April 10, 2025 • 50 mins
Join us as we chat with Vanessa Jupe, CEO and founder of Leva, about her mission to revolutionize postpartum support for parents. We dive into the challenges of returning to work after childbirth, the role of technology in healthcare, and how companies can retain employees with better parental support. Plus, Vanessa shares her journey from the corporate world to entrepreneurship and what keeps her motivated.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Wayne LowrySo have you done anything fun lately?
(00:03):
Vanessa JupeNot yet, but we are planning on a road trip really soon, so I'm looking forward to that. We're going to get in our RV and just drive West and see how that goes.
Wayne LowryDrive West? Where are you? Where are you starting from?
Vanessa JupeWe're so we're in Kansas City and we're going through Loveland, Colorado to get all of the off grid like, you know, solar panels put on and battery packs and everything. Yeah.
Wayne LowryOkay.
(00:28):
Wayne LowryOh man, so are you into the whole bunker life too.
Vanessa JupeNo.
Wayne LowryYou're not doing the whole end of the world thing. You're just like, I'm just gonna have fun with my solar and live out in the woods.
Vanessa JupeJust want to go and be a free spirit. You know, we have to have Internet, so we have the Internet all secured but now we need the electricity and then we can just go. It's going to be great.
(00:51):
Wayne LowryYeah, just like they did in the pioneer days, just their Wi-Fi and electricity and the open road.
Vanessa JupeYeah, exactly.
(01:12):
Wayne LowryHello and welcome to the Best DPC podcast, the world's number one podcast covering all things direct primary care. I'm your host, Wayne Lowry. No, I'm not a doctor but I challenge you all to a game of Doctor Mario.
Wayne LowryToday, I am thrilled to have Vanessa Jupe with us. She is the CEO and founder of Leva. Like levitate, a platform that integrates cutting edge technology with compassionate human care to support new patients during the transition to motherhood and in the critical first year of postpartum.
(01:49):
Wayne LowryWith a robust background and product management, design and business strategy, Vanessa is revolutionary in how employers support their workforce, fostering healthier families and a more inclusive workplace. So let's dive in and welcome Vanessa.
Vanessa JupeThank you. I'm super happy to be here.
Wayne LowryWell, I'm glad to have you. We met a few years ago at a conference and I know when I was working at my previous employer,
(02:19):
Wayne Lowrywe made some connections and hopefully there's some connections that you've gotten through those, some of those experiences that have helped you grow. But today I want to ask you a little bit about yourself, talk a little bit about your journey, how did you begin Leva?
Vanessa JupeOh, my gosh. OK, so my background is like you mentioned all in product development on the digital side of things. And I've always had a passion for just figuring out problems and making things better for users, for people, right. They're just people like us. But I've never worked in healthcare, know nothing. I knew nothing about it.
(02:45):
Vanessa JupeBecause it was so shocking and overwhelming and I think as mothers and as parents in general, we kind of feel like we can figure it all out and we're supposed to solve all the problems for ourselves and our babies.
Vanessa JupeI know a lot more now, but still have a lot to learn. Most of my experience really was, you know, entertainment, financial services and somewhere along that path I got pregnant and became a mom.
Vanessa JupeAnd I wasn't able to really kind of figure out how to get the feeding going well and then of course, as he grew a little older. We hit the sleep regressions and that was really hard. And so those moments really stayed with me as I continued my normal corporate career and a few years in COVID hit us.
(03:07):
Vanessa JupeAnd it's been amazing and wonderful and also incredibly hard, especially right after my baby was born. I struggled so much with feeding him. I never thought that would be hard. I kind of learned what I thought I needed to know.
Vanessa JupeI talked to experts ahead of time, and then all of a sudden, he wasn't gaining enough weight. It was really painful. And I started, like, Googling everything under the sun.
(03:32):
Vanessa JupeI started trying to find all the experts I could, and it was so discouraging because I really couldn't figure out how to make things work for us and it was the most stressful experience of my life.
(04:15):
Vanessa JupeSo my baby was 3 when COVID happened, and oh so many of my friends and coworkers were suddenly getting pregnant. And that was like the catalyst for me, where I felt like I've got to do something to help, I've got to do something to help these people because I knew how hard it was for me,
(04:37):
Vanessa Jupeand I just felt like I could take what I knew and from building really cool digital products and I could hire experts that are amazing content creators, experts in their fields, pediatrician, pediatric dentists and lactation consultants and curate this really robust platform to help new moms and dads so that they aren't searching and aren't desperate like I was.
(05:02):
Vanessa JupeSo that's really where it all came from was this really painful experience in my life and wanting to help make things better.
Wayne LowrySo with that you've been very passionate and if anyone follows you on LinkedIn, they know you speak your mind, you speak your passion and come what may, how is that influence that passion for advocacy influenced your life?
Vanessa JupeYeah.
(05:26):
Vanessa JupeOh my gosh. In so many ways I think you know when you're in the corporate world, it's really difficult because you know, there's this level of, you know, you join these companies and everyone's like, we want your authentic self and but just in this particular way.
Vanessa JupeLike, please make sure that you are very light and soft and positive and don't have anything that's a little bit too opinionated and just be a little careful. Yeah, no edge. Yeah, exactly like smooth all that out.
(05:48):
Wayne LowryNo edge, no edgy.
Wayne LowryWe want you to be yourself, but not that version like we want you to be this other version but be the authentic you. Yeah, yeah.
Vanessa JupeExactly.
Vanessa JupeRight, exactly how did you know? So well said.
Wayne LowryI've had that same conversation before, I understand.
Vanessa JupeIt's tough. I think, for me, when I started doing Leva and increasingly over the last couple of years as it's really been the only thing I'm focused on, I realized how important it is to truly actually show up authentically
(06:23):
Vanessa Jupeand I think there's so much that's happening in our world now, especially as it comes to like new moms and women and everything else that I have to speak for what I feel is right and I have to put my energy and my effort toward that.
Vanessa JupeAnd I think all of the things, the good things come from that, and I will tell you like it's been a really cool journey because I get to choose who I work with and who I don't work with,
(06:46):
Vanessa Jupeboth on the contractor side as far as the people that I hire and as far as the companies I work with, so I think it's allowed me in so many ways to attract the right kind of people to my company, just because I'm able to authentically put my ideas out there.
Wayne LowryNow, can you over the last couple of years, have you seen some fruit of this, this energy and effort? Have you seen some positive changes in some of the corporate environments or some of the businesses you're working with?
(07:17):
Vanessa JupeYou know, I've seen definitely increases in parental leave, focus and support systems that weren't there before like, so when I talked to companies, I think there's been a lot of focus on fertility benefits, on adoption services, you know, all of those things, but there's been this gap around when parents have the baby and then come back to work.
(07:42):
Vanessa JupeAnd I think companies kind of realize that's a hard time, but they don't really think, “oh, there's something that you can do for that”. They think, well, if we just give them parental leave, then, that's the only thing we have.
Vanessa JupeAnd so I've had a lot of conversations with businesses after they learn what Leva is, which is all about supporting new parents through pregnancy and postpartum, but especially postpartum, because that's really when stuff hits the fan and it gets really crazy and difficult.
(08:09):
Vanessa JupeAnd so you talk to these employers, then you have to kind of make them realize, like, you're losing 45% of your new moms most likely because they're going to be quitting their jobs after they have this baby or in so many cases, dropping to part time or just having a really difficult time balancing everything.
Vanessa JupeAnd so once you talk to them, you're like “we can help you.”, “Here's how we can help you.”, “We're gonna help you improve retention.”, “We're gonna help you improve your engagement because we're providing these services.”
(08:33):
Vanessa JupeIt's almost like a light bulb goes off and they're like, “oh, wow, there is something I could do. I knew we had some problems. I didn't quite know how much and now that I realize there's a solution. Like, yes. Let's do these things.” So starting to see more of that. But I think we're still early and there's just more awareness needed. But I think it's moving in a good direction.
Wayne LowrySo how big of a team do you have now?
(08:54):
Vanessa JupeSo it's 10 consultants, 12 consultants and me and then we have a small development team of just like 5 developers, but we're pretty small.
Wayne LowryOh wow.
Wayne LowryWell, I mean, so you've grown quite a bit over the last couple of years then?
Vanessa JupeYeah, we've grown a bit. We've brought on quite a few more clients, which is super exciting because when you and I met, I had just launched this version of our company earlier that year.
(09:18):
Vanessa JupeAnd now here we are, you know, almost a year and a half later because it was 23, wasn't it? I think. Yeah, yeah. So at the end of this year, it'll be three years, so yeah, it's exciting. It's been a good journey. Wayne Lowry Yeah.
Wayne LowryI think It was, yeah.
Wayne LowryWell, that's good.
Vanessa JupeYeah. Thank you. Wayne Lowry That's great. Well, when you are out talking to corporate America, I'm sure they're just loving the idea of comparing themselves to what they're doing in Scandinavian countries, right?
(09:43):
Vanessa JupeNo.
Wayne LowryI'm sure that I'm sure that comes up. That's just an easy sell, isn't it? Don't you want to take 6? Don't you want to let your employees have six months?
Vanessa JupeOh my God.
Vanessa JupeIsn't it funny though? Like it's so funny because we see the Scandinavian countries are so great because they actually focus on mom and dad or, you know, whatever the partner structure looks like.
Vanessa JupeAnd they really make sure that both parents have time with the child, right? And if it's a single parent, the parent gets the whole time. But for couples they have, they are forced, required in some cases, both to take time.
(10:16):
Vanessa JupeSomehow I think it's like 6. I'm going to get this wrong but say 6… I want to say weeks? It's probably more than that well, let’s just say six weeks, and then there's an overlap of several weeks,
Vanessa Jupeand then the other parent, the dad in this case, gets six more weeks, so they have to have this, like, completely focused time on their own with the baby and plus a bonding period.
Vanessa JupeAnd so it helps in so many ways because then both parents really build that relationship with the baby and there's this amazing bond, but it also helps because neither parent takes a hit on their career.
(10:49):
Vanessa JupeAnd so research from those countries shows that when both of the parents take time, in this case the dad or the non-birthing parent takes that time for every month that they're off, the mom’s salary Increases by 7%.
Vanessa JupeSo it's just like quite amazing because we see how much of an impact that motherhood penalty takes here. And so, yeah, I wish it was easier. I wish we could say, “look what's happened there and it's great. It's happening. The economy and both parents are staying gainfully employed.”
(11:18):
Vanessa JupeBut I think America and maybe it's not just unique to us, but we don't like to think of ourselves as like lagging in any way and so even though some people will definitely clearly know that, like, hey, policies are better at other places, it's really not something people like to hear about or talk about.
Wayne LowryTalk about? So that's not what you put in your opening sales pitches with?
Vanessa JupeFor surely not, unless you want.
Wayne LowryBut I'd imagine there's a lot of that, the philosophies and theories and some of that, those concepts you're integrating into your product to help with those corporations and companies that are open to this concept.
(11:52):
Vanessa JupeYes, and that has been so fun too, Wayne. I mean, I've been able to talk to certain companies that are really wanting to learn. How can they do better on their leave management side of things.
Vanessa JupeAnd they are open to hearing what's happening in other places and how they can do that here, like, keep in touch days. Meaning, okay, so you have your auto and FMLA and you have had your baby, but you can still keep in touch with the office. Isn't that a crazy idea like they have that in England, we don't have it here, but it helps so much because just because you've had a baby doesn't mean that your career doesn't matter.
(12:21):
Vanessa JupeAnd that you suddenly don't want that support system that you've built over however long you've been with your employer. So it has been, it has been really fun to, like learn because I'm a total nerd. What else is out there? And then share that with folks that are trying to make really good cultures at their companies.
Wayne LowryWell, I love it. So let's talk about your company and because, obviously, our audience is mostly direct primary care. And so I want to kind of get into how your product can be a value add for direct primary care clinics.
(12:54):
Wayne LowryMaybe they are a small mom and pop shop and they have, you know, 200 patients or maybe they're a multi-site clinic and they have hundreds of patients, thousands of patients.
Wayne LowrySo I want to talk a little bit about your product and see where there might be some natural fit within the DPC space. So can you walk us through a little bit about your technology and how it works and and you know a little bit more about that product?
(13:18):
Vanessa JupeYeah, absolutely. So the way that it would work for a clinic is that they have a patient. You know, they could obviously use it for their staff or for any of the employees, but for their patients, they would basically allow the patients that they have any pregnant or postpartum parents.
Vanessa JupeThe parents could use our platform, which would give them access to hundreds of articles and videos and meditations all about parenthood and work life balance and mindfulness and relaxation. They could track breastfeeding, bottles, diapers, milestones. Make sure the baby is on track.
(13:49):
Vanessa JupeIf not, we have information to send them to their pediatrician, like, hey, it's probably a good time for you to check in if the color of the poop, for example, is not great. Like if it's white or black or red, that's concerning. Talk to your pediatrician. If your baby is—
Wayne LowryYou heard it here first on the Best DPC podcast, check the color of the poop.
Vanessa JupeIt matters.
Wayne LowryIt matters. The color of your poop matters. Alright, go ahead. Go ahead. Sorry.
(14:12):
Vanessa JupeYes it does.
Wayne LowryI'm a 12 year old boy. Sorry, go ahead.
Vanessa JupeNo, I have a 7 year old and then it's all poop, all the time right now.
Vanessa JupeIt's like they would get along. Yeah. And then if they're hitting their milestones, we have information in there that could encourage them and like different things that you can do with them to help them along. But there are also moments where you probably should check in with your pediatrician again. So we kind of guide them in that way and then they can also set up time with experts.
(14:42):
Vanessa JupeSo we have lactation consultants, nutritionists, personal trainers, career coaches, doulas, etc. Like 7 different categories of care that they can schedule time with from within our platform. And so that's just all.
Wayne LowryNow is that a monthly fee or is that like a per session? Or how is that priced?
(15:05):
Vanessa JupeYeah. So it's per session or depending on who we've worked with in the past like the most common way is per session. And so what we've done is that a company will buy a certain amount of credits or dollars towards sessions and then the patient can use however much they want for whatever sessions.
(15:26):
Vanessa JupeOr they can do a subscription for, say $1000 for each patient, and then that patient has unlimited access to any sort of sessions that they want. So it's really kind of variable. And then we, you know, we can work out anything in between.
Vanessa JupeSo that's how it's worked so far and then we are also working right now with a university in Colorado, a hot university healthcare system and so their patients all have the opportunity to get on the platform.
(15:55):
Vanessa JupeAnd what we've seen from that is a massive increase in both the tracking of their breastfeeding sessions, their pumping sessions, baby's diapers and the length of which they continue their breastfeeding journey.
Vanessa JupeSo the university has been very happy with the kind of results of them using that because continuing breastfeeding is a great thing for both the mom and the baby, has wonderful health outcomes down the road, and it also helps the hospital stay on top of what's going on with the parent.
(16:24):
Wayne LowryI want to take a quick break to talk about bestdpc.com.
Wayne LowryAre you a doctor looking to break free from the headaches of insurance and take control of your practice? Or maybe you're an employer searching for an affordable healthcare solution that actually works.
Wayne LowryAt bestdpc.com, we cut through the noise and connect you with the country's best Direct Primary Care clinics. Whether you're a patient tired of surprise medical bills or a physician ready to build a thriving membership-based practice. We've got the tools and resources you need.
(16:56):
Wayne LowryFind the best DPC doctors near you. Get expert advice and take the first step towards a better healthcare.
Wayne LowryVisit bestdpc.com today and see why Direct Primary Care is the future of medicine. That's bestdpc.com because great healthcare should be simple, affordable, and built around you.
Wayne LowrySay a company reaches out and just directly reaches out to you, not through a clinic or not through, you know, in some sort of middle person. So they have the option of saying, hey, we want to buy so many credits worth because we may have 200 moms that work for us, and we want to have this on standby now, are they? If they subscribe to that concept, are they seeing the same doula, for instance?
(17:46):
Wayne LowryIs it a one-on-one session? Is it a video sort resources kind of walk me through what this session looks like?
Vanessa JupeYeah, absolutely. So it's very much like this. So we're on video together. It's one-on-one and in the comfort of your own home or wherever you feel is a safe place for you.
Vanessa JupeAnd it's private with the doula, for example. We just had a doula session on Saturday. It was really, really great.
(18:10):
Wayne LowryI don't know why doula, of all the ones like that, was the one that popped up in my head.
Vanessa JupeWell, it's interesting. Like, there's been a lot of research. Doulas are amazing, and they drive down C-section rates. They drive down medical interventions. So the doala has a great outcome in terms of healthcare prices and results, which you probably know about because of your experience and background.
(18:31):
Vanessa JupeSo yeah, Doulas are fantastic, and so it's a one-on-one video.
Wayne LowrySome people call me a doulaologist.
Vanessa JupeOh, really? Wayne Lowry Yeah, no. No one calls me that. No one's ever called me that. No. But it can be a goal. Something to work for. So what? So when you're—-so they have this one-on-one session, they're talking to the same one, so there's that, provider-patient relationship that's maintained through the sessions
Vanessa JupeNot ever.
Vanessa JupeIt could be a goal.
(18:59):
Wayne LowryHow long, typically, do those sessions last? I guess it's kind of like counseling it's as long as you need it, kind of. Is that the idea?
Vanessa JupeYeah, absolutely. So the individual sessions are typically an hour for any type of consult that we have. And we just had one client that went through five different sessions with her same lactation consultant .
(19:21):
Vanessa JupeWe usually see like 3 on average for lactation. This one was a little longer because the mom’s—she— there were just so many challenges that she was having at first. It was like baby is not latching, and then baby was latching, but baby wasn't transferring enough milk
Vanessa JupeSo our lactation consultant recommended that she go to a pediatric dentist, went to a dentist. The baby had a lip tie, a tongue tie, and a cheek tie, so they got all of that revised, which is horrible and traumatic. But, you know, good thing that she did came back, did another session. And baby was transferring a little better, and then they just had another session.
(19:58):
Vanessa JupeIt was actually was it either yesterday or this morning. Anyway, I don't remember, but the lady texted me the doula or the lactation consultant texted me afterward and said that things were going really well, that the baby had actually put on a lot of weight, the mom was pumping a lot more milk now and so really like being able to follow through, and it was over the course of a few weeks.
Vanessa JupeThis journey for the mom get the—all of the things worked out with baby's mouth and now baby's extracting more milk. So now, mom’s volume of milk has gone up. Like, it's incredible to see that actually working and know that—I know how stressful that is because I had those issues as a new mom.
(20:36):
Vanessa JupeAnd seeing that this mom was actually able to, like, work with our lactation consultant over a period of time and resolve her issues and get her baby and her milk supply going in the right direction is awesome. So, yeah, that's one example that maybe, like, is just like, literally just wrapped up that I'm really happy about because it all worked out.
Wayne LowryYeah, well, how does your app integrate some of the new technologies? Whether it's AI or any kind of automation system, how does your app and service integrate those things for the patients?
(21:10):
Vanessa JupeYeah, good question. So what we are doing now is we're basically taking a lot of data points about the user. So, are they a mom or dad? Are they a caregiver? Are they pregnant? are they postpartum? And if so, how far postpartum? What kind of interests do they have? So when they’re on board with us.
Vanessa JupeThey're giving us a bit of information that's incredibly valuable, and so we use all of that to make sure that we're customizing information presented to them at that right moment.
(21:38):
Vanessa JupeIf you come on and you're a dad that is interested in supporting your partner because there all things that you'll tell us, then we're going to show you information about how to look out for postpartum depression signs at the right moment, right?.
Vanessa JupeWe know the baby’s already come, so now you should learn about this. If you're interested in like your baby's health and wellness, we're going to start telling you about how your baby is changing over time. And again, the milestones they should be on..
(22:04):
Vanessa JupeAnd then, we also give you information about how you can bond with your baby as a new dad. Like, it's kind of awkward for dads in particular because they're like, “Well, my wife's feeding the baby. They're together all the time. I—you know—I try to calm the baby down when he's crying or she's crying, but I don't know what else to be doing with this thing.” We've heard that a lot.
Vanessa JupeSo like, we have information for you about how you can build that relationship and how you can bond, and so it's really just presenting the information in the right way in the right moment. That's kind of how our app works. And so we use basic artificial intelligence to do that, which is really just matching algorithms.
(22:38):
Vanessa JupeAnd what we are hoping to do, I don't know if it'll be like later this year, but we're hoping to be able to take the robust store of content that we have and start playing around with large language models and chat interfaces. Because we have had chat in the past, but it's been very human based chat, so we're going to we're going to see where that can evolve.
Wayne LowryYeah.
Vanessa JupeSince that whole LLM space is working really well right now.
(23:03):
Wayne LowryYeah. Interesting. So, with your company right now and with the new tech, what are some of the new areas of expansion you're looking at?
Vanessa JupeSo what we've done is we've expanded, and so this is maybe slightly less tech, although we are building a piece into it, which I'll explain. So,o sleep has become a growing area of focus, which clearly makes sense because babies don't sleep.
(23:24):
Vanessa JupeSo we've brought in our own sleep consultant, which we used to outsource. So now we have our own. We're building more content around that, and we're going to be building.
Wayne LowryI didn’t know you’re hiring. Like, I can be a sleep consultant. I sleep really good. I sleep really good and I can tell everyone my secrets to how to sleep—how I sleep really good so.
Vanessa JupeYou've been there.
Vanessa JupeOh good, I'll keep that in mind because our parents—some parents–do struggle with that.
(23:47):
Wayne LowryYeah, trust me, I'm really good at ignoring everything and going right to sleep. My wife has told me this for years. So.
Vanessa JupeThat’s Delightful.
Wayne LowryI wish I knew you're hiring. Oh, well. So continue, sorry.
Vanessa JupeSo then we're going to be doing sleep tracking in the app too, so we can help you know how your baby is doing. And then we put sleep plans together around your baby. It's all very customized and tailored. And we just launched an in-app community as well earlier this year so that parents can connect with each other. They can ask questions on our platform and get support.
(24:23):
Vanessa JupeAnd then they can also get information from our consultants through our forum as well, which is awesome.
Vanessa JupeAnd then with—- Wayne Lowry Is that forum web-based as well? Or is it primarily app-based?
Vanessa JupeIt's primarily app-based.
Wayne LowryOh, ok Interesting.
Vanessa JupeYeah, one day, hopefully we'll do web-based as well, but just like cost and time to implement the app based situation worked out better.
Wayne LowryYeah. Well, I mean, you're going to have a lot more reach because people have that cell phone, you know, 3 inches away from their face at all times. So…
(24:51):
Vanessa JupeI know we're so—
Wayne LowryYou know, typically you know communities and forums, I've seen a lot of success on the web-based, but I was just curious if you've seen a lot of traction through the app that way?
Vanessa JupeWell, we wanted to do it Web as well, but yeah, hopefully we'll get there in the next year or so. It just depends, everything depends on prioritization and what feature needs to be built when.
(25:15):
Vanessa JupeBut the other thing we did was a mood check in. So, what we want to do is we want to understand how our families are feeling and what kind of support they need and if they're in crisis.
Vanessa JupeSo we track, you know, are they happy? Are they neutral? Are they anxious? Are they sad?
Vanessa JupeAnd then, how often are they telling us that they're feeling that way?
Vanessa JupeSo, once we start to pick up on when actually their moods are starting to kind of decline or it's a pattern that they've felt really anxious for a couple of days.
(25:44):
Vanessa JupeThen we can start reaching out to them a bit more proactively and really trying to get them help. And then, we also have within the app when they tell us how they're feeling, different resources and materials that are totally applicable to that emotion at that moment. So, that's some of the things that we've been working on recently.
Wayne LowryAwesome. All right. Well, let's kind of segue into some of your user stories. I know you shared one that kind of was happening right now, but what are some of the maybe some of the great successes you've seen since you started this? Obviously it's a passion of yours, you're not in it. You know, you left the corporate world, you started your own business and obviously we could probably spend a whole episode on the fears of doing that.
(26:28):
Wayne LowryBeen there, done that. Understand? But…
Wayne LowryPeople that do that are typically motivated by their passion, something that they're really really interested in. So with the passion that you have for and supporting your parents and working mothers, what are some of the success stories? What are some of the feedback you're getting?
(26:49):
Vanessa JupeYou know, early on, one of the success stories that we had—and this is before we went B2B—one of the first success stories that we had was through our career coaching.
Vanessa JupeWe had a woman that…
Vanessa JupeShe has children that are school-aged, so she had been focusing on them and she really wanted to transition back into work. So, she had taken a break from her career. She was previously an architect and she wanted to become a designer, a user-experience designer—so for digital products. And she worked with our career coach and was able to make that transition.
(27:19):
Vanessa JupeShe was able to successfully position herself for that role, and she literally—like within the last week, commented on one of my LinkedIn posts. And I hadn't heard from her in a while. It's been probably two years—three years maybe. And she's like, “Hey, I just wanted to say that you had such a big impact on my life because your career coach helped me and now I have this new career,” and I'm like, “Oh, that's amazing!” you know? We were able to help her get her job, get her life going in a new direction.
(27:46):
Vanessa JupeIt's also impactful, especially because she was a mom of two smaller kids and she was divorced. She had to, like, go back and join the workforce again, after taking that break. So, we were—I'm really happy we helped her.
Vanessa JupeAnd then, I think more recently—and then we sold our first B2B partnership in June 2023, which was so cool because I had—you know, this is all direct to consumer. That was the goal. One of my mentors at the time was like you should really look at businesses. And I thought why not?
(28:12):
Wayne LowryYeah.
Vanessa JupeI have no idea what I'm doing there either. Let's go try it and suddenly, like we started making sales. And so yeah, that was exciting because there's this whole new Ave. of a way that we can reach parents and support them.
Wayne LowryYeah.
Vanessa JupeAnd then another recent one, we had a mom that works at one of the companies that we support, who's, you know, everything was fine. Her baby was fine. It was sleeping fine, eating fine. Things were great. And suddenly the baby wasn't sleeping well anymore. So she reached out, booked a session with our sleep consultant. And what happened is that she had changed daycares.
(28:49):
Vanessa JupeAnd the daycare didn't have the baby on the same nap schedule as what it had been on, and that threw everything out of whack. So, the sleep coach worked with her over a couple different sessions.
Vanessa JupeAnd was able to modify things with the daycare like gave the mom the information she needed to talk to the daycare to shift her own schedule for the baby to sleep, and suddenly the baby was able to sleep better, and mom's able to sleep better and no more night time disruptions. So, my favorite ones are the stories from the actual parents and how their lives are improved based on what we do.
(29:22):
Vanessa JupeI want them to stay at their companies too! I mean, that's obviously the main selling point for the companies. We’ll help you keep your employees because they need support for something you don't need to worry about.
Wayne LowryWell, and that's what I was going to say is the sales pitch totally shifts and changes when you go from B to C to B to B as you know. B2B is what's the bottom line.
Wayne LowryAt the end of the day, people might paint it with other colors and say, “Hey, you know, we really care about our employees,” but the end of the day, a company that doesn't make revenue, you know, isn't bringing in revenue, isn't making money, can't support a workforce.
(29:54):
Vanessa JupeExactly.
Wayne LowryThey got to make money. And so, how are you seeing this product help those businesses make more money?
Vanessa JupeYeah, absolutely. Well, I think you're absolutely—you're totally spot on. I mean the difference is that people are staying at their jobs because they're getting support. It's so stressful to be a new parent. As you know—as I know, we have had these experiences.
(30:17):
Vanessa JupeIf you're not sleeping, forget it. Like your brain isn't working. You're not there. You're so stressed. If your baby's not eating, you're not really thinking about, “Oh, how am I going to make that sale at work?” or “Am I doing the right customer support service?” or whatever your job is you're thinking, “Oh my God, how am I gonna get my baby fed?” You know, it's so…it just distracts from what you really should be focusing on when you're at work.
(30:39):
Vanessa JupeAnd so we can help take that burden off their shoulders, help them get the information they need to feel really confident and engaged at work. So what we see typically is a 60% improvement on retention rates for companies. Yeah, it's pretty impressive.
Wayne LowryWow.
Wayne LowryThat's really good.
Vanessa JupeAnd our engagement rate for businesses that we work with, right now, is around 85–100%. So, just depending on how active the HR partners are, are you telling your new parents about this? If they tell you they're pregnant, are you telling them that we have this new partnership?
(31:14):
Vanessa JupeAnd so when they do, we see a really high engagement rate—so rather, activation rate for the mom coming on and then six months in and usually 80% of them are still using the platform, which is really cool and really high—
Wayne LowrySo, you're working with the HR department directly or someone on your team is working with the HR department. So is this basically during open enrollment that they're getting this information? Is there a newsletter? How is that information getting out to their employees?
(31:43):
Vanessa JupeYeah. So, most of the time companies are signing on with us during open enrollments and we do have newsletters that we send out to HR a couple times a month and to the employees once a month.
Vanessa JupeWe're trying to find that—I'm trying to find that balance of not inundating people with information all the time, but just reminding them that we're here and one of the things we started doing is webinars. So we're doing webinars now, 6 to 8 times a year.
(32:08):
Vanessa JupeSo we just had a sleep webinar a couple weeks ago which was well attended.
Wayne LowryAnd you didn't—I mean, I could have been there and shared all my secrets.
Vanessa JupeYeah, I know! Well, next one.
Wayne LowryOK, yeah. Just keep me in mind whenever you need a…I really don't have any particular set of special skills, but if I can think of one, I'll let you know. How about that?
Vanessa JupeThat sound’s good.
(32:30):
Vanessa JupeSo yeah, just trying to find ways to stay top of mind, but what works the best is when the HR employee—because when you're pregnant or you having a baby, you tell your manager and you tell HR. Then is when HR is like, “OK, here's what you need to know. And here's what level offers,” and that's the best as far as engagement goes.
(32:51):
Wayne LowryNice, nice. So how can DPC help? Where can DPC fit into this equation? Because as I'm hearing you say that you know, obviously you've got a doctor-patient relationship within the DPC practice, they've already got an established relationship. They're referring out to specialty care.
(33:13):
Wayne LowryThey're referring out to maybe some online form of mental health services or virtual care of some sort. So tell me your pitch, pitch to the DPC's why they should partner with you so that you can take that off of their plate.
Vanessa JupeYeah, absolutely. So DPC's already have a very robust business that they're running. They're seeing patients maybe all across the spectrum, I know here in Kansas City, we actually have a pediatrician DPC, who is also an IBCLC. She's got this really cool practice.
(33:48):
Vanessa JupeBut even then, you know you're not available 24/7. You know, you sleep at night. You know, you have to have work-life balance somehow. And so, being able to offer what we have here at Leva would be such a great asset to your folks because now they have additional resources that are available to them all the time. They do have specialists, like you mentioned.
Vanessa JupeWe do have mental health experts in our app that are really focused on this transition to parenthood, that are really focused on postpartum anxiety and depression and OCD, so you don't have to be the specialist, you have to worry about finding the specialist because we have all the specialists here in one place..
(34:23):
Vanessa JupeSo if you're looking at how you can support the new moms and dads in a way that's incredibly robust and holistic?
Vanessa JupeI think we can help you build even a more beautiful practice in that way.
Wayne LowrySo you know, DPC models are typically a PEPM or some membership rate that's a monthly fixed rate. So obviously you've thought about this, how does your business model work within that capitated rate, the DPC membership, you know, what have you pitched or what do you have available to a DPC?
(34:59):
Wayne LowryTo say, “Hey, for X amount of dollars a month. We'll cover all of your members.” Have you looked at something like that?
Vanessa JupeAbsolutely. I think what we could do—and it would just depend on the level of service that they wanted to provide. So, similar to how many credits would you want? How many consults would you want? I think we would put something together that looks like that. What we've done historically is say, you know, for $1000 you can have access for 10 of your patients for the whole year, they have unlimited access to everything in the app, and then for a certain amount of money, let's just say…
(35:37):
Vanessa JupeLet's just say $1000 per patient. They have unlimited access to any of the specialists that they want in the app. Or you can just say, “Actually I only really need access to lactation consultants.” OK, well, then we'll adjust that and give you a different pricing model where you have access just to lactation consultants and that sort of thing. So just trying to make it flexible because it is my passion. It is something I care deeply about and I do want the majority of people to use it and benefit from it.
(36:00):
Wayne LowryYeah. Vanessa Jupe I'm always very flexible in finding ways that work for the person that wants to offer that service.
Wayne LowryYeah, I just wonder how many DPC's—you know, how DPC's might concede this as? You know, that value add that they can add to their patients as they're trying to bring in, as they're looking at their membership price saying, “Hey, we're going to add this in, we're up to bump our price again this year anyway. Inflation and whatever, whatever…but we're going to add these new services ”
(36:28):
Wayne LowryAnd typically what a DPC would do is maybe say, “This is a per transaction, but a discounted rate,” or whatever. Or, “Just every member has access to this because we know that 80% of our panel isn't necessarily going to be subject to this. they either don't have kids at home or their kids themselves or whatever the case is. Wayne Lowry And so I just think there is an opportunity here for DPC practices, especially maybe smaller DPC's that don't have in-house specialists that they're trying to incorporate and and to provide service because if this can be brought into the business, you know, a lot of DPC's now are really looking at that B2B model.
(37:23):
Wayne LowryYou know, I came to DPC originally as an A to C. I was just a person who needed a better opportunity for my health and so I went to DPC. I later brought it into my business and was able to incorporate it in my company and and then stuck with it.
Wayne LowryBut when I think about the value add that you might be able to provide to—
(37:45):
Wayne LowryI've got several DPC's in mind right now that have one or two sites, but they're eager to grow and they want to take on business clients. Well, this is the kind of value add that might allow you to gain some new business.
Vanessa JupeYeah, absolutely. That’s a great point.
Wayne LowrySo I think that's great. So you're growing in the US. Are you international yet?
(38:10):
Vanessa JupeWe have a couple of customers—so we also offer direct to consumers and so we have users across the world. We have them in India, we have them in Australia but as far as B2B goes, we just got our first international business on board in January and they are based in Ireland and they have employees in the UK and America as well. So it's really cool to be able to say that.
(38:35):
Wayne LowrySo now you get to take a business trip overseas and write it off.
Vanessa JupeI mean, I have—I really need to get there.
Wayne LowryI'm pretty pretty sure that's a write off. I think you can. I think you probably make that happen. So that's great. So you're growing—question I like to ask, obviously you're not a DPC, you're providing a service but…
Wayne LowryI always want to ask what about your tech stack?
(38:57):
Wayne LowryBecause you know, there's a lot of people that are like, I don't even know. Like, I still got an an A Hotmail account, you know, like what technology is out there. And a lot of providers I've come to learn are not really familiar with what good tech they should be looking at.
Wayne LowryWhat do you use for business and your business life as far as the tech stack?
(39:19):
Vanessa JupeWell, So what do we use to run our business?
Wayne LowryYeah, like, I mean, are you using Google? Are you using…? Are you a Microsoft person? Are you a Google suite? What are you into?
Vanessa JupeWe use Google Suites and slack. Those are kind of our cores, HubSpot for CRM.
Vanessa JupeAnd then some really neat marketing tools that I've used that I use right now is Meet Alfred is one of them, which is for LinkedIn outreach. It's really neat and I highly recommend it. And then the other one is Sales Forge for cold email outreach. So there's kind of like the main things I use on a weekly basis.
(39:56):
Wayne LowryNice. Vanessa Jupe And then for our own platform, we have everything hosted in Amazon Web Services because it's really secure and safe.
Wayne LowryYeah, cool.
Wayne LowryWell, that's that's good information. Well, there's probably some providers out there that have thought, “Hey, we need to look at cold outreach or we need to figure out how we can engage with these businesses. So, those are good tools for them to consider.
(40:17):
Wayne LowryLet’s take a quick break to talk about scalebyseo.com.
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(40:50):
Wayne LowryBe visible. Get found. Grow your practice. Don't leave growth to chance. Visit scalebyseo.com today and let's get your clinic in front of the right people.
Wayne LowrySo starting your new business, you've probably got some challenges that you went through. You know, with a new opportunity, there's new challenges. What are some of the things you learned starting your business and and what are some of the some of the advice you might give, especially to—obviously you're not in a doctor, you're not in the medical space but maybe a provider that's looking at leaving the corporate medical world and go into the direct primary care space, what are some of the lessons that you've learned about entrepreneurship and and starting your own business?
(41:36):
Vanessa JupeYeah, great question I think if you already, if you can already start it on the side before you make your leap and have some revenue coming in, that would be fantastic.
Vanessa JupeI think a good support system is really important, so I have a fantastic husband that is the most supportive and biggest cheerleader of anyone ever, and I don't know, I know I wouldn't be able to do this without him.
(42:02):
Vanessa JupeAnd I think you really shouldn't underestimate the toll it will have on you as far as your own well-being and mental health because the days that are good are so good. But there are a lot of days that are hard and so you're just like, “It's a slag. Is it ever going to work?” and suddenly it starts to work. But every day is different. And I don't think most businesses, like we all dream that we're going to have overnight success and it's going to be up into the right, and that's just not reality. At least it hasn't been for me.
(42:33):
Vanessa JupeIt's really been this big Roller coaster and I think just expecting that it's going to be hard and knowing that it's going to take a lot longer than you think it will, it'll likely cost more money than you think it will.
Vanessa JupeBut if you keep going with it, success will come, at least for me, like we've started to see success finally. Finally, more and more success. So I think we're on the right path, but it just takes a lot of resilience.
(42:58):
Vanessa JupeBut think about how proud you're going to be when you look back and realize what you did.
Vanessa JupeYou know, so that's what I would say, don't give up.
Wayne LowryYeah. Yeah. Well, you know, the sales cycle is so interesting and doing sales, you know, sometimes you're like, “Hey, this is such an obvious fit for you. Why don't you see it?” And it's like it's amazing to me, especially when I was selling DPC directly.
(43:24):
Wayne LowryAnd you go to these large employer groups and you can show them with math how many millions of dollars they would save and they wouldn't do it because they're afraid of getting a couple bad phone calls that don't come because good customer service takes care of that.
(43:45):
Wayne LowryYeah. So I understand the challenges and I think if you're a direct primary care provider and you're new in this space or you're thinking about joining this space Vanessa's thoughts are of great value. You should really consider as you enter into that space. Maybe doing it part time like she says. If you have a full time position or you're able to take shifts.
(44:08):
Wayne LowryI know one DPC provider that has a contract with the VA and does some contract work and then also does their practice as well and it's allowed them to kind of transition. And so you know different ones have different ways to do that.
Vanessa JupeThat's cool.
(44:29):
Wayne LowryAll right, so now we're to the fun section. This is a section called “Keeping it Reels”. The purpose of the section is I'm going to ask you different questions. Some of these questions spend, you know, 45 seconds to a minute explaining your answer.
Wayne LowryIf it's a great answer, I promise you'll go viral on TikTok.
(44:53):
Wayne LowryAnd if not, it's still good material for this podcast, so “Keeping it Reels” quick and easy, just the first thing that pops in your head and we'll roll with it. So first question is, what's the most surprising thing you've learned from new parents?
Vanessa JupeOh, the most surprising thing I've learned from new parents.
Vanessa JupeI think it's just the passion they have to share the journey together. It's not. I guess it shouldn't be so surprising, but we were asked by so many parents, including dads, to support the dads and to make it to where they could share their accounts and share their data and everything else. And and I didn't expect that. And I also didn't expect—
(45:34):
Vanessa JupeThis is my own bias.
Vanessa JupeI did not expect to learn so much about what dads are really wanting because we've done a lot of research with dads the last year and just how passionate they are about the bonding with their babies and wanting to support their wives and like they show up on our sleep webinars and they have great questions and I'm like, “Go Dads!” So, I guess I'm surprised at this desire to share and this beautiful family bond and then the dads are leaning in. That's like, really heartwarming and cool.
(46:01):
Wayne LowryI think I've got some merch idea for you, “Go Dads,” you can just just have a picture like this with like “Go dads.”
Wayne LowryThere you go.
Wayne LowryAll right, so next question, this is in regards to work life balance. You are a CEO, you are a mother. How do you maintain work life balance and what tips do you have to our listeners?
(46:23):
Vanessa JupeOK, so I never maintained work life balance before I started my own company. So, that's the opposite of what you always hear. You always hear, “Oh my God, I'm a CEO. I'm an entrepreneur. Like it takes my whole life up.” But the deal I made because I was always a workaholic. The deal I made with my husband, when I was going to go all in on this was he said, “it cannot become your whole life like you have to make sure that when you do this like you're spending time with us too.”
(46:47):
Vanessa JupeSo that was part of the deal.
Vanessa JupeSo I took Friday off, last Friday and it was the most beautiful day. We actually had spring weather here in Kansas City. My son and I hiked to the park, spent time together so I mean, I think why do it?
Vanessa JupeWhy do your own thing, if you don't actually have the chance to enjoy your life? Isn't that part of why we start businesses in the 1st place? Like we have passion and care, we want to build something amazing, but we also want to enjoy our lives and put something out there into the future that's going to help people but also allow us to live in the moment.
(47:24):
Vanessa JupeYou know, for me as a parent, I want to be able to go on adventures. I want to spend time with my family. I want to explore. And so yeah, it's just part of part of my life now. And part of my future.
Wayne LowryNice. Next question, if you had a superpower to help you with work, what would that superpower be?
Vanessa JupeI think marketing and sales like I just want to be great at that and I always kind of feel like…
(47:50):
Vanessa JupeI am such a nerd and I love data and I love sharing statistics and data, but I know that's not like the most sexy thing in the world, so maybe being able to translate like the stuff I'm passionate about into something that is exciting for other people, that would be cool.
Wayne LowryI can relate to that. I'm a big nerd too, so I could talk AI all day. So all right. Last one you love hiking and you're telling me before the show that you got a motorhome. What's one place you're dying to explore with your family?
(48:24):
Vanessa JupeGrand Canyon. I've never been there, but I hear great things about it and we were supposed to go. We had a whole trip planned in the fall of last year, and that's when the Trans Canyon Water line broke. And so our hotel reservation got cancelled. So we ended up going to Salida instead, which was amazing because I love—if you've never been to Salida, Go. It's the most beautiful place in the world.
Vanessa JupeBut Grand Canyon? I'm super stoked to finally get a chance to go and explore it.
(48:48):
Wayne LowrySo did you kind of have the Truman Show moment when you're, like, “I'm going to Grand Canyon,” but then it kept you from being able to actually go like, all the things that—
Vanessa JupeWas that—Is that where he was trying to go in the Truman show?
Wayne LowryNo, he was trying to go to Fiji, but his family photos were like of Mount Rushmore, and it was obviously a prop, so it was the same.
Vanessa JupeOh my God.
(49:10):
Vanessa JupeMan, I need to watch that show again. Wayne. I really feel like so much of what we're living in right now in this time. Like, it's like we're in a reality TV show right now, so I just…
Wayne LowryThere's no proof that we aren't. There's no proof that we aren't.
Wayne LowryAll right. Well, that's our show. Thank you, Vanessa, and thank you all for watching and listening to the best DPC podcast. A huge thanks to Vanessa for joining us today and sharing her insight on supporting new parents through technology and compassionate care.
(49:43):
Wayne LowryTo learn more about Leva, visit levaapp.com and follow them on LinkedIn. Also follow Vanessa. It would be worth your time to follow her. For more DPC goodness, head over to bestdpc.com.
Wayne LowryDon't forget to follow us on social media, subscribe to our YouTube channel. We're also on all of your favorite podcast platforms. Please go over there. Give us five star review, share, tell the world about us until next time. Remember, your health matters demand the best with direct primary care. Bye bye.
Wayne LowrySo have you done anything fun lately?
(00:03):
Vanessa JupeNot yet, but we are planning on a road trip really soon, so I'm looking forward to that. We're going to get in our RV and just drive West and see how that goes.
Wayne LowryDrive West? Where are you? Where are you starting from?
Vanessa JupeWe're so we're in Kansas City and we're going through Loveland, Colorado to get all of the off grid like, you know, solar panels put on and battery packs and everything. Yeah.
Wayne LowryOkay.
(00:28):
Wayne LowryOh man, so are you into the whole bunker life too.
Vanessa JupeNo.
Wayne LowryYou're not doing the whole end of the world thing. You're just like, I'm just gonna have fun with my solar and live out in the woods.
Vanessa JupeJust want to go and be a free spirit. You know, we have to have Internet, so we have the Internet all secured but now we need the electricity and then we can just go. It's going to be great.
(00:51):
Wayne LowryYeah, just like they did in the pioneer days, just their Wi-Fi and electricity and the open road.
Vanessa JupeYeah, exactly.
(01:12):
Wayne LowryHello and welcome to the Best DPC podcast, the world's number one podcast covering all things direct primary care. I'm your host, Wayne Lowry. No, I'm not a doctor but I challenge you all to a game of Doctor Mario.
Wayne LowryToday, I am thrilled to have Vanessa Jupe with us. She is the CEO and founder of Leva. Like levitate, a platform that integrates cutting edge technology with compassionate human care to support new patients during the transition to motherhood and in the critical first year of postpartum.
(01:49):
Wayne LowryWith a robust background and product management, design and business strategy, Vanessa is revolutionary in how employers support their workforce, fostering healthier families and a more inclusive workplace. So let's dive in and welcome Vanessa.
Vanessa JupeThank you. I'm super happy to be here.
Wayne LowryWell, I'm glad to have you. We met a few years ago at a conference and I know when I was working at my previous employer,
(02:19):
Wayne Lowrywe made some connections and hopefully there's some connections that you've gotten through those, some of those experiences that have helped you grow. But today I want to ask you a little bit about yourself, talk a little bit about your journey, how did you begin Leva?
Vanessa JupeOh, my gosh. OK, so my background is like you mentioned all in product development on the digital side of things. And I've always had a passion for just figuring out problems and making things better for users, for people, right. They're just people like us. But I've never worked in healthcare, know nothing. I knew nothing about it.
(02:45):
Vanessa JupeBecause it was so shocking and overwhelming and I think as mothers and as parents in general, we kind of feel like we can figure it all out and we're supposed to solve all the problems for ourselves and our babies.
Vanessa JupeI know a lot more now, but still have a lot to learn. Most of my experience really was, you know, entertainment, financial services and somewhere along that path I got pregnant and became a mom.
Vanessa JupeAnd I wasn't able to really kind of figure out how to get the feeding going well and then of course, as he grew a little older. We hit the sleep regressions and that was really hard. And so those moments really stayed with me as I continued my normal corporate career and a few years in COVID hit us.
(03:07):
Vanessa JupeAnd it's been amazing and wonderful and also incredibly hard, especially right after my baby was born. I struggled so much with feeding him. I never thought that would be hard. I kind of learned what I thought I needed to know.
Vanessa JupeI talked to experts ahead of time, and then all of a sudden, he wasn't gaining enough weight. It was really painful. And I started, like, Googling everything under the sun.
(03:32):
Vanessa JupeI started trying to find all the experts I could, and it was so discouraging because I really couldn't figure out how to make things work for us and it was the most stressful experience of my life.
(04:15):
Vanessa JupeSo my baby was 3 when COVID happened, and oh so many of my friends and coworkers were suddenly getting pregnant. And that was like the catalyst for me, where I felt like I've got to do something to help, I've got to do something to help these people because I knew how hard it was for me,
(04:37):
Vanessa Jupeand I just felt like I could take what I knew and from building really cool digital products and I could hire experts that are amazing content creators, experts in their fields, pediatrician, pediatric dentists and lactation consultants and curate this really robust platform to help new moms and dads so that they aren't searching and aren't desperate like I was.
(05:02):
Vanessa JupeSo that's really where it all came from was this really painful experience in my life and wanting to help make things better.
Wayne LowrySo with that you've been very passionate and if anyone follows you on LinkedIn, they know you speak your mind, you speak your passion and come what may, how is that influence that passion for advocacy influenced your life?
Vanessa JupeYeah.
(05:26):
Vanessa JupeOh my gosh. In so many ways I think you know when you're in the corporate world, it's really difficult because you know, there's this level of, you know, you join these companies and everyone's like, we want your authentic self and but just in this particular way.
Vanessa JupeLike, please make sure that you are very light and soft and positive and don't have anything that's a little bit too opinionated and just be a little careful. Yeah, no edge. Yeah, exactly like smooth all that out.
(05:48):
Wayne LowryNo edge, no edgy.
Wayne LowryWe want you to be yourself, but not that version like we want you to be this other version but be the authentic you. Yeah, yeah.
Vanessa JupeExactly.
Vanessa JupeRight, exactly how did you know? So well said.
Wayne LowryI've had that same conversation before, I understand.
Vanessa JupeIt's tough. I think, for me, when I started doing Leva and increasingly over the last couple of years as it's really been the only thing I'm focused on, I realized how important it is to truly actually show up authentically
(06:23):
Vanessa Jupeand I think there's so much that's happening in our world now, especially as it comes to like new moms and women and everything else that I have to speak for what I feel is right and I have to put my energy and my effort toward that.
Vanessa JupeAnd I think all of the things, the good things come from that, and I will tell you like it's been a really cool journey because I get to choose who I work with and who I don't work with,
(06:46):
Vanessa Jupeboth on the contractor side as far as the people that I hire and as far as the companies I work with, so I think it's allowed me in so many ways to attract the right kind of people to my company, just because I'm able to authentically put my ideas out there.
Wayne LowryNow, can you over the last couple of years, have you seen some fruit of this, this energy and effort? Have you seen some positive changes in some of the corporate environments or some of the businesses you're working with?
(07:17):
Vanessa JupeYou know, I've seen definitely increases in parental leave, focus and support systems that weren't there before like, so when I talked to companies, I think there's been a lot of focus on fertility benefits, on adoption services, you know, all of those things, but there's been this gap around when parents have the baby and then come back to work.
(07:42):
Vanessa JupeAnd I think companies kind of realize that's a hard time, but they don't really think, “oh, there's something that you can do for that”. They think, well, if we just give them parental leave, then, that's the only thing we have.
Vanessa JupeAnd so I've had a lot of conversations with businesses after they learn what Leva is, which is all about supporting new parents through pregnancy and postpartum, but especially postpartum, because that's really when stuff hits the fan and it gets really crazy and difficult.
(08:09):
Vanessa JupeAnd so you talk to these employers, then you have to kind of make them realize, like, you're losing 45% of your new moms most likely because they're going to be quitting their jobs after they have this baby or in so many cases, dropping to part time or just having a really difficult time balancing everything.
Vanessa JupeAnd so once you talk to them, you're like “we can help you.”, “Here's how we can help you.”, “We're gonna help you improve retention.”, “We're gonna help you improve your engagement because we're providing these services.”
(08:33):
Vanessa JupeIt's almost like a light bulb goes off and they're like, “oh, wow, there is something I could do. I knew we had some problems. I didn't quite know how much and now that I realize there's a solution. Like, yes. Let's do these things.” So starting to see more of that. But I think we're still early and there's just more awareness needed. But I think it's moving in a good direction.
Wayne LowrySo how big of a team do you have now?
(08:54):
Vanessa JupeSo it's 10 consultants, 12 consultants and me and then we have a small development team of just like 5 developers, but we're pretty small.
Wayne LowryOh wow.
Wayne LowryWell, I mean, so you've grown quite a bit over the last couple of years then?
Vanessa JupeYeah, we've grown a bit. We've brought on quite a few more clients, which is super exciting because when you and I met, I had just launched this version of our company earlier that year.
(09:18):
Vanessa JupeAnd now here we are, you know, almost a year and a half later because it was 23, wasn't it? I think. Yeah, yeah. So at the end of this year, it'll be three years, so yeah, it's exciting. It's been a good journey. Wayne Lowry Yeah.
Wayne LowryI think It was, yeah.
Wayne LowryWell, that's good.
Vanessa JupeYeah. Thank you. Wayne Lowry That's great. Well, when you are out talking to corporate America, I'm sure they're just loving the idea of comparing themselves to what they're doing in Scandinavian countries, right?
(09:43):
Vanessa JupeNo.
Wayne LowryI'm sure that I'm sure that comes up. That's just an easy sell, isn't it? Don't you want to take 6? Don't you want to let your employees have six months?
Vanessa JupeOh my God.
Vanessa JupeIsn't it funny though? Like it's so funny because we see the Scandinavian countries are so great because they actually focus on mom and dad or, you know, whatever the partner structure looks like.
Vanessa JupeAnd they really make sure that both parents have time with the child, right? And if it's a single parent, the parent gets the whole time. But for couples they have, they are forced, required in some cases, both to take time.
(10:16):
Vanessa JupeSomehow I think it's like 6. I'm going to get this wrong but say 6… I want to say weeks? It's probably more than that well, let’s just say six weeks, and then there's an overlap of several weeks,
Vanessa Jupeand then the other parent, the dad in this case, gets six more weeks, so they have to have this, like, completely focused time on their own with the baby and plus a bonding period.
Vanessa JupeAnd so it helps in so many ways because then both parents really build that relationship with the baby and there's this amazing bond, but it also helps because neither parent takes a hit on their career.
(10:49):
Vanessa JupeAnd so research from those countries shows that when both of the parents take time, in this case the dad or the non-birthing parent takes that time for every month that they're off, the mom’s salary Increases by 7%.
Vanessa JupeSo it's just like quite amazing because we see how much of an impact that motherhood penalty takes here. And so, yeah, I wish it was easier. I wish we could say, “look what's happened there and it's great. It's happening. The economy and both parents are staying gainfully employed.”
(11:18):
Vanessa JupeBut I think America and maybe it's not just unique to us, but we don't like to think of ourselves as like lagging in any way and so even though some people will definitely clearly know that, like, hey, policies are better at other places, it's really not something people like to hear about or talk about.
Wayne LowryTalk about? So that's not what you put in your opening sales pitches with?
Vanessa JupeFor surely not, unless you want.
Wayne LowryBut I'd imagine there's a lot of that, the philosophies and theories and some of that, those concepts you're integrating into your product to help with those corporations and companies that are open to this concept.
(11:52):
Vanessa JupeYes, and that has been so fun too, Wayne. I mean, I've been able to talk to certain companies that are really wanting to learn. How can they do better on their leave management side of things.
Vanessa JupeAnd they are open to hearing what's happening in other places and how they can do that here, like, keep in touch days. Meaning, okay, so you have your auto and FMLA and you have had your baby, but you can still keep in touch with the office. Isn't that a crazy idea like they have that in England, we don't have it here, but it helps so much because just because you've had a baby doesn't mean that your career doesn't matter.
(12:21):
Vanessa JupeAnd that you suddenly don't want that support system that you've built over however long you've been with your employer. So it has been, it has been really fun to, like learn because I'm a total nerd. What else is out there? And then share that with folks that are trying to make really good cultures at their companies.
Wayne LowryWell, I love it. So let's talk about your company and because, obviously, our audience is mostly direct primary care. And so I want to kind of get into how your product can be a value add for direct primary care clinics.
(12:54):
Wayne LowryMaybe they are a small mom and pop shop and they have, you know, 200 patients or maybe they're a multi-site clinic and they have hundreds of patients, thousands of patients.
Wayne LowrySo I want to talk a little bit about your product and see where there might be some natural fit within the DPC space. So can you walk us through a little bit about your technology and how it works and and you know a little bit more about that product?
(13:18):
Vanessa JupeYeah, absolutely. So the way that it would work for a clinic is that they have a patient. You know, they could obviously use it for their staff or for any of the employees, but for their patients, they would basically allow the patients that they have any pregnant or postpartum parents.
Vanessa JupeThe parents could use our platform, which would give them access to hundreds of articles and videos and meditations all about parenthood and work life balance and mindfulness and relaxation. They could track breastfeeding, bottles, diapers, milestones. Make sure the baby is on track.
(13:49):
Vanessa JupeIf not, we have information to send them to their pediatrician, like, hey, it's probably a good time for you to check in if the color of the poop, for example, is not great. Like if it's white or black or red, that's concerning. Talk to your pediatrician. If your baby is—
Wayne LowryYou heard it here first on the Best DPC podcast, check the color of the poop.
Vanessa JupeIt matters.
Wayne LowryIt matters. The color of your poop matters. Alright, go ahead. Go ahead. Sorry.
(14:12):
Vanessa JupeYes it does.
Wayne LowryI'm a 12 year old boy. Sorry, go ahead.
Vanessa JupeNo, I have a 7 year old and then it's all poop, all the time right now.
Vanessa JupeIt's like they would get along. Yeah. And then if they're hitting their milestones, we have information in there that could encourage them and like different things that you can do with them to help them along. But there are also moments where you probably should check in with your pediatrician again. So we kind of guide them in that way and then they can also set up time with experts.
(14:42):
Vanessa JupeSo we have lactation consultants, nutritionists, personal trainers, career coaches, doulas, etc. Like 7 different categories of care that they can schedule time with from within our platform. And so that's just all.
Wayne LowryNow is that a monthly fee or is that like a per session? Or how is that priced?
(15:05):
Vanessa JupeYeah. So it's per session or depending on who we've worked with in the past like the most common way is per session. And so what we've done is that a company will buy a certain amount of credits or dollars towards sessions and then the patient can use however much they want for whatever sessions.
(15:26):
Vanessa JupeOr they can do a subscription for, say $1000 for each patient, and then that patient has unlimited access to any sort of sessions that they want. So it's really kind of variable. And then we, you know, we can work out anything in between.
Vanessa JupeSo that's how it's worked so far and then we are also working right now with a university in Colorado, a hot university healthcare system and so their patients all have the opportunity to get on the platform.
(15:55):
Vanessa JupeAnd what we've seen from that is a massive increase in both the tracking of their breastfeeding sessions, their pumping sessions, baby's diapers and the length of which they continue their breastfeeding journey.
Vanessa JupeSo the university has been very happy with the kind of results of them using that because continuing breastfeeding is a great thing for both the mom and the baby, has wonderful health outcomes down the road, and it also helps the hospital stay on top of what's going on with the parent.
(16:24):
Wayne LowryI want to take a quick break to talk about bestdpc.com.
Wayne LowryAre you a doctor looking to break free from the headaches of insurance and take control of your practice? Or maybe you're an employer searching for an affordable healthcare solution that actually works.
Wayne LowryAt bestdpc.com, we cut through the noise and connect you with the country's best Direct Primary Care clinics. Whether you're a patient tired of surprise medical bills or a physician ready to build a thriving membership-based practice. We've got the tools and resources you need.
(16:56):
Wayne LowryFind the best DPC doctors near you. Get expert advice and take the first step towards a better healthcare.
Wayne LowryVisit bestdpc.com today and see why Direct Primary Care is the future of medicine. That's bestdpc.com because great healthcare should be simple, affordable, and built around you.
Wayne LowrySay a company reaches out and just directly reaches out to you, not through a clinic or not through, you know, in some sort of middle person. So they have the option of saying, hey, we want to buy so many credits worth because we may have 200 moms that work for us, and we want to have this on standby now, are they? If they subscribe to that concept, are they seeing the same doula, for instance?
(17:46):
Wayne LowryIs it a one-on-one session? Is it a video sort resources kind of walk me through what this session looks like?
Vanessa JupeYeah, absolutely. So it's very much like this. So we're on video together. It's one-on-one and in the comfort of your own home or wherever you feel is a safe place for you.
Vanessa JupeAnd it's private with the doula, for example. We just had a doula session on Saturday. It was really, really great.
(18:10):
Wayne LowryI don't know why doula, of all the ones like that, was the one that popped up in my head.
Vanessa JupeWell, it's interesting. Like, there's been a lot of research. Doulas are amazing, and they drive down C-section rates. They drive down medical interventions. So the doala has a great outcome in terms of healthcare prices and results, which you probably know about because of your experience and background.
(18:31):
Vanessa JupeSo yeah, Doulas are fantastic, and so it's a one-on-one video.
Wayne LowrySome people call me a doulaologist.
Vanessa JupeOh, really? Wayne Lowry Yeah, no. No one calls me that. No one's ever called me that. No. But it can be a goal. Something to work for. So what? So when you're—-so they have this one-on-one session, they're talking to the same one, so there's that, provider-patient relationship that's maintained through the sessions
Vanessa JupeNot ever.
Vanessa JupeIt could be a goal.
(18:59):
Wayne LowryHow long, typically, do those sessions last? I guess it's kind of like counseling it's as long as you need it, kind of. Is that the idea?
Vanessa JupeYeah, absolutely. So the individual sessions are typically an hour for any type of consult that we have. And we just had one client that went through five different sessions with her same lactation consultant .
(19:21):
Vanessa JupeWe usually see like 3 on average for lactation. This one was a little longer because the mom’s—she— there were just so many challenges that she was having at first. It was like baby is not latching, and then baby was latching, but baby wasn't transferring enough milk
Vanessa JupeSo our lactation consultant recommended that she go to a pediatric dentist, went to a dentist. The baby had a lip tie, a tongue tie, and a cheek tie, so they got all of that revised, which is horrible and traumatic. But, you know, good thing that she did came back, did another session. And baby was transferring a little better, and then they just had another session.
(19:58):
Vanessa JupeIt was actually was it either yesterday or this morning. Anyway, I don't remember, but the lady texted me the doula or the lactation consultant texted me afterward and said that things were going really well, that the baby had actually put on a lot of weight, the mom was pumping a lot more milk now and so really like being able to follow through, and it was over the course of a few weeks.
Vanessa JupeThis journey for the mom get the—all of the things worked out with baby's mouth and now baby's extracting more milk. So now, mom’s volume of milk has gone up. Like, it's incredible to see that actually working and know that—I know how stressful that is because I had those issues as a new mom.
(20:36):
Vanessa JupeAnd seeing that this mom was actually able to, like, work with our lactation consultant over a period of time and resolve her issues and get her baby and her milk supply going in the right direction is awesome. So, yeah, that's one example that maybe, like, is just like, literally just wrapped up that I'm really happy about because it all worked out.
Wayne LowryYeah, well, how does your app integrate some of the new technologies? Whether it's AI or any kind of automation system, how does your app and service integrate those things for the patients?
(21:10):
Vanessa JupeYeah, good question. So what we are doing now is we're basically taking a lot of data points about the user. So, are they a mom or dad? Are they a caregiver? Are they pregnant? are they postpartum? And if so, how far postpartum? What kind of interests do they have? So when they’re on board with us.
Vanessa JupeThey're giving us a bit of information that's incredibly valuable, and so we use all of that to make sure that we're customizing information presented to them at that right moment.
(21:38):
Vanessa JupeIf you come on and you're a dad that is interested in supporting your partner because there all things that you'll tell us, then we're going to show you information about how to look out for postpartum depression signs at the right moment, right?.
Vanessa JupeWe know the baby’s already come, so now you should learn about this. If you're interested in like your baby's health and wellness, we're going to start telling you about how your baby is changing over time. And again, the milestones they should be on..
(22:04):
Vanessa JupeAnd then, we also give you information about how you can bond with your baby as a new dad. Like, it's kind of awkward for dads in particular because they're like, “Well, my wife's feeding the baby. They're together all the time. I—you know—I try to calm the baby down when he's crying or she's crying, but I don't know what else to be doing with this thing.” We've heard that a lot.
Vanessa JupeSo like, we have information for you about how you can build that relationship and how you can bond, and so it's really just presenting the information in the right way in the right moment. That's kind of how our app works. And so we use basic artificial intelligence to do that, which is really just matching algorithms.
(22:38):
Vanessa JupeAnd what we are hoping to do, I don't know if it'll be like later this year, but we're hoping to be able to take the robust store of content that we have and start playing around with large language models and chat interfaces. Because we have had chat in the past, but it's been very human based chat, so we're going to we're going to see where that can evolve.
Wayne LowryYeah.
Vanessa JupeSince that whole LLM space is working really well right now.
(23:03):
Wayne LowryYeah. Interesting. So, with your company right now and with the new tech, what are some of the new areas of expansion you're looking at?
Vanessa JupeSo what we've done is we've expanded, and so this is maybe slightly less tech, although we are building a piece into it, which I'll explain. So,o sleep has become a growing area of focus, which clearly makes sense because babies don't sleep.
(23:24):
Vanessa JupeSo we've brought in our own sleep consultant, which we used to outsource. So now we have our own. We're building more content around that, and we're going to be building.
Wayne LowryI didn’t know you’re hiring. Like, I can be a sleep consultant. I sleep really good. I sleep really good and I can tell everyone my secrets to how to sleep—how I sleep really good so.
Vanessa JupeYou've been there.
Vanessa JupeOh good, I'll keep that in mind because our parents—some parents–do struggle with that.
(23:47):
Wayne LowryYeah, trust me, I'm really good at ignoring everything and going right to sleep. My wife has told me this for years. So.
Vanessa JupeThat’s Delightful.
Wayne LowryI wish I knew you're hiring. Oh, well. So continue, sorry.
Vanessa JupeSo then we're going to be doing sleep tracking in the app too, so we can help you know how your baby is doing. And then we put sleep plans together around your baby. It's all very customized and tailored. And we just launched an in-app community as well earlier this year so that parents can connect with each other. They can ask questions on our platform and get support.
(24:23):
Vanessa JupeAnd then they can also get information from our consultants through our forum as well, which is awesome.
Vanessa JupeAnd then with—- Wayne Lowry Is that forum web-based as well? Or is it primarily app-based?
Vanessa JupeIt's primarily app-based.
Wayne LowryOh, ok Interesting.
Vanessa JupeYeah, one day, hopefully we'll do web-based as well, but just like cost and time to implement the app based situation worked out better.
Wayne LowryYeah. Well, I mean, you're going to have a lot more reach because people have that cell phone, you know, 3 inches away from their face at all times. So…
(24:51):
Vanessa JupeI know we're so—
Wayne LowryYou know, typically you know communities and forums, I've seen a lot of success on the web-based, but I was just curious if you've seen a lot of traction through the app that way?
Vanessa JupeWell, we wanted to do it Web as well, but yeah, hopefully we'll get there in the next year or so. It just depends, everything depends on prioritization and what feature needs to be built when.
(25:15):
Vanessa JupeBut the other thing we did was a mood check in. So, what we want to do is we want to understand how our families are feeling and what kind of support they need and if they're in crisis.
Vanessa JupeSo we track, you know, are they happy? Are they neutral? Are they anxious? Are they sad?
Vanessa JupeAnd then, how often are they telling us that they're feeling that way?
Vanessa JupeSo, once we start to pick up on when actually their moods are starting to kind of decline or it's a pattern that they've felt really anxious for a couple of days.
(25:44):
Vanessa JupeThen we can start reaching out to them a bit more proactively and really trying to get them help. And then, we also have within the app when they tell us how they're feeling, different resources and materials that are totally applicable to that emotion at that moment. So, that's some of the things that we've been working on recently.
Wayne LowryAwesome. All right. Well, let's kind of segue into some of your user stories. I know you shared one that kind of was happening right now, but what are some of the maybe some of the great successes you've seen since you started this? Obviously it's a passion of yours, you're not in it. You know, you left the corporate world, you started your own business and obviously we could probably spend a whole episode on the fears of doing that.
(26:28):
Wayne LowryBeen there, done that. Understand? But…
Wayne LowryPeople that do that are typically motivated by their passion, something that they're really really interested in. So with the passion that you have for and supporting your parents and working mothers, what are some of the success stories? What are some of the feedback you're getting?
(26:49):
Vanessa JupeYou know, early on, one of the success stories that we had—and this is before we went B2B—one of the first success stories that we had was through our career coaching.
Vanessa JupeWe had a woman that…
Vanessa JupeShe has children that are school-aged, so she had been focusing on them and she really wanted to transition back into work. So, she had taken a break from her career. She was previously an architect and she wanted to become a designer, a user-experience designer—so for digital products. And she worked with our career coach and was able to make that transition.
(27:19):
Vanessa JupeShe was able to successfully position herself for that role, and she literally—like within the last week, commented on one of my LinkedIn posts. And I hadn't heard from her in a while. It's been probably two years—three years maybe. And she's like, “Hey, I just wanted to say that you had such a big impact on my life because your career coach helped me and now I have this new career,” and I'm like, “Oh, that's amazing!” you know? We were able to help her get her job, get her life going in a new direction.
(27:46):
Vanessa JupeIt's also impactful, especially because she was a mom of two smaller kids and she was divorced. She had to, like, go back and join the workforce again, after taking that break. So, we were—I'm really happy we helped her.
Vanessa JupeAnd then, I think more recently—and then we sold our first B2B partnership in June 2023, which was so cool because I had—you know, this is all direct to consumer. That was the goal. One of my mentors at the time was like you should really look at businesses. And I thought why not?
(28:12):
Wayne LowryYeah.
Vanessa JupeI have no idea what I'm doing there either. Let's go try it and suddenly, like we started making sales. And so yeah, that was exciting because there's this whole new Ave. of a way that we can reach parents and support them.
Wayne LowryYeah.
Vanessa JupeAnd then another recent one, we had a mom that works at one of the companies that we support, who's, you know, everything was fine. Her baby was fine. It was sleeping fine, eating fine. Things were great. And suddenly the baby wasn't sleeping well anymore. So she reached out, booked a session with our sleep consultant. And what happened is that she had changed daycares.
(28:49):
Vanessa JupeAnd the daycare didn't have the baby on the same nap schedule as what it had been on, and that threw everything out of whack. So, the sleep coach worked with her over a couple different sessions.
Vanessa JupeAnd was able to modify things with the daycare like gave the mom the information she needed to talk to the daycare to shift her own schedule for the baby to sleep, and suddenly the baby was able to sleep better, and mom's able to sleep better and no more night time disruptions. So, my favorite ones are the stories from the actual parents and how their lives are improved based on what we do.
(29:22):
Vanessa JupeI want them to stay at their companies too! I mean, that's obviously the main selling point for the companies. We’ll help you keep your employees because they need support for something you don't need to worry about.
Wayne LowryWell, and that's what I was going to say is the sales pitch totally shifts and changes when you go from B to C to B to B as you know. B2B is what's the bottom line.
Wayne LowryAt the end of the day, people might paint it with other colors and say, “Hey, you know, we really care about our employees,” but the end of the day, a company that doesn't make revenue, you know, isn't bringing in revenue, isn't making money, can't support a workforce.
(29:54):
Vanessa JupeExactly.
Wayne LowryThey got to make money. And so, how are you seeing this product help those businesses make more money?
Vanessa JupeYeah, absolutely. Well, I think you're absolutely—you're totally spot on. I mean the difference is that people are staying at their jobs because they're getting support. It's so stressful to be a new parent. As you know—as I know, we have had these experiences.
(30:17):
Vanessa JupeIf you're not sleeping, forget it. Like your brain isn't working. You're not there. You're so stressed. If your baby's not eating, you're not really thinking about, “Oh, how am I going to make that sale at work?” or “Am I doing the right customer support service?” or whatever your job is you're thinking, “Oh my God, how am I gonna get my baby fed?” You know, it's so…it just distracts from what you really should be focusing on when you're at work.
(30:39):
Vanessa JupeAnd so we can help take that burden off their shoulders, help them get the information they need to feel really confident and engaged at work. So what we see typically is a 60% improvement on retention rates for companies. Yeah, it's pretty impressive.
Wayne LowryWow.
Wayne LowryThat's really good.
Vanessa JupeAnd our engagement rate for businesses that we work with, right now, is around 85–100%. So, just depending on how active the HR partners are, are you telling your new parents about this? If they tell you they're pregnant, are you telling them that we have this new partnership?
(31:14):
Vanessa JupeAnd so when they do, we see a really high engagement rate—so rather, activation rate for the mom coming on and then six months in and usually 80% of them are still using the platform, which is really cool and really high—
Wayne LowrySo, you're working with the HR department directly or someone on your team is working with the HR department. So is this basically during open enrollment that they're getting this information? Is there a newsletter? How is that information getting out to their employees?
(31:43):
Vanessa JupeYeah. So, most of the time companies are signing on with us during open enrollments and we do have newsletters that we send out to HR a couple times a month and to the employees once a month.
Vanessa JupeWe're trying to find that—I'm trying to find that balance of not inundating people with information all the time, but just reminding them that we're here and one of the things we started doing is webinars. So we're doing webinars now, 6 to 8 times a year.
(32:08):
Vanessa JupeSo we just had a sleep webinar a couple weeks ago which was well attended.
Wayne LowryAnd you didn't—I mean, I could have been there and shared all my secrets.
Vanessa JupeYeah, I know! Well, next one.
Wayne LowryOK, yeah. Just keep me in mind whenever you need a…I really don't have any particular set of special skills, but if I can think of one, I'll let you know. How about that?
Vanessa JupeThat sound’s good.
(32:30):
Vanessa JupeSo yeah, just trying to find ways to stay top of mind, but what works the best is when the HR employee—because when you're pregnant or you having a baby, you tell your manager and you tell HR. Then is when HR is like, “OK, here's what you need to know. And here's what level offers,” and that's the best as far as engagement goes.
(32:51):
Wayne LowryNice, nice. So how can DPC help? Where can DPC fit into this equation? Because as I'm hearing you say that you know, obviously you've got a doctor-patient relationship within the DPC practice, they've already got an established relationship. They're referring out to specialty care.
(33:13):
Wayne LowryThey're referring out to maybe some online form of mental health services or virtual care of some sort. So tell me your pitch, pitch to the DPC's why they should partner with you so that you can take that off of their plate.
Vanessa JupeYeah, absolutely. So DPC's already have a very robust business that they're running. They're seeing patients maybe all across the spectrum, I know here in Kansas City, we actually have a pediatrician DPC, who is also an IBCLC. She's got this really cool practice.
(33:48):
Vanessa JupeBut even then, you know you're not available 24/7. You know, you sleep at night. You know, you have to have work-life balance somehow. And so, being able to offer what we have here at Leva would be such a great asset to your folks because now they have additional resources that are available to them all the time. They do have specialists, like you mentioned.
Vanessa JupeWe do have mental health experts in our app that are really focused on this transition to parenthood, that are really focused on postpartum anxiety and depression and OCD, so you don't have to be the specialist, you have to worry about finding the specialist because we have all the specialists here in one place..
(34:23):
Vanessa JupeSo if you're looking at how you can support the new moms and dads in a way that's incredibly robust and holistic?
Vanessa JupeI think we can help you build even a more beautiful practice in that way.
Wayne LowrySo you know, DPC models are typically a PEPM or some membership rate that's a monthly fixed rate. So obviously you've thought about this, how does your business model work within that capitated rate, the DPC membership, you know, what have you pitched or what do you have available to a DPC?
(34:59):
Wayne LowryTo say, “Hey, for X amount of dollars a month. We'll cover all of your members.” Have you looked at something like that?
Vanessa JupeAbsolutely. I think what we could do—and it would just depend on the level of service that they wanted to provide. So, similar to how many credits would you want? How many consults would you want? I think we would put something together that looks like that. What we've done historically is say, you know, for $1000 you can have access for 10 of your patients for the whole year, they have unlimited access to everything in the app, and then for a certain amount of money, let's just say…
(35:37):
Vanessa JupeLet's just say $1000 per patient. They have unlimited access to any of the specialists that they want in the app. Or you can just say, “Actually I only really need access to lactation consultants.” OK, well, then we'll adjust that and give you a different pricing model where you have access just to lactation consultants and that sort of thing. So just trying to make it flexible because it is my passion. It is something I care deeply about and I do want the majority of people to use it and benefit from it.
(36:00):
Wayne LowryYeah. Vanessa Jupe I'm always very flexible in finding ways that work for the person that wants to offer that service.
Wayne LowryYeah, I just wonder how many DPC's—you know, how DPC's might concede this as? You know, that value add that they can add to their patients as they're trying to bring in, as they're looking at their membership price saying, “Hey, we're going to add this in, we're up to bump our price again this year anyway. Inflation and whatever, whatever…but we're going to add these new services ”
(36:28):
Wayne LowryAnd typically what a DPC would do is maybe say, “This is a per transaction, but a discounted rate,” or whatever. Or, “Just every member has access to this because we know that 80% of our panel isn't necessarily going to be subject to this. they either don't have kids at home or their kids themselves or whatever the case is. Wayne Lowry And so I just think there is an opportunity here for DPC practices, especially maybe smaller DPC's that don't have in-house specialists that they're trying to incorporate and and to provide service because if this can be brought into the business, you know, a lot of DPC's now are really looking at that B2B model.
(37:23):
Wayne LowryYou know, I came to DPC originally as an A to C. I was just a person who needed a better opportunity for my health and so I went to DPC. I later brought it into my business and was able to incorporate it in my company and and then stuck with it.
Wayne LowryBut when I think about the value add that you might be able to provide to—
(37:45):
Wayne LowryI've got several DPC's in mind right now that have one or two sites, but they're eager to grow and they want to take on business clients. Well, this is the kind of value add that might allow you to gain some new business.
Vanessa JupeYeah, absolutely. That’s a great point.
Wayne LowrySo I think that's great. So you're growing in the US. Are you international yet?
(38:10):
Vanessa JupeWe have a couple of customers—so we also offer direct to consumers and so we have users across the world. We have them in India, we have them in Australia but as far as B2B goes, we just got our first international business on board in January and they are based in Ireland and they have employees in the UK and America as well. So it's really cool to be able to say that.
(38:35):
Wayne LowrySo now you get to take a business trip overseas and write it off.
Vanessa JupeI mean, I have—I really need to get there.
Wayne LowryI'm pretty pretty sure that's a write off. I think you can. I think you probably make that happen. So that's great. So you're growing—question I like to ask, obviously you're not a DPC, you're providing a service but…
Wayne LowryI always want to ask what about your tech stack?
(38:57):
Wayne LowryBecause you know, there's a lot of people that are like, I don't even know. Like, I still got an an A Hotmail account, you know, like what technology is out there. And a lot of providers I've come to learn are not really familiar with what good tech they should be looking at.
Wayne LowryWhat do you use for business and your business life as far as the tech stack?
(39:19):
Vanessa JupeWell, So what do we use to run our business?
Wayne LowryYeah, like, I mean, are you using Google? Are you using…? Are you a Microsoft person? Are you a Google suite? What are you into?
Vanessa JupeWe use Google Suites and slack. Those are kind of our cores, HubSpot for CRM.
Vanessa JupeAnd then some really neat marketing tools that I've used that I use right now is Meet Alfred is one of them, which is for LinkedIn outreach. It's really neat and I highly recommend it. And then the other one is Sales Forge for cold email outreach. So there's kind of like the main things I use on a weekly basis.
(39:56):
Wayne LowryNice. Vanessa Jupe And then for our own platform, we have everything hosted in Amazon Web Services because it's really secure and safe.
Wayne LowryYeah, cool.
Wayne LowryWell, that's that's good information. Well, there's probably some providers out there that have thought, “Hey, we need to look at cold outreach or we need to figure out how we can engage with these businesses. So, those are good tools for them to consider.
(40:17):
Wayne LowryLet’s take a quick break to talk about scalebyseo.com.
Wayne LowryIf you run a direct primary care clinic, you already know the power of patient relationships. But here's the thing, patients can't sign up if they can't find you.
Wayne LowryThat's where Scale by SEO comes in. We help DPC clinics get seen where people are searching so you're not just waiting for word of mouth referrals. With the right SEO strategy, your practice becomes the obvious choice. When people are looking for better healthcare options. If you're not showing up where they're searching, you're missing out
(40:50):
Wayne LowryBe visible. Get found. Grow your practice. Don't leave growth to chance. Visit scalebyseo.com today and let's get your clinic in front of the right people.
Wayne LowrySo starting your new business, you've probably got some challenges that you went through. You know, with a new opportunity, there's new challenges. What are some of the things you learned starting your business and and what are some of the some of the advice you might give, especially to—obviously you're not in a doctor, you're not in the medical space but maybe a provider that's looking at leaving the corporate medical world and go into the direct primary care space, what are some of the lessons that you've learned about entrepreneurship and and starting your own business?
(41:36):
Vanessa JupeYeah, great question I think if you already, if you can already start it on the side before you make your leap and have some revenue coming in, that would be fantastic.
Vanessa JupeI think a good support system is really important, so I have a fantastic husband that is the most supportive and biggest cheerleader of anyone ever, and I don't know, I know I wouldn't be able to do this without him.
(42:02):
Vanessa JupeAnd I think you really shouldn't underestimate the toll it will have on you as far as your own well-being and mental health because the days that are good are so good. But there are a lot of days that are hard and so you're just like, “It's a slag. Is it ever going to work?” and suddenly it starts to work. But every day is different. And I don't think most businesses, like we all dream that we're going to have overnight success and it's going to be up into the right, and that's just not reality. At least it hasn't been for me.
(42:33):
Vanessa JupeIt's really been this big Roller coaster and I think just expecting that it's going to be hard and knowing that it's going to take a lot longer than you think it will, it'll likely cost more money than you think it will.
Vanessa JupeBut if you keep going with it, success will come, at least for me, like we've started to see success finally. Finally, more and more success. So I think we're on the right path, but it just takes a lot of resilience.
(42:58):
Vanessa JupeBut think about how proud you're going to be when you look back and realize what you did.
Vanessa JupeYou know, so that's what I would say, don't give up.
Wayne LowryYeah. Yeah. Well, you know, the sales cycle is so interesting and doing sales, you know, sometimes you're like, “Hey, this is such an obvious fit for you. Why don't you see it?” And it's like it's amazing to me, especially when I was selling DPC directly.
(43:24):
Wayne LowryAnd you go to these large employer groups and you can show them with math how many millions of dollars they would save and they wouldn't do it because they're afraid of getting a couple bad phone calls that don't come because good customer service takes care of that.
(43:45):
Wayne LowryYeah. So I understand the challenges and I think if you're a direct primary care provider and you're new in this space or you're thinking about joining this space Vanessa's thoughts are of great value. You should really consider as you enter into that space. Maybe doing it part time like she says. If you have a full time position or you're able to take shifts.
(44:08):
Wayne LowryI know one DPC provider that has a contract with the VA and does some contract work and then also does their practice as well and it's allowed them to kind of transition. And so you know different ones have different ways to do that.
Vanessa JupeThat's cool.
(44:29):
Wayne LowryAll right, so now we're to the fun section. This is a section called “Keeping it Reels”. The purpose of the section is I'm going to ask you different questions. Some of these questions spend, you know, 45 seconds to a minute explaining your answer.
Wayne LowryIf it's a great answer, I promise you'll go viral on TikTok.
(44:53):
Wayne LowryAnd if not, it's still good material for this podcast, so “Keeping it Reels” quick and easy, just the first thing that pops in your head and we'll roll with it. So first question is, what's the most surprising thing you've learned from new parents?
Vanessa JupeOh, the most surprising thing I've learned from new parents.
Vanessa JupeI think it's just the passion they have to share the journey together. It's not. I guess it shouldn't be so surprising, but we were asked by so many parents, including dads, to support the dads and to make it to where they could share their accounts and share their data and everything else. And and I didn't expect that. And I also didn't expect—
(45:34):
Vanessa JupeThis is my own bias.
Vanessa JupeI did not expect to learn so much about what dads are really wanting because we've done a lot of research with dads the last year and just how passionate they are about the bonding with their babies and wanting to support their wives and like they show up on our sleep webinars and they have great questions and I'm like, “Go Dads!” So, I guess I'm surprised at this desire to share and this beautiful family bond and then the dads are leaning in. That's like, really heartwarming and cool.
(46:01):
Wayne LowryI think I've got some merch idea for you, “Go Dads,” you can just just have a picture like this with like “Go dads.”
Wayne LowryThere you go.
Wayne LowryAll right, so next question, this is in regards to work life balance. You are a CEO, you are a mother. How do you maintain work life balance and what tips do you have to our listeners?
(46:23):
Vanessa JupeOK, so I never maintained work life balance before I started my own company. So, that's the opposite of what you always hear. You always hear, “Oh my God, I'm a CEO. I'm an entrepreneur. Like it takes my whole life up.” But the deal I made because I was always a workaholic. The deal I made with my husband, when I was going to go all in on this was he said, “it cannot become your whole life like you have to make sure that when you do this like you're spending time with us too.”
(46:47):
Vanessa JupeSo that was part of the deal.
Vanessa JupeSo I took Friday off, last Friday and it was the most beautiful day. We actually had spring weather here in Kansas City. My son and I hiked to the park, spent time together so I mean, I think why do it?
Vanessa JupeWhy do your own thing, if you don't actually have the chance to enjoy your life? Isn't that part of why we start businesses in the 1st place? Like we have passion and care, we want to build something amazing, but we also want to enjoy our lives and put something out there into the future that's going to help people but also allow us to live in the moment.
(47:24):
Vanessa JupeYou know, for me as a parent, I want to be able to go on adventures. I want to spend time with my family. I want to explore. And so yeah, it's just part of part of my life now. And part of my future.
Wayne LowryNice. Next question, if you had a superpower to help you with work, what would that superpower be?
Vanessa JupeI think marketing and sales like I just want to be great at that and I always kind of feel like…
(47:50):
Vanessa JupeI am such a nerd and I love data and I love sharing statistics and data, but I know that's not like the most sexy thing in the world, so maybe being able to translate like the stuff I'm passionate about into something that is exciting for other people, that would be cool.
Wayne LowryI can relate to that. I'm a big nerd too, so I could talk AI all day. So all right. Last one you love hiking and you're telling me before the show that you got a motorhome. What's one place you're dying to explore with your family?
(48:24):
Vanessa JupeGrand Canyon. I've never been there, but I hear great things about it and we were supposed to go. We had a whole trip planned in the fall of last year, and that's when the Trans Canyon Water line broke. And so our hotel reservation got cancelled. So we ended up going to Salida instead, which was amazing because I love—if you've never been to Salida, Go. It's the most beautiful place in the world.
Vanessa JupeBut Grand Canyon? I'm super stoked to finally get a chance to go and explore it.
(48:48):
Wayne LowrySo did you kind of have the Truman Show moment when you're, like, “I'm going to Grand Canyon,” but then it kept you from being able to actually go like, all the things that—
Vanessa JupeWas that—Is that where he was trying to go in the Truman show?
Wayne LowryNo, he was trying to go to Fiji, but his family photos were like of Mount Rushmore, and it was obviously a prop, so it was the same.
Vanessa JupeOh my God.
(49:10):
Vanessa JupeMan, I need to watch that show again. Wayne. I really feel like so much of what we're living in right now in this time. Like, it's like we're in a reality TV show right now, so I just…
Wayne LowryThere's no proof that we aren't. There's no proof that we aren't.
Wayne LowryAll right. Well, that's our show. Thank you, Vanessa, and thank you all for watching and listening to the best DPC podcast. A huge thanks to Vanessa for joining us today and sharing her insight on supporting new parents through technology and compassionate care.
(49:43):
Wayne LowryTo learn more about Leva, visit levaapp.com and follow them on LinkedIn. Also follow Vanessa. It would be worth your time to follow her. For more DPC goodness, head over to bestdpc.com.
Wayne LowryDon't forget to follow us on social media, subscribe to our YouTube channel. We're also on all of your favorite podcast platforms. Please go over there. Give us five star review, share, tell the world about us until next time. Remember, your health matters demand the best with direct primary care. Bye bye.
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