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How Base Medical Built a National Training Network for Search and Rescue on Thinkific

Base Medical built its entire certification and partner infrastructure on Thinkific from day one and has since achieved over 100,000 enrolments and 24% revenue growth this year.

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Base Medical trains the people who go looking for you when you don’t come back. Its wilderness medicine and search and rescue (SAR) certifications are used by state agencies, county SAR teams, and public safety organizations across the country, including a statewide contract with Washington State that trains its SAR responders. Base Medical was the first company to combine wilderness medicine and search and rescue education into an accessible program, and the first to deliver that training online.

Founded in 2015, the company built its entire certification and partner infrastructure on Thinkific from day one, betting early that a learning commerce platform, not a custom-built system, was the right foundation for a business whose product is, quite literally, life-safety training.

“We established Base Medical with the intention of creating a safer outdoor community through better access to wilderness medicine and search and rescue education.”

— Teal Harbin, Founder, Base Medical

That early bet meant Base Medical never had to build or maintain its own learning infrastructure, and never had to take on the cybersecurity and compliance burden that would come with it. Instead, the company could focus entirely on curriculum and partnerships.

15k+

active learner accounts

100k+

total course enrolments

24%

revenue growth this year

Betting on a platform before the business needed one

When Base Medical’s founder, Teal Harbin, evaluated learning platforms in 2015, the company didn’t yet have the scale to demand much from any of them. She researched the market extensively anyway, because she understood the decision would outlast almost every other early choice she made.

“It’s a huge commitment when you commit to a learning platform. You cannot just easily switch learning platforms, you have to be very, very careful with that first decision.”

— Teal Harbin, Founder, Base Medical

Three things separated Thinkific from the alternatives: it had more built-in capability than competing platforms, it could natively issue the certifications her business is built on, and it was visibly investing in its own roadmap.

“It was very clear that Thinkific was growing and evolving. You all were constantly putting out updates, whereas the other platforms weren’t. So I felt, okay, this is a company we can grow with.”

— Teal Harbin, Base Medical

Turning independent teams into one certified network

Base Medical’s business model isn’t just selling courses. It’s powering training infrastructure for dozens of independent SAR teams and public agencies, each with its own instructors, its own cohorts, and often its own specialized content. Thinkific’s multi-tenancy gives every partner organization its own space on the platform, with visibility into their own enrollment and learners, so Base Medical can support each team accurately as its network keeps expanding.

Partner organizations can also be granted course-author access, layering their own specialty content, like dive rescue, wildland fire safety, or disaster medicine, on top of Base Medical’s foundational curriculum. One longtime SAR team partner builds its annual search and rescue academy around a custom bundle of Base Medical courses combined with its own team-specific training. Pierce County Search and Rescue started with two certified instructors on the platform and now runs ten, delivering training to both its own team and the public.

SCORM support extends the same model to outside partners: Base Medical has brought in third-party content from organizations like the American Red Cross and Responder Alliance, transferring it directly into its Thinkific site rather than rebuilding it from scratch.

“That has helped us increase our professionalism, and what we can deliver to the teams. It’s not just, oh, you have online training access now. Here’s a custom bundle, and you can even add some of your own content.”

— Teal Harbin, Base Medical

Automation turns growth into a repeatable engine

This year, a new Thinkific-enabled workflow gave Base Medical’s growth a real lift: automated team subscriptions that let SAR teams self-enroll and issue access to their own members, without a manual admin step on Base Medical’s side.

“We’ve had a 24% increase in revenue and certifications this year compared to last year. That’s mainly because of the new systems and processes we’ve been able to put in place with Thinkific.”

— Teal Harbin, Base Medical

That automation didn’t just lift revenue. It changed what running the business requires day to day. Course administration that once needed a dedicated role is now handled by the platform itself, freeing Base Medical’s team to focus on curriculum, partnerships, and the state contracts that represent its next stage of growth.

“We don’t even need course administration anymore, which is great.”

— Teal Harbin, Base Medical

Validated in the boardroom, and in the field

During due diligence for a recent funding round, Base Medical’s investors wanted to understand the systems behind the business, including which learning platform it runs on. Teal’s answer left no ambiguity about where Base Medical stands.

“That was one of the questions: which learning platform are you using? I told them, this is a non-negotiable for us. We are not switching learning platforms. Our investors are very happy with Thinkific.”

— Teal Harbin, Base Medical

The stakes of that reliability show up outside the business too. Base Medical’s training now connects search and rescue teams across an entire state, teams that rarely interacted before are now trained on the same content and can work a single mission speaking the same language, from paramedics to volunteers with basic first aid.

“There was a rescue on Mount Rainier with a man who fell into a crevasse, and they said that man lived. They said Base Medical was the game changer in that mission. And just yesterday, the state of Washington told me: Base Medical has completely changed the game when it comes to how we’re training our search and rescue teams, and the professionalism and standard we’ve been able to create.”

— Teal Harbin, Base Medical

What’s next for Base Medical

Base Medical is preparing for its next phase of scale on several fronts at once. Its Washington State contract is up for renewal, with projected growth from roughly 1,000 SAR responders on the platform today to as many as 5,000. The company is evaluating Thinkific’s newest certification and Learner Hub capabilities to streamline how cohorts recertify every two years. And a new funding round, expected this fall, will fund Base Medical’s first dedicated push into marketing, a shift from a decade of pure word-of-mouth growth.

Through all of it, Teal is clear about the role the platform plays in the business she’s built.

“There are constant updates and improvements. The platform you’re subscribing to evolves as you evolve, and that’s what I appreciate most about Thinkific. We’re evolving as a business. So is Thinkific. I like knowing our learning platform isn’t stagnant. It’s just as dynamic as we are.”

— Teal Harbin, Base Medical

“I would absolutely recommend Thinkific. You’re not just limited to a select set of features or capped at a certain limit. Thinkific truly works with you and helps you grow.”

— Teal Harbin, Base Medical

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About Thinkific  

Thinkific (TSX: THNC) is an award-winning learning commerce platform where courses and community come together to power business growth. Tens of thousands of companies, including GoDaddy, Nasdaq, ActiveCampaign, and Datadog, have generated billions in revenue using Thinkific, impacting more than 200 million people worldwide. Visit thinkific.com to learn more.