In this episode, we interview the GoodRx co-founder and CEO, Doug Hirsch . We chat about his experience founding GoodRx, covering topics ranging from a time when his father literally knocked on pharmacy doors in NYC to get drug prices to their recent public offering. GoodRx seeks to expand access and affordability for prescription drugs. To do this, they process ~200 billion daily cash-pay price points for generic drugs from pharmacies, pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), and retailers to then hel...
Oct 04, 2021•39 min•Season 4Ep. 1
In this episode, we interview Michelle Carnahan , President of Thirty Madison . We discuss Michelle’s pivot from pharmaceutical executive to leader of a health tech unicorn and what that means for Thirty Madison going forward. Thirty Madison’s mission is to be a human-first healthcare company delivering specialized care and treatment to everyone. They recently completed a $140M Series C raise led by HealthQuest Capital . They join Maveron and Polaris Partners as lead investors in Thirty Madison....
Aug 09, 2021•43 min
In this episode, we interview Saeju Jeong , the Co-Founder and CEO of Noom . Founded in 2008, the company’s mission is to help people everywhere lead healthier lives through behavior change. Although today they are best known for their weight loss app, the company is making a push to extend its behavior change platform further into chronic care, supported by their recent $540 million Series F growth round led by Silver Lake....
Aug 05, 2021•40 min
In this episode, we chatted with Vijay Patel , Co-Founder and Partner at CVS Health Ventures , a $100M fund dedicated to investing and partnering with high-potential health technology startups aimed at building towards CVS’ vision of creating more consumer-centric care. We discussed: The establishment of CVS Health Ventures as a fund dedicated to digital health opportunities, creating the potential for longer-term strategic actions and extended time horizons for realizing investment payoff The m...
Jul 27, 2021•40 min•Season 3Ep. 27
In this episode, we interview Jonathan Bush , the founder and CEO of Zus Health . We discuss his broad vision for Zus as well as some of his learnings from founding and leading athenahealth and from serving as the Executive Chairman of Firefly Health . Zus Health is seeking to enable the new wave of digital-first provider organizations by building a unified patient record and a toolkit with which these organizations can build better patient relationship management tools and provider workflows. Z...
Jul 12, 2021•39 min
In this episode, we sat down with Clara Burtenshaw , Partner and Investor at Neo Kuma Ventures . We discussed: -The evolution of the psychedelics industry from a stigmatized counterculture phenomenon to a scientifically robust industry with support from the FDA for fast-tracking drug development -The clinical potential of psychedelics to treat illnesses ranging from mental illness to pain management and other nervous system disorders -Neo Kuma's focus on investing in early stage companies backed...
Jul 06, 2021•58 min•Season 3Ep. 25
Julian Harris, M.D., is a Partner on the Healthcare Services team at Deerfield and Chairman & CEO at ConcertoCare . Launched in 1994, Deerfield Management Company is an investment firm dedicated to advancing healthcare through information, investment and philanthropy — all toward the end goal of cures for disease, improved quality of life and reduced cost of care. ConcertoCare was formed recently by a combination of the assets of ConcertoHealth and Perfect Health. ConcertoCare is one of the ...
Jun 30, 2021•30 min•Season 3Ep. 28
In this episode, we interviewed Michelle Davey, the Co-Founder and CEO of Wheel . Wheel is working behind the scenes to build many of the telemedicine services you’re familiar with. Its online platform matches doctors with patients and also enables any company to stand up a virtual care practice. Wheel makes it simple for companies to build virtual care services under their brand by pairing technology with a nationwide clinician network. Wheel also provides clinicians with the best place to work...
Jun 16, 2021•35 min•Season 3Ep. 27
In this episode of The Pulse Podcast, we interview Connor Hailey , CEO and Co-Founder of Axle Health , a software platform that enables any company to add in-home visits to their patient offering. We cover Connor’s penchant for startups and entrepreneurship, Axle Health’s founding story and early product journey and how they have scaled to thousands of in-home visits in just one year of launch. Founded in 2020, Axle Health eliminates the complexity of delivering in-home care by offering a simple...
Jun 07, 2021•27 min•Season 3Ep. 26
In this episode, we sat down with Sangu Delle , the Chairman and CEO of Africa Health Holdings . Africa Health Holdings is focused on building a sustainable healthcare ecosystem in Africa through its network of healthcare facilities that it owns and manages. To date, Africa Health Holdings portfolio companies have served over 510,000 patients through malaria treatment, family planning, community outreach programs, and more. Africa Health Holdings currently has 40 facilities across Kenya, Nigeria...
Jun 01, 2021•44 min•Season 3Ep. 24
In this episode, we interview Vik Bakhru , MD, former COO and CFO of ConsejoSano and the founding CMO of Circulo Health . We discuss some of the challenges that ConsejoSano faced as they strove to build consumer trust in the medical system amidst the global pandemic and what’s in store for Circulo Health, the nation’s newest managed Medicaid plan. Founded in 2014, ConsejoSano provides patient engagement tools to payers and providers to help them better connect with their multicultural Medicaid/ ...
May 24, 2021•38 min•Season 3Ep. 23
In this episode, we interview Afton Vechery , CEO and Co-Founder of Modern Fertility , a reproductive health company making personalized fertility information more accessible. We discuss Modern Fertility’s founding story from getting to the first 100 users to finding the best GTM strategy and building the proactive fertility category from scratch. Founded in 2016, Modern Fertility is the women’s health company making personalized, proactive fertility information more accessible to women everywhe...
May 18, 2021•36 min•Season 3Ep. 22
Neil Batlivala is the CEO and Co-Founder of Pair Team . Neil Batlivala and Cassie Choi, RN founded Pair in 2019 after experiencing how critical a high functioning administrative team is to provide high-quality primary care by building out operations together at leading tech-enabled practices of Forward and Circle Medical. The majority of healthcare is local and fragmented, and no solutions were built to enable existing clinics. Pair came out of that need and provides a simple yet comprehensive s...
May 12, 2021•49 min•Season 3Ep. 21
In this episode, we chatted with Dan Knecht , M.D., M.B.A., Vice President of Clinical Product at CVS Health . Prior to this, Dan served as Vice President of Health Strategy and Innovation for Medical Affairs at Aetna , a CVS Health company. What we discussed: The CVS Health-Aetna merger in 2018 has enabled the joint company to create more customer-centric care by marrying advanced data analytics across Aetna’s ~21 million members with care management and better access to healthcare for consumer...
May 05, 2021•40 min•Season 3Ep. 20
Dr. Andrey Ostrovsky is the former Chief Medical Officer of the US Medicaid program. He is now the Managing Partner at Social Innovation Ventures where he invests in and advises companies and non-profits dedicated to eliminating disparities. He also advises federal and state regulators on how to incorporate human centered design into policy making. He previously operated a series of methadone clinics in Baltimore, Maryland. Prior to working on the front line of the opioid use disorder crisis, he...
Apr 30, 2021•45 min•Season 3Ep. 19
In this episode of The Pulse Podcast, Vivien interviews Andrew Parker, CEO and Co-Founder of Papa, an on-demand assistance service to help people and their family members stay independent while living securely and happily at home. Andrew has a passion for healthcare, technology and people. Prior to founding Papa, Andrew ran Health Systems Sales and Strategy for MDLive.com, a large tele-health provider, where he was one of the first 15 employees. In 2017, Andrew founded Papa with the goal of supp...
Apr 06, 2021•30 min•Season 3Ep. 18
In this episode, we interview Dr. Jon Bloom, the Co-Founder and CEO of Podimetrics. The company’s mission is to improve patient lives through early detection and prevention of diabetic foot ulcers. They are a virtual care management company dedicated to preventing diabetic amputations through their SmartMat product and partnerships with both payers and at-risk providers, including the Veteran’s Health Administration. The company was founded in 2011 and has been backed by Norwich Ventures, Rock H...
Mar 31, 2021•35 min•Season 3Ep. 17
In this episode, we sat down with Brad Fluegel , lecturer at the Wharton School’s Health Care Management program and former Senior Vice President and Chief Healthcare Commercial Market Development Officer for Walgreens . Before that, he was the Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy and External Affairs Officer for Wellpoint, now Anthem , and Senior Vice President of National Accounts and Vice President of Enterprise Strategy at Aetna . What we discussed: Consumer behavior shifting to onlin...
Mar 25, 2021•41 min•Season 3Ep. 16
In this episode, we connect with Erin Lee , the VP of Global Operations and Managing Director of Babylon (U.S.) . Babylon is a London-based telehealth startup leveraging AI to provide quality and affordable primary care around the world. Babylon has operations globally, including in the U.S., Canada, UK, Rwanda, and several countries within Asia and the Middle East and plans to continue expanding internationally. Since its founding in 2013, Babylon has raised $635M in funding to date from invest...
Mar 08, 2021•40 min•Season 3Ep. 15
In this episode, Vivien interviews Naomi Allen, CEO and Co-Founder of Brightline , a behavioral health care technology company delivered for families and children. We discuss her amazing journey at the forefront of the new digital health wave as one of the founding team members of Castlight , her leadership lessons as Chief Growth Officer Livongo and the amazing story of Brightline and how they launched months before their plan to serve families during the COVID and behavioral health pandemic. I...
Mar 03, 2021•38 min•Season 3Ep. 14
In this episode, Sandy interviews Jannine Versi, COO & Co-Founder of Elektra Health. Elektra Health is on a mission to smash the menopause taboo by empowering 50M women in the US today navigating menopause with a full-stack digital solution. Elektra has been featured in Forbes, Pitchbook, the Financial Times and Crunchbase, and was selected as a "recommended platform" by both Katie Couric and Maria Shriver. Prior to Elektra Health, Jannine held positions at Google, The White House in the Oba...
Feb 23, 2021•36 min•Season 3Ep. 13
In this episode of The Pulse Podcast, Vivien interviews Gabriel Mecklenburg, President and Co-Founder of Hinge Health , the leading musculoskeletal (also known as MSK) solution for employers and health plans. We discuss Hinge Health's journey from the early days for Gabriel and Daniel and finding product market fit to growing the business by more than 4X in the last year. Hinge Health has raised $300M in their latest Series D round in early January of 2021, and is now valued at $3B. Their invest...
Feb 15, 2021•27 min•Season 3Ep. 12
In this episode, we interview Steve Kraus , Partner at Bessemer Venture Partners . At Bessemer, Steve focuses exclusively on healthcare, where he’s made investments in and holds seats on the boards of some of the most successful companies in this space, including Bright Health, Ginger, Hinge Health, Aspen RxHealth, and, most recently, Folx Health. Each year, Steve and his team publish their healthcare predictions for the next 12 months. Bessemer’s 2021 predictions just came out, and on this epis...
Feb 08, 2021•45 min•Season 3Ep. 11
In this episode, we interview Deborah Kilpatrick , Co-CEO Evidation Health . With a network of over 4M individuals across the U.S. and a platform that gathers key real-world data from patients’ day-to-day lives, Evidation is on a mission to enable and empower everyone to participate in better health outcomes. Since its founding in 2012, Evidation has raised money from investors like B Capital Group, Revelation Partners, Rock Health, McKesson Ventures, Sanofi Ventures, Section 32, and G Squared. ...
Feb 02, 2021•43 min•Season 3Ep. 10
In this episode, we chat with Eren Bali , the Co-Founder & CEO of Carbon Health . Carbon Health is a technology-enabled healthcare provider with a mission to make high-quality healthcare accessible to everyone. Carbon Health meets patients where they are, providing seamless, accessible healthcare to patients across a variety of access points including primary and urgent care clinics, pop-up sites, video, the Carbon Health app, and on-site at their employers. Late last year, Carbon Health rec...
Jan 25, 2021•47 min•Season 3Ep. 6
Nita Sommers is an Operating Partner at Khosla Ventures focused on health care. Nita has spent over 20 years working in the health technology sector, with a passion for early-stage, high growth companies transforming health care. She was an early member of the R&D team at athenahealth , which went public in 2007. Additionally, she was one of the first executives at Castlight Health and later managed the company’s IPO in 2014. At Castlight Health, Nita led the company’s early sales efforts an...
Jan 20, 2021•46 min•Season 3Ep. 8
In this episode of the Pulse Podcast, we interview Sid Viswanathan , Co-Founder and President of Truepill . Starting with its pharmacy-driven APIs and since moving into telehealth and at-home lab diagnostics, Truepill has been building healthcare infrastructure for the modern (and future) world. This infrastructure is already working behind the scenes to power several consumer-focused healthcare companies, such as Hims & Hers , Nurx, and Levels . The company has attracted investments from Y ...
Jan 11, 2021•46 min•Season 3Ep. 2
In this episode, we interview Andrew Dudum , the Founder & CEO of Hims & Hers . Hims & Hers is a digital health company focused on destigmatizing health and wellness conditions while making it easier for everyone to access quality care. Since launching in November 2017, Hims & Hers has raised approximately $260MM in funding from investors including Oaktree Capital , Maverick , IVP , among others, and is poised to IPO via SPAC this year . Hims & Hers is one of the fastest grow...
Jan 05, 2021•44 min•Season 3Ep. 6
In this episode, Sandy interviews Nate Maslak, Co-Founder and CEO of Ribbon Health . Ribbon is breaking the long-standing barrier of complex and challenging provider data by identifying and delivering the most accurate, comprehensive data on providers, facilities, insurance plans, and cost and quality measures through a seamless API layer. Ribbon is trusted by innovative health care companies such as Oak Street Health, Ro, Alice Financial, Lively HSA, and Well (Well Dot, Inc.). Headquartered in ...
Dec 10, 2020•50 min•Season 3Ep. 5
In this episode of The Pulse Podcast, Vivien interviews Casey Means, Chief Medical Officer and Co-Founder of Levels Health . Levels is a metabolic health company that empowers individuals to radically optimize their health and wellbeing by providing real-time continuous glucose biofeedback coupled with machine learning driven insights to inform personalized diet and lifestyle choices. We discuss the founding journey of Levels, the science of metabolic health, and advice for first-time healthcare...
Dec 02, 2020•38 min
