The Heart of Healthcare | A Digital Health Podcast

Building a $33B Digital Health Juggernaut | Dexcom Chairman & CEO Kevin Sayer

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Jul 28, 2025

Kevin Sayer, the Chairman and CEO of Dexcom, transformed the company from $40 million to a $4 billion powerhouse in digital health. He reveals how real-time glucose monitoring has revolutionized diabetes care, empowering patients with crucial data. Kevin discusses the importance of trust in forging relationships with doctors and patients while navigating the transition from medical devices to consumer wellness. He also touches on future innovations in metabolic health and the impact of technology, including AI, on personalized health insights.

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INSIGHT

Power of Real-Time Glucose Data

Continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) provides glucose values every five minutes, unlike finger sticks that give only intermittent readings.
This real-time data allows users to observe glucose trends and make informed decisions about their health.

ADVICE

Building Trust Through Accuracy

To build trust in a new medical product, focus on improving accuracy first to provide reliable data.
Next, make data accessible and shareable with caregivers to create a trust network.

INSIGHT

Shifting Power to Patients

Initially, earning physicians' trust was vital to get prescriptions for CGM devices.
Eventually, empowering patients to request CGM shifted adoption dynamics significantly.

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Dexcom generates more than $4 billion in annual revenue and has a market cap north of $30 billion, making it one of the biggest digital health companies in the world. And it all started with a better way to measure blood sugar.

In this episode, Halle is joined by Kevin Sayer, CEO of Dexcom, the company that pioneered continuous glucose monitoring (CGM). Under Kevin’s leadership, Dexcom scaled from $40 million to $4 billion in revenue, became the standard of care for people with diabetes, and is now expanding into consumer wellness with its direct-to-consumer product, Stelo.

We cover:

📈 How Dexcom scaled 100x without relying on acquisitions

📱 Why real-time glucose data is so powerful—and who needs it beyond diabetes

🤝 Building trust with both doctors and patients

⚖️ What GLP-1s mean for Dexcom’s business

📦 The shift from regulated med device to consumer tech

📊 The future of metabolic health (and what else their sensors might measure next)

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About our guest:

Kevin Sayer is the Chairman of the Board of Directors and Chief Executive Officer of Dexcom.

Kevin assumed the role of CEO in January 2015 and became Chairman of the Board in July 2018. Kevin has also served as our President since 2011. He held the role of Chief Operating Officer from January 2013 until January 2015. Kevin has served as a member of Dexcom’s Board of Directors beginning in November 2007, prior to his role as Chairman and CEO.

Prior to leading Dexcom, Kevin held various management positions in his prior roles. He served as Chief Financial Officer of Biosensors International Group, Ltd., Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Specialty Laboratories, Inc., Chief Financial Officer of MiniMed, Inc., and Vice President and General Manager of Medtronic MiniMed after the acquisition of MiniMed by Medtronic.

Kevin is a Certified Public Accountant (inactive) and received a Bachelor’s degree and a Master's degree in Accounting and Information Systems from Brigham Young University.

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