Pear Healthcare Playbook

This series aims to demystify Medicaid, starting with insights from federal and state agencies, FQHCs, and managed care organizations, before exploring successful founders' strategies. Readour primers on the key players and innovations here, and stay tuned for upcoming posts featuring interviews with key opinion leaders, purchasers, and startup founders.Cityblock Health is a value-based healthcare provider focused on the complex clinical, behavioral health, and social needs of dually eligible and Medicaid recipients. Cityblock offers the only fully integrated and multi-modal solution that directly delivers clinical care to one of the most at-risk and hardest-to-reach populations. Powered by advanced technology that provides its care team with a data-driven understanding of member needs and risks, Cityblock has demonstrated industry-leading engagement, member retention, meaningful reductions in avoidable hospital readmissions, and reduced total cost of care.Founded in 2017, spun off by Sidewalk Labs, and based in New York, Cityblock has raised nearly $900M to date from investors such as SoftBank, Tiger Global, Maverick Ventures, General Catalyst, Thrive Capital and 8VC, among others. It is now valued at $5.7B. Cityblock currently serves more than 100,000 members, and partners with four national Medicaid health plans and several health systems in 15 cities across seven states.Mike's career has spanned both legal and healthcare leadership roles, starting as a commercial litigator before joining UnitedHealth Group as National Vice President of Medicaid Policy and Product. He went on to serve as CEO of UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of Ohio, then as Chief Transformation Officer and President of Government Programs for Optum BH Solutions, and later as Chief Growth Officer and SVP of Growth and Product at UnitedHealth Community and State. In 2024, he joined Cityblock as President to help drive the company's next phase of growth.Mike holds an undergraduate degree from the University of Notre Dame, a JD from Notre Dame Law School, and attended an Executive Education Program at Stanford Graduate School of Business.In this episode, we learn about how health plans evaluate startups, the complexities of improving access for Medicaid and dual-eligible populations, and Cityblock's innovative approach to building trust and engagement.

This episode is part of Pear VC's series on Medicaid, covering the basics that founders need to know to build innovations that support communities in need. Today, we're delighted to introduce Taylor Justice, the driving force behind Unite Us, a company that uses advanced technology solutions to coordinate community-focused social care and integrate social drivers of health into the healthcare continuum and regulatory landscape.   Unite Us developed the first closed-loop referral (CLR) platform that links social care service delivery with detailed outcomes to understand a person’s total health journey. The platform streamlines collaboration among healthcare professionals, community organizations, health plans, and government agencies to provide real-time visibility into the community impact and actionable insights. Through active engagement and accountability, this model increases the efficiency of social care and improves the experience by removing the onus from the patient to navigate eligibility requirements for local services.   Founded in 2013, Unite Us has grown to more than 600 employees serving communities across the US. The company's investors include ICONIQ, Oak HC/FT, and more who are helping advance the company's mission to connect people to the care they need to improve their lives. Taylor started his career in the US Army. After serving in the infantry, he transitioned into an Account Executive role at CCS Medical. From there he became a sales engineer for JDSU which offers products and solutions for communications. After that, Taylor started his entrepreneurial journey co-founding the consulting firm, HigherEchelon, which helped organizations meet their performance goals. In 2013, he co-founded Unite Us and serves as President to this day. Taylor holds a BS in Latin American Studies and Environmental Engineering from West Point Academy and an MBA from Columbia Business School. In this episode, we explore Taylor’s founding journey and how Unite Us's closed-loop referral process is improving care outcomes. We also discuss what it's like to be at the forefront of using social determinants of health data in Medicaid.

This episode is part of Pear VC's series on Medicaid, covering the basics that founders need to know to build innovations that support communities in need. Today, we're delighted to introduce Tracy Douglas, the CEO of Virginia Community Healthcare Association (VCHA), which is the primary care association representing Virginia’s Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) .  Tracy brings over 25 years of healthcare administration and operations experience. She has held executive roles in FQHCs in Indiana and Maryland, overseeing multiple locations across both states. In these roles, she led operations, maintained financial strength, and supported strategic goals to achieve excellence in medical practices, programs, and services. Tracy has  managed operations in various healthcare settings, including pediatric centers of excellence, providing cardiac, kidney, and pulmonary services, both clinic-based and surgical. She also oversaw outpatient and inpatient acute care services and led a large health system’s managed care division. Additionally, Tracy served as the Executive Director of a for-profit physician-hospital organization. In her current role, Tracy  is responsible for the overall operation, management, program development, and fiscal control of VCHA. She also advocates for the Association’s members with federal, state, and local policymakers to ensure they have the tools and resources needed to improve access to primary care for the underserved in Virginia. Tracy received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Maryland, College Park, and her master’s degree in General Administration with a focus on Healthcare Administration from the University of Maryland University College. In this episode, we learn about the scope of FQHC services, how FQHCs are financed, what challenges they face and how they evaluate vendors.

This episode is part of Pear VC's series on Medicaid, covering the basics that founders need to know to build innovations that support communities in need. Today, we're excited to get to know Eliot Fishman, a director at CMMI who focuses on policy and programs that affect Medicaid beneficiaries. Eliot comes to us with a long history of impact in public health policy. Eliot started his career as a policy associate at Mt. Sinai Health System in NYC and then went on to Manatt, Phelps & Phelps. He transitioned into a management policy role on the provider side again at MJHS, a large health system in the New York Area before he left to join the government.  Eliot then served at NJ Department of Health and Senior Services and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for several years across different groups on Medicaid, Medicare and CHIP. Eliot also served in consulting roles at Health Management Associates and at nonprofits like Families USA. In this episode, we learn about payment models within CMMI that attempt to foster innovation in care delivery for Medicaid, program and payment integrity and value-based care models as well as how the Federal government collaborates with State governments to improve care delivery.

This week, we’re super excited to have AmirAli Talasaz, co-CEO and co-founder of Guardant Health, a leading precision oncology company focused on helping conquer cancer globally. Founded in 2011, Guardant Health is focused on helping conquer cancer through the use of its proprietary blood-based tests, vast data sets and advanced analytics.  Guardant’s solutions include treatment selection, recurrence detection and early detection of cancer. The Guardant Health oncology platform leverages capabilities to drive commercial adoption, improve patient clinical outcomes and lower healthcare costs across all stages of the cancer care continuum. Through multiple rounds of private financing, Guardant Health raised over $500 million from investors including Sequoia, Khosla, Lightspeed, OrbiMed, and Softbank, and Pear! and Guardant completed a successful IPO in October 2018.

This week, we’re super excited to have Corbin Petro, CEO and Co-Founder of Eleanor Health. In this episode, we cover how Eleanor Health utilizes a value-based care model for health plan's most vulnerable and complex populations. We dive into different levels of risk and discuss tradeoffs for a startup at different stages. Founded in 2019, Eleanor Health provides evidence-based, whole-person care specializing in addressing the unique complexities of individuals and populations with substance use disorders and mental health needs. Eleanor Health leverages proprietary technology and data-driven insights, compassionate teams, and value-based payment to deliver superior clinical and financial outcomes. Eleanor recently announced last month that they raised a $50M Series C Round led by General Catalyst with participation from Warburg Pincus, Townhall Ventures, Northpond Ventures and Rethink Impact.

This week, we’re super excited to have Tara Viswanathan, CEO and Co-founder of Rupa Health, a healthcare company building the digital platform for the next evolution of medicine: root cause medicine. Founded in 2020, Rupa is revolutionizing medicine by enabling access to root cause medicine, where practitioners aim to identify and solve the true underlying causes of an illness. A root cause approach looks at a person's health holistically and employs advanced comprehensive diagnostics to understand everything from genetics to diet, stress, cortisol levels, the microbiome, and more. Rupa solves the most difficult part of practicing root cause medicine: lab work. Prior to founding Rupa, Tara was on the early team at Parsley Health working on product and operations after earning her bachelor's degree from the Wharton School and master’s in management science at Stanford University. On top of this, she's also a certified nutrition and wellness consultant! In March this year, Rupa announced a $20 million Series A round led by Bessemer with participation from First Round Capital, Lachy Groom, and more.

This week, we’re super excited to have Carolyn Witte, CEO and Co-Founder of Tia.  Founded in 2017 by Carolyn Witte and Felicity Yost, Tia is blending in-person and virtual care services. Tia’s “Whole Woman, Whole Life” care model fuses gynecology, primary care, mental health and evidence-based wellness services to treat women comprehensively — a stark shift from fragmented care for different "body parts'' or life stages. Prior to founding Tia, Carolyn was a Team Lead at Google Creative Labs, developing and growing Google’s core mobile consumer products, Search, Maps and Translate. In September 2021, Tia raised $100M in Series B Round led by Lone Pine Capital.

This week, we’re super excited to have Rachel Blank, CEO and Co-Founder at Allara. Founded in August 2020 and based in New York, Allara wants to help women better manage chronic conditions like polycystic ovary syndrome, or PCOS. It currently affects one in 10 women of childbearing age. Prior to founding Allara, Rachel was the Director of Strategy at Ro, where she launched their women's health brand, Rory. Rachel earned her MBA from Harvard Business School.

This week, we’re super excited to have Priyanka Jain, CEO and Co-Founder at Evvy. Founded in 2020, Evvy is on a mission to radically reinvent how we understand and treat the female body, starting with the vaginal microbiome. Prior to Evvy, Priyanka was the Head of Product at Pymetrics for four years and earned her Bachelor’s degree at Stanford University. In July 2021, Evvy raised a $5M seed round led by General Catalyst. Evvy was founded to serve the unmet needs of 30% of women in the US. The vaginal microbiome is one of those aforementioned signals as the cause of some of the most common conditions in women — yeast infections, recurrent UTIs, bacterial vaginosis, aerobic vaginitis, cytolytic vaginosis, etc. Not only are these conditions highly prevalent, affecting over 30% of women every single year, but these conditions are extremely debilitating to physical, emotional, and mental health and highly stigmatized. Vaginal infections have incredibly outdated diagnostics and treatments, as well as one of the highest recurrence rates in medicine

This week, we’re super excited to have Elizabeth Burstein, CEO and Co-Founder at Neura Health. Founded in 2020, Neura Health is a virtual neurology clinic with a mission to improve the access and quality of neurological care: increase convenience, improve outcomes, and lower costs. Neura Health's platform connects patients to neurologists, with built in neurology-specific symptom monitoring and condition-specific diagnostic tests.  The company’s first app focus is on chronic headache and migraine. Prior to founding Neura Health, Liz was the Head of Product at Maven Clinic and Director of Product at ZocDoc. Neura Health recently announced that they raised a $2.2M seed round with Pear VC, Norwest Venture Partners, Global Founders Capital, Index Ventures, and Next Play Ventures.

In this episode, we’re super excited to have Lucia Huang, CEO and Co-Founder at Osmind, the operating system for neuropsychiatry. Founded in 2020, Osmind provides software and data for precision mental health to help the 22M Americans with treatment-resistant mental health conditions. Prior to founding Osmind, Lucia was the Director of Operations and Finance at Verge Genomics, a next generation neuroscience drug discovery company. In July 2021, Osmind raised a $15M Series A led by Future Ventures! We’re a proud early supporter at Pear VC as well.

In this episode, we’re excited to learn from Vik Bakhru, Chief Health Officer at Circulo Health. Circulo is building the Medicaid insurance company of the future to provide tech-enabled, world-class care to the nation’s most underserved populations. Vik is also currently a member of the clinical advisory board at Bright Health and a practicing Staff Physician at UCSF Medical Center. Prior to Circulo, Vik was the Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer at SameSky Health (formerly Consejosano) for almost 4.5 years and COO of First Opinion. In February 2021, Circulo launched out of stealth at $50M led by Drive Capital, General Catalyst, Oak HC/FT and SVB Capital. 

In this episode, we’re super excited to have Connor Hailey, CEO and Co-Founder of Axle Health here with us today. Founded in 2020, Axle Health enables any healthcare organization to send health professionals to patients’ homes to administer blood draws, vaccines, injections and other physical services. We dive into Axle's founding story, the future of home health, landing their first pilot and then converting their pilots into expanded contracts as well as figuring out how to stack rank features during early stage product development. Axle Health has raised a $3M seed round led by Pear VC in Spring of 2021.

In this episode, we’re excited to learn from Pouria Sanae, CEO and Co-Founder of ixLayer, which provides an elegant solution for integrated health systems to easily deploy and manage affordable and reliable remote lab testing solutions. In March 2021, ixLayer raised an oversubscribed $79M Series A led by General Catalyst— Pear has been a proud investor in ixLayer since the pre-seed and seed days.

In this episode, Vivien gets to know Manav Sevak, the CEO and Co-Founder at Memora Health, the intelligent platform that simplifies how patients and clinicians navigate complex care journeys. Memora Health has developed the most comprehensive end-to-end platform for analyzing and structuring fragmented health care journeys. Memora uses artificial intelligence to digitize and automate patient communication workflows, ultimately helping organizations dramatically improve patient outcomes and operational efficiency. In May 2021, Memora raised a $10.5M venture round led by a16z, with participation from AlleyCorp, Martin Venturesand angels such as Zach Weinberg and Nat Turner, Co-Founders of Flatiron, and Kevin Durant and Rich Kleiman’s Thirty Five Ventures.

In this episode, Vivien interviews Tom Lee, Founder of Galileo, One Medical and Epocrates. Tom is currently the CEO and founder of Galileo, a modern medical group committed to making quality health care affordable and accessible to all.  Galileo raised a Series C round from Foresight Capital, with previous investors including Oak HC/FT, Redpoint, and DNA Capital. Prior to Galileo, Tom also founded One Medical, a national leader in tech-enabled primary care that went public in 2020 and Epocrates, a medical reference app still widely used today. On top of all this, Tom is also a board certified internist who completed training at Harvard's Brigham and Women's Hospital.

In this episode, Vivien interviews Tom Lee, Founder of Galileo, One Medical and Epocrates. Tom is currently the CEO and founder of Galileo, a modern medical group committed to making quality health care affordable and accessible to all. Galileo raised a Series C round from Foresight Capital, with previous investors including Oak HC/FT, Redpoint, and DNA Capital. Prior to Galileo, Tom also founded One Medical, a national leader in tech-enabled primary care that went public in 2020 and Epocrates, a medical reference app still widely used today. On top of all this, Tom is also a board certified internist who completed training at Harvard's Brigham and Women's Hospital.

Welcome back to the Pear Healthcare Playbook! Today we're thrilled to sit down with Othman Laraki, Co-founder and CEO of Color Health, a company reinventing cancer care through a virtual-first, end-to-end model. Othman has spent his career at the intersection of technology and healthcare—from helping build Chrome at Google to leading product at Twitter to founding Color, where he now focuses on expanding access to high-quality cancer prevention, screening, and treatment.In this episode, we explore how Color got started, what the team learned transitioning from genomics into full-stack care delivery, and why reducing friction across the care pathway is critical for improving outcomes. We dive into how Color’s model works across the entire cancer journey, how the company thinks about system-level change and distribution, and how AI—through collaborations with OpenAI and Google Cloud—is powering new capabilities for patients and clinicians.

Today we're thrilled to get to know Travis Zack, Chief Medical Officer of OpenEvidence. OpenEvidence is the world's leading medical information platform and the fastest growing applications for physicians in history. Over 40% of US clinicians leverage OpenEvidence for evidence based practice support that is directly embedded into their workflows.Through an array of strategic content partnerships (including the American Medical Association, The New England Journal of Medicine, The Journal of the American Medical Association, and all eleven JAMA specialty journals—such as JAMA Oncology and JAMA Neurology) OpenEvidence gives clinicians the power to search once, skip the scavenger hunt, and surface the science in seconds. Most recently, OpenEvidence has raised $200M in its Series C from Top Investors like Sequoia, GV Thrive, Kleiner Perkins and others!In this episode, we discuss how OpenEvidence is transforming access to medical evidence, the company’s rapid growth and adoption by clinicians, its business model and journal partnerships, and the future roadmap for AI-powered clinical decision support.