Ep. 134 - Creating a Category from Scratch - Vidya Drego

In this episode of Future Fuzz, host Vince Quinn sits down with Vidya Drego (VP of Marketing at SmithRx) to explore how you create a new category in a highly regulated, complex industry. Vidya shares how SmithRx is positioning itself as the alternative to legacy pharmacy benefits managers (PBMs), how she transitioned from big‑company marketing roles to a smaller challenger brand, and how the marketing team is educating the market from scratch—starting with explaining problems people didn’t even know they had. Along the way you’ll learn how content, video, analogies and internal collaboration all drive the category‑creation process.

Guest Bio

Vidya Drego is the Vice President of Marketing at SmithRx, a modern pharmacy benefits manager focused on radical transparency and real cost savings in the PBM market. Prior to SmithRx, Vidya held leadership marketing roles at major tech and SaaS companies including HubSpot, LinkedIn, and Salesforce. Her diverse experience equips her with a deep marketing toolkit, which she now applies in a more entrepreneurial, category‑defining setting. (Vidya holds advanced academic credentials and has a track record of building marketing organizations from scratch.)

At SmithRx, she leads strategy, content, brand development and demand generation to position the company not just as “another PBM” but as the modern alternative.

Takeaways

• You’re not just competin — you’re recasting the conversation. Vidya emphasises that to create a category you must show your audience that the problem they thought they were solving is actually the wrong problem.
• Big‑company experience gives you tools, but smaller challenger brands give you freedom. Vidya shares how she moved from large organisations to SmithRx to “actually apply the toolkit” and run with bigger responsibility.
• Teaching the market matters when the category is novel. SmithRx’s team invests heavily in educational content, blog posts, videos and analogies (e.g., the “$12 milk vs $5 milk” discount analogy) to help people grasp the mis‑framed problem.
• Video and storytelling help simplify complexity. In a nuanced, technical industry like PBMs, visual and narrative tools help clarify the value proposition and cut through jargon.
• Metrics beyond clicks count. In their context, success isn’t just about big audience numbers—but about trust, thought‑leadership, and influencing decision‑makers in the market.
• Internal voices amplify external credibility. SmithRx intentionally involves team members from operations, contracting, pharmacy network etc to contribute their voices and drive authenticity in content.

Chapters

00:00 – Intro and setting the scene

00:57 – What is SmithRx and the PBM business explained

02:32 – Vidya’s background: from HubSpot/LinkedIn to SmithRx

04:49 – Why she chose a smaller company and the gap she saw to fill

07:12 – The market problem: how legacy PBMs aren’t delivering as advertised

09:58 – How to start educating the market when they don’t know the problem

12:35 – Content strategy: blogs, newsletters, videos, internal voices

14:52 – The “milk price” analogy: reframing discount vs actual cost

17:19 – Video as a tool: PBM 101 series and brand style

19:44 – The role of short video, webinars and multi‑format storytelling

20:47 – Experimentation and aligning tactics to business model

22:10 – Where to follow SmithRx and Vidya on LinkedIn

22:35 – Closing remarks

LinkedIn

Follow Vidya Drego on LinkedIn (you’ll find her at SmithRx and content on modern PBMs).

Company page: SmithRx on LinkedIn.

Follow Vince Quinn