#152 Oma Health
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I'm josh mu tio. This is the pitch where started founders raise millions and listeners can invest. The pitch for ola health is coming up right for this.

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The tape on the roof, there are so many ways to pitch to start up the chAllenges, figuring out which pitch will resonate with which VC, particularly when you're first starting out and there isn't much of a business yet, you basically just have your story, some napkin math, survive. But with the right investors across the table, that little nap can idea can jump off the page and become something much, much bigger today on our last pitch before the season. Finally, cala apps presents her story and an option idea to change the world.

Hi everyone.

good morning.

Across the table, we have science banister, Charles hudson, liberian macon well and Jessie middle.

So Jessie.

nice to meet you.

OK I i'm ka .

apps CEO and founder of all my health and my founders. Origin story begins with the fact that I grew up with the grandmother, never thought that sh'd lived long enough to even enroll in medicare, because pretty much everyone SHE knew died before the age of five, and they die due to conditions that we now know are preventable with timely access to quality healthcare. And if you think that fear stopped with my grandmother, you'd be wrong.

Because in twenty twenty four, as a black woman, if I get pregnant and more than twice likely to die from IT, I have a higher likelihood of stroke, diabetes, kidney disease, you name IT. If I get diagnosed, breast cancer have a forty percent higher chance of dying from IT than my White peers. And despite my experience in education, in public health, bias and inequity sit with me in every single exam room.

The american health care system is fAiling me in twenty one million other black women living in the united states, even though we're paying nearly ten billion dollars and out of pocket healthcare expenses each year, is because of my experiences and education that i'm the founder of oma. Or we're not only connecting black women to nurse spectin ers who specialized and culturally component care, but most importantly, we support those nurse practitioners through an AI enabled business in a box model. North practitioners are poised to be one of the fastest growing professions in the next decade, and they lead the charge in delivering high quality, affordable, culturally competent care.

Oma enables nurse practitioners to open up their own practices and focus on care, not administration like billing, credential, scheduling. We take care of all of that so that they can focus on what matters most, which is nurturing relationships with their patients so that they can improve health outcomes. And if you're asking why now and why this solution, the answer is quite simple.

The market is vast. The women's held market is estimated to be worth one hundred and eight billion dollars by twenty thirty. And if your next question is, well, why me? Because my experience working at some of the biggest payers and digital health startups to quick me with the knowledge to not only thrive in this emerging market, but to lead IT.

Oma is the german word for grandmother this company. And our mission is a love letter to my grandmother to let her know that we can build a health care system or we keep black woman alive. We're raising one million dollars for a precede to bring that vision to a reality.

amazing. Make a great pitch. Thank you. You mentioned there, but you can go into any detail about your background. Could you please share more? Love the person story, but love to know more about your professional background.

Yeah, can do so. I've got my masters, a public that you can see, travel hill, which is best public health school in the country. But i've spent most of my time working at one of the bs health care payers in north CarOlina in a blue ross will shown north.

But I also understand the provider side, working at digital health startups that were responsible for improving health care access for rural medicare advantage and roll lease and what we wanted do at, oh my health, this focus on the south, the space that many of these sexy healthcare startups don't really play in. But IT comes equally important when you think about fifty six percent of black folks live in the south, much of the south is rule. So in order to succeed in that market, you have to understand the ins and outs of rural communities. And and I know that quite well.

And though you're raising a million for this proceed, but can tell us of what stage of development is the company.

yeah. So we're working on developing our nbp, but the funds for appreciate would help finalize ze that product build and help bring IT to market. Right now, we're heads down with a few beta north practitioners in helping them open up their own practices are really focusing on their biggest pain point right now, which is getting credential with insurance company is so are focusing on getting those conversations going with the largest players in the southeast.

What's the time line for the launch? Once we close .

around within eight weeks, our product could be in the market.

Can you walk me through the product experience? So I am signing up with you am a nurse practitioner, I want to open a practice. What is that experience like?

So you would log on our site, you would sumi an application because first foremost, we're not just gone to accept everyone when we say cultural content care, we actually mean so we go through a rigorous application process.

We talk to you about what are the needs that you want us to help you with as relates to private practice? Like do you need us help you with the credit tiling, the building, the scheduling? Do you need the full sweet of services? We talk through that. And then we help you get everything that you need in order to set up your practice .

inside the partner with the scheduling. Like there are software that you recommend and all of these sorts of things. You're basically just saying.

like here is the playbook. So we have that technology on the back end. Yes, there truly an A I abled model.

So say you are just entering practice, you likely don't have a contract with a tabora or a healthy or any of those system. So you come to us, we have that. We have that software that you can plug in.

You can do your hip o compliant video conferences with your patients. So we take care of all of that. And that really becomes stickiness of the solution because IT becomes all in one and you don't have to have these desperate contracts with all these other entity that exists out in the market.

K, I love this mission .

and what you're doing, and I totally agree with you that expanding and enabling nurse practitioners to go forth and set up their own practices is a big opportunity. Unfortunate as such, we are investors in pretty much a direct competitor called do IT. So unfortunately, I have to sit out. okay. Thank you. understood.

And how much of the one million have you raised is zero.

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In how much of the one million heavy raced is zero zero. So there's a just date like they want not yet on here.

First of I in the last couple of weeks, I seen a few companies that are that are trying to tackle this massive gap and chAllenge, ed, and I think it's an amazing mission, and you clearly are well aligned to that as a founder. There's obviously the auto pocket costs that consumers are are facing in this. And then there's the insurance side in in the healthcare system, which is a mess yeah for you know do not curse. I'm curious about sort of going off of that sort of how deep are you going with them into this health care system to your point about credential, but are you helping them with the payers and the insurance building if they're doing that? Or is that you start .

without a pocket? Yeah, no, we're going deep with the insurance payers. I know this is pretty unhurt up, but we're already starting conversations with some of the big payers.

And that comes from my relationships, my background with the players. So I know that intimately. And when you talk to our practitioners, that is their biggest pain point. So you can build shiny attack all you wants. But if you can help them get credentials, get the rates that they need, IT becomes a mood point.

So if we can take the credential process from six months, so like forty five days, just by way of our relationships with the payers, that actually shrink lines a lot of the back and that just bogs them down. That's the sticky ess. So that's where we're going deep and that's where the magic happens. And that's how you make this a capital efficient company because then you can go to payers, you return to contractors with them to say, okay, we can be a network extender for you yeah and not only that, no expectations. Ers are building lesson and md does.

And they often times are going back into the communities that they grew up in, which often our rule and represented m don't really want to go back to there because they're looking to make three hundred and fifty four hundred thousand thousand yeah our practitioners are looking to make you know, one hundred and twenty five, one hundred and five thousand. They just need to support on the back end to help them get credential building, all that adding stuff that they, quite Frankly, did not go to school for and they should not have to focus on, particularly in this wave of AI. There's just so much that technology can do on the back and let us handle that. And then we will help you succeed in building a sustainable patient panel.

And when you think about initial revenue stream business model, are you starting as a service layer for the practices that they pay you instead of paying for an office assistant and they pay you? correct?

yeah. So we take a percent of revenue, take rate or take rate is eight to twelve percent, depending on how much support you need .

for us on the back person of every revenue.

How do you think about the average revenue in year one for each of these nurse practitioners?

So a full patient panel, our expectations is able to bring in two hundred and seventeen thousand to three hundred and fifty thousand. Recognizing they're gonna have a full patient panel to start is going to be a ramp up to that. But we think we can get them pretty quickly recognize zing that there is A A nee and a demand. Uh, so that's what we're working with.

Can you tell me how many nurse practitioners are there out there today?

Yeah, there are three hundred and eighty five thousand. Nurse practice now is expected to grow forty five percent over the next decade. Last year, of the nurse practitioners who went into private practice, thirty one percent went into primary care, and that's up from sixteen percent the year prior. So there's a growing trend of nurse practitioners wanting to be entrepreneurs and they're just a looking for a solution and they're bring that market.

And what percentage of them do you believe have this cultural companies?

Y, I would say about sixty five percent. And that's not to say that the other percentage can't get there because we also have to be able to support those no spectin ers in that training. You can't to say or i'm culturally competent, it's a constant learning process and you have to be able to support that on the back end. And you can't just be a virtue signal that I say, or culture the compete we have to show on back. And they were actually moving the needle .

and improving health outcomes. We invest competitive tes, somewhat similar called ease, which helps doctors essentially want to. And like the biggest learning for the investment has been the technology in the systems are one piece. But to your point, these people didn't go to school to be entrepreneurs. So even if you can handle billing, they love to learn how to market my practice, like what other things you have to wrapper around the offering to help these people succeed.

Yeah, it's going to be the marketing, for sure. And i'll tell you some of our nurse actis ers who are our beta users, they're out in private practice already, but they're having a hard time building a sustainable patient panel. They're on the telemac.

They're on the m wales. They're on the sesame care. They're in twenty two dollars average reivers for their visits. They still can't build a sustainable patient practice. The tech is one piece, but you have to be able to help them connect the two. That's why IT IT all wraps up under our model because without one or the other, IT becomes the you're actually not solving the problem.

What will the MVP do? So the MVP will allow .

patients to book with the nurse practitioners, will be able to get the nurse practitioners credentials and do all the building and cept payments. And then we'll do a fast follow as we learn more about what are the needs from both the patients and the are expectations ers of what we need to add on.

You don't think about this .

because I really like any business that's disrupting the broken system. And in doctors and physicians are such a racket yeah and a nurse practitioners, do they put a cap on how many can get license per year because they do that with doctors? I don't think so.

Not my knowledge because the doctors thing is artificial yeah like there are people coming to our country from india, from mexico, from all over the place that were doctors in their country, but we we certify them yes. And that's just to keep the wages up pire. And I really was excited when wall Greens in a bunch of cbs is started doing at least like shots yeah, but even like to become a full bottomest to draw blood. You d got to go to school for a ridiculous meantime. And these nurse practitioners .

are just as good as any daughter.

Yes, for that reason I am in, but somebody has to Price IT yeah I can't Price IT for the amount that i'm coming in IT.

This map and idea just got a little more real. I'll be right back.

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For that reason I am in, but somebody has to Price IT. Yeah, I can't Price IT for the amount that i'm coming in IT OK, because I really, really feel drawn to this. But one reason is I watched Serena Williams documentation and I was the first time that I saw just how difficult the process is for people and really resonated with her experience. I also had to see section and the fact that he had to advocate for herself that people weren't checking the things, that they would check other people. And then obviously, there's clearly fear, like fear keep people from going and seeing a doctor, that's probably why they're dying.

This is correct. And I think no maternity or poor health outcomes is getting center stage. But it's at every point of our life as a black woman, they were having to do this. So I think I resonate obviously deeply with this. And this is why I believe we will actually change the world.

Yeah, I just want I mean, I want to support you because I also just want to disrupt doctors. Yes, you know, and I think that's part of the problem. Like I don't know if people know this or not, but like there's a certain number of city scanner you can have in a certain walk or like space in the town.

It's not for radiation. It's not for any reason like that. It's just they don't have competition. yep. And if we want to drive down health care costs, we have to get rid of this stuff and we have to get more nurses out there. And so for me, this is about getting more nurses out there. And I obviously see your product working for all sorts of community is not just this community down the road. Yeah so i'm onna commit .

fifty k awesome. Thank you. Yeah, looking.

Thank you for doing what you do. Thank you.

Where would you in the south? I was see a big population. IT is, but also big geographic area at. Can you talk a little bit about just like the initial launch .

strategy like absorb, we're starting in alama with birmingham as our testing ground is a mini black city balon with north CarOlina where my roots are from my family and the pair relationships there and then georgia and then will expand out. And just for contexts, over eight thousand north practitioners in alabama.

This point in the proceedings.

So we have .

more questions.

So I have a lot of reservations, but I mean, I have like a ton of reservations like we've done a bunch of these businesses. And my big takeaway is half of the chAllenge is identifying people who will succeed as entrepreneurs. My conclusion has been, the technology is actually the least important piece.

The most important piece is finding people who have an entrepreneurial set, who will grow up in household and find customers who understand how to do kind of all of the business building. In no amount of technology actually makes them Better at that. If you choose people who need a lot of help, that help eats into all of the margins you're gone to get from the a percent.

And suddenly, what looks like a really attractive business on paper becomes a very customer success, coaching advice heavy business. But I think the demand for what you're doing is so great that like despite the chAllenges, there will be an audience that waiting for this product. So I mean, for twenty five k maybe i'll be able to stretch to do more afraid iligant.

But come me in for twenty five. awesome. Thank you.

The point you were talking about, but the ita was like I was sort of doing the math. And by the way, math is not my strong suit. But I think about if you're fully saturated in those eight thousand nurse back to one hundred percent of them sign up by hope and they're all great.

You're talking about being able to make couple hundred million dollars a year in revenue from your take, and that's a really big business. So that's a lot of assumptions. Most people don't have one hundred percent market of industry tion. So but even if I discount that as hundreds of millions of dollars a year in potential revenue, I would also take a bet on you being able to do this. And so I would be in on this.

Well, awesome.

Thank you for how much?

So.

fifty k OK, fantastic.

So I want to go last .

because I want .

to have, like, on this moment with you. Yeah, Charles is laughing.

Big go though.

yes.

You have an incredible background. You have an incredible network. You're building something very, very important.

You show up as a strong black woman. You tell a story about a black woman is important to you. And then you tell a story about building a product for black women.

I love everything about IT, but because of that, IT is going to make a harder for you to raise money, and the market is already hard to raise capital. You are extremely lucky that this is where you started because at no point did you mention that this product could be used to serve all populations or other populations. But you had a very thought ful invest in room who didn't even consider that in new off hand, that this would serve other people.

Yeah, mostly investors you meet will not do that. And that's going to make this road so much harder for you. But as a black man who was hoping to be the second person in my family in the last five generations to make IT to the .

age of fifty.

IT doesn't matter what else you want to said today. Yes, out of been in, just because this needs to exist the way you are Carrying this. You are Carrying this because this matters a lot to you.

But as you do that, you are making your road harder. yes. So long as you're clear that going in, I will tell you though, it's not a bad thing to keep those convictions and that always present them forward.

You because there is a bit of a game to this and I don't want you to forget dad yeah. Now if you tell me, mac, I don't care about the game. This is my principles as well.

I understand the one and let you fall when you may love you. Yeah but because your mission is so much bigger, IT doesn't always have to come through at reading that you say it's just something to consider. I'm in for fifty k. Do we .

want to Price IT? Because we're .

getting like a party around yeah .

I right now have to come together, may be maybe .

offline will come together with something, an offer.

You are amazing. You are incredible. And i'm so glad that you were seen by the folks of this panel.

Yeah, i'm very appreciative. My cup is is really, really full. And I think to your point, like when you make a solution that works for the most disadvantage everyone benefits, that's the etho s of of what we're doing.

We're focused here, but it's gonna benefit everyone once we nail IT. So I appreciate all of the else time. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you.

You have an audience .

today SHE .

got to one thousand .

five right once .

twenty five, and then the pitch fund too.

So how much do you think you guys will .

put in assuming ing this is around a five or six problem, fifty days would be jex.

So she's at two twenty five, which is awesome. I think five is fair.

Thank four. five.

Yeah, I was thin. yeah. Okay.

let's do four.

mac. I won't make sure I understand what you were saying. So you are basically saying by taking in making this such a personal story and making about the black woman's experience in health care in america, you think people might see that as too small .

of a market and is easier. Black, the automatic, think small when VC here. Black, the automatically thinks more every time. right?

You put a number out right? There was twenty one million, yes. And you kind of go one minute out of four hundred million people in the U.

S. Like it's only twenty one million. That's like a starting point of a smaller population. And my assumption when I come in to any early pitches like I believe, like ten percent of what the founders pitching me. So i'm really thinking that there that point you get a hundred percent in two million is a of business may be, but that's much smaller than under percent of four hundred hundred million. That's that's a reality where brains go.

So what's the version of the pitch mac that you were suggesting that maybe he could go to in the future? That wouldn't be as personal.

I can stay personal because he can still root IT in the story of her grandmother. But then once you get past the story of why this is so personal to you, and you start talking about the larger population in america, how there is a lack of doctors, how there's people looking for care, and how in the most vulnerable communities is a much dire need immediately. But then when you muslim me out, if you look at the country .

is a dialect, is in total.

we need more nurse practice .

OK so much you like, oh, close to twenty one million. So maybe i'll get closer. One, if you get one million customers are going able generate, you .

probably have with the hundred eighty five thousand nurse practice in the U. S. And they can make, if they were on their own, on average, two hundred thousand, three hundred thousand a year.

Yeah like if you start there and then you mention, say, SHE takes ten percent cut. Now i'm thinking, wow, every time he just custom and acquisition, she's making ten thousand, twenty thousand and twenty thousand dollars. That's actually a great acquisition. Unit economics model.

I wouldn't underestimate how hard IT is to take people who worked in pretty structured rigid environments. I i've seen this up close with one of our compass IT really is like finding the people, whoever can be taught the skills of running a business and the software abstracting away is great.

but that only works if you know what, you're a abstracting. Yeah this my fear. This is that out of the eight thousand and one hundred, there may only be one hundred or ready to build their business and willing to understand they need to bring something else in.

And you think about how many people go out IT alone in any business, read about medical. They go in. Somebody says to them like, hey, how are you doing accounting? They're like, what do you mean I got my checking account yeah they don't even know to go asked that question. And so the idea of convincing that person then you should pay to twelve .

percent yeah I do think her background in insurance is spot on because I well, I agree with trials like, okay, IT is tough to work with entrepreneurs. And which of these nurse practitioners are more entrepreneurs? The others? I don't think it's entirely adverse selection because even if you have someone is very they may not want to deal with any other credential nance stuff, and that's something he brings to the table.

yes. So like just taking a step back. I don't think we've ever had a pitch on the show this early with literally there's no product yet and they haven't raised a dime. We've had them on the show before, but we've never had someone get this much in funding in the room.

never really invest in a great business. man.

Yes, it's the potential of this business. And her like she's like i'm on to something I know this is a thing. I'm the right person for IT yeah i'm convinced is the right person for IT. There's just something about like people who are we call IT at our firm chasing the magically weird she's magically weird in that he wakes up in the morning as excited about what is seemingly a very boring problem to a lot of people. And that is a mote.

How many people are onna get up and do what she's doing? How many people are going to dedicate their life to IT? SHE has the right experience, and i'm willing to take that bet on someone this early one.

There's a lot of alpha that he succeeds because we're going to Price IT appropriately for that risk. But also, if SHE moves the needle, imagine if he does. So it's one of these things where you could change the world through investing. And this is a .

great .

example of IT uni. I met .

her and I .

think I can talk.

you can't talk.

you SHE can be back to you were like.

no, now I really wanted talk to.

Cala walked out of the pitcher with a corner copy of commitments. It's easier to say who didn't invest than who did. Only Elizabeth was conflicted out. But will the rest of the vcs actually R S V P to the party round?

That one is still, I guess, up in the air. I'm a hopeless optimist, so I hope that goes through, but I think you cross that bridge when we get there.

No response.

No response at this point in my life where I don't beg anyone to or anything like you want to be in you're in IT.

Is this how you expected fundraising to go with fees?

Uh, yeah.

Over the course of this season, twelve out of fourteen companies got a deal in the room. And over the last five months, we've tracked all of those companies throughout the diligence process coming up on our season final extra vages a where are they now? I could not be happier to have Peter and john participate as well. Did you get math remark?

Tech transcript was amazing.

actually. Like, funny. There is a magician. An there. The magician is going to buy from us.

stop. After the podcast drop. He texts me that more name was like, I forgot how excited I was, sent me the safe. And so I sent him the safe. I was like.

I forgot. D, I wanted to investment.

Someone asked me, what did you go to school with liars? And it's like, it's a Normal country. Like, do do you have television in kenya? Yes, yes, we do not to some cocky e argue.

But like, why do I want him? yeah. Like, this is a killer opportunity. Do I want an investor who's gna go to be in? What are they going .

to be like when they're already you want me to pitch with slides? Are without slides. He was like, without slides.

And then I don't know what I was thinking, but I like, okay, cool. I share my screen and started fishing with slides. Wait, I will go away.

Do you find that Angel restore are more helpful .

than can I say that? Are you recording this? Yes, yes, yes, yes. I need two fifteen thousand capitals, and then I can get them match. Just need seventy five OK from podcast listener.

No offer to the sing audience and ia. No, but seriously, no offer to invest in all my health is being made to the listening audience on today's show. But you can find out who did invest in oma and all the other startups on december eleven at seven pm, register for the virtual watch party at pitched show splash party. This is your pan ultimate reminder that the pitch fund one is about to close december fifteen s the first thing investors always ask me is, if I invest now, do I get owner ship in all twenty nine companies? The fund has already invested in the answer, yes, you most certainly do, but not for much longer, say with me, fund one clothes, december fifteen S.

This episode de was made by me, josh mo, lisa mutio and a lad E A kim and jackie paper with deal sourcing by Peter leu and john avers thanks to simple coachy car at housel fund Angel squad and hail bryant at hostel fund for sharing this deal of us music in the eph erode is by the muse maker break mr. Cylinder, dame a ou are many stars and land of legs. The pitch is made in partnership with the vox media podcast network.

Thanks to hunt is for their support. okay. So what are the takeaway about huntress? Here's the Cliff notes. Small business owners, the snap companies of all sizes are vulnerable to sub security threats. It's not just the big boys getting targeted these days.

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