Keith Cline, VentureFizz
Ada, thanks so much for joining us.
Ada Glover, Zus Health
Yeah, thanks so much for having me, Keith. I'm excited.
Keith Cline, VentureFizz
Yeah. Likewise, Zus has one of the most amazing teams in healthcare. And you guys are onto some really, really exciting things. And when I look at the tagline on your website, it's reversing the curse of health data isolation. So what is this? What do you guys do?
Ada Glover, Zus Health
Yeah, absolutely. Well, let's start with the fact that we're in this really exciting almost plastic moment in healthcare where healthcare is really becoming driven by technology, a lot of exciting tailwinds that are behind that, right, we have a lot of regulatory forces new sort of leaps forward in technology, we're seeing patients sort of start to act like consumers and really want to engage in their care and sort of out of that this immense wave of digital health organizations that are really starting to bring technology to the forefront. It's really a core part of how they're delivering care. And off the back of that there's sort of two main problems that have emerged, right. One is, you know, the technology, infrastructure, and healthcare just isn't up to the job of supporting these folks that are trying to be innovators. And they're having to muddle through a lot of basic challenges just to get their vision out there. And to is we've built this siloed world where data sort of sits within the walls of these big institutions. And we're from a patient's perspective, even signing up for a new digital health provider requires me to start from zero when it comes to sharing my information, getting the provider up to speed on who I am, what I need, and what's happened to me in the past. And so what Zus is trying to do is sort of solve those two problems. One is, you know, build in a way that is, is ready for these digital health innovators, and to do so in a way where the patient's records at the center. And then you can provide access and sharing and collaborate on top of that, instead of having these really siloed copies of my data that's, that spread around and prevents the kind of experience that I think we all want.
Keith Cline, VentureFizz
So this is a very meaningful and powerful platform for the healthcare industry. So it seems like there's a lot of different constituents that can be involved in terms of accessing data like so who is the end customer?
Ada Glover, Zus Health
Yeah, so our focus to start is the innovative tech enabled provider. And a couple of reasons why we focus there, one, they're small, they're hungry, they're nimble, they're really ready to push the envelope on how technology is used and are hungry to do that they're hungry for data, they're hungry for experience, in a lot of cases, they're taking on risk, right? The two we focused on folks that have that patient provider relationship, they have that trust. They, they, they're they're trying to change the paradigm of care and how it's delivered. And in many cases, they're at risk. So they have incentives to really be innovative and use technology in creative ways. I think some of our initial partners that we're working closely with, like Firefly health, city, block health, Oak Street are great examples of these companies. They're, they're taking on risk for their patients. They're engaging them in new and innovative ways, whether that's through multidisciplinary teams, whether it's through virtual first visits, and they're really building their own technology in a way that is pushing the envelope and sort of brings technology to a first class in the organization with kind of product and tech folks sitting alongside their clinical teams.
Keith Cline, VentureFizz
Now you're a co founder and chief product officer at Zus. So talk about your background, prior to joining the company and how it all came together.
Ada Glover, Zus Health
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, this has been such an amazing team to work with. And I feel really lucky to be part of it as well. So a little bit of background on myself, I'm sort of a product person at heart and someone that found my way to product somewhat gradually, but it was it was always there from it was always a kid that was tinkering with technology and design and interested in solving those problems. So, you know, did a little bit of the foundational business stuffs and banking, some consulting early in my career and then had the opportunity to be part of a startup the team be part of the founding team of an edtech organization called Zurg. That helps children sort of learn and love math and provide some of the some really high quality technology for math instruction. And then from there, I was looking for something that was really mission driven but leverage technology as part of its core value proposition found my way to Athena. We spent a number of really terrific years there solving different problems I was on the revenue cycle side worked on our for our hospital customers also moved over the clinical side and really enjoyed that time. So that was sort of my journey. Gradually finding my way to healthcare, gradually finding my way To these product leadership positions, and I feel like I found my home in terms of being able to apply this skill set being at a company where technology and sort of systemic problem solving is at its core, and then being in a mission driven organization where our goal is to really lift the tide and in catalyze innovation in this industry. So that's kind of my personal journey. I obviously know Jonathan and much of the rest of the founding team from Athena days. And he and I, you know, we're in touch theoretically reconnected a couple of years ago, as I was trying to figure out what was next. And he was starting to be ready to do something new and kick Zus off the ground. And that sort of started from, from a career advice conversation where I reached out to him to, to provide a little bit of guidance, one conversation led to another and before I knew it, we were making exuse reel, and here we are about a year and a half later.
Keith Cline, VentureFizz
So what's the current stage of the company in terms of size with employees funding, whatever you can share?
Ada Glover, Zus Health
Yeah, absolutely. So from a funding perspective, we raised a series a last summer in June, raised $34 million, which is really terrific with some fantastic investors like a16z, who led the round f prime Maverick, a really great team of folks that understand the industry rock health as well. And then our team has been growing particularly on the product and engineering side, because the focus right now is building out the platform, and then taking what is Jonathan's grand, ambitious vision and turning it into reality. And so our team is about 50 employees right now, all across the US, we do have an office and sort of a center of gravity in the Boston area. But we're very virtual first remote friendly as well, both because of our mission and our customers, and you know, the area in which we were created. So our team is about about 50 today, and then we work with a number of other partners that help us get off the ground.
Keith Cline, VentureFizz
Alright, so Zus is growing aggressively. So what are the key functional areas that you're going to be hiring for?
Ada Glover, Zus Health
Yeah, I think two things. So product engineering design, in particular, are areas that we're continuing to grow. And as those teams grow, also making sure we have some of the infrastructure around that, imagine us over the course of the next year, product analytics will start to become more important than maybe something that we invest in. But if you look at our jobs page, today, we have some exciting product rules on my team, and then our design function is an area that we're really focused on hiring, and then constantly sort of building out this engineering team, again, because the vision of what we're trying to do, you have this core foundation of this patient centered data record, but then we're plugging in a lot of data sources, we're building some of the API's and front end components to make all of that come to life. There's just a lot of exciting work to be done. We also now that, you know, we're bringing the product to market starting to be in the early days of building out some of the more commercial parts of the organization, still relatively small, but an area that we're starting to invest in.
Keith Cline, VentureFizz
Now, once someone does join the team at Zus, like what's your like working there? What's the culture like?
Ada Glover, Zus Health
Yeah, I mean, I think the culture really reflects the problems that we're trying to solve and sort of who we are a couple of things that I really appreciate about our culture. One is, is there is this sense that we need to get going and then continuously get better. I've always been amazed by this US team, and the depth and the rigor of the retrospectives that they have on the engineering side, just some of the most thoughtful, open, honest conversations that I've ever been a part of. So that really comes to mind, too. We're trying to be disruptive and work with folks that are disruptors. And so, and using technology to do that. So I think it's also a culture that really values engineering and the art of it. We are fortunate enough to work with some really brilliant engineers, as our customers as well. And so this constant culture of challenging one another in a constructive way of focusing on excellence of that craft, and balancing that with moving quickly, right, that's always always a challenge. And so I think that's really important. And then the third piece that I really love is this idea that what we're trying to do is create a platform that will help accelerate and catalyze the industry. And so there's really I guess, generosity of ideas across the organization, whether it's an engineering or how we work with sort of our prospective customer community. There's a lot of ideas sharing openness about the challenges people are facing and willingness to get out there and share those concepts. Number of our engineers have really had our blogging about some of the technical challenges they face. And we have this great community of interested sort of digital health companies that we're constantly in dialogue with. And just this idea that as long as these problems get solved, who solves them, or when and how is almost less important, it's something that I really appreciate it. Appreciate about Zus, there's that focus on the mission.
Keith Cline, VentureFizz
Now, there are lots of opportunities out there in the job market, it's very active, it's competitive, which is a good thing. So why is now the ideal time to join Zus?
Ada Glover, Zus Health
A couple of things, I think, one, like I said, I think this, this is sort of a right moment, right opportunity, right company kind of thing with the backing of Jonathan and the rest of the leadership team and are great investors. And so I think the opportunity is, is really tremendous. If we succeed, we could, we could really have a sort of paradigm shift impact on the industry. And I think there are a few, few places where you have the opportunity to make that kind of impact. I think the second piece, and one of the things that drew me to the opportunity was technology and product are at the core, and really sort of how drive how decisions are made and how we staff and how we recruit. And I think that's really special. I think being able to do that, but at the same time know that you're having a meaningful impact on an industry like healthcare, right to get both of those things, I think is is is challenging, there may be companies that have really passionate and impactful sort of clinical missions, but maybe the technology is an area where it's sort of a means to an end instead of the product itself. And so being in that kind of technology, and product centric environment is something that I appreciate. And I think lastly, we're at a really great sort of time, in our trajectory, I feel like we've heard that the market is excited for what we're doing. We've gotten some traction, we have some early partners, we have the team, we have some of the foundational pieces of our product in place. But there's still a lot of iteration innovation, succeeding and failing to do and so it's kind of this nice balance of you're not entering a totally blank slate and trying to figure out, you know, how do we show up for work each day, some of that foundation is in place. But there's still tremendous opportunity to really make your mark and, and have an impact. And lastly, like coming back to what you said the team is just amazing. I think we have brilliant engineers that are bringing lots of different perspectives to the table. We have a really motivated team, we've got a lot of industry expertise between sort of Jonathan and the rest of the leadership team and just a group of folks that are really passionate about making this work. And, you know, growing and changing and challenging each other to make that possible.
Keith Cline, VentureFizz
Well, if you are instant exploring opportunities at Zus, I mean, this is a fantastic opportunity where, you know, we can't highlight it enough, but the team here is unbelievable. And it all starts with a team without a great team, a company is never going to succeed. This is also a huge opportunity in the healthcare industry to make a massive impact. And the market opportunity is obviously enormous. So you need to go check out their job listings on venturefizz. Go to venturefizz.com/zus and that is Zus. And you'll see all their listings there. Ada, thanks so much for taking the time to walk us through all the great things happening at the company.
Ada Glover, Zus Health
Yeah, thank you so much, Keith for the opportunity to share all the great things that are happening here at Zus.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
