Pear Healthcare Playbook

Welcome back to the Pear Healthcare Playbook! Every week, we’ll be getting to know trailblazing healthcare leaders and dive into building a digital health business from 0 to 1. Today, we're excited to get to know Christopher Molaro. Chris is a West Point graduate who served in the U.S. Army for five years, including a tour in Iraq as a platoon leader. Coming back home, he experienced firsthand the gaps in the behavioral health system and how veterans and civilians alike face too many barriers when it comes to receiving appropriate, timely care. While pursuing his MBA at Wharton, Chris met his future co-founder Adam Pardes, and the two agreed–even the most engaging digital mental health apps in the world wouldn’t truly change the problem until the care providers were a part of the solution in a meaningful way. And so they created NeuroFlow. In this episode, Chris and I discuss his journey from a military background to enrolling in Wharton's MBA program. We dive into the inception of NeuroFlow, its go-to-market strategy, partnerships, fundraising insights, the future of NeuroFlow, and the valuable advice he has for aspiring founders.

Today, we're excited to get to know Tina Beilinson Keshani. She's the co-founder and CEO of Seven Starling, a digital clinic making high quality mental health care more accessible for expecting and new mothers. Before Seven Starling, Tina spent six years at Warby Parker in strategy and helped them launch their first optometric telemedicine service in 2015. She worked alongside Warby Parker CEOs, Neil and Dave, learning firsthand how to build and scale a company that also does good in the world. Her experience lies not only in scaling, high growth startups, but also building patient centric digital care experiences. In this episode, we talked about Tina’s journey towards entrepreneurship, her time with Warby Parker, how she and her co-founders built Seven Starling, the success of her maternal mental healthcare company, and advice she has for founders. 

Today, we’re excited to get to know Bobby Guelich, Co-Founder and CEO at Elion, the Glassdoor for Healthcare Tech. Founded in 2022, Elion has raised $3.3 million in seed funding from NEA, Max Ventures, 8VC, AlleyCorp, Charge Ventures and Floating Point. Bobby has spent decades making build versus buy decisions at various companies and now is dedicated to the problem of improving that experience in healthcare. Bobby began his career in investment research at Bridgewater Associates and later worked as a VP of Customer Care Strategy and Head of Sales at Oscar Insurance. After that, he spent three years at Formation Bio (formerly TrialSpark), a technology company that specializes in clinical trial management, eventually transitioning into an Advisory Role. In May 2022, he founded Elion.  Bobby earned an AB in Economics and Finance from Princeton and briefly attended Stanford Graduate School of Business before he pursued an opportunity at Oscar Insurance. In this episode, we learn about the Elion marketplace and reviews platform, how Bobby advises founders on building versus buying and coming up with a taxonomy for the health tech software stack.

Today, we're excited to get to know Aaron Neiderhiser and Coco Zuloaga. Aaron and Coco are the CEO and CTO of Tuva Health, a healthcare data analytics company simplifying claims and EMR based analytics to supercharge and standardize data-driven innovation. Founded in 2021, Tuva has raised about $4m from YC, Virtue, BoxGroup, and some angel investors. Aaron and Coco are experts at using data science and data analytics to help providers understand how to coordinate care and reduce unnecessary healthcare costs. Prior to Tuva, Aaron served as the Senior VP of Technology at Health Catalyst, a top company providing data and analytics technology to healthcare groups, and worked as a statistical analyst at the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing. During his time there, he met Coco Zuloaga, who would later become his co-founder and CTO. Coco is an experienced data scientist and has held various roles such as senior director of data science at Big Squid Inc and VP of Data Science at Strive Health. Aaron earned a B.A. in Economics from Coe College and a M.A. in Economics from the University of Colorado Denver. Coco completed a Bachelor's Degree in Engineering and Physics from Technologico de Monterrey, an M.S. in Applied Mathematics from the University of Waterloo, and a Ph.D. from Rice University. In this episode, we learn how Aaron and Coco are trying to democratize and standardize healthcare analytics, speculate on the costs of the lack of standardization in healthcare, and learn about how open-source projects can fix this.

Today, we're excited to get to know Yubin Park, PhD. Yubin is the Chief Data and Analytics Officer at ApolloMed, a leading physician-centric, technology-powered, risk-bearing healthcare company. Yubin leads Apollo’s data team in building data analytics tools to improve the efficacy of value-based care delivery.  Founded in 1992, ApolloMed (NASDAQ:AMEH) is a risk-bearing healthcare company of over 10k providers, using next-generation analytics technology to deliver high-quality value-based care to more than 1.3 million members. Yubin has decades of experience applying machine learning and data mining techniques to help providers understand how to coordinate care and reduce unnecessary healthcare costs. Prior to ApolloMed, Yubin served as Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder of Orma Health which was acquired by Apollo Medical Holdings. Prior, he was the CEO/CTO and Co-Founder of Accordion Health, a data-driven platform for value-based care (acquired by Evolent Health). He now serves as the Chief Data and Analytics Officer at ApolloMed.  Yubin is an Adjunct Professor at Emory University teaching a graduate level course in Machine Learning. He holds advanced degrees in Machine Learning and Data Mining from UT Austin, and a bachelor's in Electrical Engineering from KAIST. He regularly publishes research and analytics on LinkedIn, often breaking down complex healthcare papers from JAMA and NEJM to make them easier to understand for less technical audiences. In this episode, we cover Yubin’s founder journey pivoting into value-based care and building/selling his companies, approach to leadership, how ApolloMed differentiates itself in providing value-based care, and advice for technical founders.

Today, we’re excited to speak with Arvind Rajan, Co-founder and CEO/Executive Chairman of Cricket Health.  Arvind led Cricket Health which is a technology-enabled specialty care provider for patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) and end-stage renal disease (ESRD). In August 2022, Cricket Health merged with Interwell and Fresenius Health Partners to form the new Interwell Health, a leader in value-based kidney care. Before co-founding Cricket Health, Arvind served as Managing Director and Vice President of New Markets at LinkedIn, where he was responsible for the company’s growth and operations in Asia Pacific and Japan.   Arvind has spent most of his career building companies across a wide range of industries. Although the industries have been different, every one of these companies was trying to create transformative change that would have a positive impact on the world. In this insightful discussion, Arvind opens up about his career path, the challenges and successes in building Cricket Health from scratch, practical advice for fundraising, and valuable insights for aspiring startup founders such as strategies and tips for conducting productive board meetings.

Today, we're excited to get to know Dr. Michael Howell. He's the Chief Clinical Officer at Google where he leads the team of clinical experts providing guidance for Google Health products, research and services. He has dedicated his career to improving the quality, safety and science of how care is delivered and helping people get the best information across their health journey. He previously served as the Chief Quality Officer at the University of Chicago and was an Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School. He's published more than 100 research articles, editorials, and book chapters and is a nationally recognized expert on patient safety and quality. In this episode, we talked about why Google got into healthcare, Google’s 3Cs for health, how to create a clinical team within a tech company, the implications of artificial intelligence, and advice for founders in the AI/LLM space. 

We're excited to get to know Dr. Patrick Carroll, Chief Medical Officer (CMO) of Hims & Hers, an American telehealth company that provides access to prescription and nonprescription solutions online and through a variety of retailers nationwide (and in the UK)! Dr. Carroll is a physician and executive who leads clinical quality and the expansion of Hims & Hers into all 50 states. Previously, Dr. Carroll served as the Group Vice President and Chief Medical Officer at Walgreens, overseeing retail clinic business units, as well as clinical programs and health system alliances. He is also the former CMO and VP at Integrated Care Partners at Hartford HealthCare. In this episode, we dive into Dr. Carroll’s experience in Primary Care, his work with Walgreens and the retail model of healthcare, Hims & Hers' focus on the consumer and why it has been successful, along with challenges in the DTC space for healthcare.

Dr. Karen Murphy, EVP, Chief Innovation Officer, and founding director of the Steele Institute for Health Innovation of Geisinger, discusses her career journey, Geisinger's exciting merger with Kaiser, and the future of AI in healthcare. She also explores the challenges startups face in the healthcare industry and offers valuable advice for pursuing a career in healthcare.

Frank Cheung, CEO of Accorded, discusses the incentives in value-based care, pitching to investors unfamiliar with healthcare, and his pathway to fixing frustrations in his career. The podcast also explores starting a company in the healthcare industry, accelerating the movement towards value-based care, challenges in educating investors, and advice for healthcare founders.