This week we’re profiling Adrian Aoun, who founded Forward into 2017 to turn healthcare from a service into a product and reach 1B+ people globally. Before founding Forward, Adrian served as the Director of Special Projects for Google CEO Larry Page, founded Sidewalk Labs, and served as an advisor to the White House on the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.Here are the 3 big ideas in this week's Cheat Sheet:Principle: Be problem obsessed, not solution obsessed.Framework: How to predict the future from first principles.Insight: Why healthcare should be a product—not a service.Get the Cheat Sheet newsletter in your inbox:https://www.cheatsheetnewsletter.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In Episode #121, we deconstruct Adrian Aoun's peak performance playbook—from his favorite book to the tiny habit that's had the biggest impact on his life. Adrian Aoun is the CEO and Founder of Forward. We cover why medical wearables don’t work, focusing on impact, and creating companies that can change the world.“Care deeply about the problem, not about your idea.” – Adrian AounEPISODE GUIDE (LINKS, QUOTES, NOTES, AND BOOKS MENTIONED)https://www.danielscrivner.com/notes/adrian-aoun-playbook/ FULL TEXT TRANSCRIPThttps://www.danielscrivner.com/notes/adrian-aoun-playbook-transcript/ CHAPTERSIn this episode, we deconstruct Adrian Aoun’s peak performance playbook—from their favorite book to the tiny habit that's had the biggest impact on their life. In it we cover: 00:00:00 – Introduction 00:02:21 – Creating companies that change the world 00:06:07 – On being stubborn and persistent 00:09:51 – Why medical wearables aren’t working 00:14:03 – It’s just as easy to work on something big as something that’s small 00:16:19 – Everything should relate to the problem 00:17:39 – On fiction and factfulness 00:19:20 – Cycling as meditation 00:20:23 – The only thing that matters is impact ABOUT ADRIAN AOUNAdrian Aoun is the founder and CEO of Forward, which is building an insurance-free healthcare system focused on preventative healthcare from the ground up. Forward was founded in 2017 to invert the typical model of healthcare. Where most healthcare follows the service model, where one patient sees a single doctor only when they need care, Forward is building healthcare focused on health and preventative care. It's productized so you can use it anytime, anywhere. It's scalable so it's affordable for everyone and always on with help available through Forward's app, as well as a network of doctors' offices around the United States, which might sound like, well, how healthcare should have been all along, which is the goal.In this episode, Adrian shares why he's so fanatical about being problem-focused rather than solution-focused and how he runs problem-centric brainstorms at Forward, where the goal is to beat up on other people's ideas in the name of getting to the best ideas. What he learned working with Sergey Brin and Eric Schmidt at Google, as well as the other advisors on the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, why modern fitness wearables are broken, and why Adrian thinks we need to build tools to tell people what to do with that data, not just share the data with them.💌 FREE NEWSLETTERhttps://www.outlieracademy.com/newsletter🎙 LISTEN ONiTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/outlier-academy/id1523851182Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/58edVNgqaPNaCSGSxM6pef?si=88f37a5d20434775Overcast: https://overcast.fm/itunes1523851182ABOUT OUTLIER ACADEMYLearn timeless lessons on work and life from iconic founders, world-renown investors, and bestselling authors. Outlier Academy is the forever school for those chasing greatness. Past guests include Gokul Rajaram of DoorDash, Scott Belsky of Benchmark and Adobe, Joey Krug of Pantera Capital, Mark Sisson of Primal Kitchen, Luke Gromen of The Forest for the Trees, and Brian Scudamore of 1-800-GOT-JUNK.Website: https://www.outlieracademy.comTwitter: https://www.twitter.com/outlieracademyABOUT DANIEL SCRIVNEROutlier Academy is hosted by Daniel Scrivner. Over the last 15 years, Daniel has led design teams at Square and Apple, turned around a $3M+ ARR SaaS business, and invested in more than 100 companies. He launched Outlier Academy in 2020 to learn from the world’s best founders, investors, authors, and peak performance experts.Website: https://www.danielscrivner.comTwitter: https://www.twitter.com/danielscrivner Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Listen to one of our favorite moments from tomorrow’s 20 Minute Playbook episode featuring Adrian Aoun of Forward. In it, Adrian shares his favorite books, tools, habits, and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In Episode #118, we explore healthcare as a product rather than a service. We’re joined by Adrian Aoun, Forward’s CEO and Founder, and we cover why healthcare should be a product, not a service, being problem-oriented as a founder, and why the health insurance industry is destined to fall. “Solutions don't really matter. Problems matter.” – Adrian AounEPISODE GUIDE (LINKS, QUOTES, NOTES, AND BOOKS MENTIONED)https://www.outlieracademy.com/episode/118  FULL TEXT TRANSCRIPThttps://www.outlieracademy.com/episode/118 CHAPTERSThis episode is our definitive guide to healthcare as a product rather than a service. In it we cover: 00:00:00 – Introduction 00:02:37 – From Google to Forward 00:09:01 – Why founders should be problem-oriented 00:12:31 – Advising the President on the future of technology 00:17:22 – The root problem of the healthcare industry 00:25:24 – Why healthcare should be a product, not a service 00:30:01 – The imminent fall of health insurance 00:35:06 – Does the healthcare system really matter? 00:45:47 – Why medical specialties don’t make sense 00:55:02 – How Forward is a mission that happens to have a company attached to it ABOUT FORWARDAdrian Aoun is founder and CEO of Forward, which is building an insurance-free healthcare system focused on preventative healthcare from the ground up. Forward was founded in 2017 to invert the typical model of healthcare, which follows the service model where one patient sees a single doctor whenever they need care. Forward is building healthcare focused on health and preventative care that's 1) productized so you can use it anytime, anywhere, 2) scalable so it's affordable to everyone, and 3) always on with help available through the Forward app and a network of offices around the US. This might sound like, well, how healthcare should have been all along, which is the goal.This episode is a special one. In it we cover why Adrian is fanatical about being problem-focused rather than solution-focused, what he learned leading special projects for Sergey Brin at Google, and why Forward is focused on productizing healthcare to bring down the cost of treatments, make healthcare available 24/7, help customers manage all aspects of their health, and increase the pace of innovation and iteration.Adrian shares his perspective on what happens as the percentage of GDP dedicated to healthcare reaches 30% and even 40%, and he talks through how he uses extreme perspectives to pick apart complex issues and come to ground truths.💌 FREE NEWSLETTERhttps://www.outlieracademy.com/newsletter🎙 LISTEN ONiTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/outlier-academy/id1523851182Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/58edVNgqaPNaCSGSxM6pef?si=88f37a5d20434775Overcast: https://overcast.fm/itunes1523851182ABOUT OUTLIER ACADEMYLearn timeless lessons on work and life from iconic founders, world-renown investors, and bestselling authors. Outlier Academy is the forever school for those chasing greatness. Past guests include Gokul Rajaram of DoorDash, Scott Belsky of Benchmark and Adobe, Joey Krug of Pantera Capital, Mark Sisson of Primal Kitchen, Luke Gromen of The Forest for the Trees, and Brian Scudamore of 1-800-GOT-JUNK.Website: https://www.outlieracademy.comTwitter: https://www.twitter.com/outlieracademyABOUT DANIEL SCRIVNEROutlier Academy is hosted by Daniel Scrivner. Over the last 15 years, Daniel has led design teams at Square and Apple, turned around a $3M+ ARR SaaS business, and invested in more than 100 companies. He launched Outlier Academy in 2020 to learn from the world’s best founders, investors, authors, and peak performance experts.Website: https://www.danielscrivner.comTwitter: https://www.twitter.com/danielscrivner Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In Episode #118, we explore healthcare as a product rather than a service. We’re joined by Adrian Aoun, Forward’s CEO and Founder, and we cover why healthcare should be a product, not a service, being problem-oriented as a founder, and why the health insurance industry is destined to fall. “Solutions don't really matter. Problems matter.” – Adrian AounEPISODE GUIDE (LINKS, QUOTES, NOTES, AND BOOKS MENTIONED)https://www.danielscrivner.com/notes/forward-adrian-aoun  FULL TEXT TRANSCRIPThttps://www.danielscrivner.com/notes/forward-adrian-aoun-transcript CHAPTERSThis episode is our definitive guide to healthcare as a product rather than a service. In it we cover: 00:00:00 – Introduction 00:02:37 – From Google to Forward 00:09:01 – Why founders should be problem-oriented 00:12:31 – Advising the President on the future of technology 00:17:22 – The root problem of the healthcare industry 00:25:24 – Why healthcare should be a product, not a service 00:30:01 – The imminent fall of health insurance 00:35:06 – Does the healthcare system really matter? 00:45:47 – Why medical specialties don’t make sense 00:55:02 – How Forward is a mission that happens to have a company attached to it ABOUT FORWARDAdrian Aoun is founder and CEO of Forward, which is building an insurance-free healthcare system focused on preventative healthcare from the ground up. Forward was founded in 2017 to invert the typical model of healthcare, which follows the service model where one patient sees a single doctor whenever they need care. Forward is building healthcare focused on health and preventative care that's 1) productized so you can use it anytime, anywhere, 2) scalable so it's affordable to everyone, and 3) always on with help available through the Forward app and a network of offices around the US. This might sound like, well, how healthcare should have been all along, which is the goal.This episode is a special one. In it we cover why Adrian is fanatical about being problem-focused rather than solution-focused, what he learned leading special projects for Sergey Brin at Google, and why Forward is focused on productizing healthcare to bring down the cost of treatments, make healthcare available 24/7, help customers manage all aspects of their health, and increase the pace of innovation and iteration.Adrian shares his perspective on what happens as the percentage of GDP dedicated to healthcare reaches 30% and even 40%, and he talks through how he uses extreme perspectives to pick apart complex issues and come to ground truths.💌 FREE NEWSLETTERhttps://www.outlieracademy.com/newsletter🎙 LISTEN ONiTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/outlier-academy/id1523851182Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/58edVNgqaPNaCSGSxM6pef?si=88f37a5d20434775Overcast: https://overcast.fm/itunes1523851182ABOUT OUTLIER ACADEMYLearn timeless lessons on work and life from iconic founders, world-renown investors, and bestselling authors. Outlier Academy is the forever school for those chasing greatness. Past guests include Gokul Rajaram of DoorDash, Scott Belsky of Benchmark and Adobe, Joey Krug of Pantera Capital, Mark Sisson of Primal Kitchen, Luke Gromen of The Forest for the Trees, and Brian Scudamore of 1-800-GOT-JUNK.Website: https://www.outlieracademy.comTwitter: https://www.twitter.com/outlieracademyABOUT DANIEL SCRIVNEROutlier Academy is hosted by Daniel Scrivner. Over the last 15 years, Daniel has led design teams at Square and Apple, turned around a $3M+ ARR SaaS business, and invested in more than 100 companies. He launched Outlier Academy in 2020 to learn from the world’s best founders, investors, authors, and peak performance experts.Website: https://www.danielscrivner.comTwitter: https://www.twitter.com/danielscrivner Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In Episode #130, we deconstruct Robert Cantwell's peak performance playbook—from their favorite book to the tiny habit that's had the biggest impact on their life. Robert is the Portfolio Manager at Compound Kings. We cover longevity in investing, source documents, and learning from fintwit.“I wish someone told me that who you work with peer-wise is the number one driver of whether or not you enjoy working or not.” – Robert CantwellEPISODE GUIDE (LINKS, QUOTES, NOTES, AND BOOKS MENTIONED)https://www.danielscrivner.com/notes/robert-cantwell-playbook FULL TEXT TRANSCRIPThttps://www.danielscrivner.com/notes/robert-cantwell-playbook-transcript CHAPTERSIn this episode, we deconstruct Robert Cantwell’s peak performance playbook—from his favorite book to the tiny habit that's had the biggest impact on his life. In it we cover: (00:00:00) – Introduction (00:02:13) – Longevity in investing (00:03:37) – Investment philosophy at Compound Kings (00:09:05 – Source documents can level up investment knowledge (00:11:23) – Consuming info vs. processing info (00:14:02) – Key tools and learnings from fintwit (00:16:30) – Who you spend your time with is paramount ABOUT ROBERT CANTWELLRobert Cantwell is Founder of Upholdings and Portfolio Manager of Compound Kings, which is an exchange traded fund focused on investing in compounders. I had Robert Cantwell on last year in episode 23, where he joined me shortly after launching Compound Kings in late 2020. Before founding Upholdings and launching Compound Kings, Robert had an incredible career, both as an operator and an investor. Robert started his career as an analyst at Elevation Partners, which was co-founded by U2's lead singer Bono. He then worked at the long short hedge fund Meru Capital before serving as Everlane CFO for five years. Robert founded Upholdings in 2019 and officially launched Compound Kings in late 2020.In this episode, we cover why Robert is obsessed with how we think, process information and make decisions. The single biggest lessons that Robert has taken away from launching and scaling Compound Kings over the last two years, how being a compounding focused investor is different than being solely growth or value focused, why he skips to the back of investment books and goes straight to the source material to form his own opinions about the contents of the book, the investing tools that he and his team use daily at Compound Kings to beat the S&P 500, and his three-step process for consuming thinking through and ultimately coming to conclusions about everything that he reads.💌 FREE NEWSLETTERhttps://www.outlieracademy.com/newsletter🎙 LISTEN ONiTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/outlier-academy/id1523851182Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/58edVNgqaPNaCSGSxM6pef?si=88f37a5d20434775Overcast: https://overcast.fm/itunes1523851182ABOUT OUTLIER ACADEMYLearn timeless lessons on work and life from iconic founders, world-renown investors, and bestselling authors. Outlier Academy is the forever school for those chasing greatness. Past guests include Gokul Rajaram of DoorDash, Scott Belsky of Benchmark and Adobe, Joey Krug of Pantera Capital, Mark Sisson of Primal Kitchen, Luke Gromen of The Forest for the Trees, and Brian Scudamore of 1-800-GOT-JUNK.Website: https://www.outlieracademy.comTwitter: https://www.twitter.com/outlieracademyABOUT DANIEL SCRIVNEROutlier Academy is hosted by Daniel Scrivner. Over the last 15 years, Daniel has led design teams at Square and Apple, turned around a $3M+ ARR SaaS business, and invested in more than 100 companies. He launched Outlier Academy in 2020 to learn from the world’s best founders, investors, authors, and peak performance experts.Website: https://www.danielscrivner.comTwitter: https://www.twitter.com/danielscrivner Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Listen to one of our favorite moments from tomorrow’s 20 Minute Playbook episode featuring Robert Cantwell. In it, Robert shares his favorite books, tools, habits, and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In Episode #129, Robert Cantwell, Founder & Portfolio Manager of Compound Kings joins us as part of our Outlier Investors series. We discuss the biggest lessons that Robert has learned as an investor and portfolio manager, the top positions in the fund today, and the future of active management.“The investment management business actually looks a lot more like every other business, where there's products, there's marketing, and there's distribution, and you have to be outstanding at all three of those things in order to succeed in this business.” – Robert Cantwell EPISODE GUIDE (LINKS, QUOTES, NOTES, AND BOOKS MENTIONED)https://www.danielscrivner.com/notes/compound-kings-robert-cantwell  FULL TEXT TRANSCRIPThttps://www.danielscrivner.com/notes/compound-kings-robert-cantwell-transcript  CHAPTERSThis episode is our definitive guide to building an ETF business. In it we cover: (00:02:23) – Introduction (00:04:53) – Defining a compounder (growth, profitability, high ROIC) (00:06:22) – Investing in challenging markets (00:14:26) – Robert’s thoughts on the rise of active management (00:17:28) – Why so much money is still in mutual funds (00:19:33) – Thematic ETFs and where they can go wrong (00:39:05) – Why investing in public markets is so challenging (00:46:09) – Top three positions in Compound Kings today: Meta, ServiceNow, and Adyen (01:05:35) – What it’s like to build an ETF business ABOUT COMPOUND KINGSRobert Cantwell is the Founder of Upholdings and Portfolio Manager of Compound Kings, which is an exchange-traded fund focused on investing in companies often called compounders. Compounders are typically profitable, growing, and generate very high returns on invest capital (ROIC).This is an incredible interview with a true pioneer in the actively managed ETF space. In it, we look back at the top three positions in Compound Kings when Robert and I sat down in early 2021, which feels like a world away, to review the performance of Alibaba, Meta, then Facebook and Berkshire Hathaway.Robert shares the three biggest learnings from the last 18 months including: why you always have to be learning new industries; why you should add a quant to your investment team; and why knowing the people running public companies matters a lot.Robert also walks through his team's thesis on the three largest positions in the fund today, which include Meta, ServiceNow and Adyen. This section of the interview is fantastic so skip ahead and don't miss it if you're short on time.And finally, Robert shares what it's like to build an ETF business scale assets under management and why running an investment business is very similar to an enterprise software business. 💌 FREE NEWSLETTERhttps://www.outlieracademy.com/newsletter🎙 LISTEN ONiTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/outlier-academy/id1523851182Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/58edVNgqaPNaCSGSxM6pef?si=88f37a5d20434775Overcast: https://overcast.fm/itunes1523851182ABOUT OUTLIER ACADEMYLearn timeless lessons on work and life from iconic founders, world-renown investors, and bestselling authors. Outlier Academy is the forever school for those chasing greatness. Past guests include Gokul Rajaram of DoorDash, Scott Belsky of Benchmark and Adobe, Joey Krug of Pantera Capital, Mark Sisson of Primal Kitchen, Luke Gromen of The Forest for the Trees, and Brian Scudamore of 1-800-GOT-JUNK.Website: https://www.outlieracademy.comTwitter: https://www.twitter.com/outlieracademyABOUT DANIEL SCRIVNEROutlier Academy is hosted by Daniel Scrivner. Over the last 15 years, Daniel has led design teams at Square and Apple, turned around a $3M+ ARR SaaS business, and invested in more than 100 companies. He launched Outlier Academy in 2020 to learn from the world’s best founders, investors, authors, and peak performance experts.Website: https://www.danielscrivner.comTwitter: https://www.twitter.com/danielscrivner Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Listen to one of our favorite moments from tomorrow’s Spotlight episode featuring Compound Kings with Robert Cantwell. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Emi Gal shares the lessons he’s learned building Ezra, why he tracks 150 different biomarkers, what he’s learned doing a Yearly Challenge for the last 14 years, and why he’s focused on achieving peak health by 40, and more. As well as the origin story behind his extreme discipline and his advice for others that want to become more disciplined.“To make progress in anything, but especially your health, you just need to nudge behavior a little bit every day. I find that tracking 150 different biomarkers does that quite well for me.” — Emi GalEPISODE GUIDE (LINKS, QUOTES, NOTES, AND BOOKS MENTIONED)https://www.danielscrivner.com/notes/emi-gal-ezra-20-minute-playbook  FULL TEXT TRANSCRIPThttps://www.danielscrivner.com/notes/emi-gal-ezra-20-minute-playbook-transcript   CHAPTERS (00:00:00) - Introduction (00:01:27) - Why and How Emi Gal Tracks 150 Different Biomarkers (00:05:50) - How Emi Gal is Reaching Peak Health by The Age of 40 (00:08:54) - The Relationship Between Bone Density and Exercise (00:10:27) - Why Emi Gal Has Done a Yearly Challenge Every Year Since 2008 (00:18:16) - Lessons Learned Studying and Becoming Antifragile (00:22:23) - Lessons Learned from Studying with a World Memory Champion (00:26:56) - Lessons Learned from Interviewing Elderly Americans (00:31:31) - Why People Would Be Surprised at Emi Gal’s Discipline (00:34:06) - How to Become More Disciplined (00:39:05) - Emi Gal’s Favorite Books: Antifragile and The Patient Will See You Now (00:42:57) - Emi’s Advice for His Younger Self: Embrace Optionality Early On ABOUT THE GUESTEmi Gal started his first company, Brainient, when he was just 19. He spent 10 years building Brainient into one of the leading ad-tech companies in Europe before it was acquired by Teads—one of the largest advertising platforms in Europe, with 1.8-billion impressions per month.After working with Hospices for Hope, a non-profit in Romania that builds and operates hospices for terminally ill cancer patients, Emi realized that one of the biggest problems with cancer is the lack of a fast, accurate, affordable way to screen for cancer everywhere in the body. He founded Ezra in 2018 to solve this problem using Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and Artificial Intelligence. To date, he’s reduced the cost of getting a full-body cancer screening by 80% and reduced the time required to get screened by 66%.💌 FREE NEWSLETTERhttps://www.outlieracademy.com/newsletter🎙 LISTEN ONiTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/outlier-academy/id1523851182Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/58edVNgqaPNaCSGSxM6pef?si=88f37a5d20434775Overcast: https://overcast.fm/itunes1523851182ABOUT OUTLIER ACADEMYLearn timeless lessons on work and life from iconic founders, world-renown investors, and bestselling authors. Outlier Academy is the forever school for those chasing greatness. Past guests include Gokul Rajaram of DoorDash, Scott Belsky of Benchmark and Adobe, Joey Krug of Pantera Capital, Mark Sisson of Primal Kitchen, Luke Gromen of The Forest for the Trees, and Brian Scudamore of 1-800-GOT-JUNK.Website: https://www.outlieracademy.comTwitter: https://www.twitter.com/outlieracademyABOUT DANIEL SCRIVNEROutlier Academy is hosted by Daniel Scrivner. Over the last 15 years, Daniel has led design teams at Square and Apple, turned around a $3M+ ARR SaaS business, and invested in more than 100 companies. He launched Outlier Academy in 2020 to learn from the world’s best founders, investors, authors, and peak performance experts.Website: https://www.danielscrivner.comTwitter: https://www.twitter.com/danielscrivner Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices