My next decade in health

Among the many things I’ve done during this pandemic - juggling childcare, homeschooling and self-care - I’ve also had the opportunity to reflect on my next steps since leaving Cricket Health.

Looking back at the last decade, I’ve been fulfilled and challenged, caring for some of the sickest chronically-ill patients in our country, understanding first-hand what life can look like at the end of our journey, dependent on others each and every day. 

I’ve experienced the good, the bad and the ugly of our U.S. healthcare system -- the mission-driven teammates that go above and beyond, the perverse incentives that often influence care, and the lack of support, empathy and coordination that often leaves patients and their families disconnected and overwhelmed. 

I’ve built my leadership, operating and entrepreneurship muscles, and while making plenty of mistakes along the way, I served diverse teams large and small, created jobs, teams and values-driven cultures, and improved access to care in under-served communities. I now know what it takes to lead and grow within public (DaVita), private equity (Home Care Assistance) and venture capital (Cricket Health) backed companies, and how fun it can be to advise founders at early-stage ventures.

During this same decade, I’ve also been on my own personal health journey, finding myself “healthy” but increasingly fatigued, desperate to have the energy and strength I needed to show up fully as a dad, husband and executive, and reluctant to rely on caffeine, medication and wellness gimmicks to keep going. I’ve long known the importance of regular physical activity, but didn’t know what to do beyond going to the gym and getting on the treadmill. I’ve long known the importance of eating my veggies, but didn’t know what supplements if any I needed, and struggled to find my way among the many demands of family dining and picky kids. And as family and professional demands increased, I found my sleep suffering and the cycle continued.

Along the way, I found three constants - in addition to my family - that helped me gain confidence, strength and energy, stay sane and keep my life from spiraling. 

• First, I joined a local soccer league. While I’m certainly less flexible and have lost a step since my high school days, playing soccer every Saturday morning (before COVID19) has been such a joy, and one of the most fun things I look forward to every week. I can't wait to return to the pitch soon post COVID19.
• Second, I discovered a virtual personal training service (Future Fit), set-up a basic home gym, and have thankfully been able to keep a consistent routine for the last 9 months, relying on the accountability and support to make sports conditioning and strength training a foundational part of my life.  
• Third, I’ve found unexpected communities that have supported my personal and professional development, exploration, reflection and experimentation, from On Deck (entrepreneurial career transitions) to Mylance (freelancing) to Health Tech (digital health). 

My personal and professional journeys have motivated me to explore the quickly evolving world of fitness/physical conditioning, sleep/recovery and recreational sports, and commit to defining a new future for how we enjoy ourselves, and care for ourselves and those we love. Ultimately, I desire to help people avoid the downward spiral towards chronic illness, and have more fun in living our lives. And instead of transforming how we care for those that are sick, I intend to focus on transforming how we prevent people from getting sick in the first place. 2020's pandemic has only strengthened my resolve.

While so many of us know, or think we know, the basics of what we need to do to live a healthier life, modern day living and its demands - our jobs, families, technology, etc - often makes it challenging to sustainably incorporate this knowledge into our daily lives. It’s too easy to give up, get hurt, fall off, go too fast, or not start at all, when we don’t have personalized support systems and accountability.  

We’ve spent more time and money on healthcare and wellness solutions than ever before, but we’ve become increasingly unwell. Obesity, diabetes, burnout, depression … the list goes on, and the "solutions" proliferate. And it’s widely understood that the majority of chronic disease (up to 80%) comes from our lifestyle choices, primarily diet and physical inactivity. 

Chasing the trending supplement DTC brand, mattress, HIIT class or tech gadget won’t sustainably improve our wellbeing and quality of life. Building another EMR or ACO (to use healthcare jargon), won’t transform the direction of our community’s health. In addition to policy and regulatory changes, we need personalized guidance and motivation, accountability and support, empathy and compassion, and a connection to people who share our values, interests and goals. 

Every wellness category is getting re-imagined, yet we ultimately just need to get back to the basics — sleep, don’t smoke, move more and eat nutritious foods. But it’s easier said than done.

Over the next decade, I’m committed to making healthy living fun, easy and sustainable.  To start, build and scale companies that offer relationship-driven, personalized services, building strong foundations of health, well-being and fun in our lives, and give us the strength and energy to do all that we want to do.

We still need to do the hard work of eating better, moving more, and making the time to recover, but I imagine a future where it's easier to do this work, through scalable 1:1 training relationships supported by technology, by incorporating recreational sports and outdoor activities as foundational fitness activities, prioritizing basic strength training and mobility over the latest HIIT craze, offering personalized guidance and accountability, and reimagining community-driven retail and e-commerce where products take a back-seat to services and support. 

There's so much we need to do to change our broken healthcare system ... and it starts with changing how we support healthy lifestyles, each and every day.

If you’re an investor, founder, or executive who already shares this approach, and cares about improving health through reimagined personalized fitness services, recreational sports and e-commerce, I’d love to hear from you and explore the possibilities together.