Ryan Durkin

Today was a big win for consumer health, with Flo Health Inc.'s valuation at $1 billion. We're hearing talk about the market becoming frothy again, but I’d argue—without seeing the detailed financials—that this valuation could be entirely warranted. Flo has built an impressive business, with 5 million paid subscribers and 70 million monthly active users. At $60 per year for users to access the product, this business has hundreds of millions in revenue and plenty of room to grow. It's increasingly clear to me that innovators focused on healthcare have been wildly underestimating consumer business models for years, believing that patients would only opt for solutions covered by their health plans and prescribed or recommended by their doctors. That thesis needs updating, particularly given high deductible plans and soaring co-pays. Innovators building solutions that users genuinely love will win - even in healthcare. These businesses also have the potential to move into B2B channels, which is far easier to do when you have an engaged, loyal user base. I expect we’ll see many more consumer health businesses “pop” in the years to come, further proving that consumers are ready and willing to pay for such solutions. We're watching closely at Cherish Kudos to the team at Flo for this impressive milestone. Lainie Muller Charlotte Yeh Aashima Gupta Avanlee Christine Esther Dyson Alexandra Drane Jessica Kamada Vin Gupta, MD MPA Asheesh Saksena Paul Crnkovich Josh Kampel Steve Chazin Lee Wagner #agingwithattitude #independentliving #consumerdrivencare

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As a consumer health investor, I had a strong reaction today to Walmart shutting down its clinics and Telehealth service. Part of it is really the product of the market we are in. There’s also the problem of low reimbursement rates and a business model that doesn’t look enticing. There could also be a trickle down effect for digital health services companies, because Walmart doesn’t believe there’s a sustainable business model here. Is there a silver lining? Well, I’ll say a few things. One Medical has done well by contrast, because they truly understood the importance of a hybrid model and providing patients with true convenience. Over at Maveron, we are seeing more and more evidence that consumer health is absolutely alive and well, even in a down market. Walmart could have focused instead on the consumer health market, using its footprint as a retailer and its online presence to market some of the incredible products and services we are seeing consumers pay for out of their own pocket. There’s still so much potential for retailers in the space, if they focus on doing what they know best and stay within their lane. Bottom line: It’s important for health care to meet consumers where they are, and that includes the brands they already trust.

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😅 How did Dan end up manufacturing large quantities of pharmaceutically optimized LSD? 1. Founder of HealthMode 2. Acquired by MindMed to become CMO 3. Run an FDA breakthrough program for LSD in anxiety Full episode in the comments 👇

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Oura is on an acquisition streak. The smart ring maker is buying Sparta Science (acquired by ŌURA), a performance analytics company, to enhance its enterprise data platform. Sparta’s Trinsic software translates movement data into population-level health insights, including strength, injury risk, and recovery status. Integrating the tech, ŌURA will level up its B2B Teams dashboard for corporate wellness, healthcare, and government clients, including the United States Department of Defense. It’s third acquisition in two years, Oura added Veri, a metabolic health startup, in September and digital identity platform Proxy last year. As the smart ring wars heat up, Oura is positioning itself as a consumer wellness leader and enterprise health solution. With hints of more M&A to come, the company's evolution shows no signs of slowing.

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Over the last few weekends, I’ve had a ton of fun building a new tool alongside some Ro’ers. The Ro GLP-1 Supply Tracker helps patients find GLP-1 supply, report shortages to the FDA, and track which drugs are currently in shortage. Here’s how it works: https://lnkd.in/eKUfQ9j9 This free tracker does four 4 things: 1) It shows which GLP-1s are in shortage by individual drug and dose. This automatically pulls from the FDA’s website, plus crowd-sourced shortage reports. 2) It makes it easy for everyone to share where and when they find GLP-1 supply (which will notify patients who need supply nearby) or share what drug and dose they are looking for (which will automatically report a shortage to the FDA). Patients can pay it forward to help other patients find the medications that they need. 3) It let’s anyone get on our ‘Supply List’ which means we’ll send them real-time, localized email alerts when GLP-1s are found in-stock near them, including the drug + dose, and pharmacy name, address, and phone number. 4) It enables patients and providers to sign up to receive automated notifications as soon as a GLP-1s status changes on the FDA’s list. This up-to-date information helps them better work together to align on the best possible care plan. The first principle at Ro is to fight for patients. Navigating the shortage is hard. But finding GLP-1s shouldn’t be. Patients deserve better. They deserve easy access to the most effective healthcare. Ro will fight for that every single day.

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One of my proudest moments as an investor occurred today as Alaffia Health announced its series A because it shows how the Aperture® Venture Capital vision of multi-level, multi-generational #impactinvesting is succeeding in the marketplace. Here’s the model in its most basic form : ✅As diverse fund managers with meaningful capital to allocate, we are changing the VC landscape every day just by doing our day jobs. ✅As Black/Brown investors with ~40 years experience collectively, Aperture GPs have access to talent /excellence that others do not, so our portfolio *organically* is more inclusive by race, gender and geography even while optimizing for financial outcomes (all about the alpha). ✅Our most successful portco’s are using financial #innovation to solve market problems that impact underrepresented demographics and underserved communities. Alaffia Health is a shining example of the impact portion of our overall fund thesis, and we couldn’t be prouder of TJ Ademiluyi and Adun Akanni, MPH, PMP - the dynamic brother-sister founder duo whose vision we have steadfastly supported on their journey. Congratulations to TJ and Adun from William Crowder and myself, as well as the whole Aperture team- Marjorie King Philip McKenzie Yves Louis-Jacques Tanvi Lal Michelle Dhansinghani Lisha Bell Katie Kelly Amy Chung Cindy Chong, CFA Brian Fernandes-Halloran Monroe France Jayden Pantel Darren Herman Evan Wladis Neal Triplett Thomas Scriven Peter Ammon Irina Bit-Babik Tim Milanich Rob Rahbari

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Of note: Your health records are coming to new apps This in an interesting change, and a somewhat Epic change. All puns intended. If you don’t know, the leading medical record storage solution in the US is operated by Epic. A rather critical problem is that if you walk (well drive) between two hospital in the US, the medical records tend not to follow you, unless you carry a large Manila envelope. Having Epic (and others) via TEFCA allow export of records arguably allows you to only carry your phone, which is a very siginificant change. This also (arguably) opens up a huge new innovation sector. Epic is one of the organizations that has been helping the US federal government establish the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement, or TEFCA. The goal being to iron out both the legal and technical requirements for sharing patients' data at scale. Health-care data in the U.S. has historically been siloed and difficult to move around. Clinics, hospitals and health systems can store their information in a variety of formats across dozens of different vendors, and there hasn't been a trusted nationwide mechanism in place for transporting it securely. This means if a patient moves to a different state or visits a new hospital, their medical records tend not follow. PS. If you want appreciate how profitable the US medical sector is, Epic HQ has a restantant designed to look like Kings Cross from the Harry Potter movies. https://lnkd.in/g8NaWza8

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DeepCast shipped a number of really cool new features recently in advance of a broad outreach push to podcast listeners. One new feature is our new Daily DeepDigest tool that sends you a concise daily email including any new episodes from the trailing 24 hours from any podcasts you Subscribe to (on DeepCast). Think daily podcast cliff notes or podcast news ticker tape, with a hint of Morning Brew various brews or PitchBook News—it's increasing information throughput when you're pressed for time. And this feature is rapidly evolving to distill other key extractions from shows you're already interested in, but also exposing you to other shows you might be unfamiliar with that also have nuggets to share—and thus increasing your aperture yet still conscious of your time. Want to go deeper on any given episode? Click the episode detail and you're off to an episode on DeepCast, where you can subsequently read a longer form distillation of that episode or go straight to the source and listen to the episode. (And podcaster friends, these pages are definitely increasing indexing and thus Google entry points to your shows!) I'm loving this feature as a user, personally. Can't wait to see what others think! #BuildingInPublic #Podcasts #AllTheWorldsInformation #HowYouWantIt

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Congrats to the Revive team for the latest fundraise led by Equal Ventures, as well as the new brand! I’ve had the honor of working with Allison Lee (Founder/CEO) and team for almost six years as their first institutional investor. My gosh, it’s been an incredible–and at times harrowing–journey… ‘Revive’ is such an appropriate name for this company, on multiple fronts. First, it describes the core business well, where this platform helps large retail apparel brands to upcycle garments and deadstock into new products, thereby substantially reducing apparel waste. But it also accurately describes Allison Lee herself. Allison is one of the most resilient humans I’ve ever met, and she’s gone through hell and back to create this outstanding company. When we were first introduced to Allison in 2018 (thanks Bebe Kim for that intro!), Allison was a solo founder experimenting with mall kiosks that provided on-demand hemming services for retail apparel consumers. Over the years, Hemster (the name of the co back then) scaled up to become a substantial business, with her own warehouses and staff to handle hemming for top apparel brands throughout the US. But then the pandemic happened. Brand clients budgets collapsed, along with her business model, and Allison had to reduce her team down to just one person. Herself. This was a dark time. I remember reaching out and attempting to check in with her during a six-month period where she was at her loneliest as a founder. She pretty much locked herself in her apartment, mulling new directions for her company by herself. But she figured it out. In 2021, she saw that the consumer retail market was shifting as Gen Z was strengthening their purchasing power. This new generation of shoppers were more climate and sustainability conscious, and wanted to hold big brands’ feet to the fire for products that conformed to their values. Allison saw an opportunity to retool Hemster into a top platform to help facilitate upcycled products for apparel companies. And it worked! Allison breathed new life into her company and business has been growing quickly ever since. Her business’ thesis is even stronger and bigger than the one she initially launched with. Beyond her being a skilled founder and operator, Allison is also a fantastic human being. She is relentless and un-killable as a founder. And also so warm, kind, and present as a friend. I’m grateful to call her a friend today, as well as a role model. Allison’s journey is still in the early days with Revive, and no doubt she is going to build something that has a huge impact on this world. Hustle Fund is nothing but grateful that she said YES to us, and allowed us to be part of this amazing and inspiring journey. Congrats again, Allison and team!

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If you start down the path of #enterpriseimaging – which many health systems are doing (or considering) – "there have to be some objectives and a clear understanding of what you're attempting to do," said Joseph Marion during a recent discussion with Alex Towbin and Lenny Reznik. What you don't want is to go into it with "a false expectation or limited expectation." https://lnkd.in/gg3PkCim AGFA HealthCare #itimaging #healthcareit #enterpriseimagemanagement #patientsafety #patientexperience

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I’m more of a value + application person.  I’ve worked with amazing tech developers who keep my guardrails up, but developing new products for product-market fit is key. That said,  I want to show appreciation to NYU Langone Health's initiative to use AI for making doctors' notes more patient-friendly.  It is a testament to the potential of generative AI in enhancing healthcare communication. This approach not only promises to bridge the gap between patient understanding and professional medical knowledge but also showcases the practical value of AI in improving patient-provider interactions. By making health information more accessible, we're stepping into a future where healthcare is inclusive, empowering patients through education. This development represents a promising application of generative AI with significant product value. Learn more here.

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#hiring If anyone knows an awesome engineer that would be interested in joining an emerging #AI company doing important work in #healthcare, please drop me a line! Andy AI is backed by General Catalyst, YCombinator, Greater Ventures, and others, and they’re looking to hire a full stack engineer (US based) who's excited about using AI to improve healthcare and reduce nurse burnout. Andy is AI software that automates clinical documentation for nurses who do home visits. A nurse makes an audio recording of the visit and Andy automatically generates a form that usually takes nurses 90 minutes to complete. Nurses love the product because it potentially saves them 15 hours of charting a week! The founders previously built healthcare AI at Google Health and Apple, and are now building their vision to transform home health. More about Andy AI: https://with-andy.com/ Nurses love it: https://lnkd.in/g9XqZrUq #GenAI #digitalhealth #hiring #engineers #healthtech

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As I said right at the start of this week's The Heart of Healthcare Podcast, Shivdev Rao is one of the most exceptional founders I have ever worked with. He is also a great human being. In this week's episode he shares what is it like leading the 🚀 that is Abridge and some awesome life lessons. IMHO this is a great listen for founders building in both the AI and healthcare fields!

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Successful retailers partner with DTC brands! Check out Charm.io's new report on the three key strategies for how retailers can use data-backed insights to partner with DTC brands to grow sales, and avoid the "retail apocalypse". https://lnkd.in/eTP8sswD #retailgrowth #merchandising #dtcdata #ecommerceanalytics

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I put down some thoughts on my disenchantment with venture studios in healthcare, quick thoughts on retail healthcare, and an open question of whether healthcare will ever experiment with dynamic pricing You can read it here: https://lnkd.in/enbBaSWC

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Some VC investors believe that brick and mortar - referring to a physical presence of some kind - should be avoided at all costs. Yet, the track record of clinic and hybrid care businesses in health care indicates otherwise. ==> One Medical (sold for $3.9 billion to Amazon), Oak Street (bought by CVS for $10.6 billion), Lifestance (IPO at $7.5 billion market cap), and PE-backed Premise Health (acquired by OMERS Private Equity for $1.1 billion) If a clinic is indicated as the optimal way to deliver care for that patient population, there are creative ways to build and operate them. Full article below with advice and strategies on how to build and operate hybrid clinics from my teammate Anarghya Vardhana from Maveron, Amir Dan Rubin from OneMedical Group, Steven Eidelman from Modern Animal and more!

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TechCrunch broke news of an amazing #AI play with EGYM raising $200M at a $1.2B. What is amazing about this is that they are based in Europe, and they are actually generating meaningful revenue via their #AI play optimized for going to the gym as opposed to other plays that want you to work out at home. This will be a very interesting company to watch and should give #AI Investors pause for more generic plays that are 1) Raising more funds, 2) At higher valuations, 3) With less revenue. What do you think? #management #venturecapital #privateequity #capitalmarkets #ehealth

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A Numerator survey covered by The Wall Street Journal offers insights into the eating habits of GLP-1 users (i.e. those on Ozempic and Wegovy). Some key findings include: • 38% report eating fewer cookies, pastries, and cakes • 36% are drinking less soda • 32% consume less chocolate • 26% eat less fast food Meanwhile: • 42% report eating more fruits and vegetables • 19% eat more poultry • 20% consume more yogurt It’s surprising that some major food companies claim these drugs aren't impacting sales or forcing an adjustment to their portfolios. Others, however, are embracing the shift and have already launched product lines tailored to GLP-1 users. Whatever your view on these drugs, it’s exciting to see more high-protein, fiber-rich, and nutrient-dense options from the biggest food companies. This demand may be driven by GLP-1 use; it also reflects greater consumer awareness and an appetite for healthier choices. New Fare The Wall Street Journal Aaron Back

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The only podcast you might not have to listen to at 1.5X speed 😂 . Thanks for having me, EXPLORE84! I appreciate you sharing the latest and greatest of what we have been up to!

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