Hone Health
With a focus on profitability over hyper-growth, the team at Hone Health has built one of the largest men's health telehealth platforms. In this episode, co-founder & COO Stuart Blitz pitches this concept to our hosts.
Our guest VC in this episode is Lynne Chou O’Keefe, Founder and Managing Partner at Define Ventures, and investor in hims, Folx, Found, and more. We dive into the business and discuss:
Which parts of healthcare work well for D2C business models, and is this one of them
User acquisition and their pay-back period
The trade-off in top-line growth and building healthy unit economics
How they ensure positive customer experience even for those who don’t qualify for treatment
Lynne also discusses how fundraising today is like managing A Tale of Two Cities, investors want to see the growth of 2020 along with the business fundamentals of 2022.
Meet the Co-founder
Stuart Blitz has extensive experience in the healthcare industry. Stuart is currently the Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer at Hone Health, a men's optimization clinic that offers at-home blood tests, telehealth consultations, and medication delivery. Prior to this, Stuart held the position of Chief Business Officer at Seventh Sense Biosystems, where they played a key role in designing and developing the world's first push-button blood collection device. Before that, they worked at AgaMatrix, where they served as the Executive Director of Business Development and Strategy, as well as the Director of Worldwide Commercial Development. Stuart's experience spans over several years and includes a focus on improving healthcare systems and providing convenient solutions for consumers.
Stuart Blitz obtained a Bachelor of Engineering (B.Eng.) degree in Biomedical/Medical Engineering from The Johns Hopkins University, which they attended from 1998 to 2002. Later, in 2012 and 2013, they pursued a Master of Science (MS) degree in Investment Management from Boston University. Additionally, Stuart Blitz holds the certification of CFA Charterholder, but no further details regarding the institution or year of obtaining it are provided.
Meet the VC
Lynne Chou O’Keefe is the Founder and Managing Partner of Define Ventures, an early stage venture capital firm focused on investing in digital health companies redefining healthcare. Define Ventures focuses on incubation, seed, Series A, and Series B stage digital health startups. Lynne has partnered with entrepreneurs to help them build category defining digital health companies, such as Livongo (NASDAQ:LVGO), HIMS (NASDAQ:HIMS), Unite Us etc.
Previously, she was a Senior Partner at Kleiner Perkins focused on digital health and connected devices early stage investing. Before joining Kleiner Perkins, Lynne worked at Abbott Vascular and Guidant in multiple roles launching over ten product families in the US and internationally. Lynne was responsible for building the global commercial strategy and therapy development as well as playing a key role in the clinical, reimbursement, and operational strategy for these therapies. Earlier in her career, Lynne worked at Apax Partners with a focus on software venture capital investing. In addition, Lynne worked at Goldman Sachs in the Mergers and Acquisitions group and worked on multiple multi-billion dollar acquisitions and sell side transactions in various industries. Lynne has been named WSJ’s Women in Venture Capital to Watch in 2020. Lynne earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Engineering from Stanford University and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.