

8. Strategic thesis & sequencing

The sequencing call: UK → English-speaking expats globally → broader markets (incl. US) later, rather than UK → US.

9. Business model & unit economics

10. Go-to-market

Principle: weight effort toward the client side; seed a verified therapist panel first to guarantee liquidity. - Expat-targeted demand channels: city/community groups (Facebook/Reddit/Discord expat communities), relocation and immigration firms, international schools and universities, globally-mobile employers and HR, expat media/newsletters, and SEO for intent ("English- speaking therapist in ", "therapist for expats", "relocation stress therapy"). - Supply (therapists): recruit therapists with cross-cultural / expat experience and multiple languages; the 15%-take + low-admin pitch; manual interview + verification (§3). - Referrals as a primary engine: therapists refer therapists; clients refer clients (§12). - Partnerships: relocation services, international employers, expat associations. - ⚠️ Healthcare advertising rules apply per jurisdiction (legal review).

11. Stage 0 — prove the economics (the gate)

No geographic expansion before objective proof the model works. Stage 0 converts the plan from "we think this works" into "we have proof it works."

Stage 0 targets (illustrative — confirm against financial-model.md): - 25 verified therapists on the platform - 100 paying clients - CAC under £100 - Payback within ~4 sessions - Retention above 60% at month 2

Only when these hold does Faresay open the next hub/segment. This gate protects the bootstrapped balance sheet and forces honesty about unit economics before scaling spend.

12. Moat

Supply density and compliance alone are weak. Faresay's defensibility compounds across four layers: - Data moat: over time, Faresay gets better at predicting successful therapeutic relationships (match quality from outcomes, retention, reviews) — hard for a new entrant to replicate cold. - Reputation moat: the most-trusted therapist profiles attract more clients, which attracts the best therapists — a trust flywheel. - Community moat: therapists refer therapists; clients refer clients — especially powerful in tight-knit expat communities, lowering CAC as the network grows. - Compliance moat: multi-jurisdiction legal + clinical infrastructure (cross-border licensure handling, governance, safeguarding) becomes difficult and slow for newcomers to replicate — and grows with each market entered.

13. Clinical & regulatory structure (summary)

14. Operations & technology

15. Team & organisation

16. Financial plan

17. Risks (top)

From risk-register.md (full register): - R-17 CAC > LTV — the core cash-pay risk; mitigated by the niche (lower, targeted CAC) + retention + referrals. - R-22 Two-sided cold-start — mitigated by seed-supply-first + a narrow, concentrated beachhead. - Cross-border licensure/jurisdiction (NEW) — the central regulatory risk of the expat strategy; mitigated by per-corridor legal mapping before launch (§13). - Niche-too-narrow (NEW) — beachhead caps growth; mitigated by treating expats as an entry wedge that generalises once proven. - R-01 Fee-splitting / fee characterisation — the 15% framing; counsel-validated per market. - R-12 Data breach / R-07 client crisis — security + crisis/safeguarding policies (with country-correct crisis routing).

18. Roadmap & milestones

  1. Now: UK operations; finalise UK structure + policies with counsel (uk-legal-regulatory-brief.md); stand up trust/verification and the founder-led therapist panel.
  2. Stage 0 — prove the economics (gate): hit the §11 targets (25 therapists, 100 paying clients, CAC < £100, payback ~4 sessions, retention > 60% m2) before any expansion.
  3. Expat beachhead: open the first 1–2 expat hubs (e.g. a corridor where the founder's network is strongest); map cross-border licensure per corridor first; prove liquidity + CAC + retention.
  4. Expand the niche: add expat corridors; build the data/reputation/community moats.
  5. Decision point — broader markets: evaluate larger English-speaking markets and, if justified on data, the US (with its MSO/friendly-PC + insurance-enablement questions) — a deliberate later choice, not the default.

19. Linked documents