Reclaim: The Growth Decisions Reshaping Health

The Payer-First Growth Playbook to Scaling Inside Healthcare with Andrea Ippolito, Founder & CEO of SimpliFed

Every founder talks about product-market fit. Fewer talk about reimbursement-market fit, distribution, and the operational infrastructure required to scale inside healthcare. In this conversation, I sit down with Andrea Ippolito, founder and CEO of SimpliFed, to unpack what it actually takes to build a venture-backed healthcare company in one of the most overlooked areas of medicine: postpartum care. Andrea shares how her own experience becoming a mother led her to identify a massive market hiding behind what many dismissed as a "niche" problem. We discuss why she intentionally built inside the healthcare system rather than around it, how regulatory complexity became a competitive advantage, and why founders often underestimate the power of focused execution. Connect with Andrea & SimpliFed * Website: simplifed.com [https://www.simplifed.com/] * Instagram: instagram.com/simplifedbaby [https://www.instagram.com/simplifedbaby/] * LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/simplifed [https://www.linkedin.com/company/simplifed/] This episode is brought to you by Future Digital [https://scalewithfuture.com]. Future Digital partners with the next generation of category-defining health brands — across paid media, lifecycle and retention marketing, and performance creative. AI-enabled, human-led, and built for categories where trust is the product. Visit scalewithfuture.com [https://scalewithfuture.com] to learn how we help health and wellness brands scale.

Innovating Behind the Moat with Greta Meyer, Co-Founder & CEO of Sequel

One of the most widely used products in women's health hadn't meaningfully changed in decades, until Greta Meyer stepped in. In this episode of Reclaim, I sit down with Greta Meyer, co-founder of Sequel, a company reimagining tampon design through engineering, performance, and real-world user experience.  As a former Stanford athlete, Greta noticed firsthand how periods remained one of the last overlooked performance barriers for women in sports. That insight sparked a journey that led to FDA clearance, patented innovation, and a mission to improve confidence for women everywhere. We dive into product innovation, fundraising, consumer education, manufacturing challenges, and what it really takes to build a medical device company as a first-time founder. In this episode, we cover: - Why most tampon innovation stalled for decades despite widespread consumer dissatisfaction. - How Sequel engineered a new tampon design to improve absorption and reduce leakage. - The realities of fundraising, FDA clearance, and manufacturing as a first-time female founder. Connect with Greta & Sequel Website: trysequel.com LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/trysequel LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/gretameyer Instagram: instagram.com/trysequel This episode is brought to you by Future Digital [https://scalewithfuture.com]. Future Digital partners with the next generation of category-defining health brands — across paid media, lifecycle and retention marketing, and performance creative. AI-enabled, human-led, and built for categories where trust is the product. Visit scalewithfuture.com [https://scalewithfuture.com] to learn how we help health and wellness brands scale.

The Movement to Make Fertility Mainstream with Samantha Diamond, Co-Founder & CEO of Bird&Be

What if fertility support was as accessible as your skincare routine? In this episode, I sit down with Samantha Diamond, Co-Founder and CEO of Bird&Be, the fertility wellness company helping people take control of their reproductive health through education, at-home testing, and science-backed supplements. After navigating her own experience with PCOS, pregnancy loss, and fertility challenges, Samantha left her career to build a company that could close the enormous gap in reproductive health education. Just a few years later, Bird&Be has grown into an eight-figure business, serves customers across every stage of the fertility journey, and recently expanded into more than 1,000 Ulta Beauty locations. We discuss what it takes to build trust in a highly personal healthcare category, how fertility awareness is evolving, why male fertility deserves more attention, and the realities of scaling a venture-backed company while raising a family. In this episode, we cover: * Why proactive fertility education needs to start much earlier than most people think. * How Bird&Be built product-market fit through deep customer listening and community-driven growth. * The importance of reclaiming control during a fertility journey through education, testing, and actionable health decisions. Connect with Samantha and Bird&Be * Website: birdandbe.com [https://birdandbe.com/] * LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/samantha-diamond-1484a718 [https://www.linkedin.com/in/samantha-diamond-1484a718/] * LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/birdandbe [https://www.linkedin.com/company/birdandbe/] * Instagram: instagram.com/birdbeco [https://www.instagram.com/birdbeco/] This episode is brought to you by Future Digital [https://scalewithfuture.com]. Future Digital partners with the next generation of category-defining health brands — across paid media, lifecycle and retention marketing, and performance creative. AI-enabled, human-led, and built for categories where trust is the product. Visit scalewithfuture.com [https://scalewithfuture.com] to learn how we help health and wellness brands scale.

Turning Trust Into a Growth Channel for Health & Wellness with Irfan Alam, CEO & Founder of Frontrow MD

What happens when the biggest challenge in wellness isn't product innovation—but trust? In this episode, I sit down with Irfan Alam, Founder and CEO of Frontrow MD, to explore how he's building an entirely new category at the intersection of healthcare, commerce, clinician expertise, and AI. After leading strategy at Everlywell and spending time at Rock Health, Irfan identified a critical problem facing health and wellness brands: consumers want better health outcomes, but they don't know what to trust. That insight led to Frontrow MD, a platform helping wellness brands earn clinician validation, increase conversion rates, and build credibility at scale. We discuss the realities of creating a category from scratch, the challenges of recruiting thousands of clinicians, why customer acquisition costs remain one of the biggest barriers to wellness adoption, and how AI is reshaping trust in healthcare. In this episode, we cover: * Why trust, not awareness, is becoming the primary growth bottleneck for wellness brands. * How clinician-backed validation may become as important to health products as customer reviews are to ecommerce. * How the next generation of health commerce will combine human expertise, clinical evidence, AI, and personalized guidance. Connect with Irfan & Frontrow MD: * Website: frontrowmd.com [https://www.frontrowmd.com/] * Instagram: instagram.com/frontrowmd [https://www.instagram.com/frontrowmd/] * LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/frontrowmd [https://www.linkedin.com/company/frontrowmd/] This episode is brought to you by Future Digital [https://scalewithfuture.com]. Future Digital partners with the next generation of category-defining health brands — across paid media, lifecycle and retention marketing, and performance creative. AI-enabled, human-led, and built for categories where trust is the product. Visit scalewithfuture.com [https://scalewithfuture.com] to learn how we help health and wellness brands scale.

Infrastructure, Not Inspiration: How Chiyo Scaled Women's Health with CEO & Co-Founder Irene Liu

Most founders talk about customer experience, but few truly think about infrastructure. In this episode, I sit down with Irene Liu, co-founder and CEO of Chiyo, to unpack how she built one of the most thoughtful and clinically-informed brands in maternal nutrition, starting from hand-delivering meals herself during COVID to building a company that now serves as a blueprint for where women’s health is headed next. What stood out most in this conversation wasn’t just Chiyo’s growth story. It was Irene’s perspective on infrastructure, behavior change, and how founders in health and wellness can build companies that solve deeply human problems without over-marketing or over-complicating the customer experience. We talk about the evolution of women’s health, the realities of scaling community-led acquisition, why paid media alone stops working, and what it takes to build trust in an emerging category. We also dive into Chiyo’s recent acquisition by Epicured and what it unlocks—from Medicaid partnerships to clinical research and performance nutrition programs for female athletes. In this episode, we cover: * Why the future of health and wellness brands will be built around infrastructure, not just products * How community, practitioner partnerships, and IRL activations became Chiyo’s highest-leverage acquisition channels * What founders can learn about category creation, timing, and consumer trust in women’s health Connect with Irene & Chiyo: * Website: wearechiyo.com [https://wearechiyo.com/] * Instagram: instagram.com/wearechiyo [https://www.instagram.com/wearechiyo/] * TikTok: tiktok.com/@wearechiyo [https://www.tiktok.com/@wearechiyo] * Chiyo’s LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/wearechiyo [https://www.linkedin.com/company/wearechiyo/] * Irene’s LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/ireneliu17 [https://www.linkedin.com/in/ireneliu17/] This episode is brought to you by Future Digital [https://scalewithfuture.com]. Future Digital partners with the next generation of category-defining health brands — across paid media, lifecycle and retention marketing, and performance creative. AI-enabled, human-led, and built for categories where trust is the product. Visit scalewithfuture.com [https://scalewithfuture.com] to learn how we help health and wellness brands scale.