Explore every episode of the podcast The Irresistible Factor

The instinct that makes you a successful founder can become the thing that keeps your brand small.

Founders are wired to see opportunity.

Actually, they have to be.

They see a product that doesn't exist yet and think, Why not?

A retailer shows interest? Go.

A new channel opens up? Try it.

A new product you could make? Let's make it.

That relentless belief in possibility is often exactly what gets a brand off the ground.

But eventually, possibility becomes the problem.

I had a great conversation with Tim Leclercq, co-founder and CEO of Maïzly, a completely new kind of plant-based milk made from corn.

It took four years and more than 125 iterations just to get the product right.

Then came the opportunities.

Grocery. Coffee shops. Bakeries. Foodservice. E-commerce. New markets.

Meanwhile, Tim and his team had developed other products they could launch, including yogurt, cooking cream and eggnog.

And then there's perhaps the most compelling opportunity of all.

They developed an infant formula designed to give mothers in parts of Africa access to affordable, safe nutrition for their babies.

They parked it.

Not because it wasn't a good idea.

Not because it failed.

Because they couldn't do everything.

They had to say no to something they deeply believed in.

I asked Tim how he decides what not to pursue when there are opportunities everywhere and dollars are limited.

His answer:

“That’s probably the thing I’ve battled with the most.”

Of course it is.

Because that's one of the great tensions of entrepreneurship:

Starting rewards possibility.
Scaling rewards restraint.

At some point, the question has to change from:

“Could this work?”

to:

“Is this what matters most right now?”

There will always be another retailer. Another channel. Another product. Another partnership. Another really good idea.

The hard part isn't finding opportunities.

It's having the conviction to leave good ones on the table.

Sometimes the most ambitious thing you can say is:

Great idea. Not yet.

One sentence from my conversation with Morgan McLachlan has been stuck in my head:

"We're outsourcing our wisdom."

It's easy to hear that as an argument against AI. It's not. It's a reminder that technology can accelerate our thinking, but it can't replace our judgment.

As founders and marketers, we're asking AI to write, research, brainstorm, analyze, summarize—even tell us what strategy to pursue. Those are all valuable uses. But somewhere along the way, many of us stopped wrestling with the hard questions ourselves.

That's where judgment is built.Morgan isn't anti-AI. Neither am I. I use it every single day.

But the brands that will win over the next decade won't be the ones using AI to make decisions.. They'll be the ones using it to make their decisions better. That distinction matters.

Because the next competitive advantage won't be content. It won't be speed. It will be judgment.

If you're building a brand, leading a team, or making decisions that shape the future of your business, I think you'll enjoy this conversation with Morgan. It challenged the way I think about AI, creativity, and what it means to build something that lasts.

Jean Thompson did not plan to run a chocolate company.

She just couldn’t let it die.

Jean was an early investor in Seattle Chocolate when an earthquake destroyed the building the company was renting.

No earthquake insurance.
Broken machinery.
A condemned building.
A business that might not survive.

So she stepped in. Not because she had a grand plan.Because she loved the brand and didn’t want to watch it disappear. That decision turned into a 23-year journey as CEO.

What started as “maybe I can help 10 or 20 hours a week” became a full reinvention of a great chocolate company.

Jean rebuilt the team.
Learned manufacturing in real time.
Figured out cash flow the hard way.
And eventually turned Seattle Chocolate into a profitable, nationally distributed brand.

But the part I loved most? She didn’t stop evolving it.

Seattle Chocolate became Maeve — a bold, colorful, woman-owned brand named after an Irish warrior queen. A risky move for a 35-year-old company. And it also turned out to be the right one.

Because sometimes a brand doesn’t need to walk away from its past. It just needs to walk toward a bigger future.

And Jean’s story is such a good reminder: You don’t always need to know exactly where you’re going at the beginning. Sometimes you just need to care enough not to walk away.

Jean is bold, direct, and refreshingly honest about what it really takes to build—and rebuild—a brand. I came away from this conversation reminded that great companies aren't built by people who never doubt themselves. They're built by people who keep going anyway.

She had the distribution.

She had the buyers.

She had the product.

And she shut it down anyway.

This week on The Irresistible Factor, I welcomed back Alison Cayne.

A few years ago, she came on the podcast to talk about building Haven's Kitchen.

This time, she came back to talk about something founders rarely discuss publicly:

How she knew it was time to walk away.

What struck me most was that this wasn't a failed business.

The brand was loved.

The products were loved.

Retailers were still asking for it.

Buyers were still calling.

But Alison saw something many founders refuse to see:

A great brand and a great product aren't enough if the business model doesn't work. 

One line from the conversation stayed with me:

"A business is a three-legged stool: product, brand, and business."

She had two of the three.

And she was honest enough to admit it.

That takes courage.

But the reason I wanted her back wasn't just to talk about what ended.

It was to talk about what comes next.

Because after shutting down Haven's Kitchen, Alison didn't disappear.

She spent time unpacking what worked, what didn't, and what she wanted her next chapter to look like.

The result is Choulie.

A fragrance-infused body oil brand built for women who are tired of being told they have a problem to solve.

What fascinated me was how intentionally she approached this next business.

A channel she controls.

Better margins.

Less operational complexity.

A customer she knows intimately because she is the customer. 

In many ways, Choulie feels like the product of everything she learned building Haven's Kitchen.

Not a pivot. An evolution.

There was another part of the conversation I couldn't stop thinking about.

Alison talked about interviewing dozens of women in midlife and realizing there was a false choice being presented:

Either fight aging with everything you've got.

Or stop caring altogether.

Her belief?

Most women are somewhere in the middle.

They want products that make them feel good.

Look good.

Smell good.

Without being told they're broken, aging incorrectly, or in need of fixing. 

That's a much bigger insight than fragrance.

It's a perspective on how an entire generation of women wants to be seen.

The whole conversation is packed with founder lessons, but my favorite may have been this:

"The standards you accept become your standards."

That's true in business.

It's true in leadership.

And it's true in life.

We spend a lot of time celebrating founders who never quit.

Maybe we should spend a little more time celebrating founders who know when to stop, learn, and build something better.

I’ve interviewed a lot of founders, and I don’t think I’ve ever heard someone say that before.

And, it completely changed the way I thought about this conversation with Del Alfonso, founder of Harmony Baby Nutrition.

Because most founders talk about scale as the goal: More stores.More distribution.More volume.

Del talked about changing an industry that hasn’t meaningfully evolved in 100 years.

When you really think about that, it’s kind of shocking. We’ve reinvented almost everything: beverages, functional nutrition, supplements, and snacks.

And yet infant formula, one of the most emotionally charged, scientifically important products in the world, is still largely dominated by the same few companies, using the same approaches, and the same outdated systems.

That’s wild. Especially when one out of five babies using traditional cow’s milk formula experiences some form of allergic reaction.

Del started this company because his daughter needed help. And he had a realization: There really weren’t good alternatives. Not modern ones. Not science-forward ones.
Not products designed around what we now know about infant nutrition. So he decided to build one.

It’s not just better science. It’s better to have empathy. And that is real disruption. 

What I loved about Del’s perspective is that he’s not trying to out-scale the incumbents. He openly said they can’t compete on scale.

But what they can do matters. Harmony can innovate faster, support parents better, and rethink the category from the ground up. 

That’s a very different mindset than most founders have (and maybe a healthier one too).

Probably a healthier one. Because scale without innovation is really maintenance. And Real disruption changes industries. And this category is overdue. Have a listen.

“Let it be easy.”

That was one of my favorite moments from my conversation with Yasmin Crystal Santos, founder of Altar Native.

Not because building a company is easy.

Clearly, it’s not. She’s dealing with:

• inventory shortages
• changing manufacturers
• regulatory hurdles
• fundraising decisions
• international expansion

And somehow… she still feels calm.

Not passive.
Not naive.
Calm.

And that felt almost more disruptive than the category she’s building in.

Yasmin created a line of herbal alcohol alternatives after realizing alcohol no longer gave her what she was actually looking for: relief, regulation, a state shift.

What started as personal survival eventually became a brand. But the bigger idea underneath it is what stayed with me:

People are overwhelmed.
And most of us are trying to regulate ourselves with the wrong tools.

What also struck me: She doesn’t sound like most founders.

No frantic “crush it at all costs” energy.
No obsession with scaling as fast as possible. In fact, she openly talks about staying lean and avoiding over-raising.

And yet:

• two social posts went viral
• inventory sold out
• international demand started pouring in

She used this metaphor I loved: Bamboo spends years building roots underground before it suddenly shoots up into the sky.

Most founders want the growth part. Very few have the patience for the roots.

The biggest takeaway for me wasn’t really about herbalism or functional beverages.

It was this: You can build something ambitious without believing you have to destroy yourself in the process.

And I think more founders need to hear that.

This episode stayed with me long after we stopped recording.

That was one of my favorite lines from my conversation with Kim Hehir, co-founder of Brutus Broth.

And honestly? It might be one of the best descriptions of entrepreneurship I’ve heard in a while.

Because Brutus Broth didn’t grow into a 20,000-store brand by following the traditional playbook. 

They grew because they kept asking.
Kept testing.
Kept pushing.
Kept finding another way in.

Even when people told them that’s “not how it works.”

One of the stories I LOVED was about an early Petco meeting. Kim asked when they could get on the shelf. Their broker was horrified because apparently, you’re not supposed to ask that question.

But Kim didn’t know, and so she asked anyway. And guess what? They got the placement. And that mindset shows up throughout the entire story.

Target said no at first. Brutus found another way in.

Walmart approached them too early. They had the discipline to say no because they weren’t ready.  And guess what? Walmart came back later with a completely different vision for the pet aisle and became a major partnership for the brand. 

That’s not luck. That’s founder energy paired with conviction.

What’s also interesting is that they didn’t build like a typical pet brand. Most brands in the category start DTC. Brutus didn’t.

Their hero product was a 32-ounce liquid broth—heavy and expensive to ship. So instead, they beta tested through retail with Wegmans and Big Y before scaling. And they weren’t just looking at velocity.

They paid attention to all the things retailers care about:

• Did the product bring new shoppers into the aisle?
• Did it increase basket size?
• Was it incremental to existing purchases?

That’s a really smart lesson for emerging brands. Retailers care if your product sells. And they also care about other things, like what your product does for the store at large?

And the other big tension, building awareness.

Brutus Broth is now in 20,000 stores. They have strong retail relationships.
New products. Momentum. But still, Kim kept coming back to the same challenge:

More people need to know who they are.

I think that’s one of the hardest transitions for emerging brands.

Getting distribution is hard. But creating sustained consumer demand at scale?
That’s a completely different challenge that EVERY brand has to tackle at some point. And that takes something most founders are in short supply of, time and patience.

My biggest takeaway from this conversation:

The founders who win are not always the ones following the category playbook most perfectly.

Sometimes they’re the ones willing to:

• ask the uncomfortable question
• challenge assumptions
• use the data differently
• keep going after hearing “no”

And maybe most importantly:

They don’t confuse “that’s how it’s usually done” with “that’s the only way it gets done.”

As marketers, we spend a lot of time talking about innovation, disruption, and growth strategy.

But a surprising amount of entrepreneurship is still this simple:

Ask. Follow up. Ask again. Find another way. 

Definitely worth a listen!

Most brands try to skip this part.

They go straight to scale.
More distribution.
More spend.
More everything. And then wonder why nothing sticks.

I interviewed Scott Forsberg and Ed Klein on the podcast this week, the founders behind a chocolate brand called Vine to Bar.

On the surface, it’s already a great story: 

Upcycled Chardonnay grapes
Science-backed benefits
Better-for-you chocolate

But that’s not the most interesting part.

The most compelling part Is what they didn’t do

They had everything you could want in a brand:

• Taste
• Health
• Sustainability
• A strong founder story
• Real science (not marketing fluff)

Most brands would take that…
and try to say all of it. They did that too—at first. And it didn’t work.

So They Did What Most Founders Don’t. They slowed down.

They tested. They paid attention. They sold a little and learned a lot.

And what they learned changed everything.

The Shift

They had multiple directions they could go: Wine + chocolate lifestyle. 

General “better for you”. Cardiovascular health

All valid. None of them landed.

But one did. Gut health. That shift didn’t change the product. It changed the focus. And it unlocked the business.

Most founders think more is better. More SKUs. More claims. More messaging

This brand isn’t growing because it has more. 

It’s growing because it’s focused enough for people to care.

A Final Thought
You don’t need more ideas.

You need to figure out:

• What people understand instantly
• What they actually care about
• What makes them come back

And then stay there long enough for it to work.

Most brands won’t do that.Because it feels slower. But it’s the way things stick.

If you’re building something right now, this one’s worth a listen.

Most of the conversations I have on this podcast are about growth.

Scaling.
Raising capital.
Winning in crowded categories.

This one isn’t. And that’s exactly why I love it.

I sat down with Ugo Urberti Foppa, founder of a retreat center in Portugal called Quinta Marugo.

On paper, Ugo’s not my typical guest. No big brand. No massive exit. No “how I scaled to $100M” story.

But the deeper we got into the conversation, the more it hit me. This is what so many founders say they want, but almost no one builds.

This Wasn’t an Exit Strategy. It Was a Life Decision.

Ugo didn’t set out to build a wellness brand.

He left Italy.
Worked in oil and gas.
Moved to Hong Kong.
Built a food business.

And then… decided he didn’t want that life anymore.

What he wanted was simple: A piece of land. A slower life.
Something that actually felt like his. So he built it.

This Business Is the Life

This is the part that stuck with me. Most founders separate the two: Build the business, then live. Hugo did the opposite.

He built a business that is the life. How inspiring is that?

• He lives on the property
• He works every day
• There’s no “off” switch
• But it is not something he’s trying to escape

That’s a very different model than what most people (me included) are chasing. And it raises a question worth asking:

Are you building something to eventually get out of…
or something you actually want to live in every day. 

The Discipline Most Brands Don’t Have

There’s a moment in the conversation where he talks about decisions they made that most businesses wouldn’t.

No Wi-Fi in the rooms.
No air conditioning.
No push toward scale.

On paper, those might look like  “bad business decisions.” They limit demand.
They turn people away. But they also did something more important:They made the experience real.

Because the goal was never to serve everyone.

It was to serve the right people. For the first 7 months after opening it was a tough go.

No customers, Bookings that canceled.
So what changed?

A few people came.
They loved it.
They told others.

Word of mouth took over. 

It’s the least sexy growth strategy, and the one most brands say they want but don’t have the patience for.

The Part Most Founders Won’t Admit

There’s a moment where he talks about how hard it actually was.

Three years of building.
Costs doubling during COVID.
Constant problem-solving.

So  I asked him: “If you knew how hard it would be… would you have done it?”

His answer: Probably not. 

That’s the truth behind almost every business.

My Takeaway

There are a lot of ways to build something. You can scale fast. Raise money. Chase growth. Or you can build something that actually fits your life. Hugo chose the second. And it’s working. It made me wonder, though, could you do both? We spend a lot of time talking about how to grow. We don’t spend enough time asking:

What are we actually trying to build?

Not just the business. But also the life.

It’s a different kind of episode, but an important one. It’s worth a listen.

The brands that win in crowded categories aren’t chasing trends.
They’re built from something real.

In this episode, I sit down with Rudy Aldana (Co-Founder & CEO of PARCH) to break down what’s actually happening in non-alcoholic—and why most brands are missing it.

What we get into:
    •    Why non-alc isn’t about health—it’s about identity
    •    The real reason consumers feel “off” when they’re not drinking
    •    Where most brands go wrong (they keep adding)
    •    Why PARCH launched with 4 SKUs—and stayed there
    •    The difference between traction and just more ideas

The Takeaway:
Go stand in front of the shelf and ask:
Why would someone actually pick this?
Because in a category full of noise—
the brands that win aren’t doing more.
They’re doing the right things, better, for longer.

There are some categories where it feels like the world does not need one more brand.

Fitness is one of them, especially Pilates.

So when I sat down with Michael Ramsey, Co-founder and Co-CEO of Strong Pilates, I wanted to understand how they’re breaking through in spite of that.

This was the line that stayed with me:

The problem wasn’t Pilates. It was everything else people still needed.   
That’s the insight behind Strong.

People love Pilates. They believe in it. But they also want strength, cardio, progress, and results, and they don’t want to have to piece that together across multiple studios and memberships.

So instead of launching another Pilates concept, they built something different.
In this episode, we talk about:

• What it actually takes to stand out in a saturated category
• Why differentiation has to live in the business, not just in the branding
• How founder conviction shows up in real decisions (and real risk)
• What’s changed in marketing and why content now has to carry more weight than ever
• How to scale without losing the thing that made people care in the first place

One thing I kept thinking about after:

- Winning in a crowded market isn’t about being louder.
- It’s about being clearer.
- This is a really good one if you’re building anything right now.

Most wearables track one thing at a time: steps, sleep, heart rate. Nanowear is building something entirely new: a single piece of fabric that acts like a full physical exam whenever you wear it.

CEO and co-founder Venk Varadan started the company nearly ten years ago with his father, Dr. Vijay Varadan, after discovering a breakthrough textile that can read the body without adhesives or multiple devices. One fabric-based sensor captures heart, lungs, blood pressure, respiration, and metabolic signals all at once; nothing on the market can do that today.

Rather than rushing a consumer launch, Venk spent years doing the hard part: FDA clearances, clinical validation, and building the infrastructure so Nanowear’s technology could plug into virtual care platforms, employer health plans, and connected devices people already use.

The long-term vision? Over-the-counter diagnostic kits anyone can use at home, real, clinical-grade data you can take straight to your doctor.

The path has been long: years of R&D, tough fundraising cycles, and a market that wasn’t ready for a category this big. But Venk never lost sight of the mission.

“If we don’t build this, it’s not going to happen.”

Next up: a 2026 rollout, employer-led prevention programs, and eventually global access, especially for people far from consistent medical care.

A decade in, Nanowear remains a rare founder story: slow, disciplined, and quietly building the future of diagnostics.

When Arisa Katayama had her daughter in LA during COVID, she did what most first-time moms do: focused on the birth and the baby, not herself. Then the fourth trimester hit. Sleep-deprived, still breastfeeding late into the night, she kept opening a half-empty fridge filled with leftovers and frozen pizza, realizing there was nothing truly nourishing or postpartum-safe for her.

That moment became the seed for For Her by Arisa, a Japanese-born brand now launching in the U.S. with postpartum recovery soups rooted in yakuzan, a traditional philosophy where TCM (traditional Chinese medicine) meets Japanese home cooking.

Arisa’s mission: “We’re here to mother women, because women spend their lives mothering everyone else.”

Key takeaways from our conversation:

• Postpartum first, women’s health always:
  From supporting new moms to addressing hormones across periods, fertility, miscarriage, postpartum, and menopause.
• Traditional wisdom, modern format:
  Japanese and TCM-inspired soups that blend comforting, grandma-style recipes with functional, clinical intention.
• Built on cross-cultural insight:
  Started in Japan with shelf-stable pouches; adapted to U.S. preferences with frozen, handmade Orange County–produced soups.
• Growing slowly, on purpose:
  Bootstrapped and intentionally rolling out through doulas, practitioners, and sampling before broader retail.

Explore more at forherbyarisa.com or on Instagram @forherbyarisa.

Reinventing Practitioner Commerce with Jon Armstrong

When tech entrepreneur Jon Armstrong set out to simplify his own supplement routine, he uncovered a much bigger problem: practitioners were losing patients, and profits, to Amazon. His answer was GetHealthy.store, a turnkey e-commerce and marketing platform that gives health and wellness professionals custom storefronts, operational support, and access to thousands of vetted, clinical-grade products.

Key takeaways from our conversation:

Built for how practitioners really work:
 “We provide fully functioning custom stores for doctors, nutritionists, and health coaches, without them managing images, pricing, or fulfillment.”

Quality over chaos:
 Unlike Amazon, GetHealthy.store is a “closed and managed marketplace,” offering only clean, high-quality, research-backed brands.

Fixing the convenience gap:
 “I was buying from four or five different places… so I thought, why not build something better?” The platform gives practitioners a seamless way to keep patients purchasing through their trusted ecosystem.

Using AI to prove outcomes:
 By integrating diagnostic and purchasing data, Jon’s team is piloting tools that show how protocols and supplements impact real health markers over time.

With GetHealthy.store, Jon Armstrong is modernizing the backbone of functional and integrative medicine, empowering practitioners to grow their businesses while giving patients a better, cleaner, and smarter way to get healthy.

Learn more at GetHealthy.store or contact jon@gethealthy.store.

After two decades in biotech and a near-fatal heart attack at 43, Gary Seelhorst realized that success without self-awareness isn’t sustainable. He left corporate life to build Prime Peak Executive Coaching, a practice that helps leaders align peak performance with personal well-being. What started as volunteer work guiding veterans through career transitions has become a fast-growing, referral-only coaching business for executives and founders.

Key takeaways from our conversation:

Wellness drives performance: “When leaders are in an optimal state, that’s when executive business coaching really works.” Gary integrates mindset, nutrition, and energy management into every plan, bridging the gap between corporate achievement and personal health.

Lessons from the edge: “Ten years ago, I had a massive heart attack… I wasn’t out of shape, but I was in the red all the time.” His experience reshaped how he teaches resilience and balance to clients facing the same high-stress demands.

From Navy SEALs to CEOs: Prime Peak began at a wellness retreat where Gary coached veterans re-entering civilian life. “They’d been elite operators, but needed to learn how to transfer those skills to business.”

Coaching with chemistry: With a background in biochemistry and management at Pfizer, Gary brings science to strategy, optimizing performance through neuroscience, cortisol timing, and cognitive energy mapping.

Human over hype: “Find your key demographic and don’t try to be all things to all people.” Prime Peak’s growth has come organically through results, not algorithms.

With Prime Peak Executive Coaching, Gary Seelhorst proves that sustainable success starts with self-care and that the most effective leaders are the ones who learn to coach themselves first.

Learn more at Prime Peak Executive Coaching and listen to Gary’s full conversation on The Irresistible Factor podcast.

Economist turned founder Mette Dyhrberg didn’t plan to enter healthcare; she just wanted her life back. After collecting six autoimmune diagnoses in her twenties, she started tracking everything she was doing, eating, and feeling for months and months. She then used that data to uncover the cause of her symptoms and reverse them within 16 months, something that the medical community was not able to do. That personal discovery turned into MuneHealth, a platform created to help patients with autoimmune diseases find and fix the unique triggers keeping them sick.

Key takeaways from our conversation:

From patient to pioneer: “I went from being disempowered as a patient to empowered as a human.” Mette’s decade-long experiment with her own health became the foundation for a data-driven approach to autoimmune recovery.

Precision over restriction: “82% of what the triggers are is dietary.” MuneHealth replaces elimination diets with AI-guided tracking that pinpoints exactly what’s causing symptoms—no guesswork, no deprivation.

Human support, powered by tech: “We just use tech as a vehicle for delivery.” A few minutes of tracking a day and personalized guidance from experienced care teams, each of whom has reversed their own autoimmune disease, help patients change behaviors that truly heal.

Access through insurers: With autoimmune disease disproportionately affecting women, MuneHealth currently partners with UnitedHealthcare to bring the program to more patients who’ve “given up hope of feeling like themselves again.”

Scaling empathy: Mette believes healthcare change starts with results, not lobbying. “If you can deliver results powerful enough, that has to be the way forward.”

With MuneHealth, Mette Dyhrberg proves that data and empathy together are not only the foundation for a successful company, but they can help rewrite what it means to truly live with autoimmune disease.

Learn more at munehealth.com and listen to her full story on The Irresistible Factor podcast.

Radiologist turned founder, Dr. Cristin Dickerson, didn’t plan to run a company, she just wanted to do her job. But after seeing hospital acquisitions triple imaging prices and claims processes fail patients and doctors alike, Dr. Cristin looked to an unlikely category to find a solution. She built Green Imaging: a “Travelocity-style” marketplace that buys unused scanner time, bundles the entire episode of care, and passes transparent savings to employers and patients.

Key takeaways from our conversation:

Unused capacity, fair bundles: “We started buying the extra time on the scanner, our radiologists read it, and we bill a fair self-pay price.” The result is one all-in rate, no surprise CPT add-ons or separate radiology bills.

Employer-first economics: “Employers can waive member co-pays and deductibles with Green, and still save money.” For self-funded plans, members pay $0 out of pocket while plans avoid hospital rates and unbundled charges.

Concierge beats DIY: “Consumerism has failed in healthcare, when people are under stress, they want to be taken care of.” Green Imaging leans on live, multilingual concierges to educate, schedule, and simplify every step.

Hospital alignment without bloat: By leasing time (they’re Green’s patients) and using Green’s radiologists, exclusivity hurdles drop—unlocking partnerships such as PET/CT reads and filling idle capacity.

Bootstrapped resilience: “I worked full-time as a radiologist until 2020 to subsidize it.” The team survived a co-founder’s sudden passing, COVID’s volume collapse, and an IP lawsuit, without layoffs, growing to 5,000+ facilities and ~3M covered lives, still majority physician-owned.

With the success of Green Imaging, Dr. Dickerson proves that there are creative ways to solve all kinds of problems. Even the behemoth of healthcare. 

Learn more at Green Imaging, and check out Dr. Dickerson’s book, Aligned, for a plain-English guide to making healthcare incentives work for patients, employers, and clinicians.

“It was very hard to accept, but I had to face the reality that our business was never going to give us the return we deserved. That was a mature set of decisions, to give up on dreams and accept defeat,” she says.

As you can see, Kelly Spillane has lived both sides of the CPG journey. She started in Ireland as a founder, building a jam and marmalade company with her sister and even landing on supermarket shelves and high-end delicatessens in Paris, London, and New York. But after years of incredibly hard work, she faced a tough truth: the business wasn’t going where she hoped it would.

Instead of walking away from the industry she loved, Spillane turned her hard lessons into a career helping other founders succeed. Today, she leads investments and accelerator programs at Whole Foods Market, guiding early-stage brands with the perspective only a former founder can bring.

Key takeaways from our conversation:

• Agile growth first: “Being lean and agile is the number one thing. Not raising money for as long as you can is really the number one thing, along with the lean and agile.”
• It’s all about people: “In reality, when you’re investing money, you’re investing money in people. So I look at the founders, their vision, their experience, and whether they’re coachable.”
• The value of the journey: “Even though I didn’t achieve my big dream of making lots of money, I found myself, and I found lifelong friends. The journey was still worth it.”

From winding down her own company to mentoring the next generation of founders, Kelly Spillane’s story is a reminder that resilience, focus, and adaptability matter as much as vision in building lasting businesses.

What began with Matt’s own martial arts injury grew into a business model that now includes international instructor training, wellness retreats, and tailored protocols for everyone from elite athletes to entrepreneurs. His story is both exciting and inspiring. 

But building Cold Club hasn’t been easy. Matt has had to navigate the realities of entrepreneurship, scaling globally, wearing every hat, and planning for sustainable growth in a crowded wellness industry.

3 Key Takeaways

1. Building Requires Vision and Systems

“Tons of challenges. I need a bigger team. That’s step one. I need people to fill the different roles. As an entrepreneur, I work all the time, and I’m happy to work, but what I’m really trying to establish right now is a very clear, systematic approach to regular offerings worldwide.”

2. Scaling Means Thinking Globally

“Where do we see ourselves? We see ourselves as like a very powerful global network within the next three years. I think we will be in just about every continent. I see us as a very strong group. Leading wellness, we will be among the best known in wellness in the next three years.”

3. Collaboration Is the Future

“Collaboration is the future. And it’s the only way to sort of leverage the existing tools and systems that are out there to break through the noise. We’ve got to get signal. How are we going to get signal in today’s world? It’s really hard. And so collaboration is really the key.”

From personal healing to global expansion, Matt Soule is proving that Cold Club is more than a wellness trend, it’s a movement built on resilience, innovation, and entrepreneurial grit. His journey is a reminder that scaling impact takes both passion and persistence.

For Emily Stein, the path from Stanford scientist to startup founder wasn’t straightforward. What began with a deeply personal motivation, preventing her grandmother from losing more teeth after a stroke, has turned into building Primal Health, an international company tackling one of healthcare’s most overlooked problems: oral health.

Emily has led Primal Health through the challenges of launching products in both the human and pet markets, raising capital in a tough environment, and educating consumers and practitioners about a brand-new approach to oral care. Emily intended to build Primal Health, a human oral health brand, but had to pivot when she couldn’t penetrate the dental market. Now there’s Teef, an oral health company for dogs. And it’s working.

3 Key Takeaways

1. Creating a New Category Isn’t Easy

“We started in humans, but dentists didn’t wanna have anything to do with us ’cause they thought it would work and cut into their bottom line. So we pivoted to pets, and that saved our company.”

2. Founders Have to Be Resilient

“This is my fifth startup. It’s messy. Every single startup.”

3. The Mission Drives the Business Forward

“Our goal as a company is to be in every mouth at least once a day.”

Emily Stein’s journey highlights what it takes to build a business in uncharted territory: scientific credibility, entrepreneurial grit, and an unwavering mission. By blending innovation with resilience, she’s positioning Teef to transform how people, and their pets, approach oral care.

If you’re trying to sell ideas, products, and technology in the Healthcare industry, this podcast is for you.

For Brendan McAdams, sales in healthcare isn’t about pushing products, it’s about creating real fit, listening deeply, and helping founders build businesses that last. As the founder of Kiinetics, Brendan has worked with health tech startups and entrepreneurs to navigate one of the toughest industries out there: selling into hospitals, payers, and health systems.

With a career spanning UnitedHealthcare, WebMD, and startups across the health space, Brendan has seen firsthand what works (and what doesn’t) when it comes to turning an idea into traction. In this episode of The Irresistible Factor, he shares candid advice on how founders can approach sales not as a script, but as a conversation that builds credibility and long-term success.

Key Takeaways

Don’t Start with Building, Start with Listening

“Early stage startup founders often start by building something. And what I would suggest is before you do any building, go out and talk to as many people as you can in as many different areas.”

Sell the Transformation, Not the Features

“You really need to be selling the result, the transformation that’s gonna take place. It’s not about features, it’s about how this improves the experience for their patient."

Fit Matters More than the Pitch

“I’m really not looking to make a sale. Of course I’m looking to make a sale, but I’m looking to make a sale within the context of: does this fit? Because if it’s not a fit, if I can’t really solve for them, that’s gonna figure itself out sooner or later. And I’m just wasting my time.”

Brendan’s philosophy is clear: sales is about conversation, curiosity, and fit, not pressure. For founders navigating healthcare, his advice is a reminder that building relationships and understanding the customer deeply is what makes innovation stick.

After nearly burning out at her high-pressure job, Aisha Chottani knew something had to change. She swapped caffeine for meditation, cut sugar from her diet, and started paying attention to how she felt. The results were transformative, and they sparked the idea for Drink Moment.

Launched in 2020, Moment is a functional beverage brand inspired by the feeling you get after meditating. With no caffeine, alcohol, or added sugar, each can is infused with adaptogens to help reduce stress, support cognitive clarity, and reset your day.

“Wellness isn’t about not doing hard things,” Aisha says. “It’s about aligning your mind and body so you can feel good while doing them.”

Now leading a 10-person team, Aisha is building a brand that’s rooted in purpose and designed for scale, with every can purchased funding mental health programs.

Highlights from our conversation:

Build for impact, not optics
“Every decision should serve the customer first,” Aisha explains. Moment prioritizes clean ingredients, calm energy, and honest expectations.

From DTC to national reach
With 10,000+ subscribers and growing, the company is working to expand access through more retail partnerships and a shift toward broader distribution.

A product with purpose
Moment doesn’t promise overnight results, but its blends are designed to work over time. The result? A devoted community and a high repurchase rate.

Try Aisha’s favorite blend, Strawberry Rose, at drinkmoment.com and find your moment.

When Roger Ford heard the word “move” during a late-night meditation, he didn’t expect it to uproot his life. But within weeks, he and his wife had sold their healing center in the UK, bought a home in California online, and launched a brand-new chapter.

That leap of faith became Healing in America, a nonprofit dedicated to making energy healing more accessible and more credible within the U.S. healthcare system. “We teach people to follow their intuition,” Roger says. “So we had to live that ourselves.”

Rooted in more than four decades of practice, Roger’s mission goes beyond sessions and certifications. He’s building an ecosystem, training individuals, supporting trainers, and slowly integrating healing into clinics, hospitals, and everyday care.

Highlights from our conversation:

Scaling with integrity:
“We always wanted to train others and then train the trainers,” Roger says. “That’s how we scale: by finding the right people, holding high standards, and building a network of excellence.”

Challenging the status quo:
“I came here a bit naïve,” he admits. “I thought the medical system would welcome us. But it’s taken years of persistence and starting with nurses and functional medicine to build real bridges.”

Healing is for everyone:
“There’s no illness people can’t get better from,” Roger believes. “Our job is to remind them of that. The energy is the same; it’s the practitioner and the process that make the difference.”

Learn more about Roger’s story and explore his work at healinginamerica.com. 

Lisa Boduch is taking it head-on, with a career that began in the salon and evolved into national leadership roles. She understands both sides of the beauty industry. Now serving as VP of Sales and Education at Alfaparf Milano, Lisa is applying decades of experience to drive growth for a professional Italian brand that’s stayed intentionally boutique.

Her approach? Clear identity, disciplined storytelling, and meaningful innovation. In an industry often crowded by copycat products and big-box noise, Lisa is focused on long-term brand equity, operational excellence, and empowering the professionals at the heart of the business.

Key takeaways from our conversation:

Stay close to your core customer: Alfaparf’s strategy is rooted in deep relationships with salon professionals, not just as customers, but as advocates. Lisa’s priority is supporting them through education, training, and tools that help grow their businesses.

Stay true to your identity: As bigger brands chase mass market appeal, Alfaparf is leaning into its boutique positioning, Italian craftsmanship, and loyalty to the hairdresser.

Be ready to evolve: Whether it’s integrating AI tools or refining hero products, Lisa is focused on meaningful innovation, not just keeping up, but creating something new.

Want to see how a boutique brand competes in a crowded global market? Learn more at https://www.alfaparfmilanopro.com/us-en and watch how Lisa and her team are building trust, loyalty, and long-term impact, one salon at a time.

“PX stands for patient experience,” says Shareef Mahdavi, founder of the PX Movement. “My mission is to change the way that patients experience going to the doctor.”

With PX90, he’s applying his decades of experience in healthcare and customer service to help practices rethink their environments, retrain their teams, and rebuild trust, starting with a 90-day, exercise-themed program that includes warm-ups, cool-downs, and strategic “workouts.”

At its core, PX90 is about the mindset of the physician. “That’s really the goal of this: to help doctors see things from their patients’ perspective,” Shareef says. “We want to remind them why they became doctors in the first place.”

Key takeaways from our conversation:

• Patient-first isn’t optional anymore: “80-90% of patients are researching doctors online before they ever make contact with the office, and they’re not just looking at the doctor’s website, they’re looking at all the websites.”
• Service is strategy: “You can teach pretty much anyone to do anything, but you cannot teach a servant’s heart.”
• Doctors need support too: “The issue is that most practices are absolutely just missing it when it comes to this thing called customer experience, and in a medical context we want to call that patient experience.”

To bring the PX movement to your office, visit pxmovement.com or connect with Shareef on LinkedIn.

“You should always be heading toward something you’re proud of,” he says. “Something that feels like a meaningful contribution.”

That’s why, after a career negotiating some of the biggest deals in the travel industry, Lou Zameryka decided to build something with a much deeper impact. 

That mindset led Lou and his co-founder, Andrew, to the much-discussed notion of healthspan. Instead of asking how long people can live, they started asking: How well can they live? The answer: Alively, an incredible platform, focused on helping employees build better habits to live a more vibrant, healthier life. 

Aggregating data from wearables into a carefully curated behavior-change engine, Alively doesn’t overwhelm users with dashboards. It identifies a single health metric to improve, like REM sleep or burnout, offers five evidence-based ways to address it, and tracks results over time. Companies benefit by building a more resilient, agile workforce.

Highlights from our conversation:

• From insight to action: Alively pairs metrics with realistic, research-backed behavior shifts.
  
  
• B2B from the beginning: Rather than going directly to consumers, Lou and his team leaned into impacting as many people as possible, which led them to corporate partnerships. Their pilot programs are already helping HR teams tackle burnout and drive engagement.
  
  
• A mission beyond margins: “People don’t realize how good they could feel,” Lou says. Alively wants to change that—and shift the wellness conversation from short-term perks to long-term transformation.

Lou’s advice for founders? Start simple and just begin. “If you move, the world, for some reason, moves with you.”

Learn more at alively.com. 

After struggling to lose weight and finding existing fitness apps confusing or ineffective, Peter Conroy, former investment banker and now healthcare advocate, decided to build his own solution. That decision led to The Difference App, a predictive, AI-powered tool that helps users track weight with greater accuracy and personalization.

Conroy’s approach centers around TrueBurn™, a proprietary algorithm that adjusts your estimated calorie burn based on your actual daily weight changes and other unique personal factors. The result? An app that tells you what you’ll weigh tomorrow, today—and whether you’re truly making progress.

Key Moments from the Conversation:

• “I lost 60 pounds in two months by tracking calories in and out manually—and I knew I could turn that system into a business.”
• “Obesity is now the number one cause of premature death globally. We want to improve the quality of life and increase longevity.”
• “We have nearly 7,000 users, a 29% monthly growth rate—and we haven’t spent a dollar on advertising yet.”

As Peter puts it: “This isn’t just about weight loss—it’s about helping people feel better, live longer, and finally understand what works for them.”

Dr. Brian Levine wears two hats: founder of Nodal and founding partner at CCRM New York. His career began with a passion for genetics, but over time, it grew into something bigger, helping families. “I’d have to say, it’s been one of my greatest achievements, having the opportunity to work here and provide care to patients,” he shares.

At Nodal, Levine set out to challenge an industry that was burdening hopeful parents with high fees and long waits. He saw an opportunity to build a transparent, tech‑driven solution that works better for everyone involved.

Key takeaways from our conversation:

Transparency at the core: “We built Nodal so surrogates can state exactly what they’d like to receive, intended parents see that clearly, and we add only a minimal management fee—about 60% lower than the market.”

Revolutionizing timelines: Instead of waiting 9–18 months, Nodal’s process matches surrogates and parents in around 45 days, cutting costs and stress along the way.

Lessons from building: Levine pitched to 83 VC firms in 30 days, choosing partners who understood his mission. “Our model is different, our approach is different, but the technology behind it is the key.”

With Nodal, Levine is reshaping surrogacy into something faster, fairer, and more accessible.

Discover more at nodal.com, or connect with Dr. Levine on Instagram @drbrianlevine, on LinkedIn, or through CCRM New York.

For Paul Buckley, U.S. Director of Sales and Marketing at Withings, joining the company was about more than a new role. “I wanted to do something that makes a difference in people’s lives—and Withings does that every day,” he says.

Withings has been innovating since 2009, when it launched the world’s first smart scale. Today, the brand is known for pushing the boundaries of connected health, creating devices that help people track and understand their bodies well before problems arise.

Key takeaways from our conversation:

• Data that matters: Withings scales go way beyond weight, delivering vascular age and segmental body composition, crucial insights for anyone focused on fitness or monitoring GLP‑1‑related muscle loss.
• One ecosystem, one app: “No other company brings scales, wearables, blood pressure monitors, and more together into a single app with a unified health score,” Buckley explains.
• A wearable with purpose: The FDA‑cleared ScanWatch tracks heart rhythm every 10 minutes, delivers on‑wrist EKGs, measures blood oxygen, and offers 30+ days of battery life with 24/7 sleep and activity tracking.

For Buckley, that comprehensive approach is why he’s proud to represent the brand every day: “It’s not about gimmicks, it’s about giving people tools to take control of their health.”

Explore more at withings.com or find their products at Best Buy, Amazon, and Target.

“There is no secret sauce of overnight success—it’s just a constant ‘what’s next.’” — Anthony Kjenstad, Founder & CEO of Firefly Recovery

Anthony Kjenstad didn’t set out to build a consumer brand. But after a career in medical device distribution and a request to solve a real problem, helping patients prevent blood clots post-surgery, he developed a wearable recovery device now used by elite athletes across the country.

Today, Firefly Recovery serves college and professional sports teams, weekend warriors, and post-op patients alike. From an appearance on Shark Tank to grassroots distribution via trainers and NIL athletes, Anthony’s company is growing fast, but with a disciplined focus on real-world use, clinical effectiveness, and simple, scalable design.

What sets Firefly apart:

• Firefly’s FDA-cleared device stimulates blood flow to reduce soreness, prevent clots, and improve recovery with zero downtime.
  
  
• The company bootstrapped early growth by partnering with athletic trainers and leveraging word-of-mouth among pros and college teams.
  
  
• A surprise Shark Tank air date pushed the team to stock up early, and it paid off, unlocking explosive consumer interest.

Firefly Recovery is building smarter, more accessible recovery tech for athletes, patients, and everyday wellness. Learn more or reach out directly at recoveryfirefly.com.

Aescape isn’t replacing therapists—it’s expanding access. And for health tech founders, it’s a masterclass in engineering innovation that sticks.

At Aescape, innovation isn’t theoretical. It’s tactile. Their intelligent massage tables, powered by robotic arms and therapist-recorded movements, are about to transform how we recover, relax, and train. With over 60 installations across luxury hotels, fitness clubs, and elite sports facilities, Aescape is proving that robotics can deliver human-quality touch at scale.

But it took eight years to get there.

From navigating hardware partnerships to reshaping user expectations, Eswar Priyadarshan shares how Aescape went from concept to category-defining product.

In this episode, he reveals:

• Why human routines, not hype, drive product engagement
• How they’re building a new wellness category between recovery tech and physical therapy
• What founders need to know about building real-world robots that consumers actually want

Check them out at aescape.com.

 "Our aim is really to find mechanisms by which we can reach more families." —  Emily (Steinberg) McCareins

What started as a pandemic-era pilot has become one of the most ambitious care models in maternal health. Partum Health delivers a full suite of perinatal services, from doula care and pelvic floor therapy to lactation and behavioral health, through an innovative hybrid model that meets families where they are.

Emily joined Partum after years in healthcare consulting and an MBA from Kellogg, drawn by the complexity of maternal care and the urgency of closing systemic gaps. Today, she leads strategy and partnerships as the company expands beyond Illinois and Texas.

    •    Clinically led, evidence-based care with scalable infrastructure for in-home and virtual delivery
    •    Working with major payers and Medicaid to make doula and postpartum care widely accessible
    •    Operating with 150+ providers and growing into 15–20 new markets by 2029

Partum is redefining maternal care not just as a service, but as a scalable, outcomes-driven platform with the potential to change health trajectories for entire families.

To learn more or donate, visit partumhealth.com. 

 “We’re saving people’s lives every day, and that’s the driver behind what we do.” — Mark Noble

Mark Noble isn’t leading a startup; he’s reinventing a legacy. As CEO of ViTel Net, one of the earliest telehealth companies in the U.S., he’s helping health systems deliver smarter, faster, more integrated care.

With patented tech that embeds directly into hospital EHRs, ViTel Net enables everything from telestroke and telepsychiatry to full-scale, cross-system workflows. The goal? Make hybrid care seamless and accessible to the patients who need it most.

After decades in high-tech and no outside funding, Noble is scaling ViTel Net the hard way: through mission-driven partnerships, product innovation, and a refusal to compromise on quality.

• Why patients should own their health records and why they don’t
• How ViTel Net survived the pandemic by helping build a national ICU network
• What founders should know about selling into bureaucratic healthcare systems

Every once in a while, I meet someone who makes me pause. Someone who reminds me why I started this podcast in the first place. Michele Gannon is one of those people.

She’s the founder of Mary’s Place by the Sea, a nonprofit home in Ocean Grove, NJ, that offers women with cancer something most of them don’t even realize they need: permission to stop. To rest. To not be strong for everyone else. To just… be. What began as a persistent thought in Michele’s mind has, 16 years later, become a safe haven where over 16,000 women have found emotional, spiritual, and physical refuge. And what makes it even more extraordinary? They’re not charged a single penny.

This episode moved me deeply, not just as a host, but as a sister of someone currently battling breast cancer. I could feel in every word Michele said how powerful this work is, and how underserved this need really is.

Here are just a few things Michele shared that stayed with me:

• Mary came to her in a dream. The name isn’t a branding exercise. It’s inspired by a spiritual visitation that helped Michele envision the house and guide her every step.
• It’s beyond medical, but it is healing. Guests receive services like oncology massage, Reiki, guided meditation, expressive writing, and nutrition education. And it’s all focused on the person, not the illness.
• Hope is the most powerful outcome. Women come exhausted, anxious, and scared. They leave rested, connected, and often laughing and having made new friends.
• The experience is deeply personal and also free. Whether they’re newly diagnosed or up to two years post-treatment, women find sanctuary and sisterhood, regardless of their ability to pay.
• Volunteers keep the heartbeat strong. With over 100 regular volunteers and 60+ practitioners, the sense of community is palpable. Most of the healing happens through presence, not protocol.
• They’re just getting started. And the demand far exceeds the supply. Michele’s now actively planning an expansion to New England.

I’ve had the privilege of interviewing many founders in healthcare and wellness, but what Michele has built is something beyond metrics and business models. It’s a sacred space that honors the human experience of illness, and says to every woman walking through the door: You matter. You’re allowed to fall apart here. And you’re not alone.

If you’re moved by this story (and I know you will be), please visit MarysPlaceByTheSea.org. Whether it’s to volunteer, donate, or simply learn more, it’s worth your time. I’ll be making a visit myself soon, and I know it won’t be my last.

“You just need to start. That first step leads to a second, which leads to a third. You just need to start moving in the direction you want to go.” — Dr. Sam Hetz

Mergers, exits, new launches. Dr. Sam Hetz has built two businesses by betting on what the healthcare system is missing and what many patients are willing to pay for.

After scaling a successful medical aesthetics clinic that became part of Dermapure, Canada’s largest group of aesthetic practices, he’s now tackling something bigger: preventative, personalized longevity care. His new company, Lifespan MD, offers full-spectrum wellness, from VO₂ max testing to genetics, designed for people who want to feel as young as they look.

What if you could build a business around less screen time, not more?

That’s exactly what Corey Scholibo, co-founder and CEO of Dayo, is doing. Dayo is a digital wellness app that pays users $5 a day to stay off social media. Go over 30 minutes? You start losing money. Stay under? You save and spend on deals from brand partners who are tired of paying Meta.

“What happened was these companies made you the product—and not the product the product.” — Corey Scholibo

In this episode, he shares:

• Why research shows 30 minutes of social media use is the tipping point for mental health
• How Dayo turns wholesale brand partnerships into a rewards ecosystem
• What CPG taught him about moving from ‘what people should want’ to ‘what they already do’

For founders building in health, tech, or consumer behavior: Dayo flips the ad model, rewires incentives, and puts attention back where it belongs…in the hands of the user.

Most wellness companies shy away from guarantees. Re:vitalize Weight Loss & Wellness built their business on one.

Dan LeMoine, Co-founder of Re:vitalize, offers every client a clear, measurable promise: real weight loss, fast, and sustainably.

“We typically guarantee a minimum of 20 lbs on our 40-day metabolic reset and weight loss program.” — Dan LeMoine

In this episode, he shares:

• Why personalization drives better outcomes than prescriptions
• How they support clients recovering from GLP-1 side effects
• What it takes to stand behind a results-based promise

For founders, it's a bold reminder: if you can guarantee outcomes, you can build serious trust and scale with it.

After a heart attack or surgery, cardiac rehab can be the difference between recovery and readmission. But for a variety of reasons, 80% of patients never go. 

RecoveryPlus.health was built to change that.

The company delivers virtual, insurance-covered cardiac rehab to patients in 47 states. They have live sessions, remote monitoring, and real human care, all from home. And the impact is impressive: their readmission rate is just 1.4%, compared to the national average of 25%.

On The Irresistible Factor, Co-founder and CEO Peter Niemi shares how they built it and why it works:

• Compliance = success: When rehab fits into life, people stick with it. That’s why outcomes are better.
• Real people, not bots: AI may help scale, but trained clinicians still drive care and connection.
• Massive cost savings: A low-cost service that prevents high-cost ER visits and ICU stays.
• Operational heavy lifting: Multi-state licensure, Medicare billing, and insurance compliance - 20% of their team handles just this.

Now serving over 2,000 active patients (and more than 5,000 total), RecoveryPlus is raising its next round to scale further. They are exploring group sessions, deeper tech integration, and targeted outreach to the ~1 million patients each year who need cardiac rehab but never get it.

Want to hear how Peter and his team are scaling a truly impactful healthcare model—without giving up the human touch? Listen to the full episode!

“When you stop managing symptoms and start solving root causes, everything changes.”

Most clinics treat symptoms. Dr. Clayton Skaggs built CIHP to solve root problems, and his results are drawing patients from around the world. Forget high-volume throughput. Skaggs’ model is unique, deliberate, and data-informed. Patients undergo hours-long assessments, build personalized protocols, and stay connected virtually without losing clinical quality.

“This isn’t about finding what’s flashy. It’s about finding what works, and doing only that.” – Dr. Clayton Skaggs

In an industry chasing speed, CIHP is betting on accuracy, and it’s paying off with better outcomes and a word-of-mouth growth engine.

He shares:

• Why long-term outcomes require long-term thinking
• What it means to build a model based on value, not volume 
• Why he wrote the book “The Power of Doing What Matters” 
• A peek into his new platform, the curious gap, where it all comes together. 

Clayton also wants you to experience the first step he takes with all of his clients, a simple breathing journey.

Start it here, Breathing That Matters: Foundation at curiousgap.com.

It's free to our listeners until June 30, 2025, with code TIF100.

“Nobody should have to choose between a paycheck and how they want to feed their baby,” she says.

Lisa Myers was a partner at a major law firm when she had her first baby. It was then she realized: there was no safe, discreet way to store breast milk at work. So she invented it.. That’s how a corporate lawyer became a founder and a savior for new moms. Soon after Lisa invented Ceres Chill, she left law to make sure her experience wasn’t the only option for new moms. 

Instead of chasing VC, like many founders do, Lisa opened a Wefunder round to her passionate customers, raising $ 700 K+ from 516 investors who believed in the mission.

Now she’s facing a different challenge: Big brands with big money are replicating her patented design. But Ceres Chill has something they don’t: loyalty, purpose, and a founder who built it for life.

She shares:

• How crowdfunding helped her scale without compromise

• What it takes to compete against copycats with massive ad budgets

• Why product design should be led by the people who need it

Listen now to hear her inspiring story!

The data is clear: fewer doctors, growing populations, worse outcomes. The bottleneck? Primary care access.

In this episode, Alicia Ortiz explains how Duet is flipping the script, helping nurse practitioners launch independent practices in underserved communities, and pushing insurers to finally pay them what they're worth.

She shares:
 • Why the physician-led model is unsustainable and how NPs fill the gap
 • How Duet handles the operational complexity so NPs can focus on care
 • The economic model behind pay parity and market viability

“There’s really no reason why we can’t have enough primary care providers out there. There’s plenty of people to do this.” – Alicia Ortiz

Whether you're solving for cost, equity, or scale, this is the frontline of health system reform.

Listen now. The care model is already changing. The market just has to catch up.

In a world that rewards quick fixes, Dr. Kamran Fallahpour is building something slower, but far more powerful.

As the founder of the Brain Resource Center and co-founder of Vital Neuro, Dr. Fallahpour is pioneering a neuroscience-first approach to emotional regulation, attention, cognitive performance, and longevity. His clinic on Manhattan’s Upper West Side blends quantitative EEG brain mapping, neurofeedback, and neuromodulation to help patients, from kids with ADHD to adults with PTSD, train their brains to function better.

This isn’t a theory. It’s personalized brain tech, grounded in decades of clinical and R&D experience, used by everyone from executives to stroke survivors. And unlike medication, these treatments don’t just manage symptoms—they rewire the brain.

In this episode, you'll hear:

• Why traditional therapies often fall short—and what truly creates behavior change
• How neurofeedback, brain-computer interfaces, and targeted stimulation retrain attention and emotion regulation
• How Vital Neuro is making brain health accessible with app-connected neurotech that first responders and surgeons are already using
• Why brain training could become the next fitness revolution—and what it means for longevity and cognitive decline
• The role of neuro-responsive music in rewiring brain states in real time

If you're a founder, investor, or healthcare innovator curious about the next frontier in mental health and human performance, this conversation will expand your perspective.

Listen to the full episode of The Irresistible Factor with Dr. Kamran Fallahpour now.

After decades in traditional medicine, Dr. Nisha Chellam made a bold move: she left the system behind to practice in one that actually works.

In this week’s episode, we talk to Dr. Chellam about why she joined Parsley Health and what it’s like to stop managing decline and start building real health.

She shares:

• Why most “preventive care” is just a marketing term and what true prevention looks like
• How Parsley combines deep lab work, coaching, and 60-minute visits to flip the model
• Why patients and doctors alike are burning out and how to reclaim your health or your practice

“We’re not building health. We’re managing decline.” – Dr. Nisha Chellam

Whether you’re building healthcare tech, investing in innovation, or just want care that actually helps you feel better, this conversation will shift how you think about the system we’ve inherited… and what it takes to build something better.

Listen now. This is the future of medicine—and it’s already happening.

When Mike Jafar founded Joya Health, it wasn’t just about skincare, it was about equity, prevention, and confidence. After 20 years of working with major aesthetic brands like Botox and Juvederm, Mike saw an industry full of innovation but out of reach for most people. Treatments were expensive, confusing, and hard to access—until now.

Together with VP of Product Ian Metz, the Joya team is changing how we think about skin. Not as a luxury, but as a vital part of our overall health, just like vision or dental. Their mission? Make top-tier skincare and preventive dermatology accessible to everyone through a first-of-its-kind employee benefit.

“Skin should be second or third to dental or vision in every benefit package in America.” — Mike Jafar, Founder & CEO

What Makes Joya So Special? 

• Prevention-first approach: You can’t even unlock your aesthetic benefits until you’ve had a skin cancer screening—putting health before beauty, without compromise.
• Built for the benefits ecosystem: Joya works with employers, providers, brokers, and employees, navigating a complex web to deliver value to everyone involved.
• Cultural shift meets generational demand: What was once stigmatized—Botox, facials, skincare routines, is now openly discussed across ages and genders. Joya is riding that wave, not pushing against it.
• Transparent, people-first culture: Mike and Ian don’t just build software, they build trust. Radical honesty, shared ownership, and outcome-driven teamwork are at the core of how they operate.

“We built this company off of a feeling. We don’t care to sell a product—we want you to feel what good skin feels like.” — Mike Jafar, Founder & CEO

Whether it's helping detect melanoma early or making Botox more affordable, Joya Health is turning skincare into something essential, not extra. And they're doing it with humility, grit, and the kind of radical transparency most startups only pretend to embrace.

From personalized onboarding to partnerships with menopause and postpartum-focused care companies, Joya is scaling fast, and making skin a serious part of the wellness conversation. 

For years, personalized longevity care (daily biomarker tracking, 1:1 coaching, and precision lifestyle plans) has been limited to those who can afford high-end concierge programs. But Samir Mitra, founder and CEO of Reya.ai, is working to change that.

Reya is building AI-powered coaching assistants that do the backend work of elite preventive care at a fraction of the cost. These digital agents don’t replace doctors or coaches; they augment them. The result? A scalable, accessible, and still deeply personalized model for delivering longevity science.

“Longevity today is a privileged space. But with AI handling many of the repetitive and administrative processes, we can expand access to the vast majority of people who are currently priced out.”
— Samir Mitra, Founder of Reya.ai

Why Reya Matters for Clinics and Wellness Centers

• Reduce Operational Burden
  AI automates wearables monitoring, biomarker interpretation, and habit nudges, freeing up valuable clinician time.
• Enable Real-Time Coaching
  Patients no longer wait months for feedback. AI provides daily, dynamic insights to guide real-time behavior change.
• Expand Access Without Adding Headcount
  Clinics can serve more patients across income levels by automating what was once manual, high-cost labor.
• Keep the Human at the Center
  Reya enhances, not replaces, care teams. Practitioners focus on strategy and connection while AI handles the logistics.

The future of preventive care isn’t about replacing humans. It’s about giving them better tools. Reya is building that future. One where scalable, data-driven longevity care is no longer a luxury, but a standard.

Listen to the full conversation with Samir Mitra to hear how Reya is making this vision a reality.

They were $4.5 million in debt. Revenue had flatlined. And Patrick Sullivan Jr. and his father were seriously considering closing the doors on the supplement company they had built from scratch. That was Jigsaw Health in 2008—just three years after launching with 66 products, a handful of customers, and a vision the market wasn’t ready for.

“We probably would’ve been better off launching with one SKU and 66 email addresses,” Patrick says.

What turned things around wasn’t more innovation—it was restraint. They cut back on products, trimmed their team, and focused on what was working. Jigsaw’s turnaround came not from doing more, but from doing less—and doing it better.

Key decisions that helped them rebound:

• They scaled back SKUs from over 100 to just the few with real traction, like their now best-selling sustained-release magnesium product, MagSRT.
• They stopped chasing ineffective media—at one point, Jigsaw was spending over $100K/month on Facebook ads that weren’t converting. When they cut spending cold turkey, revenue kept rising and profitability soared.
• They invested in brand storytelling, not just product marketing. With “Funny Friday” videos, social skits, and culture-driven campaigns, they turned content into connection and built trust through consistency and fun.
• They leaned into niche tribes like the pickleball community, not just as a sales opportunity, but as authentic fans. That connection sparked new product lines, content formats, and customer evangelists.

Now, Jigsaw Health is producing not just supplements, but documentaries. Their latest project, Breaking Big Food, explores how the American food system went off the rails—and what it will take to fix it. It's a bold step that aligns perfectly with their brand’s mission: to challenge convention, educate through storytelling, and help people feel good—body and mind.

The lesson for other founders? You don’t scale by doing more. You scale by doing the right things—with clarity, consistency, and creativity.

In honor of Mental Health Awareness Month, we’re spotlighting a founder whose journey is as unexpected as it is inspiring. After years of working in high-stress environments at Vogue, Marie Claire, and Glamour, Suze Yalof Schwartz found peace—not in a pill or a retreat, but in a three-minute meditation that changed her life. That experience became the foundation for Unplug, the world’s first drop-in meditation studio, a top-rated mindfulness app, and a global teacher training program. To help more people experience the benefits of mindfulness, Suze is offering three months free on the Unplug app throughout May.

Suze’s mission was clear: make meditation accessible, modern, and easy to integrate into real life. What started as a single studio in Los Angeles quickly gained a cult following, inspiring the creation of the Unplug app, now used by people in over 100 countries. Today, Suze leads a movement that’s transforming stress into calm for everyone from Google employees to anxious college students.

Why Unplug Works:

• Modern, no-fluff approach: No incense. No chanting. Just quick relief in under 10 minutes.
• Studio-to-screen transformation: From in-person classes to a global app and live-streaming platform.
• Built for the real world: Designed to help with pain, anxiety, sleep, productivity, and overwhelm.
• Founder with media chops: Suze used her fashion and TV background to train teachers and build an experience that feels inspiring, not intimidating.

“Fashion is about outer beauty. Meditation is inner beauty.”
– Suze Yalof Schwartz

In a world that keeps us “plugged in” 24/7, Unplug offers something rare: a place to breathe. A space to reset. A tool you can turn to every day to feel grounded—even in chaos. And this month, Suze is offering three months free on the Unplug app to encourage more people to begin their own journey. Use this code to get your three months free. https://team.unplug.app/sign-up#TRYUNPLUG90

Visit unplug.com to learn more, or stop by the LA studio at 12401 Wilshire Blvd.

You’ve built something truly transformative. It delivers real results. Customers love it. But the market doesn’t get it... That’s the story behind Own It, the high-performance health platform founded by Justin Roethlingshoefer. Designed for executives and entrepreneurs, it’s part functional medicine, part performance coaching, part custom-formulated supplementation—all unified through one integrated team and system.

It’s powerful. It works. Retention is 94%. But early on, scaling was a struggle.

“We had the antidote to what people were suffering from,” Justin says. “But I didn’t know how to package it. Nobody knew what box to put us in.”

That’s the challenge with category-defying innovation: if your audience can’t instantly understand what problem you solve and why you're different, they move on. And no amount of clinical results or founder passion can fix that without a clear story.

Here’s what Own It had—but struggled to articulate:

• A solution built for high-performing founders and execs who’ve deprioritized their health
• A fully virtual coaching team: functional medicine, nutrition, fitness, therapy—all integrated
• Daily communication and real-time adaptation to lifestyle, travel, stress, and goals
• Deep testing at the cellular level—plus custom supplements, not stock vitamins
• An experience designed to feel like a board of directors for your health
• Quarterly in-person labs and community events that build accountability and connection

“People asked, ‘Are you fitness? Biohacking? Concierge care?’ We were none of them—and all of them.” Once Justin clarified the story, Own It began to scale. With his wife (former EVP at Christian Louboutin) as CEO, the company now serves over 1,500 clients with a team of 50+.

The takeaway for founders and investors:

The more innovative your offering, the harder you must work to simplify the story. It’s not about dumbing it down. It’s about meeting your audience where they are—so they can run toward what you’ve built. 

Listen in as Justin unpacks the story behind scaling something the world didn’t know it needed.

Nick Ovenden is proving that fitness can be a powerful vehicle for family connection and community change. By creating spaces where families grow stronger—physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

As the president of GreatLIFE Golf & Fitness, Nick Ovenden is on a mission to help people live healthier, more purposeful lives—starting with his team. In this conversation, Nick shares how a conversation about how to make better use of conference room space at a golf club sparked the development of a vision to get families involved in fitness.  

Some Key Takeaways from Our Conversation:

• Kids Aren’t Sidelined- They’re Included
  Rather than keeping children in a childcare room, GreatLIFE encourages active family zones where kids participate and learn in a dynamic environment.
• Fitness As A Family Value
  GreatLIFE's mission goes beyond memberships and workouts; it's about helping families stay healthy together. From youth sports to multi-generational fitness programs, their goal is to make wellness a family affair.
• Creating Space for Connection
  Whether it's playing a round of golf together or taking a group fitness class, Nick believes shared experiences build stronger bonds. GreatLIFE is intentionally designed to encourage families to unplug, show up, and spend meaningful time together. 
• Wellness that Lasts a Lifetime
  Nick’s leadership training emphasizes tools like DISC assessments, calendar management, and communication techniques to help individuals grow in every aspect of life. 
• Business with Purpose
  Even in tough seasons financially, Nick stands by the belief that investing in his team, not just profit, creates the only kind of success that matters. 

Dr. Neil Correia left his traditional OB-GYN career in search of something medicine is definitely missing: time, connection, and true preventative care. Now as the founder of Nova Longevity Center, he’s leading a fast-growing movement of doctors rethinking what healthcare should look like—less rushed, less reactive, and more rooted in helping people feel like themselves again, and live not only longer, but healthier. So, whether you’re a provider looking to make a change or just curious about a new approach to medicine, Dr. Neil provides both insight and inspiration. 

Some Key Takeaways from Our Conversation:

• From Burnout to Balance: Exhausted by the demands of hospital life and longing for more time with family, Dr. Correia transitioned into functional and longevity medicine.
• A Different Kind of Visit: Patients come in saying, “I’m not feeling like myself.” His focus: identify subtle root causes before they turn into disease.
• Why Insurance Doesn’t Cut It: Most of his patients have insurance but pay out of pocket for deeper, longer visits. “Insurance is for catastrophes. This is about prevention.”
• Smaller, Smarter Clinics: His goal is to build a network of small, high-impact clinics nationwide—personal, local, and rooted in real relationships.
• The Data That Matters: Regular labs, body composition scans, and aggressive screening drive measurable outcomes.
• Supplements & Compounding—Used Wisely: He vets every recommendation for safety, data, and value—no guesswork.
• Advice to Clinicians: Start small. Do it on the side. Grow with intention. “You don’t have to leap—you just have to begin.”

Dr. Correia isn’t just reimagining the doctor-patient relationship—he’s proving that a better model exists. One where prevention is personalized, medicine is human again, and longevity isn’t about living forever—it’s about living well. His transparency around money, mindset, and patient care serves as an empowering reminder: it is possible to build a practice that prioritizes both people and sustainability.