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Jenna Anderson: Turning Ideas Into Impact · Beyond the Break

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Beyond the Break, a podcast where we dive deep into the stories behind today's entrepreneurs, leaders, and change makers.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: And we uncover what it takes to build something that lasts.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: Let's get started.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: Beyond the Break.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_03: Well, Jenna Anderson, welcome to Beyond the Break.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_03: You ready?
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_01: I am ready.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for having me.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_03: Great.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_03: Well, we're thrilled to have you here today.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_03: Jenna is really encapsulates so much of what we're exploring here on Beyond the Break, where you're a mother of three, you're a CEO, you're an entrepreneur, you're involved in health and wellness.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_03: So you really check all the boxes, and I'm thrilled to have you here.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_03: So welcome.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_01: No, it's a pleasure.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_01: I love the mission.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_01: I love the concept.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_01: Excited for our conversation.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_03: Great.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_03: Well, let's start a little bit with why are you a serial entrepreneur?
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_03: Because I met you at a CEO networking event, and at the time you were with another firm, but you have a history of working with startups, leading them through funding challenges and through launching on the marketing side.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_03: So what brought you to that world?
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, I I joke with people.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_01: I say once you go over to the dark side, there's no going back.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_01: It's addictive, I think, in a lot of ways.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_01: I started my career on the corporate side, worked for major companies, Fortune 100 companies, Fortune 200 companies, and you know, there's something to be said about having an idea and being able to foster that idea from concept through to commercialization.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_01: I tell people it's the most exciting time in a company.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_01: It's the hardest time in the company because you're trying to get an idea that you haven't even proven yet to prove that it can work, and then make sure people want to buy it, and then make sure you have enough money to pay people to get it to a point where it can be bought.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_01: But I just limited resources.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_01: All with limited resources, limited time.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_01: Um it's an adrenaline rush.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_01: I know I I think most uh entrepreneurs, you know, you have to have two key things in common.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_01: One, um, you have to have a why.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_01: You you know, you're not gonna be able to wake up every day and go through all the challenges of can I make payroll?
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_01: Do I have enough funding for this?
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_01: Um hearing no, a ton if you don't have a why, like a passion that will get you through the really tough times.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and that also breeds into culture.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_01: And then two is you truly have to like roller coasters.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_01: You have to love the ups and downs, the adrenaline rushes, the excitement.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, how I describe it is I we can have an idea in the morning and we can determine by the end of the day if it's feasible.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_01: If you work in a massive company, you might have an idea and it might take you six, nine, twelve months to see if that idea is feasible.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_01: And you have to go through so much rigamaro, meet so many people.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, in a startup, you don't have to.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_01: All of that is is noise, it's gone.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and you're truly just passionate about creating something.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_03: So, what's the why of your firm now?
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_01: Um, this is the most personal why I've ever had.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so my mother uh lost her life to Alzheimer's at a very young age, frontal lobe dementia, to be exact.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_01: And she was diagnosed in her early 50s.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_01: And at the point of diagnosis, we went to every clinician.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I got her into a clinical trial with the doctor who named her can her rare form of FTD called primary progressive aphasia.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_01: And all of them pretty much said it's a death sentence, there's nothing we can do, there's no true medicine that's going to give her a higher quality of life for a longer period of time.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_01: Every medication out there today is really sustaining life, um, but ruining your quality of life.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_01: And so after, you know, going all over the world, I mean we went to Mexico everywhere for her treatment.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_01: What really got me in talking to companies that are developing Alzheimer's drugs is that we find out you're sick too late.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_01: The average person at the point of diagnosis has had symptoms for up to 18 years.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and it's very hard to intervene in any disease when the damage is done.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_01: You can't reverse that damage in most cases today.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_01: Hopefully, in the future we can.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so it really set me off on a mission of how do we enable earlier, better diagnostics, not only for treatment intervention, but for drug development.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and what we're doing now is just that.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_01: We have the first company focused on the earliest signals of disease detection, um, specifically in metabolic dysregulation.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_03: So, what are some of those?
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_01: Uh so if you think about it, what most people don't realize is Alzheimer's is called type 3 diabetes.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_01: Um it there's so much linkage.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of linkage to sugar.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_01: And in fact, if you are diagnosed with diabetes before the age of 60, your odds of getting Alzheimer's double.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_01: It's profound.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_01: Um but the problem is at most cases, at the point of diagnosis, over 60% of your beta cells are gone.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_01: And a simple science lesson.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, we have our pancreas, in our pancreas, we have eyelet cells, and our eyelet cells we have beta cells.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_01: The beta cells allow us to uptake insulin, which basically turns into energy, it impacts our hormones, everything.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_01: It's basically how how we run, how our body runs and functions.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and people are diagnosed so late with diabetes that they have less than 60% of their beta cells left, meaning you're operating on less than half a tank for the rest of your life.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_01: But we can solve that.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_01: And that's what's pretty exciting.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_01: So, our first technology that we launched uh last year is the earliest detection test for diabetes.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_01: We are the first company in the world that with less than 1 ml of blood we can actually measure beta cell apoptosis, which means the rate at which your beta cells are dying.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_03: Is this type 1 or type 2?
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_03: Both.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_01: Uh in type 1, we're the first direct measure.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_01: So the goal there is to prevent anybody from ever getting DKA because we'll identify the disease before it's done damage and make you a candidate for diplismap, which is an infusion therapy.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_01: And in type two, the goal is to identify this disease before you lose your beta cells so that you can intervene more effectively, stave off disease in the first place, potentially never get diabetes.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_01: And in staving off diabetes, you're saving off the consequences and the linkages between cancer and heart disease and Alzheimer's.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_01: So the goal is to touch everything early and to do it simplistically.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and this this like a young child could use it as well.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_03: Everyone.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_01: So uh our first uh submission to the FDA will be in children, actually.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_01: Oh wow.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_01: Uh it will be in type one.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_01: We are actually selling today as a lab derived test, so you can steal across the country in every state except for New York without a physician prescription.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_01: Really?
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_01: Which is really exciting.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_01: Um, two aspects of our mission are accessibility and affordability.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_01: Um I don't believe you should create anything people can't afford.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_01: That's just not on the everybody's.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_01: Every test we bring to market will be less than$300.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_01: They'll all be HSA FSA eligible, so you can use those dollars in lieu of us seeking broad reimbursement, which takes a long time.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_01: Um and accessibility was really important.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of this amazing technology, you have to know an integrative or functional medicine doctor.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_01: You have to be in a market where they're provided.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_01: Um, most people aren't.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so I believe you should be able to walk into any retail pharmacy or go online and access true diagnostics to know what's going on in your body without any red tape.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_01: That was really important to us.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_01: So we've accomplished both of those with our first technology.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_01: It actually won Innovation of the Year at the American Diabetes Meeting last year.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my gosh.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_01: Um we're off to the races with that.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_01: We have an incredible team.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_01: And then we have a pipeline of amazing tests.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_01: So we are currently studying um the early detection test for pancreatic cancer.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_01: Our goal is to have high sensitivity and specificity in stage one.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_01: When we can actually save someone's life.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, we have a grant pending for MS.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_01: And then our sort of uh, you know, our beach head or the goal for us long term is to have the first early detection test for Alzheimer's.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_01: Um and so that it's something that any one of us could take on a yearly basis and see if our body is actually developing Alzheimer's before the damage is done, and when you have the opportunity to reverse it.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_01: Um I've said this before on a podium, but I can say it confidently, I'll never get Alzheimer's.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_01: Um and I know that because I know what causes it.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, I test for it.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and you know, I'm never going to put my children through what I went through watching my mother die way too young.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, especially her dying so young, but just in general, that disease where we're seeing I had that with my father, it's it's such a prolonged, you know, challenge on the families and the and the person because it's a terrible way to go.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_01: Nobody wants to go that way.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_01: Um and you know, I think as a society, we're shifting.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_01: We spent a long time um believing that you know we had a predestined genetic profile.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_01: That I had these genes and therefore I was going to get.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_01: Um what science is teaching us is that's not true.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I I say it kind of simple.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_03: Some of that's marketing, but oh it is, but it's not true.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_01: Just because I have a genetic makeup doesn't mean I'll get anything.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_01: The environmental factors determine in most cases what actually happens.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_01: And if you're not looking under the hood of what's going on with your body, you're never going to find the problem.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_01: Um, in fact, the name of the company is Key Health, and that was intentional, key KI means the source within.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_01: It's going to the source of the problem, figuring out what it is, so you actually have a game plan to fix it.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_03: So with your marketing strategy, so you've got this great product, would the farm would the insurance companies want this?
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_01: Like, that is such a good question.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_03: So I would think that it would save them money later on.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_01: So the insurance companies are a really interesting animal.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um insurance for-profit industry is challenging.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_01: I think we all have seen that and witnessed it.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_01: Um what most people don't realize is uh the insurance companies look at individuals on an 18-month basis because that's the average amount of time you would stay with any one insurance provider, be it Anthem, United Healthcare.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_01: So if they can't make an ROI in 18 months, they're not interested in every decision they make unless it's mandated by the government.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_01: So preventative diagnostics, which inherently would make you think, hey, you're preventing disease.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_01: Disease is costly.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, they it there's no ROI for them.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_01: Because they can't guarantee they'll make the investment money back, even if that investment money is less than$300.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_03: So they're not thinking, all right, we'll save you 20 years from now or 15 years old.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_01: Because that you won't necessarily be a customer of theirs.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_01: Um so they look at it in very finite windows.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, eventually they get on board.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_01: It takes a long time, um, which is why for startups like us it can be very challenging because they'll come to you and say, we'll cover you when you have 10 years worth of longitudinal data that prove that you actually detected and potentially staved off disease.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_01: Startup companies don't have the time to get 10 years worth of data.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_01: Um we're in a bit of a unique position in two ways.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_01: One, um, type one, as an example, has been studied for a very long time.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_01: Um, there are databases and repositories that have followed individuals for up to 20 years, of which a subset developed, a subset did not.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_01: So it gives us the advantage, and we've already established these partnerships, to look backwards versus looking forwards and come up with that 10 years worth of data to essentially encourage a coverage decision.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_01: The other route that diagnostics are going, and um you see this with Coleguard as an example, is they're going to the US uh Preventive Task Force, which is a government organization that's focused on screening tools and requesting the government to mandate coverage.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_01: Um and that's a route we are also pursuing.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_01: It just takes a lot of data.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_03: Well, the good thing is your costs are low, so you might have less resistance from the government.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_01: Well, and it's it's a stair step approach.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_01: So when you look at revenue, because that's what every startup is looking at, they're like, How are you gonna survive?
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_01: How are you gonna get to your next milestone?
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_01: Um, we have three novel shots on goal and revenue, and that was intentional because you don't know which one is necessarily gonna keep you afloat in a startup.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_01: So we have direct to consumer with the FSA HSA um opportunity and the ability to pay cash for tests, and it's available in retail pharmacy today.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_01: It's also available on Amazon, Walmart, all of the major channels.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_01: The second is um clinical trials.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_01: So there are numerous clinical trials going on right now in diabetes drugs, um, specifically insulin-based drugs, insecrine-based drugs, uh, GLP ones, um, where we can be an endpoint measurement of efficacy.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so we're in conversations with quite a few companies around clinical trials.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_03: So, do you employ the scientists or how how have you developed your model?
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_03: Because what you're talking about has advanced research to it, it has a marketing aspect.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_01: So I tell any startup you have to figure out what is your value.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_01: Like what is unique about us.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_01: And when you think about an exit, um, not that that's on my mind right now, uh, whether that's, you know, through acquisition or through IPO, how is the market going to value what we're creating?
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that's where a lot of startups go wrong.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I tell people very clearly our value is not going to be a multiple on revenue.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_01: Revenue doesn't really matter.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_01: Um because it matters to keep us afloat, but it doesn't matter when you think about value.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_01: We will be valued on our IP.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_01: We have very novel IP.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_01: Um we have been able to intellectual property.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_01: Intellectual property.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_01: Sorry, you get these up very novel intellectual property and trade secrets that come at a very high value because we've been able to do something that nobody hasn't been able to accomplish, and we have a very nice patent moat around that.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_03: So did you develop the IP?
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_03: I don't remember seeing PhD in your uh not me.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_01: I I joke all the time.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_01: I'm the least intelligent person in my company.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_01: Um That's a great thing.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_01: That's that's important.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I employ uh four PhDs currently.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_01: Um in fact everybody on my team, minus one person, um, is a scientist.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_01: And so really all of our overhead capital is focused on research.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_01: Uh we're valued on our research, on what we've been able to create, it's where most of our investment goes into.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_01: So it's in validating and continuing to improve upon our commercially uh viable tech that's already in the market and then building out our RD pipeline.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_03: Sure.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_01: Um everything else, so from a sales and marketing perspective, we outsource.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_01: I we don't we don't in-source it.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_03: Um because the industry specialists, I'm assuming.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, to uh whether it's contractors or distributors, we have numerous distributor relationships in place.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_01: Um nobody's going to give me a higher value for having a sales force.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_03: Oh okay.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_01: So it makes more sense for me to contract a sales force through a third party where I don't take on the overhead expense and I'm able to garner more data because every sample that comes into my lab is more data.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_03: Um so you don't need to hire people to go on CVS and Walgreens.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_03: I don't.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_01: I use distributors.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_01: So what most people don't realize is that CVS is a little bit different.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_01: But um all of the retail pharmacies that you see when you go into a small town or a large community, they all kind of roll up into three major hubs.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_01: So McKesson, Sankora, and um sorry, and Cardinal Health.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_01: So those are the three largest distributors.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_01: So what they do is they're buying groups, if you think about it.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_01: They buy warehouse and then ship to every pharmacy across the country.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_01: So if you are partnered with Senko Cardinal Health and Macessin, I don't ship to anybody.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_01: I ship to them and then they distribute.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_03: So you have three clients, not exactly ten.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_01: And that allows them, they hold setting price, education, marketing.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_01: So it allows me as a very small shop to operationalize a large commercial distribution without having the headcount.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_03: So can you say to them this box can't cost more than 300?
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_03: 100%.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_03: You set price.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_01: And so map pricing is true in any product when you walk into a store.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_01: So when you walk into a store to buy something at CVS, uh, when that company contracted with CVS, they agreed upon a price that it couldn't go below.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_01: That's the biggest thing is you're protecting your below threshold.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, okay.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_01: Because what you don't want to happen is people discounting to the bottom.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_01: Um and we have to hold true to that.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_01: So I can't even directly sell the product for a price that's less than what I've agreed to allow them to sell it for.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_03: So if we go on Amazon right now to buy one of these, it'll match.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_01: It will match what you would see.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_03: Um, because you're being fair to your partners.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_01: You have to be, or they won't want to work with you.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, that's that's sharp.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_03: I like that.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_03: So other you know, overall, how how many people are employed by your firm?
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_01: Seven.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_03: Wow.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_03: So you've really created an efficient way to do this.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_01: Um yeah.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_01: So we have our we have our own lab, and um, you know, kind of going back to roots, because obviously you you are based here, it was really important um for me and my co-founder when we created the company to create it here.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_01: I grew up here, not only in Florida, but here in my hometown.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, so I grew up here, obviously went to college and left um and didn't come back until later.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, four four years ago.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um and you know, I had the pleasure of being in New York City and then Southern California and Orange County is really the mecca for a lot of biotech and health tech.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_01: And then when I moved back, I think we talked about this, there was nothing here.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_01: Um, in Jacksonville specifically, most of the biotech and healthcare innovation was happening south.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_01: So it was either in Miami, Orlando, Tampa.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so when we started a company, we were really being purposeful about trying to really build a biotech ecosystem in the town we grew up in and start to spur more innovation staying here and coming here.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_01: Um so we have our own lab set up.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_01: We'll probably double our lab in the next 12 months, um, all based in St.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_01: Augustine.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_02: That's so good.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_01: Um and we've had to uh hire and move here every scientist so far.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_01: Um we're happy to do it, we're happy to do it.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_01: Uh they've all they were all in Florida, but they moved to Jacksonville from other areas of Florida, from Orlando, from Tampa, from South Florida.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_01: Um but our goal is to encourage more people in Jacksonville to study science, to study biotech, and to stay here.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_03: Sure.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_01: Um and to have job opportunities that are not just in big hospitals, which are wonderful because you have I was gonna say we have the Mayo.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_01: You have so well, Mayo, you have UF, you have Flaggler, you have Ascension, you have you have St.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_01: Vincent, you have a ton of hospitals here.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_01: But there's a different mindset as a scientist to work in a hospital and to work in a startup.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_03: Um so we really How do they make that transition?
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_03: Because it it's good, it's basically from a safety net to this unknown.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_01: Most don't.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_01: I'm being totally transparent in that.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_01: Um you know, and that's really when I interview people, that's what I'm interviewing for.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, what is your comfort level with ambiguity?
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_01: What is your comfort level with deadlines?
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and you know, not necessarily getting a firm SOP or instruction manual to figure something out and having to build that manual.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um, because you know, they say when you're in a startup, you're building the car while you're driving it.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um most scientists are not geared that way.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_01: Um in fact, everybody that we've hired, we predominantly hired either out of school uh that stayed in the environment, the kind of education environment, um, or they worked for another startup.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_01: Oh I think when you've gotten comfortable in the lab specifically, uh working in an environment like a hospital where it's routine, it's the same thing every day, no matter what.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_03: And and you don't even know where the funding's coming from.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_03: They're just working.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_03: They're just working, yeah.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_01: And they're and they're they know that I'm gonna show up in this hour and I'm gonna do the same job every day for you know the foreseeable future.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_01: When you show up in our lab, I'm probably gonna ask you to do something almost every day that you haven't done before or didn't know you were gonna do or weren't prepared to do.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_01: Oh wow, and you have to kind of that has to excite you.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_01: I'd like I tell people you have to get jazzed about the unknown, or it doesn't make any sense for you to work for a startup.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_03: So where you've got, I'm just off the top of my head, I think you named four different uh diseases, plus or minus.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_03: Do you want to have twelve or do you want to just dominate those four?
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_03: Like what's your strategy going forward?
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_01: Aaron Ross Powell Uh I was a betting woman.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_01: If we have a shot on goal with our second one, um we'll probably get acquired.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, okay.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think we'll even I don't know that we would make it to what we would we have two two paths.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_01: Uh everybody says, what's your exit?
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we we have I tech technically three different approaches we could take.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_01: We're building a platform.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_01: Uh one, we could license the indications as we validate them.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_01: Um and that is a very viable solution which would give us additional revenue to begin to continue studying other indications.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_01: Um or there could be a company that wants to take the platform as a whole and continue that entire you know evolution.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know yet.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_01: But you know, if I looked at the market today, um, you know, last year was a big year for diagnostics.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_01: Um if you're not in our space, you're probably like, what happened?
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but you had Exact Sciences, um, which was acquired by Abbott for over 20 billion.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_03: What was their specialty?
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_01: Uh cancer.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_01: So they did uh oncology-based screening, um, more broad, less specific and sensitive, uh, but they were covering most cancers.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_01: Um and then uh you also had a billion to one that IPO'd for over two billion.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_01: Um that's a pediatric uh screening tool in molecular uh in molecular science.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_01: Um and both of those were fantastic for a company like ours because they're cementing that the market sees value in molecular diagnostics, and that's the market we play in.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_02: Sure.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, we're earlier on than both those companies, but essentially we've been at this for three years.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_01: We've already validated our first technology, which is rapid if you look at the market.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um and we're pretty confident that we'll validate the next one and we'll see where it takes us.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_03: Do you think you're leveraging, you know, I feel like I I hope it's not just me, but I feel like so many more people are aware of their health now.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_03: And through podcasts and and different video interviews uh like this, where people are saying how you can control your fate of health, not just what pill will you need when you're 55, right?
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_03: So it do you think is that another tailwind for your interview?
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_01: Well, uh absolutely.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, I however you want to look at this, the po the positive that did come out of COVID is I think a lot of people woke up and they go, Oh, maybe I'm not as healthy as I thought I was.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_02: Sure.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I I saw people that I thought were healthy get really, really sick.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_01: Um you know, maybe I need to reevaluate.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_01: The other big thing that happened during COVID is trust was broken with the Medical community.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_01: And so there is a generation of individuals that had spent their entire life saying whatever the doctor says is right.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_01: And I think you have now a new generation that says, hmm, well, I'm gonna double check that.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_01: I have AI, I have friends, I have social media.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna revalidate if I think that that's actually accurate.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_01: There's good and bad to that.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and I think there are people that are saying, I want to know if I'm really healthy.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and the market changed.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_01: You know, there wasn't really a market for at-home diagnostics.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_01: People weren't comfortable with drawing blood at home or shipping tests to labs and getting good stability so the sample had high quality.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_01: Uh COVID changed all that.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_01: People got comfortable collecting samples at home and shipping them to a lab.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_01: In fact, the convenience is fantastic.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I don't think I've seen a doctor in person in probably three years.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_01: Um I I think all of those things change the market.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, really where we sit and what is profoundly important about everything we do is I truly believe we all should be in the driver's seat of our health.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_01: I tell my friends all the time I'm in my 40s, so I feel like that's all you talk about in your 40s as a woman, um, is how you're feeling every day and whether or not you're tired.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but I tell people all the time, if you don't feel good, yeah, find out why.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_02: Sure.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_01: You know, like don't just deal with it or say, you know, I'm not, I'm not gonna have energy, or I'm not gonna be optimized, or I'm bloated, or I'm gaining weight.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_01: Like if these things are happening, there's something else going on, and now we can find out.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_01: And we can find out without leaving our house.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_03: Um minimally invasive.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, minimally invasive.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and we're not the only game in town.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of really novel diagnostics that are coming to market, which is exciting.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_03: That's great.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_03: And you know, I remember when I met you, you put me in touch with you know, a medical person who opened my eyes to other kind of blood tests, other thing, other ways to evaluate how healthy you are.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_03: Just that knowledge alone was a first step.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_03: And what we do here at our company is we've started a program where once a month I have a third-party company advising us on how to read labels, what's in your food, what's really healthy for you, what's not healthy.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_03: Just an awareness, so you don't just think, oh, when you hit your 40s and 50s, you put on a little bit of weight in the midsection.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_03: That's not that's not the way it has to be.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_01: It's totally controllable.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and you know, I I think where you've taken your health and kind of hacking it, you know, you you don't have to it doesn't have to be exhausting.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I I also tell people, I'm like, figure out what works for you.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, I take vitamins and supplements, as as do most, I'm sure, but I don't take hundreds like Rob does.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_01: I mean he needs like a whole warehouse for his vitamins.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_01: I take what I need and I work it into my regimen.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_01: And I joke, I I won't take a pill because I don't like pills.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_01: And so I always say if you don't like something, don't try to put it into your regimen because you're just not gonna do it.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_01: Um it inherently doesn't work.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_01: Um and almost everything I take goes in my water or my coffee.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm gonna drink both of those anyway.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_01: I keep it really, really simple.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_01: And I keep it simple with my kids too.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_01: And I make taking vitamins fun.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, everything they take is gummy based.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_01: Obviously, you have to go through a lot of gummies to find the good ones.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_01: But then they think they're taking gummy bears.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, and and also don't take what you don't need.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_01: I think, you know, there's good and bad to all of this sort of hacking, but then we're like, oh, I'll just add that and I'll add that.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_01: And then you're like, oh, I don't even know if I need half of these things I'm taking and I'm spending a ton of money on.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, sure.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_01: And that's where diagnostics also comes in and giving you a baseline of what you actually need.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_01: Where is your body deficient?
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_01: Where is your diet deficient?
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um, or are you aging in such a way that you need to supplement?
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_01: And then just fix that.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_01: Don't fix the stuff you don't have to fix, and then measure again to see if it's working.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_03: No, for sure.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_03: And I think also the exercise and I've taught Rob's uh your partner, right?
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_03: Your business partner, um, and you've known him a long time.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_03: But uh he's also in a sauna, cold plunge, any of those that you like to use?
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_01: He's obsessed at I love the sauna.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, he has no kids though.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_01: Um as a caveat.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_01: I have no life right now because all of my kids are in competitive sports.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_01: But um, I am a huge proponent of all of them.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_01: Uh hot sauna, I love the infrared sauna.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_01: There's a ton of literature out there and studies too that back up the clinical efficacy of the infrared sauna.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_01: So if you're gonna start somewhere, I think that's fantastic.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_01: Um I hate cold plunges.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_01: I know they're valuable.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_01: I see the value.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_01: I love the people that are like, I cold plunge, I don't drink coffee.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, I drink coffee, I don't want to take a cold cover.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_01: Um so again, like I you have to figure out moving your body.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_01: I move every day.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_01: I exercise probably five days a week.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but I also do things I love.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_01: Um I'm not a gym person.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_01: You probably won't ever find me in a gym.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_01: I don't like them.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_01: Um I like comfort.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_01: I play pickleball.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, okay.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_01: Uh and I'll do Pilates occasionally, but um I love pickleball because it's competitive, it's social, it's outside, and I exercise.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_01: So it hits all of the things I know I need in my life.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_01: You get sunlight.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_01: And if I only have an hour a day, you want to hit as many as you can.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so that works for me.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_01: And so I I when I'm chatting with my friends, I'm like, find something that works for you, something you love.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_01: So that when you're getting up at six in the morning to squeeze it in, it doesn't feel like a sacrifice.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_01: It feels like enjoyment.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_03: No, but like you said, getting outside, getting in the sun, all that triggers your circadian rhythm, helps you sleep better, helps you feel better, your everything's moving, your lymphatic system's moving around as well.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_03: So those are simple, free things to do.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_01: Aaron Powell Well, and your your mind is sharper.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, you know, or you gotta go back to what matters for people.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_01: Um and I'm like, I work better when I exercise.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_01: No, no, there's no debating this.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_01: I am more with it, I'm happier because I've gotten that movement that I needed, the got the endorphins to get going.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I'm sharper, I'm able to get more tasks done effectively.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_01: Uh so there's so many benefits to your job when you actually move and you eat better and you're healthier, uh, and you watch out for the three horsemen.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_01: Uh the three horsemen horsemen I always say, you need to know your inflammation levels, you need to know your gut health, and you need to know your metabolic health.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_01: If you know these three things and those three things are in check, the likelihood is you won't get sick.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and most people, if you ask them in a given day, like, hey, do you have any inflammation?
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_01: They'd be like, uh I have no idea.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_01: Is your gut healthy?
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_01: Because most of what you see on your skin actually is going on in your gut.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_01: So if you have eczema, psoriasis, acne, start in your gut.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_01: It's that's likely the issue.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_01: We all treat the skin, but we're missing the main culprit.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and then what is your metabolic health?
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_01: Because if those three things are working in the right direction, you're gonna age in a way that it's gonna give you the time and the energy to live the life you want to live.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_03: No, I think that's that's huge.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_03: And it's beyond just, you know, your product solving for one of those, but a lot of it is boils down to what are we putting in our bodies and what are we doing with ourselves each and every day.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_03: And then you're solving for the third.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_03: So well, it's been great getting to know you more today.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_03: And I think we covered a lot of ground.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_03: It's it's been so impressive watching your career and this this it's no longer a startup.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_03: I just think you you gotta call it a maturing company that you and your team have built, and it's amazing.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_03: So, and and most importantly, you're gonna be impacting lives, which is phenomenal.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_03: So, well, thanks for coming in the studio today, Jenner.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, thank you so much for having me.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_01: I love the platform and it's been a privilege.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for tuning in to be on the break.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_00: If this conversation brought you value, make sure to like, subscribe, and hit the bell so you never miss an episode.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_00: We've got more real stories, sharp insights, and powerful turning points coming your way.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_00: See you next time.