Join us on Seed to Exit as we unravel the inspiring journey of Luke Buchanan, the CEO and co-founder of Redi Health. We explore how Luke and his team of first-time founders are revolutionizing patient management for chronic conditions through state-of-the-art digital solutions. Discover how they identified a critical gap in the healthcare industry and harnessed the power of software to bridge it, with a remarkable focus on grit and empathy.
In this episode, we delve into the strategic intricacies of building a robust tech company from the ground up. Luke shares the critical steps of assembling a strong team and crafting a compelling go-to-market strategy. Learn about the transition from targeting pharmaceutical organizations to fostering independent patient networks and how their outbound sales approach cultivated valuable inbound interest. Insight into innovative pricing strategies reveals how aligning patient needs with customer goals can not only resolve conflicts but also sustain value without resorting to discounts.
The journey goes beyond the boardroom as Luke opens up about the emotional highs and lows of being a first-time entrepreneur. We examine the powerful dynamic between startup founders and investors, emphasizing the importance of transparent communication and mutual support, reminiscent of a marriage. Hear Luke's reflections on maintaining integrity and collaboration in investor relationships, the invaluable insights gained from board members, and the relentless drive that fuels the unpredictable, yet profoundly rewarding, rollercoaster of entrepreneurship.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
But the initial idea for Ready was it didn't have
distribution.
What it was is just a product,and the idea was if you build it
, they will come.
If you build a really goodproduct, then people are just
gonna somehow figure out aboutit and they're gonna adopt it.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Hey everyone, thanks for listening to Seed to Exit,
and today I'm joined by LukeBuchanan, co-founder and CEO of
Ready Health.
Ready Health is a platformrevolutionizing how patients
manage chronic conditions andaccess life-changing
pharmaceutical products.
In this episode, we're going totalk a little bit more about
Luke's journey from identifyinggaps in healthcare to building a
startup in one of the mosthighly regulated industries out
(00:34):
there.
We'll talk a little bit moreabout he and his co-founder
brought Ready Health to life,some of the lessons that they
learned from navigatingcompliance and venture capital,
and why Luke thinks that hiringfor grit and empathy is one of
the key to their successes.
So, whether you're a founder oryou're just curious about
healthcare and innovation, Ithink that you will really enjoy
this episode, so let's dive in.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
You're listening to the Seed to Exit podcast with
your host, rhys Keck.
Here you'll learn from startupexecutives, founders, investors
and industry experts.
You'll learn from the bestabout building amazing products,
scaling companies, raisingcapital, hiring the right people
and more.
Subscribe and listen in for newepisodes and enjoy the show.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Luke, welcome onto the show.
Glad to have you.
Thanks, rhys, good to be here,cool.
So I'm excited to chat with youtoday.
You've had some really coolprogress over the last couple of
years with Ready Health andwant to dive into that, learn a
little bit more about how thecompany came to be, the progress
you've had and what things looklike for you going forward.
So I'm just curious, given theprevious experience you'd had
(01:44):
prior to founding Ready you're afirst-time founder what led you
to start the company and whatwas the inspiration behind it?
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Yeah, so origin story is something that I always like
to touch on, and Ready has fourfounders actually, which is
also a little bit atypical, butall of us are first-time
founders.
All of us come from priorstartups, though, and we were
early enough to kind of go onsome of the ride of going from
early stage into later stage andeven into acquisition.
(02:13):
So I personally came from acompany called Cover my Meds,
which is a health tech startupin Columbus Ohio that's where
Ready is located as well andreally cut my teeth in the
industry and in high growthventure backed startup, and I
mean, it's as simple as you kindof get a taste for it when you
see it, and I knew that when Iwas there, I wanted to leave and
(02:33):
do something on my own, but Ididn't just want to do that, I
wanted to solve a real problem,and luckily, in health care,
there's no shortage of problemsthat you can go out and solve,
and so, throughout my time thereand just getting a lot of
exposure to the industry, beingaround folks who were in
different areas of the industry,it became really clear that
patients didn't really have asmuch stock put in them as they
(02:56):
should in relation to takingcontrol of their own health, and
I wanted to rethink that and so, putting pen to paper on a
couple of different ideas andkind of how we do that, we sort
of saw that there was a nichethat was not yet layered in with
software, it was not yetenabled by technology that's
known as patient supportprograms offered by
pharmaceutical manufacturers,and nobody was solving this
(03:18):
problem.
Nobody was just injectingsoftware in the way it had been
done in other industries.
We saw the opportunity to dothat and then, in 2021, we went
out to do that.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
So when you say we with your three other
co-founders, I'm just curioushow did you two meet Friends,
Coworkers?
Speaker 1 (03:35):
Yeah, you four rather .
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Jamin and I Jamin Gandhi, who'sour CTO co-founder and CTO we
had met just through theecosystem in Columbus for
startups.
So it's a thriving ecosystemhere in which, particularly in
health technology and healthcarein general, there is a lot of
interest in companies innovatingin that space.
(03:57):
So we just met through some ofthe local events that had taken
place.
It became very clear that weboth had an interest in not only
entrepreneurship but also insolving healthcare problems in
particular.
So I can actually remember itspecifically when the idea of
Ready was very, very young, Ihad kind of recited it to Jamin
(04:17):
while we were just kind ofhaving blanket conversation over
a drink and several weeks laterhe came back, having iterated
on it and had just kind of blownit out to be much better.
That's atypical in such a nichespace like pharma, patient
support services right, orpatient engagement and I was
immediately like this isprobably one of the smartest
guys that I know, so I need todo this with him.
(04:39):
And then Nate Rehm, our chiefrevenue officer, kyle Grimsland,
our chief strategy officer Iworked with them at Cover my
Meds and after leaving to startReady, they had a lot of
interest as well in coming alongto do what we wanted to do,
which was serve patients.
So it was a no-brainer, and soall of us were the first four at
(04:59):
the company.
We founded it and have grown itever since.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
So when we talk about the problem that you're solving
, I know you said you knowdigital patient support, but
what does that mean in practiceand what specifically is the
problem that's being solved?
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Yeah.
So if you are written a highcost prescription today from
your healthcare providerhopefully you're not, but you
know over 90 million Americansare today.
When I say high cost, I mean500 to $8,000 a month or even
more.
Those types of productsgenerally there's only one for
the disease state or thetherapeutic area and they're so
(05:32):
high cost.
Obviously the hurdles to get ona product like that, regardless
of whether you have commercialinsurance or whether you're on
Medicare or Medicaid, thehurdles are different.
They're bigger.
There's more that needs to bedone in order to get on a
product like that and even ifyour insurance decides they're
going to cover it, you are stillprobably responsible for a very
large amount of dollars, justas a percentage of something
that costs that much.
(05:53):
So the manufacturers of thosemedications they stand up PSP
patient support programs.
It's very niche, they can'treally advertise it broadly.
They need several layers ofconsent to even reach out to you
to tell you about it.
So patients don't know about itbut almost everybody's eligible
for it and it's these reallyrobust centers of support that
help patients start and stay onthe high-cost therapy totally
(06:15):
free to them, and our goal isjust to get as many patients
exposed to that, enrolled in itand taking advantage of it in a
convenient way long-term.
So the problem is this greatsupport exists, but only 20% of
eligible patients ever reallyhave an opportunity to get it.
So we just want to take that 20and get it as high as possible.
We also want to make thelong-term engagement more
(06:36):
convenient for patients, and theway that we do that is with the
Ready platform.
So it's text, email, web app,omni-channel in which a patient
can engage with Ready.
But essentially you're writtena prescription and we then get
Ready in your hands and you thenhave the opportunity to engage
with the support because we'rebringing it to you proactively,
whereas previously thehealthcare provider would have
to kick off this arduous,antiquated process of getting
(06:59):
you enrolled.
Ready just allows the patientto do it themselves.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
So who are you selling into then?
Are you selling to the provider, who then provides it to the
patient?
Does it go through employers?
Speaker 1 (07:07):
Yeah, we actually sell to the pharmaceutical
manufacturers and we partnerwith various stakeholders in the
healthcare space so pharmacies,ehrs, foundation, groups that
support patients in certaintherapeutic areas to be able to
identify patients that reallycould use the support and get it
into their hands.
So our number one goal is thatwe do not actually create any
(07:29):
sort of new process for thehealthcare provider.
In fact, we want to eliminatethem having to do this
altogether, or at least make itmuch easier for them by
identifying the patient, goingdirectly to them and allowing
the pharmaceutical manufacturer,for the first time ever,
compliantly get in touch withthe patient in a more direct way
.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
That makes sense.
So so Jamin came back a fewweeks later with some sort of
MVP or you know some, somestarting point.
How did you go from thatstarting point to where you're
at today?
Speaker 1 (07:56):
Man, the, the climb from MVP to established product.
You know any founder out therethat's listening to this will
probably feel my pain here.
It always feels like you're anMVP, right, you never really get
out of that.
Of course you feel like, hey,the product progresses
dramatically and when you lookback three, four years ago
you're like, wow, things havecome a long way.
(08:17):
But the initial idea for Readywas it didn't have distribution.
What it was is just a productand the idea was if you build it
, they will come.
If you build a really goodproduct, then people are just
going to somehow figure outabout it and they're going to
adopt it.
That really doesn't happen.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
I was going to say did that work?
Speaker 1 (08:34):
It did not work.
No, it doesn't happen inpractice that way, especially in
healthcare, because, again, thesame issue we were trying to
solve people don't know thesupport exists.
It's because the ability toreach out to patients, the
ability to reach out to anyclinical entity, is just
difficult.
It's not a streamlined processlike other industries that have
had a lot of technology alreadyinjected into their workflows.
(08:57):
So the original MVP, the ideaof serving patients in a whole
health way and then deliveringsupport through the vehicle of
their whole health, that is thesame.
That has not changed from dayone at Ready.
But the way in which weidentify patients and we get our
product into their hands has.
So the distribution in whichwe're able toric really allowing
a patient to manage theirhealth as well as engage with
(09:19):
the support in a simultaneousand convenient way.
But the distribution of whenthe patient learns about ready
has changed and our goal,virtually, is that at any point
in the prescription journey, sothe provider writes the
prescription, every single stepin that process ready is there
(09:41):
to proactively reach out to thepatient when a problem occurs.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
Process ready is there to proactively reach out
to the patient when a problemoccurs, Got it.
So how did you go about hiringyour initial team then?
It's always something I'minterested to talk to founders
about, because it becomes alittle bit easier once you've
gained some critical mass andpeople know who you are.
You have some employer brand.
But what did you do to buildthat first 10, 15 hires?
Speaker 1 (10:02):
Yeah.
So I think we're lucky inColumbus which, like I said, has
a real thriving health techscene as it relates to younger
companies.
So in those early days when we,you know, left our
organizations, luckily all of ushad put a lot of effort into
building really broad networks.
So the advice I always try togive to people when they're
thinking about starting acompany is hey, you've already
(10:23):
started it today.
If it's in your head, you'vestarted it today.
Start building therelationships with people that
you think might at least want tohelp you.
It's amazing how often peoplehelp when you just ask who at
least want to help you.
Later on, because you've built areally robust network so early
on, we had a lot of inboundinterest from people we'd worked
with in the past.
Our initial need was primarilyengineering.
(10:44):
Obviously, you're getting atech company off the ground.
You need a lot of engineers inorder to do that if you want
them in-house, and that'ssomething that was important to
us, and so we had a lot ofinbound interest.
So our first three, four hireswere engineers, and then we
started expanding our sales team.
Then we started expanding ourcommercialization team and data
teams, and that all just camefrom establishing a name in the
space.
(11:04):
So probably up through our first15, I think you asked about
that was primarily built offjust very robust network of
individuals who we had workedwith in the past and built very
strong relationships with, and Ithink that's really key for any
young organization is that youleverage people that you can
trust.
There's all sorts of stuff onpaper that's very important when
(11:25):
you're hiring for a role andyou shouldn't overlook that.
But already having theestablished trust that this
person has the grit, that theycan stomach the type of volatile
environment of a young company,that they're creative, knowing
all of that is just going tostreamline your process to
levels that someone who's netnew might not be able to
integrate as easily.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
Yep Absolutely agreed .
So you hired engineering first,which makes sense, and then
started building the sales team.
How did you get the initialgo-to-market motion off the
ground?
Speaker 1 (11:56):
Yeah, so go-to-market is really interesting, right?
I told you that the first ideawas, if you build it, they will
come and it's a chicken or theegg when it comes to anything
that's B2B or B2B2C.
It's do you go out andestablish a foundation of users
that are applicable to whoyou're trying to sell to, or do
you go sell to some entity thatcan help you get in front of
(12:18):
those users?
And we chose to go directly tothe pharma organizations first
to then really have them andtheir channels enable our
product into the hands of theirpatient.
And that worked and I think itwas really impactful.
So pharma still has access toabout 20% of their patients.
The engagement with theirsupport can still be much better
.
(12:38):
So early on, the go-to-marketwas primarily around just
getting a more convenientprocess into the hands of the
patients that pharma was alreadysupporting.
So that again shifted when westarted building our own
networks of patients in which wecould identify patients and
serve the patients that pharmaalready had access to.
And the go-to-market shiftedfrom let's serve and make a more
(13:01):
convenient process for whatalready exists.
Let's actually create a net newenvironment for patients that
have never had access to thesupport before.
So the go-to-market maturedfrom focusing on a process that
was ineffective or inconvenientto not only making it convenient
but distributing it widely.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
How did you vet and I know hiring is largely from
your network but how did you vetand make that initial founding
sales hire, Because that'softentimes one of the most
critical hires you can make?
Speaker 1 (13:32):
Yeah, definitely.
You know, a good or badsalesperson can make or break
your young organization.
So Nate Rehm, our co-founderand chief revenue officer, that
was his wheelhouse, so he was insales and very, very successful
at it.
So I don't know if I'mqualified to really talk about
the first sales hire, because Iwas lucky enough to have a
absolutely phenomenal co-founderthat was able to take care of
(13:53):
that.
What I will say is building thestructure around your sales
process.
One of the things that we took alot of care of is right, nate
comes in, he can sell, he can dothat.
But when you're in a technicalsale you need data right, and
when you're in healthcare youneed some clinical support as
well too.
So luckily, my background wasin data.
So we made that a veryimportant part of the sales
(14:13):
process and we made structure asto when does Luke step in in
the sales process to assist?
And then Kyle Grims at ourchief strategy officer,
pharmacist by trade, same thingon the clinical side.
So your first hire reallyimportant on the sales side, but
it's also very important tojust chart out your sales
process so you can understandwhen support needs to be
(14:33):
insulated around thatsalesperson.
They can't do it alone.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
Absolutely.
I mean, selling is a team sport.
So sales process, what did thatlook like from and were you
doing largely?
You know, like you said, youbuilt it and they did not come
immediately.
So were you doing outbound?
Were you doing trade shows,events what did that look like?
Speaker 1 (14:53):
Yeah, outbound, so almost exclusively outbound.
And since then, right inboundinterest has become more
pervasive.
And that's just as you grow yourbrand in the space, as you have
successful programs, as you areable to showcase successful
programs at things like tradeshows Early on, though, it's
just out of the pavement, it iscold, calls out, it is
(15:13):
leveraging your network as muchas you possibly can and it's
being comfortable with a lot ofno's.
And something that I always kindof talk about is when you're
very, very new, you have totarget the buyers that not only
maybe have bought from you inthe past or that you trust, but
you have to target the buyersthat really want to innovate,
and that's maybe 10% of anindustry altogether.
(15:35):
And then you have another 20%that's never going to buy an
innovative product because theyjust want to play a very
conservative status quo.
That's okay If you can identifythem, throw them to the side
and you'll move much quicker.
But then you have that middlepercent, that middle 70% that
really doesn't know whether theywant this new product or not.
That first 10% is critical foryou to get your first programs
(15:57):
and that's where you build thecase studies and the data to go
after that middle percentage toconvince them to come along on
this ride of the new kind ofdisrupted status quo that you're
creating.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
Love that approach.
So, when it comes to pricing,you mentioned in the past that
you priced your product at fullvalue from the start, which is,
I think, a fairly unusualapproach, because so many people
, like you said, they want toget to the discount, to get that
sale, to then build that casestudy or that testimonial or
what have you.
What gave you the confidence toavoid pilot pricing?
Speaker 1 (16:30):
Well, for one, I think it's important to ask your
customer what does pilot meanto you?
And if it does mean discountedpricing, if it means
substantially discounted pricingand that's okay for your stage
then I think you should do that.
For us in pharma, pilot means avariety of different things,
and so it's really weighing whatyou're willing to do.
(16:51):
And so when we say full programlike the way in which you
create impact, the way in whichthat you can show that something
is working is you have to rollit out broadly, at least to some
scale.
And that's really thecornerstone of what we took in
that argument is, if you rollthis out across a very small
number of patients, or you don'treally build it out in the way
(17:13):
that you're supposed to, thenwe're just telling you right now
it's probably not going to showthe value that we're saying
that it will or that you hopethat it will have.
You have to give it the scaleand the maturity in order to do
that.
So the things that we werewilling to do is just create
full programs that were a littlebit more creative, as it
related to the comfortability ofthis thing being more long-term
(17:33):
or short-term.
Maybe you want three-yearcontracts and you're willing to
go down to one year or even sixmonths.
Those year contracts and you'rewilling to go down to one year
or even six months, those aregreat levers to pull that aren't
really pilots.
They allow you to still rollout broadly at scale, get the
data that you need, hold thepricing that you need, but it
still gives your customers somecomfortability that they're not
going to be locked into a baddecision and how did customers
(17:53):
react to that?
They reacted very positively toit.
Right, and that's why I say wedidn't really do pilots.
We didn't need to do pilotsbecause we had the confidence
and the backing and, frankly, ifyou're in sort of a B2B2C
market, patients are the usersof our platform.
We had enough data on the usageof our platform outside of, as
it related to the strictrelationship with our pharma
manufacturers, that we couldstand our ground and say hey,
(18:17):
we're showing that this doesactually have an impact.
So a pilot, as it relates to a75% price cut, all that's going
to do is make it harder for usto reinvest and serve your
patients in the best way that wecan.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
How do you balance the needs Because, as you
mentioned, it's a B2B2C product?
How do you manage the feedbackfrom the users, who aren't
necessarily the paying customers, versus the feedback from the
pharmaceutical companies, whoare your paying users, and what
do you do if those two thingsare at odds?
Speaker 1 (18:43):
It's a great question and I'm of the belief that what
is good for the patient shouldnever be distant from what is
good for the customer.
It oftentimes you'll think like,well, okay, if those two things
are separate, who do you gowith?
But if they're separate, thatmeans somebody's thinking about
this in the wrong way andoftentimes the patient here is
not making some sort of businessdecision, they're just trying
(19:04):
to get healthier.
So when we think about that asthe North Star, the patient is
the North Star of ready.
If a manufacturer partner wantsto do something that is
counterintuitive or it isfriction full for the patient,
then it's on us as ready, theexperts in patient engagement,
to go reframe the mindset of whythat is actually not a good
idea.
So anytime that happens, ifthere's feedback from a user
(19:27):
that says this instance isn'twhat we want, what you've built
with the pharma manufacturerisn't serving me in the way that
I need to, that's absolute goldand that allows the
manufacturer then to optimizethe program, to get even more
out of it, to serve patients ina better way, to create a better
ROI, which is very importantand what we're after at the end
of the day.
So it's on us to frame that ina way that aligns the
(19:51):
stakeholders of the patient andthe pharma manufacturer and we
take it really seriously.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
I love that.
So you know, without namingnames or any specifics has that
happened in the past and what'swhat?
Anything you want to go intomore detail on.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
Luckily never in a big way.
So pharma generally knows thatthey're going to do what's best
for the patients on theirmedications.
That's important to them.
The whole goal here is thatpatients have good outcomes.
If a patient on theirmedication doesn't have a good
outcome, that's not good foranybody.
So they generally are prettyaligned to that.
(20:26):
Where it starts to play in sortof a counterintuitive way or
where those things come head tohead is if you start receiving
feedback that was reallycontradictory to what somebody
one stakeholder at your partneror at your customer really
wanted to be a part of theprogram.
If they had a really good ideathat they're really glued to and
you're getting feedback thatmaybe that wasn't the best idea,
then you have to deal with sortof the personal attitudes of
(20:47):
reframing that.
But again, everybody's prettypatient-centric.
Pharmaceutical manufacturersget a very bad rap sometimes and
I dislike that, especially inpatient support services,
patient support programs.
I mean these are robustprograms, free to patients, that
are solely focused on gettingpatients better, that are on the
medication.
So we're pretty aligned.
We don't see that misalignmentvery often but when we do again
(21:10):
we go about taking care onexplaining why it's very
important that we do serve thepatient in the best way, love
that To switch gears a littlebit.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
So earlier in the company's history you went
through a customer validationboot camp and I know that you
that had to do also with, youknow, raising capital.
What was that validation bootcamp like?
What were the exercises?
Speaker 1 (21:31):
What were the outcomes Economic Development
Fund here in Columbus, which Ising the praises of all the time
.
I think it's important that youhave someone on your cap table.
If you're raising institutionalfunding, if you're putting
together a venture syndicate,you have someone on your cap
table that is somehow related tooverall development of
(21:51):
entrepreneurship in the space.
So Rev One stood up theseresources for those that were
interested in startingorganizations or had just
started organizations, wherethey were there for you, whether
whether or not Rev1 invested inyou, and we took advantage of
that, and the idea was thatwe're going to help you create a
framework and give youresources whether that be vetted
service providers, whether thatbe access to technology or data
(22:14):
to actually go validate youridea so you don't have what's a
false start, meaning you're kindof going in the wrong direction
.
Incredibly helpful.
It was a several-week bootcamp.
It was entirely free to us.
We didn't know anything aboutventure capital at the time.
It covered everything fromvalidating your product with its
user base, identifying theright user base, understanding
(22:34):
your ideal customer profile andthen essentially a crash course
in what it meant to raiseinstitutional funding through
venture, which is critical.
When you step into the spaceyou don't know anything about
how to raise capital, and if youdo, that's great, that's a leg
up, but most first-time foundersdon't, and so that bootcamp
covered essentially validatingyour product, creating the next
(22:55):
iteration of the vision of it.
But then how do you bring thatinto the market to raise capital
, to go make that vision areality?
It's absolutely outstanding.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
What surprised you about the fundraising process or
any unique challenges that youran into.
It's a good question.
Speaker 1 (23:09):
Every stage has been different, so we've raised a
seed series A and series B.
None of those have been similarin any way, shape or form.
It's always always verydifferent.
The thing that I thinksurprised me and I know
everybody says this is just howmany no's you actually get and
how quickly you get them.
But that's actually a goodthing.
(23:29):
You should be, I mean, hungryfor as many no's as possible,
because that allows you to focusin on the right funds.
It surprised me how many venturefunds were out there too.
You hear about the large ones,but there are so many countless
that are focused, oftentimesspecifically on what your niche
is focused on, and that's areally good thing.
So you know you love hearingabout, you know, the big funds,
(23:53):
but there's so many out therethat are just as much quality,
if not more, that are a betterfit for you overall and that's
not something I realized goinginto it is that every fundraise,
every industry, every capitalneed that you have, there are
likely several funds that arebetter fit and tailor fit for
what you're trying to do, andthose are the people you really
want to get in front of.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
And so for the no's that you get and I know that you
know that's it's not specificto ready Every single founder
could say you know you're goingto get 99 no's for every hundred
.
Yes, I'm just curious Is ittypically something like you
know we're not quite at theright stage, it's something
outside of our expertise, orwhat are some of the reasons
that you run into no's duringthe fundraising process?
Speaker 1 (24:37):
process.
Yeah Well, if you don't ask fora lot of detail and follow-up
as to why you're going to getsome pretty generic well, you're
too early for us, or we're tooearly for you, or it's not
really within the thesis thatthe fund is built around.
So always ask for more feedback, because a blanket no is great,
a quick line in an email,thanks.
Could you please give me somefeedback as to maybe what would
have changed your mind If theyrespond and they say yeah, it's
(24:59):
just not a fit from what we'relooking to invest in.
From a thesis standpoint, great, that's no problem, that's
nothing on you.
If it was something about yourpitch, great, you just got a
little bit better.
Both of those are a win.
You're either more efficient oryou're optimizing your process.
So very good from thatperspective.
But the reasons oftentimes comedown to that thesis fit, so it's
(25:19):
.
Does the fund really want tofocus on what you're focusing on
?
And you have some options whenthat happens.
Sometimes they'll let you knowand you can try and tailor your
pitch to maybe fit them a littlebit more.
But I'd recommend against thatyou want to be as true as
possible to your product.
If you really feel like and areshowing that you have traction
and that you have good marketfit, then there are funds out
there that are going to want toinvest in that.
(25:40):
But you shouldn't take a nopersonally if it's just because
it doesn't fit what that fundinvests in.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
Absolutely Well, and if it's a yes from someone, then
that means you're going to bein business with them for the
next eight to 10 years.
So there needs to be alignmentright.
Speaker 1 (25:54):
Yeah, actually, who led our seed round mutual
capital partners out ofCleveland Ohio.
They explained to us this islike a marriage, so it is a for
better or for worse arrangement.
And for better or for worsedoesn't mean at each fundraise
or at each inflection point ofthe business.
It's all the time.
There are ups and downs in anycompany.
They're just a little bit morefront and center and everybody
(26:14):
feels them in a youngorganization.
So you want just as much as youwant capital, which is very
important, and you need that torun a business.
You want good people around thetable that are going to support
you in more ways than justcutting a check.
Speaker 2 (26:27):
Absolutely Well.
That's why the platformcomponent of venture has become
so important is that it's notjust about giving a check, it's
also about supporting in all theways and it's just mutual
benefit right, Because you dobetter and then it helps their
investment.
Um, for you as the CEO, how doyou continue to maintain good
relationships with investorsthrough up and down times?
Speaker 1 (26:48):
Yeah, well, I think it's just um, I think it's
delivering bad news in shortorder.
You want to do it quick and soI think there's this.
There's this stigma, especiallyoutside of venture, where you
think of the boardroom and it'sthese guys on a high rise in
suits and ties that are justgrilling the CEO on all sorts of
stuff, and it's not really likethat.
(27:10):
When you're talking aboutventure, everybody knows these
are high risk investments andthey're backing you as a team
more than anything, as well asyour product.
But they're really askingthemselves, especially in early
stage, is this the right team togo execute on this good idea?
And that means they're there tosupport you.
They want you to win just asmuch as you want to win.
(27:31):
So it's important that youdeliver your bad news even
quicker than your good news,because one, that's going to
foster trust and a goodrelationship.
Two, it's going to giveopportunities for your venture
partners to help you, andrelationships become incredibly
strong when someone's helpingyou, or you're helping someone,
or you're being transparent.
So when you create thattransparency, it creates
(27:52):
opportunities for your venturepartners to step in and give you
some measure of assistance.
And it's those times wheresomeone's helping you where
you're, in this war room,together trying to solve this
problem, that relationships getreally strong and they can
certainly certainly withstandany sort of up and down.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
I 100% agree.
It's funny you said that aboutthe idea of the board being the
suits and ties up in somebuilding.
Personally, I blame the 2004Spider-Man movie when they pick
Norman Osborn out of his company.
That's pretty nuts.
I think that's where all theones from our generation come
from.
Speaker 1 (28:24):
Yeah, you know I'd be lying if I haven't had
nightmares like that, probablyfrom that movie.
So that's funny, you bring thatup.
Speaker 2 (28:32):
And yeah, I think you're right when it.
You know, when it comes tobuilding the relationships with
the failure, it's early stageventure.
They know that a lot of thecompanies are not going to work
out and it's the nature of thebusiness.
But then it just becomes anissue of integrity and working
to fix it.
And I know another huge thingis communication, giving regular
updates to investors.
(28:52):
And I'm just curious what sortof updates do you give?
What typically are they looking?
Speaker 1 (28:58):
Well, I mean, financials are very important.
That's how they report out totheir investors, their LPs, as
to the performance of theirfunds overall.
But I think it's reallyimportant to let your venture
partners in on strategy as well.
So you have to keep in mindright, when you're at your
company, you're solely focusedon it, and that's important.
(29:20):
So your investors they're nevergoing to understand your
business as much as you will.
There's just no chance of thathappening.
However, they are going tounderstand a broader swath of
businesses better than you will,because you're focused on your
singular lane.
You're going a thousand feetdeep.
They're going 10 feet deep in10 different companies and a
hundred different companies.
(29:40):
So that means they have theperspective of problems that are
seen broadly across anorganization.
You may think that the problemyou're experiencing is exclusive
to you and if it is good luck,that's a tough one to solve.
But if it's not, that meanssomeone else has gone through it
and probably solved it.
The best person to identifythat are those sitting on your
board that have invested in you.
So letting them in on thestrategy is really important.
(30:02):
The way that we do that is inour board meetings we cover all
of the information that is veryimportant and repeatable.
So that's finances, that'supdates to products, that's user
engagement, and we make surethat we get that out of the way
ahead of time.
It's very important that wejust get it out of the way ahead
of time and then reserve theback half of our meetings to go
over strategic topics.
We're specifically bringing inideas, thoughts, changes to our
(30:25):
strategy so our board can A knowabout it and B help us out with
it.
They're all very smart people.
They see how differentcompanies approach these very
same issues and if there issomething that you're
experiencing that is exclusiveto you, they're the ones who can
tell you that, and then youknow you need to get creative.
Maybe shouldn't be lookingelsewhere to have it solved.
Speaker 2 (30:43):
Super helpful.
What has surprised you the mostabout being a first-time
founder, whether it be on thefundraising side, the product
side, the sales side?
Speaker 1 (30:51):
Yeah Well, this is more of an attitude element.
Maybe this is exclusive to me,but there's no such thing as a
purely good day, but there issuch thing as a purely bad day.
That's okay though I'm notsaying that's a bad thing and
one of the things that I thoughtwould be easier when starting
an organization was to be ableto celebrate a lot of the wins,
(31:15):
but wins have become calls toaction for me and they've become
calls to action for thefounders as well.
Again, I'm not saying any ofthis in a negative light.
It's just when you are tryingto change an industry, when you
are trying to have a positiveimpact on people, regardless of
what you're doing, it becomes acall to action every time that
you succeed, and that feels verydifferent than what I thought
(31:37):
it would initially.
You, of course, want tocelebrate those things, but it
gives you the grit and thehunger to go further, and that
was very surprising to me and Ilove it.
I think it's great, butcertainly when good things
happen and when bad thingshappen, you're just going to
feel them more.
Everybody says that, but inreality it's pretty extreme, but
it's also very motivating.
Speaker 2 (32:00):
I think that's a fantastic way to think about
things.
Well, Luke, thank you so muchfor coming on.
This has been a super goodconversation and I really
appreciate your time.
Speaker 1 (32:06):
Yeah, you bet this was a blast.
Speaker 3 (32:08):
Thanks, Thanks for listening to See to Exit.
If you enjoyed the episode,don't forget to subscribe and
we'll see you next time.
But the initial idea for Ready was it didn't have
distribution.
What it was is just a product,and the idea was if you build it
, they will come.
If you build a really goodproduct, then people are just
gonna somehow figure out aboutit and they're gonna adopt it.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Hey everyone, thanks for listening to Seed to Exit,
and today I'm joined by LukeBuchanan, co-founder and CEO of
Ready Health.
Ready Health is a platformrevolutionizing how patients
manage chronic conditions andaccess life-changing
pharmaceutical products.
In this episode, we're going totalk a little bit more about
Luke's journey from identifyinggaps in healthcare to building a
startup in one of the mosthighly regulated industries out
(00:34):
there.
We'll talk a little bit moreabout he and his co-founder
brought Ready Health to life,some of the lessons that they
learned from navigatingcompliance and venture capital,
and why Luke thinks that hiringfor grit and empathy is one of
the key to their successes.
So, whether you're a founder oryou're just curious about
healthcare and innovation, Ithink that you will really enjoy
this episode, so let's dive in.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
You're listening to the Seed to Exit podcast with
your host, rhys Keck.
Here you'll learn from startupexecutives, founders, investors
and industry experts.
You'll learn from the bestabout building amazing products,
scaling companies, raisingcapital, hiring the right people
and more.
Subscribe and listen in for newepisodes and enjoy the show.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Luke, welcome onto the show.
Glad to have you.
Thanks, rhys, good to be here,cool.
So I'm excited to chat with youtoday.
You've had some really coolprogress over the last couple of
years with Ready Health andwant to dive into that, learn a
little bit more about how thecompany came to be, the progress
you've had and what things looklike for you going forward.
So I'm just curious, given theprevious experience you'd had
(01:44):
prior to founding Ready you're afirst-time founder what led you
to start the company and whatwas the inspiration behind it?
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Yeah, so origin story is something that I always like
to touch on, and Ready has fourfounders actually, which is
also a little bit atypical, butall of us are first-time
founders.
All of us come from priorstartups, though, and we were
early enough to kind of go onsome of the ride of going from
early stage into later stage andeven into acquisition.
(02:13):
So I personally came from acompany called Cover my Meds,
which is a health tech startupin Columbus Ohio that's where
Ready is located as well andreally cut my teeth in the
industry and in high growthventure backed startup, and I
mean, it's as simple as you kindof get a taste for it when you
see it, and I knew that when Iwas there, I wanted to leave and
(02:33):
do something on my own, but Ididn't just want to do that, I
wanted to solve a real problem,and luckily, in health care,
there's no shortage of problemsthat you can go out and solve,
and so, throughout my time thereand just getting a lot of
exposure to the industry, beingaround folks who were in
different areas of the industry,it became really clear that
patients didn't really have asmuch stock put in them as they
(02:56):
should in relation to takingcontrol of their own health, and
I wanted to rethink that and so, putting pen to paper on a
couple of different ideas andkind of how we do that, we sort
of saw that there was a nichethat was not yet layered in with
software, it was not yetenabled by technology that's
known as patient supportprograms offered by
pharmaceutical manufacturers,and nobody was solving this
(03:18):
problem.
Nobody was just injectingsoftware in the way it had been
done in other industries.
We saw the opportunity to dothat and then, in 2021, we went
out to do that.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
So when you say we with your three other
co-founders, I'm just curioushow did you two meet Friends,
Coworkers?
Speaker 1 (03:35):
Yeah, you four rather .
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Jamin and I Jamin Gandhi, who'sour CTO co-founder and CTO we
had met just through theecosystem in Columbus for
startups.
So it's a thriving ecosystemhere in which, particularly in
health technology and healthcarein general, there is a lot of
interest in companies innovatingin that space.
(03:57):
So we just met through some ofthe local events that had taken
place.
It became very clear that weboth had an interest in not only
entrepreneurship but also insolving healthcare problems in
particular.
So I can actually remember itspecifically when the idea of
Ready was very, very young, Ihad kind of recited it to Jamin
(04:17):
while we were just kind ofhaving blanket conversation over
a drink and several weeks laterhe came back, having iterated
on it and had just kind of blownit out to be much better.
That's atypical in such a nichespace like pharma, patient
support services right, orpatient engagement and I was
immediately like this isprobably one of the smartest
guys that I know, so I need todo this with him.
(04:39):
And then Nate Rehm, our chiefrevenue officer, kyle Grimsland,
our chief strategy officer Iworked with them at Cover my
Meds and after leaving to startReady, they had a lot of
interest as well in coming alongto do what we wanted to do,
which was serve patients.
So it was a no-brainer, and soall of us were the first four at
(04:59):
the company.
We founded it and have grown itever since.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
So when we talk about the problem that you're solving
, I know you said you knowdigital patient support, but
what does that mean in practiceand what specifically is the
problem that's being solved?
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Yeah.
So if you are written a highcost prescription today from
your healthcare providerhopefully you're not, but you
know over 90 million Americansare today.
When I say high cost, I mean500 to $8,000 a month or even
more.
Those types of productsgenerally there's only one for
the disease state or thetherapeutic area and they're so
(05:32):
high cost.
Obviously the hurdles to get ona product like that, regardless
of whether you have commercialinsurance or whether you're on
Medicare or Medicaid, thehurdles are different.
They're bigger.
There's more that needs to bedone in order to get on a
product like that and even ifyour insurance decides they're
going to cover it, you are stillprobably responsible for a very
large amount of dollars, justas a percentage of something
that costs that much.
(05:53):
So the manufacturers of thosemedications they stand up PSP
patient support programs.
It's very niche, they can'treally advertise it broadly.
They need several layers ofconsent to even reach out to you
to tell you about it.
So patients don't know about itbut almost everybody's eligible
for it and it's these reallyrobust centers of support that
help patients start and stay onthe high-cost therapy totally
(06:15):
free to them, and our goal isjust to get as many patients
exposed to that, enrolled in itand taking advantage of it in a
convenient way long-term.
So the problem is this greatsupport exists, but only 20% of
eligible patients ever reallyhave an opportunity to get it.
So we just want to take that 20and get it as high as possible.
We also want to make thelong-term engagement more
(06:36):
convenient for patients, and theway that we do that is with the
Ready platform.
So it's text, email, web app,omni-channel in which a patient
can engage with Ready.
But essentially you're writtena prescription and we then get
Ready in your hands and you thenhave the opportunity to engage
with the support because we'rebringing it to you proactively,
whereas previously thehealthcare provider would have
to kick off this arduous,antiquated process of getting
(06:59):
you enrolled.
Ready just allows the patientto do it themselves.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
So who are you selling into then?
Are you selling to the provider, who then provides it to the
patient?
Does it go through employers?
Speaker 1 (07:07):
Yeah, we actually sell to the pharmaceutical
manufacturers and we partnerwith various stakeholders in the
healthcare space so pharmacies,ehrs, foundation, groups that
support patients in certaintherapeutic areas to be able to
identify patients that reallycould use the support and get it
into their hands.
So our number one goal is thatwe do not actually create any
(07:29):
sort of new process for thehealthcare provider.
In fact, we want to eliminatethem having to do this
altogether, or at least make itmuch easier for them by
identifying the patient, goingdirectly to them and allowing
the pharmaceutical manufacturer,for the first time ever,
compliantly get in touch withthe patient in a more direct way
.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
That makes sense.
So so Jamin came back a fewweeks later with some sort of
MVP or you know some, somestarting point.
How did you go from thatstarting point to where you're
at today?
Speaker 1 (07:56):
Man, the, the climb from MVP to established product.
You know any founder out therethat's listening to this will
probably feel my pain here.
It always feels like you're anMVP, right, you never really get
out of that.
Of course you feel like, hey,the product progresses
dramatically and when you lookback three, four years ago
you're like, wow, things havecome a long way.
(08:17):
But the initial idea for Readywas it didn't have distribution.
What it was is just a productand the idea was if you build it
, they will come.
If you build a really goodproduct, then people are just
going to somehow figure outabout it and they're going to
adopt it.
That really doesn't happen.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
I was going to say did that work?
Speaker 1 (08:34):
It did not work.
No, it doesn't happen inpractice that way, especially in
healthcare, because, again, thesame issue we were trying to
solve people don't know thesupport exists.
It's because the ability toreach out to patients, the
ability to reach out to anyclinical entity, is just
difficult.
It's not a streamlined processlike other industries that have
had a lot of technology alreadyinjected into their workflows.
(08:57):
So the original MVP, the ideaof serving patients in a whole
health way and then deliveringsupport through the vehicle of
their whole health, that is thesame.
That has not changed from dayone at Ready.
But the way in which weidentify patients and we get our
product into their hands has.
So the distribution in whichwe're able toric really allowing
a patient to manage theirhealth as well as engage with
(09:19):
the support in a simultaneousand convenient way.
But the distribution of whenthe patient learns about ready
has changed and our goal,virtually, is that at any point
in the prescription journey, sothe provider writes the
prescription, every single stepin that process ready is there
(09:41):
to proactively reach out to thepatient when a problem occurs.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
Process ready is there to proactively reach out
to the patient when a problemoccurs, Got it.
So how did you go about hiringyour initial team then?
It's always something I'minterested to talk to founders
about, because it becomes alittle bit easier once you've
gained some critical mass andpeople know who you are.
You have some employer brand.
But what did you do to buildthat first 10, 15 hires?
Speaker 1 (10:02):
Yeah.
So I think we're lucky inColumbus which, like I said, has
a real thriving health techscene as it relates to younger
companies.
So in those early days when we,you know, left our
organizations, luckily all of ushad put a lot of effort into
building really broad networks.
So the advice I always try togive to people when they're
thinking about starting acompany is hey, you've already
(10:23):
started it today.
If it's in your head, you'vestarted it today.
Start building therelationships with people that
you think might at least want tohelp you.
It's amazing how often peoplehelp when you just ask who at
least want to help you.
Later on, because you've built areally robust network so early
on, we had a lot of inboundinterest from people we'd worked
with in the past.
Our initial need was primarilyengineering.
(10:44):
Obviously, you're getting atech company off the ground.
You need a lot of engineers inorder to do that if you want
them in-house, and that'ssomething that was important to
us, and so we had a lot ofinbound interest.
So our first three, four hireswere engineers, and then we
started expanding our sales team.
Then we started expanding ourcommercialization team and data
teams, and that all just camefrom establishing a name in the
space.
(11:04):
So probably up through our first15, I think you asked about
that was primarily built offjust very robust network of
individuals who we had workedwith in the past and built very
strong relationships with, and Ithink that's really key for any
young organization is that youleverage people that you can
trust.
There's all sorts of stuff onpaper that's very important when
(11:25):
you're hiring for a role andyou shouldn't overlook that.
But already having theestablished trust that this
person has the grit, that theycan stomach the type of volatile
environment of a young company,that they're creative, knowing
all of that is just going tostreamline your process to
levels that someone who's netnew might not be able to
integrate as easily.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
Yep Absolutely agreed .
So you hired engineering first,which makes sense, and then
started building the sales team.
How did you get the initialgo-to-market motion off the
ground?
Speaker 1 (11:56):
Yeah, so go-to-market is really interesting, right?
I told you that the first ideawas, if you build it, they will
come and it's a chicken or theegg when it comes to anything
that's B2B or B2B2C.
It's do you go out andestablish a foundation of users
that are applicable to whoyou're trying to sell to, or do
you go sell to some entity thatcan help you get in front of
(12:18):
those users?
And we chose to go directly tothe pharma organizations first
to then really have them andtheir channels enable our
product into the hands of theirpatient.
And that worked and I think itwas really impactful.
So pharma still has access toabout 20% of their patients.
The engagement with theirsupport can still be much better
.
(12:38):
So early on, the go-to-marketwas primarily around just
getting a more convenientprocess into the hands of the
patients that pharma was alreadysupporting.
So that again shifted when westarted building our own
networks of patients in which wecould identify patients and
serve the patients that pharmaalready had access to.
And the go-to-market shiftedfrom let's serve and make a more
(13:01):
convenient process for whatalready exists.
Let's actually create a net newenvironment for patients that
have never had access to thesupport before.
So the go-to-market maturedfrom focusing on a process that
was ineffective or inconvenientto not only making it convenient
but distributing it widely.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
How did you vet and I know hiring is largely from
your network but how did you vetand make that initial founding
sales hire, Because that'softentimes one of the most
critical hires you can make?
Speaker 1 (13:32):
Yeah, definitely.
You know, a good or badsalesperson can make or break
your young organization.
So Nate Rehm, our co-founderand chief revenue officer, that
was his wheelhouse, so he was insales and very, very successful
at it.
So I don't know if I'mqualified to really talk about
the first sales hire, because Iwas lucky enough to have a
absolutely phenomenal co-founderthat was able to take care of
(13:53):
that.
What I will say is building thestructure around your sales
process.
One of the things that we took alot of care of is right, nate
comes in, he can sell, he can dothat.
But when you're in a technicalsale you need data right, and
when you're in healthcare youneed some clinical support as
well too.
So luckily, my background wasin data.
So we made that a veryimportant part of the sales
(14:13):
process and we made structure asto when does Luke step in in
the sales process to assist?
And then Kyle Grims at ourchief strategy officer,
pharmacist by trade, same thingon the clinical side.
So your first hire reallyimportant on the sales side, but
it's also very important tojust chart out your sales
process so you can understandwhen support needs to be
(14:33):
insulated around thatsalesperson.
They can't do it alone.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
Absolutely.
I mean, selling is a team sport.
So sales process, what did thatlook like from and were you
doing largely?
You know, like you said, youbuilt it and they did not come
immediately.
So were you doing outbound?
Were you doing trade shows,events what did that look like?
Speaker 1 (14:53):
Yeah, outbound, so almost exclusively outbound.
And since then, right inboundinterest has become more
pervasive.
And that's just as you grow yourbrand in the space, as you have
successful programs, as you areable to showcase successful
programs at things like tradeshows Early on, though, it's
just out of the pavement, it iscold, calls out, it is
(15:13):
leveraging your network as muchas you possibly can and it's
being comfortable with a lot ofno's.
And something that I always kindof talk about is when you're
very, very new, you have totarget the buyers that not only
maybe have bought from you inthe past or that you trust, but
you have to target the buyersthat really want to innovate,
and that's maybe 10% of anindustry altogether.
(15:35):
And then you have another 20%that's never going to buy an
innovative product because theyjust want to play a very
conservative status quo.
That's okay If you can identifythem, throw them to the side
and you'll move much quicker.
But then you have that middlepercent, that middle 70% that
really doesn't know whether theywant this new product or not.
That first 10% is critical foryou to get your first programs
(15:57):
and that's where you build thecase studies and the data to go
after that middle percentage toconvince them to come along on
this ride of the new kind ofdisrupted status quo that you're
creating.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
Love that approach.
So, when it comes to pricing,you mentioned in the past that
you priced your product at fullvalue from the start, which is,
I think, a fairly unusualapproach, because so many people
, like you said, they want toget to the discount, to get that
sale, to then build that casestudy or that testimonial or
what have you.
What gave you the confidence toavoid pilot pricing?
Speaker 1 (16:30):
Well, for one, I think it's important to ask your
customer what does pilot meanto you?
And if it does mean discountedpricing, if it means
substantially discounted pricingand that's okay for your stage
then I think you should do that.
For us in pharma, pilot means avariety of different things,
and so it's really weighing whatyou're willing to do.
(16:51):
And so when we say full programlike the way in which you
create impact, the way in whichthat you can show that something
is working is you have to rollit out broadly, at least to some
scale.
And that's really thecornerstone of what we took in
that argument is, if you rollthis out across a very small
number of patients, or you don'treally build it out in the way
(17:13):
that you're supposed to, thenwe're just telling you right now
it's probably not going to showthe value that we're saying
that it will or that you hopethat it will have.
You have to give it the scaleand the maturity in order to do
that.
So the things that we werewilling to do is just create
full programs that were a littlebit more creative, as it
related to the comfortability ofthis thing being more long-term
(17:33):
or short-term.
Maybe you want three-yearcontracts and you're willing to
go down to one year or even sixmonths.
Those year contracts and you'rewilling to go down to one year
or even six months, those aregreat levers to pull that aren't
really pilots.
They allow you to still rollout broadly at scale, get the
data that you need, hold thepricing that you need, but it
still gives your customers somecomfortability that they're not
going to be locked into a baddecision and how did customers
(17:53):
react to that?
They reacted very positively toit.
Right, and that's why I say wedidn't really do pilots.
We didn't need to do pilotsbecause we had the confidence
and the backing and, frankly, ifyou're in sort of a B2B2C
market, patients are the usersof our platform.
We had enough data on the usageof our platform outside of, as
it related to the strictrelationship with our pharma
manufacturers, that we couldstand our ground and say hey,
(18:17):
we're showing that this doesactually have an impact.
So a pilot, as it relates to a75% price cut, all that's going
to do is make it harder for usto reinvest and serve your
patients in the best way that wecan.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
How do you balance the needs Because, as you
mentioned, it's a B2B2C product?
How do you manage the feedbackfrom the users, who aren't
necessarily the paying customers, versus the feedback from the
pharmaceutical companies, whoare your paying users, and what
do you do if those two thingsare at odds?
Speaker 1 (18:43):
It's a great question and I'm of the belief that what
is good for the patient shouldnever be distant from what is
good for the customer.
It oftentimes you'll think like,well, okay, if those two things
are separate, who do you gowith?
But if they're separate, thatmeans somebody's thinking about
this in the wrong way andoftentimes the patient here is
not making some sort of businessdecision, they're just trying
(19:04):
to get healthier.
So when we think about that asthe North Star, the patient is
the North Star of ready.
If a manufacturer partner wantsto do something that is
counterintuitive or it isfriction full for the patient,
then it's on us as ready, theexperts in patient engagement,
to go reframe the mindset of whythat is actually not a good
idea.
So anytime that happens, ifthere's feedback from a user
(19:27):
that says this instance isn'twhat we want, what you've built
with the pharma manufacturerisn't serving me in the way that
I need to, that's absolute goldand that allows the
manufacturer then to optimizethe program, to get even more
out of it, to serve patients ina better way, to create a better
ROI, which is very importantand what we're after at the end
of the day.
So it's on us to frame that ina way that aligns the
(19:51):
stakeholders of the patient andthe pharma manufacturer and we
take it really seriously.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
I love that.
So you know, without namingnames or any specifics has that
happened in the past and what'swhat?
Anything you want to go intomore detail on.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
Luckily never in a big way.
So pharma generally knows thatthey're going to do what's best
for the patients on theirmedications.
That's important to them.
The whole goal here is thatpatients have good outcomes.
If a patient on theirmedication doesn't have a good
outcome, that's not good foranybody.
So they generally are prettyaligned to that.
(20:26):
Where it starts to play in sortof a counterintuitive way or
where those things come head tohead is if you start receiving
feedback that was reallycontradictory to what somebody
one stakeholder at your partneror at your customer really
wanted to be a part of theprogram.
If they had a really good ideathat they're really glued to and
you're getting feedback thatmaybe that wasn't the best idea,
then you have to deal with sortof the personal attitudes of
(20:47):
reframing that.
But again, everybody's prettypatient-centric.
Pharmaceutical manufacturersget a very bad rap sometimes and
I dislike that, especially inpatient support services,
patient support programs.
I mean these are robustprograms, free to patients, that
are solely focused on gettingpatients better, that are on the
medication.
So we're pretty aligned.
We don't see that misalignmentvery often but when we do again
(21:10):
we go about taking care onexplaining why it's very
important that we do serve thepatient in the best way, love
that To switch gears a littlebit.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
So earlier in the company's history you went
through a customer validationboot camp and I know that you
that had to do also with, youknow, raising capital.
What was that validation bootcamp like?
What were the exercises?
Speaker 1 (21:31):
What were the outcomes Economic Development
Fund here in Columbus, which Ising the praises of all the time
.
I think it's important that youhave someone on your cap table.
If you're raising institutionalfunding, if you're putting
together a venture syndicate,you have someone on your cap
table that is somehow related tooverall development of
(21:51):
entrepreneurship in the space.
So Rev One stood up theseresources for those that were
interested in startingorganizations or had just
started organizations, wherethey were there for you, whether
whether or not Rev1 invested inyou, and we took advantage of
that, and the idea was thatwe're going to help you create a
framework and give youresources whether that be vetted
service providers, whether thatbe access to technology or data
(22:14):
to actually go validate youridea so you don't have what's a
false start, meaning you're kindof going in the wrong direction
.
Incredibly helpful.
It was a several-week bootcamp.
It was entirely free to us.
We didn't know anything aboutventure capital at the time.
It covered everything fromvalidating your product with its
user base, identifying theright user base, understanding
(22:34):
your ideal customer profile andthen essentially a crash course
in what it meant to raiseinstitutional funding through
venture, which is critical.
When you step into the spaceyou don't know anything about
how to raise capital, and if youdo, that's great, that's a leg
up, but most first-time foundersdon't, and so that bootcamp
covered essentially validatingyour product, creating the next
(22:55):
iteration of the vision of it.
But then how do you bring thatinto the market to raise capital
, to go make that vision areality?
It's absolutely outstanding.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
What surprised you about the fundraising process or
any unique challenges that youran into.
It's a good question.
Speaker 1 (23:09):
Every stage has been different, so we've raised a
seed series A and series B.
None of those have been similarin any way, shape or form.
It's always always verydifferent.
The thing that I thinksurprised me and I know
everybody says this is just howmany no's you actually get and
how quickly you get them.
But that's actually a goodthing.
(23:29):
You should be, I mean, hungryfor as many no's as possible,
because that allows you to focusin on the right funds.
It surprised me how many venturefunds were out there too.
You hear about the large ones,but there are so many countless
that are focused, oftentimesspecifically on what your niche
is focused on, and that's areally good thing.
So you know you love hearingabout, you know, the big funds,
(23:53):
but there's so many out therethat are just as much quality,
if not more, that are a betterfit for you overall and that's
not something I realized goinginto it is that every fundraise,
every industry, every capitalneed that you have, there are
likely several funds that arebetter fit and tailor fit for
what you're trying to do, andthose are the people you really
want to get in front of.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
And so for the no's that you get and I know that you
know that's it's not specificto ready Every single founder
could say you know you're goingto get 99 no's for every hundred
.
Yes, I'm just curious Is ittypically something like you
know we're not quite at theright stage, it's something
outside of our expertise, orwhat are some of the reasons
that you run into no's duringthe fundraising process?
Speaker 1 (24:37):
process.
Yeah Well, if you don't ask fora lot of detail and follow-up
as to why you're going to getsome pretty generic well, you're
too early for us, or we're tooearly for you, or it's not
really within the thesis thatthe fund is built around.
So always ask for more feedback, because a blanket no is great,
a quick line in an email,thanks.
Could you please give me somefeedback as to maybe what would
have changed your mind If theyrespond and they say yeah, it's
(24:59):
just not a fit from what we'relooking to invest in.
From a thesis standpoint, great, that's no problem, that's
nothing on you.
If it was something about yourpitch, great, you just got a
little bit better.
Both of those are a win.
You're either more efficient oryou're optimizing your process.
So very good from thatperspective.
But the reasons oftentimes comedown to that thesis fit, so it's
(25:19):
.
Does the fund really want tofocus on what you're focusing on
?
And you have some options whenthat happens.
Sometimes they'll let you knowand you can try and tailor your
pitch to maybe fit them a littlebit more.
But I'd recommend against thatyou want to be as true as
possible to your product.
If you really feel like and areshowing that you have traction
and that you have good marketfit, then there are funds out
there that are going to want toinvest in that.
(25:40):
But you shouldn't take a nopersonally if it's just because
it doesn't fit what that fundinvests in.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
Absolutely Well, and if it's a yes from someone, then
that means you're going to bein business with them for the
next eight to 10 years.
So there needs to be alignmentright.
Speaker 1 (25:54):
Yeah, actually, who led our seed round mutual
capital partners out ofCleveland Ohio.
They explained to us this islike a marriage, so it is a for
better or for worse arrangement.
And for better or for worsedoesn't mean at each fundraise
or at each inflection point ofthe business.
It's all the time.
There are ups and downs in anycompany.
They're just a little bit morefront and center and everybody
(26:14):
feels them in a youngorganization.
So you want just as much as youwant capital, which is very
important, and you need that torun a business.
You want good people around thetable that are going to support
you in more ways than justcutting a check.
Speaker 2 (26:27):
Absolutely Well.
That's why the platformcomponent of venture has become
so important is that it's notjust about giving a check, it's
also about supporting in all theways and it's just mutual
benefit right, Because you dobetter and then it helps their
investment.
Um, for you as the CEO, how doyou continue to maintain good
relationships with investorsthrough up and down times?
Speaker 1 (26:48):
Yeah, well, I think it's just um, I think it's
delivering bad news in shortorder.
You want to do it quick and soI think there's this.
There's this stigma, especiallyoutside of venture, where you
think of the boardroom and it'sthese guys on a high rise in
suits and ties that are justgrilling the CEO on all sorts of
stuff, and it's not really likethat.
(27:10):
When you're talking aboutventure, everybody knows these
are high risk investments andthey're backing you as a team
more than anything, as well asyour product.
But they're really askingthemselves, especially in early
stage, is this the right team togo execute on this good idea?
And that means they're there tosupport you.
They want you to win just asmuch as you want to win.
(27:31):
So it's important that youdeliver your bad news even
quicker than your good news,because one, that's going to
foster trust and a goodrelationship.
Two, it's going to giveopportunities for your venture
partners to help you, andrelationships become incredibly
strong when someone's helpingyou, or you're helping someone,
or you're being transparent.
So when you create thattransparency, it creates
(27:52):
opportunities for your venturepartners to step in and give you
some measure of assistance.
And it's those times wheresomeone's helping you where
you're, in this war room,together trying to solve this
problem, that relationships getreally strong and they can
certainly certainly withstandany sort of up and down.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
I 100% agree.
It's funny you said that aboutthe idea of the board being the
suits and ties up in somebuilding.
Personally, I blame the 2004Spider-Man movie when they pick
Norman Osborn out of his company.
That's pretty nuts.
I think that's where all theones from our generation come
from.
Speaker 1 (28:24):
Yeah, you know I'd be lying if I haven't had
nightmares like that, probablyfrom that movie.
So that's funny, you bring thatup.
Speaker 2 (28:32):
And yeah, I think you're right when it.
You know, when it comes tobuilding the relationships with
the failure, it's early stageventure.
They know that a lot of thecompanies are not going to work
out and it's the nature of thebusiness.
But then it just becomes anissue of integrity and working
to fix it.
And I know another huge thingis communication, giving regular
updates to investors.
(28:52):
And I'm just curious what sortof updates do you give?
What typically are they looking?
Speaker 1 (28:58):
Well, I mean, financials are very important.
That's how they report out totheir investors, their LPs, as
to the performance of theirfunds overall.
But I think it's reallyimportant to let your venture
partners in on strategy as well.
So you have to keep in mindright, when you're at your
company, you're solely focusedon it, and that's important.
(29:20):
So your investors they're nevergoing to understand your
business as much as you will.
There's just no chance of thathappening.
However, they are going tounderstand a broader swath of
businesses better than you will,because you're focused on your
singular lane.
You're going a thousand feetdeep.
They're going 10 feet deep in10 different companies and a
hundred different companies.
(29:40):
So that means they have theperspective of problems that are
seen broadly across anorganization.
You may think that the problemyou're experiencing is exclusive
to you and if it is good luck,that's a tough one to solve.
But if it's not, that meanssomeone else has gone through it
and probably solved it.
The best person to identifythat are those sitting on your
board that have invested in you.
So letting them in on thestrategy is really important.
(30:02):
The way that we do that is inour board meetings we cover all
of the information that is veryimportant and repeatable.
So that's finances, that'supdates to products, that's user
engagement, and we make surethat we get that out of the way
ahead of time.
It's very important that wejust get it out of the way ahead
of time and then reserve theback half of our meetings to go
over strategic topics.
We're specifically bringing inideas, thoughts, changes to our
(30:25):
strategy so our board can A knowabout it and B help us out with
it.
They're all very smart people.
They see how differentcompanies approach these very
same issues and if there issomething that you're
experiencing that is exclusiveto you, they're the ones who can
tell you that, and then youknow you need to get creative.
Maybe shouldn't be lookingelsewhere to have it solved.
Speaker 2 (30:43):
Super helpful.
What has surprised you the mostabout being a first-time
founder, whether it be on thefundraising side, the product
side, the sales side?
Speaker 1 (30:51):
Yeah Well, this is more of an attitude element.
Maybe this is exclusive to me,but there's no such thing as a
purely good day, but there issuch thing as a purely bad day.
That's okay though I'm notsaying that's a bad thing and
one of the things that I thoughtwould be easier when starting
an organization was to be ableto celebrate a lot of the wins,
(31:15):
but wins have become calls toaction for me and they've become
calls to action for thefounders as well.
Again, I'm not saying any ofthis in a negative light.
It's just when you are tryingto change an industry, when you
are trying to have a positiveimpact on people, regardless of
what you're doing, it becomes acall to action every time that
you succeed, and that feels verydifferent than what I thought
(31:37):
it would initially.
You, of course, want tocelebrate those things, but it
gives you the grit and thehunger to go further, and that
was very surprising to me and Ilove it.
I think it's great, butcertainly when good things
happen and when bad thingshappen, you're just going to
feel them more.
Everybody says that, but inreality it's pretty extreme, but
it's also very motivating.
Speaker 2 (32:00):
I think that's a fantastic way to think about
things.
Well, Luke, thank you so muchfor coming on.
This has been a super goodconversation and I really
appreciate your time.
Speaker 1 (32:06):
Yeah, you bet this was a blast.
Speaker 3 (32:08):
Thanks, Thanks for listening to See to Exit.
If you enjoyed the episode,don't forget to subscribe and
we'll see you next time.
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