By Business & Finance 
Stephen Costello is CEO and Co-Founder of Spectrum.Life. He founded the company alongside Stuart McGoldrick in 2018. His passions and goals for the company include commercial innovation, go-to-market strategies, and technology changes in the mental health space.
By Rye Baker
What is your core product/service offering and what gap in the market are you trying to address?
At Spectrum.Life, we are a tech-enabled services business operating at the intersection of mental health, digital health, and wellbeing. We support clients across the workplace, education, and insurance sectors with a full-spectrum care platform that is clinically grounded and digitally delivered. Our core offering centres around delivering transformative digital experiences – via a single, customisable platform – designed to engage employees, students, and insured members in their health journeys. What sets us apart is that we not only provide the services, but we also build the technology that enables them.
The gap we’re addressing is twofold: Firstly, the fragmentation of mental and physical health services across providers, platforms, and delivery models; and secondly, the lack of proactive, measurable, and scalable engagement in health and wellbeing. Our platform creates a seamless, personalised experience that integrates care pathways, drives engagement, and delivers outcomes – whether that’s through Total Mental Health services, Virtual Primary Care, or wellbeing initiatives. We’re reshaping how health is accessed and experienced – at scale.
What are your main priorities and goals in your role?
My primary focus is delivering on our mission – to save and change as many lives as possible. That mission is not a slogan; it underpins every strategic decision we make. This year alone, over 3 million individuals will access Spectrum.Life services, whether through mental health support, digital health consultations, or wellbeing experiences. Ensuring that each of those interactions delivers meaningful impact is a responsibility I take seriously.
In my role, I’m accountable for driving sustainable growth while preserving clinical integrity and service excellence. That means scaling our platform internationally, deepening our partnerships with insurers and institutions, and ensuring our product and service delivery is truly best-in-class.
What are your biggest challenges as CEO?
This year, we’re on track to grow revenue by approximately 70% and surpass 500 employees – all operating in a remote-first model across multiple countries. That scale is both exciting and complex. As CEO, one of the biggest challenges is balancing rapid growth with operational excellence and cultural cohesion. When you’re scaling quickly, it’s easy to outpace your own systems, processes, or even your sense of shared identity. Keeping our team aligned – strategically, culturally, and emotionally – requires constant focus and communication.
Another ongoing challenge is ensuring we maintain the quality and integrity of our clinical services as we digitise and expand internationally. Our clients place immense trust in us to deliver mental health and wellbeing support that is both accessible and effective. As we move into new markets and extend our technology platform, we must continue to meet those expectations – without compromise.
Finally, prioritisation is key. With strong demand and multiple growth opportunities, the challenge isn’t a lack of ideas – it’s the discipline to focus on the initiatives that will deliver the greatest long-term impact.
What have been your highlights in business over the past year?
While I’m always proud of the commercial milestones – like the record-breaking revenue growth we’ve achieved this year – the real highlight for me is seeing the company evolve into a place where people build meaningful careers. We have created hundreds of jobs, but more importantly, we have created careers with purpose. From clinicians and engineers to marketers and account managers, our team is unified by a shared mission to change and save lives. Watching people grow within the organisation, take on new challenges, and feel proud of the impact they’re having – that’s incredibly rewarding.
I’m also immensely proud of the culture we’ve built. Even as we scale, we’ve maintained a high level of energy, resilience, and ambition. To see a remote-first team of over 500 people aligned behind a singular vision is no small feat. That alignment, and the integrity with which our team operates, is what sets Spectrum.Life apart.
Where do you want your business/brand to be this time next year?
By this time next year, we expect to be well on our way to surpassing €40 million in revenue, continuing our trajectory of high growth while staying grounded in our mission. But growth for us isn’t just about financials – it’s about expanding the number of lives we positively impact. Our ambition is to support even more individuals across workplace, education, and insurance sectors – providing seamless, effective mental health and digital health experiences on a global scale.
International expansion is a key part of that vision. We’re laying the groundwork to enter priority markets in the Middle East, Asia, and Australia, leveraging strategic insurer partnerships and a technology-led model. We’re taking a calculated and partnership-first approach, ensuring we can deliver locally relevant, high-quality services in each region. Ultimately, I want Spectrum.Life to be recognised globally as the most trusted digital health partner – respected not just for what we do, but for how we do it.
Are there any major changes you would like to see in your sector?
One of the defining challenges – and opportunities – facing our industry is the safe and accelerated adoption of AI in healthcare. AI has the potential to transform how care is delivered: from triaging patients and supporting clinical decision-making, to personalising mental health interventions and improving service efficiency. But the stakes are high. Healthcare is a trust-based industry, and the integration of AI must be both ethically sound and clinically validated.
At Spectrum.Life, we are actively exploring how AI can support our clinicians rather than replace them – enhancing outcomes through better data, automation of low- value tasks, and improved user engagement. But we’re taking a cautious, evidence-led approach. It’s essential that AI augments human care, not undermines it. Alongside this, the clinician shortage remains a critical challenge globally. AI can help alleviate some pressure, but it’s not a silver bullet. We still need to invest in growing, supporting, and protecting the workforce. And as the demand for services continues to rise, ensuring equitable access – across geographies, demographics, and digital literacy levels – must remain a priority.
How has the COVID-19 crisis affected your business/sector?
COVID-19 was an incredibly powerful catalyst for our business – and for the broader digital health sector. It accelerated trends that were already in motion and forced both providers and customers to adapt, quickly.
Firstly, it pushed us – and the market – to fully embrace digital delivery. What was once considered optional or secondary became essential almost overnight. That shift validated our strategy and accelerated the adoption of our digital mental health, wellbeing, and primary care services.
Secondly, the widespread move to remote work radically changed how we sell and serve. Sales cycles that previously required months of in-person meetings were shortened dramatically, and access to international clients became far more feasible. Geography became less of a barrier, which has played a significant role in shaping our international expansion strategy. Of course, the crisis also exposed systemic gaps in access to care and created new levels of demand for mental health support. Meeting that need – not just in the moment, but in a sustainable and scalable way – has defined much of our work since.
How do you define success and what drives you to succeed?
I define success as the ability to create – whether that’s building products, solving problems, or shaping a company that didn’t exist before. For me, it’s the creative process of turning an idea into something real and valuable that’s deeply fulfilling. What drives me is the challenge of solving complex problems at scale. There’s also something incredibly rewarding about building an organisation that brings talented people together to do something meaningful. Creating an environment where people can innovate, push boundaries, and feel proud of what they’re part of – that’s a huge part of what keeps me motivated.
Ultimately, success isn’t just the outcome. It’s the process of building, refining, and solving hard problems in a way that has real impact.
What advice would you give to others starting out in business?
Build a company with people you like and build it for a culture you want to be part of. When you’re starting out, there’s a temptation to prioritise product, funding, or speed – but in the long run, nothing shapes your business more than who you build it with and how it feels to work there.
Culture isn’t just a perk or a set of values on a slide – it’s the daily experience of working together. And when you’re growing fast, that culture can drift unless you’re intentional. So, surround yourself with people you trust, people who energise you, and people who challenge you in the right ways. It makes the hard days bearable and the good days even better.
In my experience, culture is the only thing that scales well if you invest in it early. Everything else – product, structure, even strategy – will evolve. But if you get the people and the environment right, you’ll build something resilient, meaningful, and genuinely enjoyable to lead.
What’s your long-term vision for the company?
My long-term vision is to build Spectrum.Life into one of the world’s leading HealthTech companies – Irish-founded, globally recognised, and driven by impact. We’re building a platform that integrates digital experiences, clinical intelligence, and scalable infrastructure to solve some of the most complex challenges in healthcare – from accessibility to engagement to continuity of care. Our ambition isn’t just to deliver services more efficiently, but to fundamentally improve how people experience healthcare in their daily lives.
As we grow, I want Spectrum.Life to continue being a place where exceptional people – clinical and non-clinical – can do the best work of their careers. That means staying true to our culture while we scale, and creating an environment where innovation, empathy, and excellence are all part of the same DNA. We’re already seeing strong signals of product-market fit across the UK, Europe, and beyond. The next phase is about building a global platform from Ireland that shapes the future of digital health – and does so with purpose.
Read More CEO Q&As:
Aideen Curtin, CEO of Progressive Vision
