A Break-Through Approach To Addiction And Behavioral Health Leads To Wellness For All

In the fall of 2017, both serial entrepreneurs Jeffrey Vann and Gregg Champion founded START UP RECOVERY as a legacy business with the idea of disrupting an industry, creating a transformative leading-edge wellness brand and donating a percentage of its profits to organizations that serve those that are underprivileged. Patricia Meyers, a seasoned behavioral health industry veteran, joined as a partner in 2020. The trio, with 60 years in recovery combined, has four luxurious and healing locations on the west side of Los Angeles. Their innovative approach caters to professionals, executives, athletes, empty nesters, retirees, and millennials who are serious about transforming their lives and includes a proprietary “life reset” curriculum, an individualized wellness program and engaging community activities.

Their number one value is safety, and their 360-approach is built on accountability, education, community and love and outperforms conventional treatment options.

“Our goal is to provide a safe, luxurious and truly transformational environment and experience where people can connect, thrive, evolve and heal.”

says co-founder Gregg Champion. The compassionate partners approach each client as a unique start-up or turnaround and treat clients with respect coupled with a healthy dose of structure and loving direction. Each person participates in The Recovery Playbook® curriculum developed by Champion, is provided with a genuinely individualized gameplan for success and learns how to make self-care and self-love priorities in their life.

“Being involved in the process of helping our clients discover or rediscover what brings them joy and ignite or reignite their passions is so satisfying.”

says co-founder Jeffrey Vann. One of their signature offerings is matching their clients with a successful mentor in the industry vertical they are in or want to engage in. For example, suppose the client is or wants to be an entrepreneur, in entertainment, real estate or finance. In that case, they will be connected to someone in their own long-term recovery that is also highly successful in that specific career vertical.

Unfortunately, less than 42% of the individuals who enter treatment for drug and alcohol abuse complete it, according to a 2019 Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration study. However, at START UP RECOVERY, that completion rate was 72% since its inception five years ago, and 93% of those completing a 90-day program remained clean during the program as validated through semi-weekly drug testing. According to the National Institute on Drug abuse, only 15% of drug addicts do not relapse in the first year of recovery. START UP RECOVERY keeps in touch with 77% of its over 200 alums twice a month and 65% of those self-reported that they are still in recovery.

“Nothing is more gratifying than seeing the light come on for our clients. Ultimately our barometer of success is the outcomes we are privileged to be a part of.”

says partner Patricia Meyers. In addition to the impressive statistics, dozens of heartwarming individual stories support their approach, including the launch of new start-up brands, young people who were living at home becoming independent and families who are reunited and people who were stagnant in their careers have gone on to be promoted or grow their enterprises.

Now the partners are launching a new state-of-the-art division, START UP WELLNESS, where a broader audience can receive a potent combination of services and modalities, including eastern medicine that is fully integrated with clinical therapy and bio-hacking technology. Their first one-of-a-kind center will be in Santa Monica, CA. The long-term vision is to take the innovations that have worked at START UP RECOVERY and expand their footprint into new markets to create wellness and healing for the general population.