LEVELS – A Whole New Level

The evolution of culture at startups can have different paths. For in-person teams, culture may be developed through the daily, in-person interactions and water cooler conversations that take place. For remote teams, culture develops in a different way. Sign Up to Get Your Free Ultimate Guide to Glucose: ⁠https://levels.link/wnl Regardless of a company’s structure, culture is built upon the foundation of shared values, and the way that those values are lived and communicated across an entire team. In this episode, Miz, Head of Operations, sat down with Ben Grynol, Head of Growth, to discuss ways in which the Levels team can document the culture that is being developed around them. Three videos that surfaced from the project, as of June 2021 are: Levels Culture Documentation Project – 1.0 Levels Culture Documentation Project – 2.0 Levels Culture Documentation Project – Team Shoutouts Levels helps you see how food affects your health, empowering you with the tools needed to achieve health goals and improve healthspan. Levels Members gain access to the Levels app and continuous glucose monitors (CGMs), providing real-time feedback on how diet and lifestyle choices impact your metabolic health. Look for new shows every month on A Whole New Level, where we have in-depth conversations with thought leaders about metabolic health. (04:07) - It’s not what you say, it’s what you do (05:35) - Using policies as guardrails (10:44) - Closing the loop (11:58) - Maintaining focus (13:38) - Keep it simple (16:46) - Default to transparency (20:23) - Adapting to the growing team (28:27) - Capturing the team’s perspective (30:39) - Aligning on shared values (42:03) - Letting policies improve the company from within (50:08) - Showing up with respect Transcripts & Show Notes

As we’ve been building Levels, two factors that we’ve been focused on are Member feedback and Member experience. Internally, we have a goal of building a NPS Unicorn – a company with a NPS score of 90 and above. Sign Up to Get Your Free Ultimate Guide to Glucose: https://levels.link/wnl In this episode, Mike Haney, Head of Content, and Ben Grynol, Head of Growth, sat down to dig into what that means to build an NPS Unicorn and how we’ll work towards this goal as a team. Levels helps you see how food affects your health, empowering you with the tools needed to achieve health goals and improve healthspan. Levels Members gain access to the Levels app and continuous glucose monitors (CGMs), providing real-time feedback on how diet and lifestyle choices impact your metabolic health. Look for new shows every month on A Whole New Level, where we have in-depth conversations with thought leaders about metabolic health. (09:20) - The NPS unicorn club (13:14) - Keep goals aligned with helping people (14:42) - Use customer satisfaction to overcome friction (20:29) - Scale with the customer front of mind (21:53) - Community is valuable (25:19) - Tap into tribalism (28:22) - Create an empowering environment (30:37) - Unlock answers for the customer (34:24) - Other goals may take precedent (39:09) - Keep testing and learning Transcripts & Show Notes Medium PostBuilding an NPS Unicorn: How We Plan to Impact 1 Billion People Through Member Experience

Andrew Conner, co-founder and Head of Engineering at Levels, spends a lot of time thinking about how the product will scale. In order to scale effectively, the infrastructure for the product will need to scale up quickly. By the time Levels launches to the public, the platform will be processing more than one billion data points per month. Sign Up to Get Your Free Ultimate Guide to Glucose: https://levels.link/wnl Levels helps you see how food affects your health, empowering you with the tools needed to achieve health goals and improve healthspan. Levels Members gain access to the Levels app and continuous glucose monitors (CGMs), providing real-time feedback on how diet and lifestyle choices impact your metabolic health. Look for new shows every month on A Whole New Level, where we have in-depth conversations with thought leaders about metabolic health. (04:01) - Prepare for a billion data points a month (06:32) - Be nimble (11:15) - Personalization is the core of Levels (13:00) - Why context is important (16:13) - There is no such thing as an average body (18:36) - Teach people what levers they can pull (21:27) - Create the right incentives (26:06) - Make health data accessible (34:37) - Create accountability in the food system (39:01) - Lack of healthy options makes it hard to succeed Transcripts & Show Notes

Casey Means, Chief Medical Officer and one of the co-founders of Levels, changed her outlook on food at a young age. When she was 14 years old, she realized that food, and the philosophy behind it, was a deep and intimate relationship that would evolve continuously into her adult years. Sign Up to Get Your Free Ultimate Guide to Glucose: ⁠https://levels.link/wnl Her curiosity led her down the path of studying and understanding the biochemistry of the food that she was consuming. Eventually, that curiosity led her to become one of the co-founders of Levels. Levels helps you see how food affects your health, empowering you with the tools needed to achieve health goals and improve healthspan. Levels Members gain access to the Levels app and continuous glucose monitors (CGMs), providing real-time feedback on how diet and lifestyle choices impact your metabolic health. Look for new shows every month on A Whole New Level, where we have in-depth conversations with thought leaders about metabolic health. (06:07) - When Dr. Means took responsibility for her nutrition (07:38) - Food consists of signaling molecules (09:36) - Our genes aren’t our fate (15:27) - Food is tied to gene expression (19:29) - We want fluid cell membranes (22:59) - Think in terms of micronutrients (26:35) - Look at the food source (34:32) - Glucose readouts can tell us a lot (40:55) - Decisions add up over time (47:02) - Find your perfect sleep length Transcripts & Show Notes

Sam Corcos, CEO and co-founder of Levels, shares his fascinating journey into minimalism and media consumption. He reveals how giving up traditional news reshaped his worldview, leading to transformative personal growth. The conversation touches on the quirks of a minimalist lifestyle, from cargo pants for travel to a humorous nod to the oddity of Liberland. They also discuss the challenges and opportunities of remote work, emphasizing the importance of trust and communication in fostering a productive environment.

In early 2020, Sam and Josh started having conversations with Investors about doing a Seed round. As initial conversations picked up, things changed drastically in the world. Sign Up to Get Your Free Ultimate Guide to Glucose: ⁠https://levels.link/wnl Between March and July of 2020, the team focused on execution. As they generated traction, they sparked interest from many Investors, which eventually led them to raise a $12M Seed round in the fall. Levels helps you see how food affects your health, empowering you with the tools needed to achieve health goals and improve healthspan. Levels Members gain access to the Levels app and continuous glucose monitors (CGMs), providing real-time feedback on how diet and lifestyle choices impact your metabolic health. Look for new shows every month on A Whole New Level, where we have in-depth conversations with thought leaders about metabolic health. (04:56) - A pause in fundraising (11:26) - Good growing pains (13:48) - Radical transparency in fundraising (16:44) - Juggling VC calls and fulfilling orders (18:38) - Marking the end of fundraising (21:26) - Taking on operations and content (22:41) - A vote of confidence for biowearables (25:33) - The turning point of the raise (29:26) - Fundraising accelerates the iteration time (34:29) - 2021 will be a defining year Transcripts & Show Notes

When the team started growing at Levels, Josh felt an innate sense of responsibility. But, it wasn’t bringing on new team members that was top of mind. Rather, he felt pressure to make Levels a success every time a new co-founder joined the team. People were leaving prominent roles and opportunities to come and build a company with a big vision, in highly regulated space. Sign Up to Get Your Free Ultimate Guide to Glucose: https://levels.link/wnl Levels helps you see how food affects your health, empowering you with the tools needed to achieve health goals and improve healthspan. Levels Members gain access to the Levels app and continuous glucose monitors (CGMs), providing real-time feedback on how diet and lifestyle choices impact your metabolic health. Look for new shows every month on A Whole New Level, where we have in-depth conversations with thought leaders about metabolic health. (08:31) - Accelerate progress with a growing team (09:58) - Bring people in from around the world (11:54) - The personal stress of bringing in new people (14:24) - Shared experiences with the product (19:55) - Shine a light on functional medicine (25:31) - Health tech opens the door to better care (28:01) - Test the body when it’s stressed (34:39) - Push back against social pressures (37:20) - There are good foods and bad foods Transcripts & Show Notes

In the fall of 2019, the Levels team continued building the infrastructure needed to move the company into Beta. One of the requirements of being able to distribute CGMs to people was having a network of physicians and a distribution network of cloud-based pharmacies. With enough grit, the team was finally able to get a meeting with Truepill, and this ended up being a catalyst for getting the first orders shipped. Sign Up to Get Your Free Ultimate Guide to Glucose: https://levels.link/wnl Levels helps you see how food affects your health, empowering you with the tools needed to achieve health goals and improve healthspan. Levels Members gain access to the Levels app and continuous glucose monitors (CGMs), providing real-time feedback on how diet and lifestyle choices impact your metabolic health. Look for new shows every month on A Whole New Level, where we have in-depth conversations with thought leaders about metabolic health. (04:07) - Building a foundation of content (05:40) - Bringing Casey on full-time (08:22) - An impromptu pitch in San Francisco (09:38) - Landing Truepill (12:35) - Fulfilling the first orders (13:56) - A very manual onboarding process (15:19) - Tackling the problem of CGM sensors (19:41) - Giving the Levels CGM a futuristic look (21:49) - Magic moments with the first devices (23:18) - Starting to build the product Transcripts & Show Notes

In the summer of 2019, things started moving forward for Josh & Sam, as the two of them got traction with Levels. The company was no longer called Frontier Biometric, and both investors and friends alike were keeping an eye on what they were working on. It didn't take long before things started moving with velocity. Sign Up to Get Your Free Ultimate Guide to Glucose: https://levels.link/wnl Levels helps you see how food affects your health, empowering you with the tools needed to achieve health goals and improve healthspan. Levels Members gain access to the Levels app and continuous glucose monitors (CGMs), providing real-time feedback on how diet and lifestyle choices impact your metabolic health. Look for new shows every month on A Whole New Level, where we have in-depth conversations with thought leaders about metabolic health. (05:04) - The Levels team finds another founder (10:02) - The surreal feeling of gaining momentum (13:50) - Organizing the greatest minds they knew (16:14) - Digging into the data (17:31) - A weekend full of potential (19:42) - Putting the cart before the horse (22:26) - The pieces fall into place (25:43) - Selling an idea (26:29) - Now we had deliverables (29:51) - A medical professional to challenge the status quo (30:26) - The fifth founder: Dr. Casey Means Transcripts & Show Notes

In April of 2019, Josh turned 30 and was about to move on from Frontier Biometric. At that point, he had been working on the project for more than a year and had exhausted all channels to get traction. Shortly after his birthday, he got a call from Sam Corcos and they started catching up – the conversation ended up being a catalyst in moving the company forward. Sign Up to Get Your Free Ultimate Guide to Glucose: https://levels.link/wnl Levels helps you see how food affects your health, empowering you with the tools needed to achieve health goals and improve healthspan. Levels Members gain access to the Levels app and continuous glucose monitors (CGMs), providing real-time feedback on how diet and lifestyle choices impact your metabolic health. Look for new shows every month on A Whole New Level, where we have in-depth conversations with thought leaders about metabolic health. (06:07) - Honing the Levels pitch (10:00) - The importance of asking all the right questions (12:47) - Diving into the research (19:42) - The juice cart story (20:38) - Josh’s unexpected blood sugar spike (21:44) - A real-life example of CGM in action (23:00) - Investing in Sam Corcos (25:43) - Forward work (26:21) - Creating a partnership (31:57) - The benefit of complementary areas of expertise (35:23) - How Levels got its name Transcripts & Show Notes