Is preventative health the next big startup trend?

0:01Mike Butcher:Hello and welcome to Path Founders with me Mike Butcher. We like to unpack the code, the capital and the consequences in the startup ecosystem.

0:15Mike Butcher:Today we're going to talk about preventative health startups and as you know many of them started to appear over the last few years. You send in a little sample of your blood and they send you back the results. And it's taking off around the world. And preventative health startups are really leaning into something which people have been wanting, I think, for a very long time. So today I'm joined by Max Bertolo, who is the co-founder and CEO of Lucy, the Paris-based preventative health startup that has just raised a$20 million Series A only four months after its seed round. Lucy is betting that Europe's healthcare systems are still too focused on sickness and not prevention, and that biomarker testing, longitudinal data, and an AI health companion can change that.

1:06Mike Butcher:The question is whether this is going to take off or not. So thanks very much for joining us on Path Founders, Max. Yes, thank you for having me, Mike. Really, really excited to be here. Great to talk to you. Now, listen, you've just raised the 20 million only four months after your seed round. What exactly happened? Tell us the story behind that. Yeah, so I think two things. Massive growth in the past month. We've seen a massive acceleration in France and the UK market. We just entered the UK market at the beginning of the year. and basically Mike the the fundraising was done at the end of YC so the announcement was in December but the real like the fundraising was done a couple of months before so basically it's eight months after the the seed round so it's not for but but still we've seen massive acceleration and also So we see Europe is the right time for preventative health, as you mentioned.

2:14And we think we need to accelerate a lot. And we are the first company being available in four European countries right now, France, UK, Ireland, Portugal. We are opening like Spain and Germany soon. So this is the reason, the main reason why we did this new fundraising is acceleration and taking over Europe, if you can say that. I see.

2:39Mike Butcher:Well, OK, obviously, your press announcements are probably much later after the actual funding round. So you'll forgive the media for not having all of that information.

2:52Mike Butcher:But biomarker testing feels like it's a little bit of a niche. I mean, it's health conscious, affluent consumers. I mean, how can you make this more mainstream and more appealing to the mass of consumers? Yeah, I think it doesn't come to the biomarkers themselves. I think it's about the solution and what you provide and how you help people get better. So people today, the problem is, like you said, the problem is the healthcare system in Europe is still focused on sick care. So we try to treat a problem when they appear and it's usually too late. So it's a personal story for me. It's a personal story for my co-founder, who lost his father for early cancers that could have been detected earlier.

3:42And we think we don't have a science problem, but we do have a system problem. And that's what we're doing at Lucy. We're trying to use AI plus biomarkers plus data to help people get better. So we do help people understand their health. We provide a complete picture of your health. That's what we do. And so the outcome is really how we can help people get better and in better shape, in better. And what we noticed is that 80 % of our customers at retest, they improve at least three markers. It means that they're integrating the recommendation that we're doing. They're integrating. So when you give the data to people, they want to take control of their health and they change their behaviors.

4:36And it's working. So that's the main thing.

4:40Mike Butcher:Okay, but we did a story on PathFounders comparing you to startups like Thriver and Function Health in the US. How do you feel you guys are different or doing things differently? Or do you think you're simply the same sort of play that is just trying to expand faster in Europe than the other guys? No, I think we're pretty different from Thriver. Thriver is a testing kit company. Lucy is a health companion platform. So we test 100 plus biomarkers and we track your data over time because we do two tests a year. And we have a physician reviewing every results. And yes, we're seeing people improving their markers.

5:27So we're not just a testing business, right? We are in the outcome business. We try to change people's behavior. That's what we're doing. And it's pretty different from this previous approach, a trivia, I think.

5:42Mike Butcher:Okay. So would you say you're more after kind of maybe Neko Health? Yes. So Neko is – so we're closer to – yes, we are closer to what Neko is doing. But again, Neko is – I think we could be partner rather than competitors because they're really focused on – they have a clinic days. They have body scans. They're really focused on the skins. And we really focus on the blood testing and all the data that we can integrate into the platform. So we track a lot of, so we're really complementary, I would say. Can you tell us a little bit about your platform in terms of its application of AI? Are you using your own models?

6:29Mike Butcher:What kinds of things are you doing in the AI arena? Yeah, so the AI works with three levels. So the first thing is we take your data, we take your context, and we cross reference markers against each other. So that's the first step when we get the data from the lab. So for example, if your fasting glucose looks normal, but when combined with some other markers like HbA1c, we can detect early insulin resistance. So that's the first layer. Then we do the longitudinal intelligence. So we're going to look at the trends all the time. And then we have the clinical guardrails. So this is where we don't use our own model.

7:19we use established model and we ask them and then we have this clinical guard raise where we everything is reviewed by a physician so we have a physician team and everything is reviewed by the by the team yes and this is how the so then first layer we analyze the data then we we take the data all the time and then we we cross-reference we take all your context and then the the clinical team is reviewing your result before we we delivered that to you so that's how we use ai today

7:54Mike Butcher:okay and you've got some distribution partnerships with eurofins and randox what's that going to do with your what's that going to do for your distribution um so it's so this is the the the labs network that we use in france and in the uk so we partner with them um so that we send people to the labs and they get tested at the labs because we need to have certified lab. We don't want to reinvent how you do a blood test and all the things. So we partner with the best and we choose Eurofans in France and Randox in the UK, but it's not a distribution play. So we don't use them for distribution. We use them for testing the blood and for the clinical trust.

8:38Mike Butcher:Okay. And you've raised this round with Singular and with participation from General Catalyst. You also had Y Combinator, I guess, from the earlier round. Tell us a little about why you picked the investors that you picked. Yeah, good question. So first, we met them quite a long time ago when we got back from YC. and I think we will build a relationship through the month. They're really focused on what we genuinely love about Singular is they really understand the consumer play in Europe. And it's really rare in Europe, I think. Investors that understand consumer, they have already invested in many consumer companies.

9:28So they were really into, and second, I think they were really into health and preventative health. They already studied the market for four years and they were looking for a solution. They explored every startup solution in Europe and they were really interested in the one player that would bring this consumer mindset into this market. And that's how we met each other. And that's the main reason why they convinced us that they were the good people to build this together because they had this vision of preventative health consumer base in Europe using AI and this was exactly what we were building and the vision we had.

10:12Mike Butcher:Yeah I think you're right there are not nearly enough VCs in Europe that have a kind of understanding of the consumer marketplace so that's quite interesting that you mentioned that. Finally I mean do you think that that the proliferation of these preventative health startups like yourself are going to kind of move the needle for like the actual health systems in Europe many of them are based around you know you just get sick and you go to the doctor kind of thing did you see yourselves partnering with potentially partnering with like actual established state-based health systems at some point.

10:53Yes, definitely. So I think those all these companies there and all these, I think you need to go back to the problem is like people today, the healthcare system is focused on sick care and people want agency over their health and they are looking for more solution. They really need that. And I think this is influencing like the states itself. So I see those startups as all the projects that exist today in Europe, influencing all the even like first I would say the health insurance, I'm sure. So the main issues is that the probably the private system will have to, to, to, to work like to make the system like the preventative health system works first, because I don't see the, the, the, the public system first covering that because it costs a lot to move from a secure system to preventive preventative health system.

11:53But then through the years, I think, yes, the you see in France, la sécurité sociale, the NHS of the UK, they're already covering some, some tests for like, all the people, all the population. They we had some contact with them. And we had some discussion with the public systems and the public authority. And they're really keen into like, improving the preventative health system. But they're very limited right now with the budget, as you know, like, we have less and less, the states have less and less budgets. So we definitely believe that the private system will have to take the lead on that.

12:38Mike Butcher:Do you think you could expand to the US? This is not our plan. We're really focused on the European market. I think the US is already well covered with functional health, like you said, superpower and all the players there. So, yes. So, what was your experience like at YC? It was incredible. Like any other YC founder. I mean, the velocity of what's happening in San Francisco with AI and the velocity of YC, I think, was really impressive. And the ambition as well, like everybody there wants to build a hundred billion dollar business. So it's really, really interesting. As a founder, did you survey the European scene and consider thinking, I'm going to go and do Antler or Entrepreneur First or some other European based experience?

13:32Mike Butcher:accelerator. Not much. Interesting. Interesting. Well, Max Bertolo, it's fantastic to talk to you. I think we actually met some time ago, didn't we? Yes, we met a lot of. Some conferences. Yes. So we met at Le Web. I think it was the Web conference in Paris. It was in like 1860 or something. 1860. Yeah, yeah, probably, probably something like that. I don't remember. 2008 or something. Yes, 2008. I think it was when Travis decided to build Uber, I think, because of the snow in Paris. and there was snow in Paris and you guys with the VP group like the VP US of Waze at the time there was snow everywhere no taxi no nothing no traffic anymore and I was in my car at the conference and you eject my car and you asked me can you drive us back to Paris and we went together to the to the city also yes so i had to i had the chance because i was really young and by the time and i had the chance to drive mike butcher in my car in my grandmother car which was a very old peugeot so yeah so fun oh well if it weren't for your uh lift we we god knows we ought to be stranded in the snow so i appreciate that i'm glad to be able to repay you with a story on PathFounders and a podcast.

15:11Mike Butcher:Max, it's been great to talk to you. Congratulations on your fundraising. Very interesting to see what you're building with Lucy. And I'm sure we will counter each other again. Hopefully not necessarily me hijacking your car. Yeah, I hope so. Thanks, Mike. It's a pleasure. Thanks for joining PathFounders.

15:37Thank you.