Nourish raises $70M Series B led by JPMorgan to expand insurance-covered dietitian network

we do some timeline in the meantime? Let's do it. Let's talk. I messaged Will. I I'm I'm actually uh concerned hopefully like you know Oh, we have someone. Okay, great. Yeah, let's bring him in. We have Aiden. Welcome to the stream. How you doing? Welcome. What's what's up, guys? Thanks for having me.

Uh, congrats on all the success you're having with the show. You guys have blown up. Yeah, I mean, success uh you know, technical difficulties. It's uh one thing after the other today on the stream, but we're doing well. Our last great bounced two seconds, but uh it was a great conversation and excited to have you here.

Would you mind kicking us off with a little bit of an introduction on yourself, the company, and the news from this week? Sure. Um yeah, so I'm Aiden Dur. Uh I'm the co-founder and CEO of a company called Nourish.

Uh Nourish connects chronic condition patients of all different types with a registered dietitian over teleahalth and we get it covered through through your health insurance. Um you know we have the largest network of dietitians in the country. We have over 3,000 dietitians on the platform.

Um we've served hundreds of thousands of patients and the vast majority of patients uh pay nothing at all through their through their health insurance. We're a network with uh most major commercial insurance payers, Medicare, you know, some Medicaid plans at this point.

And you know, I've made a lot of exciting progress um that we can speak about today. And then yeah, in terms of the news, you mentioned uh we announced a series B round recently. It's a $70 million round. 70. Let's go. Fantastic. Yeah. Ring the bell. Ring the bell. Congratulations. Thanks. Yeah.

So uh you know it was led by JP Morgan's growth equity fund and then uh participants um from all all of our existing investors.

So Index Ventures who had led the series A and Thrive who had led the seed round and then Box Group who I know our mutual friend David David Tish um who's you know invested at the seed round has doubled down at every round including this one for David. Yeah. Yeah. We got we got mutual friends all all over the place.

James Peront Morgan doing him proud. JP Morgan in the deal. uh is this uh like why was this not covered by insurance before? Is this a regulatory change? Is this technology? What's driving the growth in the business? Are you just the first to think of it?

Or is there something unique that's allowed you to start covering this type of treatment uh with insurance because that seems like a major major unlock, right? Yeah. Yeah. Good question. So, um this actually first started getting covered in the early 2000s by Medicare. I think it was 2005.

uh Medicare had done a study and seen ROI for this this sort of care.

And really the insight that you know Medicare put together which is kind of the same one we put together is that you know you look at the healthare um healthcare crisis and you know trillions of dollars to spend and hundreds of millions of people with chronic conditions and millions of deaths um each year.

uh actually kind of you start double clicking most of those are downstream of nutrition and the vast majority of spend is just downstream a handful of conditions you know obesity and heart disease and high blood pressure and cholesterol and kidney disease and you know a few others and so they had seen ROI for working with a dietitian you know it's a really effective intervention and started covering it and then the affordable care act um 2009 carved it out as a preventative benefit um and so that's this coverage and then kind of the commercial payers you know followed and more Medicaid plans um and then kind of the more recent unlock which is right around when we starting the business the business is a little over 3 years old was uh tele health coverage uh at par with in person because of COVID.

And so um that was kind of you know maybe the the biggest you know recent regulatory unlock that you know made this uh you know a lot more accessible. Of course you could have built this business you know in person uh but would have been much harder than than the way it's built today via teleah health. Yeah.

On the on the subject of the raise how is it different raising from you know major financial institution versus a uh you know typical valley VC? I imagine it's both similar and different at the same time. Yeah.

So, um I think actually, you know, in terms of the the actual firm, uh the person we're working there, Paris Haymon, who um we're really excited to partner with, he actually was previously at Index Ventures and been part of the team that had run our series A.

So, actually, you know, wasn't so different uh in practice in terms of just, you know, we'd already known him and and I think the you know, the processes are similar. I think the biggest difference uh really was obviously at each incremental stage uh there's different expectations.

So series B you know very different in terms of you know maybe more focused on the actual metrics and and getting really deep on the data than than series A or or or seed.

And so you know that's definitely you know an an adjustment but uh we're fortunate that kind of the you know the basics of the the process and and and the buyin on the mission and vision and stuff like that was you know pretty similar to last round given we already knew Paris. That makes sense.

What is the tech stack like for one of these companies?

Are is there like a plaid of insurance that you can kind of build on top of like or are you writing integrations and is is this uh is there a piece of like you know service as a software where there's a lot of humans in the loop in the short term and then in the long term it'll be AIdriven like uh what does the actual uh buildup of the company look like?

Uh so there there is not not a not a ton of what you said in terms of the insurance contracting piece.

That's something we've and kind of a big unlock and the value we provide for dietitians is uh actually going directly to these insurance companies and you know negotiating these contracts and um I think that's one of the reasons you know most dietitians didn't accept insurance historically is uh it's a pain to you know go directly to one of these really large enterprises and negotiate a contract and then even if you get the contract you know deal with the ongoing administrative burden licensing credentiing billing and whatnot and so um for the most part we've built you know all that whether it's from a tech perspective or just from a you know operational uh competency perspective inhouse uh we have leveraged you know, a great vendor called Candid Health for for billing and it's kind of, you know, API forward billing platform that we've built on top of.

And so that's been a big unlock on the billing side, but I would say most of the other stuff from a, you know, contracting and credentiing and licensing perspective has been, you know, a lot of manual work and uh kind of competency that we've built up in house. Yeah.

Can you talk about trends in uh the evolution of dietitionians and how they work? We we were talking about how uh there was some research that showed that artificial intelligence was particularly good at therapy and you could imagine the future is you know you just have an LLM giving you diet advice.

Uh they're on they're on Tik Tok. They're like okay my all my clients are keto now and the next week they're on Tik Tok again. They're like okay we're going pale everybody carnivore now. How's it evolving? No. Yeah.

Yeah, I mean you're hitting on an important question which is like you know we've seen AI be a big unlock for the business and I think uh you know you're you're kind of asking more about you know the patient side uh which what we've started to build in into the app is you know essentially a lot of tools for the for the provider to use or the patient to use without the provider in the loop to get a lot of the you know info you're you're you're talking about and the way I think about it is like you know about 80% of the equation is actually behavior change but about 20% and like accountability and that's where the human is is especially good But 20% is a little bit more like educational blocking and tackling and Google is not especially good at that but you know the LMS are.

And so that's a lot of where we're leaning in is like how do you you know give the the dietitian tools to uh with AI to to really provide amazing care on the things that only they can do and then leverage AI for the rest of you know you know if you're u you know if you've gotten to the point where maybe you're obese and have multiple chronic conditions.

It's it's not that you're just kind of you know a couple educational tips away from from having success. you know, you've typically built up these habits over years, if not decades.

And so, um, while the LM can, you know, provide some help in terms of educating you on on what's good for your diet and personalizing it and and whatnot, um, the dietitian is really important for having the the human in the loop and and really the accountability to do that behavior change.

And so, you know, as the LM keep getting better, like we, you know, we want to really lean in there.

You know, we think we're, you know, really well positioned to to leverage AI in this way given, you know, we've seen hundreds of thousands of patients and have a lot of data on what works in terms of driving outcomes and and and habit change and behavior change.

And so uh we think kind of the you know the the synergy is having you know both the dietitian and the uh and the AI in the loop kind of drives the better care ultimately. Very cool. How what have you seen around the adoption of GLP1s?

Uh the concern that I've always had with them is that people that should just focus on their diet end up you know taking you know a magic shot that makes them lose weight.

Uh and that's good because for for a lot of reasons, but um uh I have to imagine a lot of the a lot of the end patients that you guys work with uh are both using GLP-1s and you know thinking about um the diet uh uh very intensely, but what's your reaction been?

And I'm I'm sure that's a question you you got a lot even during the the fund raise I imagine. Yeah. Yeah, for sure.

And um it it has been really interesting to see that you know the evolution of that over the past few years and you know the our dietitians had a lot of expertise working with GLP ones even before you know the the recent explosion you know I think as you all know they were originally improved for uh diabetes and so dietitians have been you know working with diabetic patients on them for for a long period of time but of course the uh you know the recent explosion that that's everyone has seen for weight loss has also affected us and what we've seen is that um they are a really um really important innovation and a really valuable for a lot of patients and a really useful you know tool in the toolkit and we've definitely seen it skyrocket in terms of our our patient population and people using that.

Uh but they aren't a panacea. Uh so uh you know there's a lot of side effects. Um a lot of people fall off the medication because of the side effects or or they're just like you know the logistics of adherence of getting access to the medication and injecting yourself every week.

And so what we've really done is kind of pair ourselves as a complement to the drug. Um you know these drugs are FDA approved to be paired with diet and lifestyle change. And so they we see ourselves as as that part of the equation.

And you know there are a few different ways we've kind of built out our care model um uh across kind of the journey of a JLP1 which is first you know we have a care program that's before you even get on a medication.

So a lot of folks want to uh before they try try a medication see if lifestyle change will work for them. And so um we'll kind of have a you know a step therapy type product where you try it before you get on the medication.

Um and then if you do choose to get on the medication uh we have of course a companion program that will maximize the efficacy of the drug by by mitigating side effects.

And you know we've seen a lot of cool outcomes with people losing uh you know about 33% more weight uh with the dietitian plus the JLP1 than uh than they do just with the JLP1 alone. And then the final piece of the equation which is you know maybe the most important which is actually getting off the drug.

you know, uh, a big problem with the medications which are our, you know, our payers see, but also our patients is that, uh, when you get off, you often see rebound weight gain and then, you know, for, of course, for the patient, that's really frustrating and difficult, but also for the system and for the insurance payers, uh, from an ROI perspective, now you've spent all these dollars to have someone lose weight and then regain it, which of course is, you know, uh, worse.

And so, uh, we have, you know, a program built around getting off the the medication, making sure that's that's sustainable for the long run.

And so yeah, we've seen it be, you know, a really big tailwind for the business because uh it's top of- mind for payers in terms of managing this cost and lifestyle change is a part of it. And then of course patients are are really motivated to uh uh change their behavior once once they're on one of these medications.

What's the use of the funding? $70 million is a lot of cash. Uh is that R&D spend? Are there growth channels that you're investing in? How are you thinking about growing the team and the company over the next couple years with that new series B? Yeah.

Um so I mean the way we've always kind of thought about our success is scale and outcome. So it's you know how many people can we help and how much do we help them you know the quality of the care and so uh want to use the capital on both.

So you know scale maybe most obviously we want to really invest in uh expanding our network of dietitians.

So as mentioned have 3,000 today you know the the largest in the country but had a long wait list for a long period of time of dietitians who want to join who haven't been able to and so really want to expand our network of dietitians quickly to be able to support more patients.

Of course on the patient side of the equation we'll we'll invest in go to market to get in front of uh more patients to raise awareness that this is something that's you know effective and covered by their insurance.

Um and then on the payer piece of the equation want to keep investing in uh you know partnerships with insurance companies as I mentioned you know we have you know pretty good national coverage a couple hundred million lives covered at this point but there's you know a lot more plans we can get a network with to expand coverage and want to continue doing so.

And then, you know, maybe last but certainly not least, maybe the part that I I'm most excited about is really accelerating development and product development, you know, you know, effectively. I think, you know, we talked about some of the AI use cases we've seen for patients and and dietitians.

And uh I think basically everything we've built there has has has been successful for those parties and driving outcomes and and saving dietitians time and and uh patients really love it.

And so, you know, we're really eager to to continue investing in a lot a lot of that, you know, product development and um you know, long term. I think the the reason we got into this I I had had my own chronic condition.

I'd had really bad migraines and I had worked with a dietitian to solve it and uh you know of course dietitians uh were were really valuable for me and that was part of the reason and and my co-founders and that's part of the reason why I wanted to expand expand access to it.

But we know that you know part of healthy lifestyle change is not just nutrition but things like mental health and um and sleep and fitness and I think there's a lot of interesting kind of applications we can do uh of that in our product to drive better outcomes and so really want to run at that pretty quickly.

What else are you seeing in the overall like health tech market that's interesting or complimentary? We talked a little bit about GLP1s. There's a lot of uh online pharma companies that are working in that market, but uh where else are you seeing exciting companies or trends that could be complimentary to what you do?

Yeah, I I think they're kind of on the on the vectors that I I just mentioned. So, of course, there's been a lot of movement in the in the GLP-1 space and we've partnered with uh with players there to to help get access to these medications to our to our patients.

Um, you know, a lot of our patients work with, you know, a therapist in tandem and so, you know, there's, you know, great companies in the mental health world that we've we've referred to. Um, I think labs are are really interesting. You know, about 85% of our patients get, you know, labs done each year.

It's of course a natural part of the care journey of both getting a baseline of you know discovering you know where you're at in your health journey and where you need to improve but also as you're making progress over time.

Um it feels like was just destroyed by the Therono story and no venture capitalist will touch it now. But uh yeah I mean it does seem like there's a lot of new new entrance there. Superpower and function health kind of doing uh the the upmarket version but there's lots of other ways to get labs done obviously. Yeah.

Yeah. And it's it's I think you know of course theos was you know more about the actual kind of base level of like getting getting the lab work done.

I think a lot of these you know players that are doing cool work that you mentioned are are more about uh kind of facilitating getting the labs through the through the large lab companies and then when AI is really great of like interpreting the labs and so uh of course a lot of our you know our patients are are getting labs done consistently and think the people there are doing a lot of cool work.

That's cool. Jordy, anything? Amazing. This is great. This is fantastic. Thanks so much and congratulations on the massive round. Said it again. Oh, thanks. Thanks. One last size, guys. It was great to be on.

You ask good questions and uh you know, I I was thinking about as I was getting on, I was uh we feedback's really big on our team and and always get feedback about talking too fast. And so, as I was going on here, I was like, "Oh, I got to make sure to, you know, talk slowly.

" But then I realized YouTube and podcast ad, that's probably where most your views are. People will just change the speed, but they won anyway. Yeah. A lot of people say they just listen to the show on 2x because it's too much content. So, the real high performance on 3x. So, that's the future.

People can listen to whatever whatever they want. Anyway, thanks so much for stopping by. We'll talk to you soon. Great to meet you. Cheers. Uh, next up, we have Madic Robotics coming into I'm pumped for this one. Yeah. Yeah. You've been talking to the founder. I was DMing with the founder. He sent us a robot.

We're going to have it be cleaning our new studio in no time. We're very excited for that. Wired said, "This is the best robot vacuum we've tested. Scored a rare 10 out of 10. " Let's hear it. Bum. Can I get the Ashton Hall sound effect? There we go. I haven't heard this at all