The Pulse by Wharton Digital Health

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Naomi Allen, Brightline, on evolving digital health businesses in changing environments Mar 03, 2021

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In this episode of The Pulse Podcast, we interview 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 from 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.

Jannine Versi, Elektra Health, on smashing the menopause taboo Feb 23, 2021

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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 Obama Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, and Cityblock Health. Jannine earned her BA from University of Pennsylvania and her MBA from Harvard Business School, and was a Fulbright Scholar in India. In this episode, we discussed: -- What exactly perimenopause and menopause are, the immense household purchasing and healthcare decision-making power of women going through menopause today (Gen X), and why the space is highly underfunded relative to the growing “femtech” category -- Healthcare system FFS incentive inertia, and chronic confusion around and lack of training for menopause care across OB-GYN providers, bleeding into a lack of high-quality, evidence-based, curated content for menopausal women as they enter the second half of their lives: the very problem Elektra is trying to solve -- The high economic cost of menopause symptoms: $2,100+ PPPY, on par with uncontrolled hypertension, with even further downstream costs from untreated menopause symptoms, implications which include dementia, heart disease, osteoporosis, anxiety, depression, and potential ER visits -- Elektra’s early success in building a full-stack, digital solution including a telemedicine clinic with a distinctive NPS of 91, a cult-like following for its 1:1 and 1:many on-demand and live offerings, and a product and business model roadmap expanding from DTC to B2B2C as progressive payers invest in female retention solutions -- Three tokens of advice to female founders on battling imposter syndrome and staying grounded throughout the exuberant and tumultuous entrepreneurial journey

Gabriel Mecklenburg, Hinge Health, on nailing product market fit in the employer health market Feb 15, 2021

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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 investors include Atomico, Coatue Management, Tiger Global and Bessemer Venture Partners.

Steve Kraus, Bessemer Venture Partners, on Healthcare Predictions for 2021 Feb 08, 2021

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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 episode I got the chance to sit down with Steve to chat about the story behind their annual predictions and dive into what 2021 might have in store for us, from BidenCare to interoperability finally moving forward.

Deborah Kilpatrick, Evidation Health, on enabling patient participation in health outcomes Feb 02, 2021

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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. It has also worked with a range of players in healthcare, from pharma companies like Sanofi to tech heavyweights like Apple to physician societies like the American College of Cardiology.

Eren Bali, Carbon Health, on democratizing healthcare access Jan 25, 2021

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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.

Nita Sommers, Khosla Ventures, on digital health’s transformation in three decades Jan 20, 2021

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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 and later ran strategy, business development, corporate development and investor relations. Most recently, she was President of Honor, where she was responsible for all aspects of growth including sales, marketing, customer success, business development and corporate development. In addition to her work at start-ups, she also spent several years consulting with McKinsey’s health care practice and working across a number of healthcare industry sectors while with McKesson. Nita enjoys working with early stage companies on growth strategy and execution, including product strategy, commercial strategy, sales management, business development and organizational development. Nita has an M.B.A. from Stanford Graduate School of Business and a B.A. from Harvard University. In this episode we discussed: • Nita’s experience leading, exiting, and advising first-wave (1990s: athenahealth), second wave (2000s: Castlight) and third+ wave (2010+: Honor, others) digital health companies spanning three decades of health tech • What we can learn from these companies’ ascent, as history repeats itself: finding unmet need in a large market, narrowing in on a core set of business challenges, and proving value, not just scaling for scale’s sake • What makes the Operating Partner role unique in venture capital, and why her position at Khosla Ventures is distinctive across the healthcare fundraising landscape • Tactical advice to women on breaking the glass ceiling as an executive or venture partner

Sid Viswanathan, Truepill, on building infrastructure for consumer-driven healthcare Jan 11, 2021

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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 Combinator, Oak HC/FT, Optum Ventures, and others.

Andrew Dudum, Hims & Hers, on disrupting healthcare by reimagining the patient experience Jan 05, 2021

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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 growing direct-to-consumer healthcare brands to date.

Nate Maslak, Ribbon Health, on the quest to simplify health decisions with better data Dec 10, 2020

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In this episode, we interview 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. These products together help health plans design up-to-date networks, offer members care navigation tools with deliver personalized out-of-pocket cost estimates based on their deductible, plan design, and provider prices. For at-risk providers and payers, Ribbon can provide insights on patients’ total costs of care and help ensure referrals to high-quality, cost-effective providers. Ribbon is trusted by innovative health care companies such as Oak Street Health, Ro, and Well (Well Dot, Inc.). Headquartered in New York City, Ribbon is backed by leading investors like Andreessen Horowitz, Y Combinator, BoxGroup, and several leading entrepreneurs. After years of healthcare consulting at McKinsey, Nate built and ran the Identity Graph predictive analytics product and business at Datalogix to help drive an acquisition by Oracle for more than $1.2 billion in 2014. When Nate is not at Ribbon, you can find him trying to eat his way through every borough of NYC. Nate received his MBA from Harvard Business School and BS from Washington University in St. Louis.

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