How Tayla Cannon Turned 170K Followers Into a VC-Backed Startup Disrupting Physical Therapy

0:00Tayla Cannon:So when I was initially starting to build the platform, I wouldn't say I announced it to my audience, but I definitely wanted to test the waters in terms of, okay, are there people here that would actually be interested in this? So I think I started with several stories that ultimately just said, if you're a clinician that's curious about working online, leave your information here. And through two stories, I had over a thousand emails. And at that point, I thought, oh, wow, because I hadn't really thought about the impact my audience could have on Rebuilder to that extent within such a small amount of time and exposure.

0:28Welcome to the Hot Start VC podcast, the show where we break down how celebrities and creators build billion-dollar brands. Today, I'm joined by Tayla Cannon, founder of Rebuilder, a platform building the infrastructure for modern physical therapy, helping practitioners run their businesses online and deliver better long-term care. After building an audience of over 170 ,000 followers on Instagram, sharing her approach to rehab, Tayla saw immediate demand from practitioners, which ultimately led to the creation of Rebuilder and a$1.1 million raise from Slow Ventures. In this episode, we break down our journey from creator to founder, how she's building software for physical therapists, and what it was like raising capital as a creator.

1:10So without further ado, let's get into the conversation. Thayla, thank you so much for coming on.

1:15Tayla Cannon:Thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here. Yeah, I'm excited to have you on. I've been going to the physiotherapist for more than 10 years. I've had six knee surgeries. I tore my ACL multiple times. I've tried so many different treatments. So reading your story was very interesting and I'm very excited to dive into what you're building. Absolutely. Yeah, it's good to hear you're familiar and good to hear that you're a frequent flyer to physios. So to start, can you maybe talk us through your journey of having this chronical back pain for multiple years, trying different treatments and how did eventually led to you building a company Rebuilder?

1:47Tayla Cannon:Yeah, absolutely. So rewind before even becoming a physiotherapist back in Australia. I suffered with chronic back pain for many years. And to give context, I'm somebody that's been avid fitness goer, somebody that'd been in the gym throwing barbells and dumbbells around since I've been 15. So the gym is a very big part of my life. And fast forward a few years, I then began to experience chronic back pain to the point where I couldn't train anymore. It was affecting my day to day life. And unfortunately, I had the experience that many people in chronic pain do these days. You go to your specialist, you go to your physio, you go to a chiro, you try every single specialist there is and nothing really gets better.

2:22Tayla Cannon:You're met with very short-term plans, very reactive type of care where you might feel good for a few hours, you might feel good for a few days but it ultimately just keeps coming back. So I was stuck in this pain cycle that I never really found a way to get out of until I became a physiotherapist and recognized this massive gap in the industry and that is for fit active people we don't need to be laying on a bed getting a massage, getting needled, we don't need low load type of exercises, not to say that they're not necessary in certain cases but we need somebody that can impact what we're doing on a daily basis.

2:53Tayla Cannon:Frequency and consistency are the two big things that we need to get better but unfortunately we can't get that with a 30-minute appointment once a week, once a month. Yeah, so like in short, what is like Rebuilder? What is that kind of the solution that you're now building to solve that problem? Yeah, so fast forward to now where I've been in the process of launching Rebuilder and Rebuilder is ultimately a new model of care for the rehab industry. Shifting from reactive short appointments to asynchronous continuous care because like I said before frequency and consistency is key to get better but we can't achieve that with very intermittent short time frames and time points so Rebuilder is the solution that allows clinicians to deliver care over time it gives their clients access to them every day but more specifically Rebuilder is looking at coming at blending rehab and performance and living at the intersection between both that is we're not just trying to solve acute pain and get you symptom relief.

3:46Tayla Cannon:We're trying to keep you moving to a point where you get to a point of a resilient, strong body that's never going to break down. Hey, quick one before we get back to the episode. If you love conversations like this one, you would love The Fame Game, our weekly newsletter in which we break down how celebrities and creators build billion dollar brands. Sign up for free via the link in the description. And now back to the episode. Yeah, very interesting. And during this whole process of you finding a treatment way that actually worked for yourself and now building a company, you also started to create content on Instagram.

4:16So now you have a platform of 170 ,000 followers. So Kate, take us back to the moment when you actually decided to start creating content, like what inspired you and what type of content do you create?

4:27Tayla Cannon:Yeah, so I started creating content because I had decided to start working online as a physiotherapist because I experienced the limitations of the current appointment model. This is where I was ultimately experimenting with this new model. How am I going to do it? What does this look like? And during that time, I'm obviously going online. I recognized, well, how am I, if I'm going online, I have to get clients online. So that meant just, okay, let's start putting content out there. And mind you, this was a personal Instagram only two years ago, family and friends following my American journey because I'm Australian living in America.

4:55Tayla Cannon:And then I just started to share my brain on there and unintentionally and unplanned, it took off. I mean, I think the beauty of content is that when you are authentic and when you share truly what is on your brain, people appreciate that. And I think that's where the growth ultimately started and has continued to grow from there. But ironically, it wasn't part of the plan. And I didn't plan to be a quote unquote creator. And I still feel very unfamiliar to the world. But that's the beauty of being willing to share your brain. And I think be real on a platform that has a lot of stuff on there right now.

5:24Yeah, yeah. So like what is the typical content that you put out? And has it also evolved over time?

5:29Tayla Cannon:Yeah, so I put out predominantly rehab and training based content. That is movements, programs, and ways to get yourself out of pain and or prevent pain as a whole. I'm very much speaking from the lens of training. So people that are in the gym lifting weights and they're also facing chronic pain, nagging injuries, and trying to provide solutions for them in a 30-second time frame that we have on short-form content. But I would say it's definitely evolved over time. I mean, initially I was trying to work out what Instagram is, what content is. How do you convey a concept in 10, 15, 20 seconds?

6:01Tayla Cannon:So initially I was putting a lot of time and thought to share a lot of information. And I came to realize we live in a world of quick and short attention spans. And to get somebody's attention and for it to be valuable, you need to work out how to condense it and provide it in a very short amount of time. So over time, I've definitely refined that skill. I'm still working on how to do that. And that is where I say the evolution of content has come with it. Yeah, no, I definitely hear you. Like I've always been a written content creator. So LinkedIn has always been my main platform. I have my own newsletter and we're kind of now trying to translate that written content into short form video content.

6:36And what I really see is that I like to use a lot of words. So my videos are typically like 90 seconds long, but that doesn't work for like TikTok or Instagram or whatsoever. So I'm literally going through what you just mentioned, like coming up with ways how to repackage and reformulate kind of the content that we have. How have you been able to leverage your own platform and content to actually validate and now also growing Rebuilder?

6:59Tayla Cannon:Yeah, I mean, again, not part of the plan and unintentional to build an audience that ultimately now is funneling into Rebuilder. But selfishly, Rebuilder started from myself and what I felt I personally needed. But second to that, you know, there's several elements to Rebuilder. While it's a new model of care, what Rebuilder provides is one, the certification to train clinicians in this new model of care. Two, the actual platform and software that you need to deliver the care. And then three, the marketplace where we're connecting aligned clients and clinicians. But Rebuilder also started, one, from my experience with back pain needing a new model of care, but two, there was no software for us.

7:35Tayla Cannon:So selfishly, I actually started building it to provide myself with the software, to which throughout that process I recognized, oh gosh, well if I'm a physiotherapist wanting to go online and there's nothing for me, then I imagine a lot of others need this as well. And I do have a predominantly clinician-based and or personal trainer-based following alongside consumers in pain as well. So naturally, it worked well in that my audience was suffering the pain point that I myself was suffering as well. And then from there, I recognized, well, I have a whole audience that is intrigued in this new model of care.

8:05Tayla Cannon:So naturally, it just funnels directly into Rebuilder because it ultimately encompasses everything that I create content about. Yeah, and I think that's so exciting about your story. Like so many people always think that celebrities and creators need millions of followers to be able to build like venture scale businesses. But I kind of see now a trend going on where more niche content creators that still have massive platforms, right? If you would put 170 ,000 people into one in-person venue, it's like a lot of people. But compared to the Mr. Beast of whatsoever of this world, it's just a fraction of it.

8:37But they're now building really interesting companies because they are authorities, because they have built a community. Is that something that you really see back into some of the numbers? I think I read some numbers about you put out two Instagram stories and it led to like a thousand people already signing up, 350 rehab professionals already signing up for the beta program and that type of stuff.

8:57Tayla Cannon:Yeah, absolutely. So when I was initially starting to build the platform, I wouldn't say I announced it to my audience, but I definitely wanted to test the waters in terms of, okay, are there people here that would actually be interested in this? So I think I started with several stories that ultimately just said, if you're a clinician that's curious about working online, leave your information here. And through two stories, I had over a thousand emails. And at that point I thought, oh wow, because I hadn't really thought about the impact my audience could have on Rebuilder to that extent within such a small, small amount of time and exposure.

9:28Tayla Cannon:So from that, you know, funnily enough, I actually had had a goal of, can I get 20 beta testers before I launch this? And then I get a thousand emails. I'm like, oh wow, I'm going to have to really rethink this process. So I went through an application process to then get people into a beta group to which I then had about 350. But yeah, to your point, I think the most important part is while having an audience is incredibly helpful, the number is somewhat irrelevant if you're not solving a problem that actually helps your audience. I think that's where these specialized niches have very good upside in that you've created something so specific that you've attracted the people that want what you're about to build.

10:07Yeah, no, very interesting. And what would you say would be your like ideal customer profile on the Rebuilder side when you're talking about like rehabilitation professionals?

10:16Tayla Cannon:Yeah, on the rehab side, it's definitely those that are willing to transition to a new model of care. You know, I think it's very easy to be stuck in what is traditional. That is, well, I'm just going to forever provide FaceTime that is dependent on me being in the room, me putting my hands on them and me showing up every 30 minutes, every hour for clients. And it's going to take somebody that recognizes that, hey, we are limited. in what we can do in this. And we're also limited in the impact and outcome we can deliver our clients. So I think it's going to take someone to one, recognize that.

10:43And two, particularly for Rebuilder,

10:46Tayla Cannon:we're looking for those that want to blend rehab and training. So we're not looking for the person that, hey, I just want to massage dry needle and give you very low load exercises. It's the person that is already going to the gym as well. They're passionate about movement. They recognize the impact of strength training and they want to integrate that into the way that they deliver care as well. Yeah, I think it's very interesting if I look at all my friends who are in this space like personal trainers or physiotherapists or whatsoever, I kind of see a growing wave of them becoming independent.

11:12And it also is actually accelerated by content. So as you mentioned, actually for your own journey, in the past, if you were a personal trainer or a physical therapist or whatsoever, you needed to be associated with an organization to get clients. But now they started to understand that if they start putting content out into the market, they can actually attract their own clients and keep 100 % of the fees that these people are paying. So is that something that you're seeing as well with your own customer base? Are a lot of the rehabilitation practitioners also content creators themselves?

11:44Tayla Cannon:Yeah, it's definitely part of the education model that I do provide them. Now, obviously, building content is very unfamiliar to, I'd say, the very vast majority of our population. But it's definitely something that I think our population is recognizing the impact and the reach that it could potentially provide you with. So we do train them on how to market specifically with social media in mind. And the beauty of social media is that it's not only just a platform to reach people, but it's also a platform to build trust and authority. It's ultimately your new store clinic front. It's the benefit for me and what I'm trying to encourage others to do is that when I get on a call with somebody that's curious about my service, they're already sold on me.

12:22Tayla Cannon:I've never met this person. I've never spoken to them. They already know me. They believe in what I do. They know how I work. They know my brain that once we have that conversation, they're like, yeah, great, let's do this. because I don't have to then sell them in the way that you go to a clinic, you're going to meet a physiotherapist, you're assessing them the whole time. Do they really know their stuff? I don't know much about them. What do they know? Can they really help me? Social media allows for them to make that decision before they even speak with you. So I think leveraging that is so incredibly important, but it's a skill as well.

12:49Tayla Cannon:We're not all built out for it. So I do speak to other models in terms of marketing and lead generation, but ultimately I hope and believe that social media is going to be at the forefront of that. Yeah, I love that, that you mentioned actually that kind of social media is now becoming a storefront because I really see that as well. Like if I would like find a new personal trainer right now, I would never look at that person like website. I would always look at the social media to see if their training program actually fits me. And I think what's so brilliant about this strategy, helping your providers, service providers, helping them become content creators is that the moment that they start to build their own audience and actually redirect that to your platform, they might be consumers of other products on the platform as well, right?

13:30It's like they get a product of you, they get a product of someone else. So that can eventually kind of be your own funnel.

13:36Tayla Cannon:Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I'm hoping that Rebuilder can be, we have all these top of funnel, bringing people into Rebuilder and ultimately then that being a platform in and of itself to generate new things that perhaps social media can't. How else are you thinking about scaling Rebuilder beyond just content? Yeah, I think beyond content, it then looks like probably stepping into the in-clinic model, I would say, is probably the next step. And that probably wasn't part of the plan initially, truthfully. It was built to be an entirely online model, but I'm now recognizing the benefit and easy and quick adoption of hybrid care right now.

14:10Tayla Cannon:Rather than the big transition of, oh, I'm entirely in person to now I'm entirely online, there's this hybrid model that's coming up in our industry that is incredibly successful. And what that looks like is rather than having somebody come into your clinic several times a week or once a week for several months, it looks like, hey, how about you come to my clinic once a month and you can get access to me every single day through this platform. So integrating a new model of care, which integrates both in person and online, I'd say is probably our next step to scale. But what that looks like on my end is redesigning the platform to accommodate for in clinic software requirements as well.

14:44Yeah. So changing consumer behavior is one of the hardest things to do. And you obviously want to kind of introduce this new model and people have been used to receiving their treatments in person for decades. So how are you kind of planning to accelerate the changes of behavior, so to say?

15:01Tayla Cannon:Yeah, I mean, I've picked a hard task. I've got to change both the minds of consumers and clinicians. But the beauty of social media and my platform is that I have the validity that that exists right now. is it the majority mindset? No. But do I have a large audience to be convinced this is the way that the minds are shifting and do I have the power to perhaps shift more? Absolutely. So I would say I would be utilizing my social media as much as possible because I have 170 ,000 people on there that have already had that mindset shift but from there it's okay how do I continue to instill this new shift and that is obviously through more social media more top of funnel getting involved and also that hybrid model is probably that easy middle ground to get people to shift but it's not a massive shift that it's so unfamiliar to them yeah because we already spoke on kind of the the practitioner side will be the ideal customer but also on the consumer side like what type of profiles are like the perfect fit for this new model of care yeah i would say there's probably three distinct models when uh sorry avatars when it comes to our consumers the one that i personally work with and so passionate about are those that have been failed by traditional healthcare.

16:09Tayla Cannon:So you're thinking the persistent chronic pain that's been around for three plus months, upwards to five, 10 years, they've seen all the doctors, all the clinicians, nothing has worked. This is the perfect model for them. But second to that, just those active fitness goers that are suffering ongoing, recurring, nagging injuries that just don't seem to go away. You know, the people that show up to the gym and they put a barbell on their back, they go, I can't load because this hurts my back, or I'll never do deadlifts because it ruins my back, or I can't really push too much because it's my shoulders they've normalized that pain and they just think that's just part of their daily life those clients and then from there as well i think we have this big up-and-coming longevity era people are recognizing we shouldn't be placing so much focus on how we look we should be placing more focus on how can i sustain where i'm at now for when i'm 50 60 70 and with that in mind attracting that consumer seems to be a very good avatar for this as well that is you may not be in pain but you do want to build a body that's going to be resilient and last you for the long run and that's ultimately what i want rebuild to transition to as well you know shifting from reactive to proactive you know i don't want physios to be the person you go to when you're in pain i want you to think of seeing a rebuild a physio before you're even in pain so that we can build you to be strong and resilient yeah and um if i understand correctly you're now more building software on the on the b2b side so more on the practitioner side but will you ever also kind of build a consumer facing software helping your clients to go through that transition and measuring and that type of stuff?

17:37Tayla Cannon:Yeah, so we're actually B2B and B2C. So I've also done a hard task in that as well. Obviously, most of my focus has been in the B2B side. That is the clinician facing platform where they can run their entire business through Rebuilder. But second to that is a phone app. Now that phone app is for the consumers specifically. And that phone app does also encompass a marketplace. So let's say there's a consumer that perhaps hasn't been brought to Rebuilder through a physio that they're working with, but rather through me, looking for somebody or something that is going to help them. They'll download the phone app, they'll go through a short questionnaire to which they'll then be matched with their most aligned provider and programs to which they can then inquire and or purchase and utilize the phone app for that service.

18:19Yeah. And how does that work? Like matching based on like the perfect fit, based on like what the customer is seeking and also what kind of the practitioner is providing? Like how does that matchmaking work?

18:29Tayla Cannon:It's a great question and it's something I've been deep into these past two weeks actually building out the logic but ultimately what we're trying to do is identify and differentiate every clinician on the platform to be then best matched with consumers so we differentiate by are you somebody that specializes in pain are you somebody that specializes in women's health and pelvic floor are you somebody that specializes more so just on the training side and that is because we do accommodate trainers coaches as well it just does require more clinical education for you to understand pain but with that in mind we differentiate between those three distinct areas and then it's okay do you specialize in specific body parts what body parts do you specialize in are you a back pain specialist shoulders pain knee pain or are you a specialist in these specific type of training styles hybrid strength and conditioning running and we blend all of that information together to then bring consumers to their most aligned clinicians so let's say somebody gets on and they're a back pain client that loves to run they're going to be matched with a back pain specialist that is also specialized in running training yeah is there also a personal component to this because sometimes someone on paper is the perfect fit but then personality wise you don't really click like is there also a component that that speaks to that absolutely so the matching process will match you with let's say five to ten clinicians and we're doing that because we're going to we have hundreds of clinicians and I don't want the cognitive load of getting down two profiles and go I'm not going to do this so we're going to match them with their top five to ten but from there there'll be a trainer profile to which they can inquire and get on a call with each of them before you even commit to the process like you said it's very important that while on paper, they sound good, you need to speak to them and work out, can I trust this person?

20:01Tayla Cannon:And do I believe this is going to work well together? So they'll get on a free call, they'll chat out, chat that out and work out if that's the best fit for them. Yeah, what I really love is the kind of all the pillars coming together, like normal companies, and we'll just build out one, right? But you kind of need all you kind of first need to figure out how do you actually provide this new service, they need to kind of have the software set up to be able to actually deliver it and then you need clients. Most companies will just focus on one pillar but to be truly successful you need to build all but that's obviously a huge task.

20:32You recently raised 1.1 million dollars from Slow Ventures to kind of start building this all out. Could you tell us maybe more about how did that all came together?