Max, great to have you on the Slice of Healthcare podcast. How are you today?
Amazing. I'm so pumped for this. Let's just dive right in. So, would love if you could start things off. I doubt this is the case, but let's assume there's people that are hearing about you for the first time. Give us a quick snapshot of what Superpower does and what makes it unique.
We are building a healthcare super app. We believe every single person will have an AI doctor on their phone. That is the first place they go to to access care. Now, the starting place is an annual membership — today, $42 a month or $499 a year — which gives people 100-plus blood biomarker tests twice a year, around five times more comprehensive than an annual physical. We'll pull in all of someone's other data as well, their past medical records, their wearables, connect the dots, see what's going on at the root cause, and then make it really easy to take action. Right? The goal is — when you're a Superpower member, when you're within the ecosystem — we want to try to do as much as possible for you. We really want to put healthcare on autopilot. And the goal isn't just treating sickness. The goal is how do we prevent disease as early as possible, and how do we go beyond that and use healthcare to actually enhance human performance.
I like companies and ideas that seem like it's obvious we should have this, right? And whenever companies like yours come around, I get really excited and I want to interview them. So I'm excited for two things. I've been reading a lot about you. Wanted to have you on. Thought it'd be great to have you as a guest. Also, I'm interested in learning about Superpower so that I can think about becoming a member. And I'll share with you — you and I were chatting a little bit before — recently I tore my calf playing pickleball of all things, and I went down a spiral of ChatGPT and Grok conversations about what was happening with it when I first got hurt before I went to the ER. And it was just — I mean, there's a reason why you probably shouldn't use those for your healthcare, like to try to identify something, because it made me worry completely about what was happening. And it turns out I went to the ER and it was torn, but they did nothing for me. Who — I mean, without sharing personal details — when you look at your user base, who do you see using Superpower the most?
We want to reach every single American, right? 150 million Americans have an Amazon Prime membership. We want there to be a health membership that the majority of people own, and that will happen when that membership is as close to zero dollars as possible, right? This should be something that costs people nothing — either because the marginal cost is lower, or insurers and employers pay for it. And what that health membership has is annual preventative testing, all your data in one place, access 24/7 to a medical team that can take action, refer, prescribe, and deliver holistic care. So that's where we're going today. We have quite a broadly distributed group of people across ages; across male and female is quite evenly split. And that said, what we think a lot about is who do we target first? Who do you want to win the hearts and minds of first? And for us that is who we call the taste makers — the people who define culture. A big belief is that we want to create a generational brand. Right? There aren't brands in healthcare. No one's walking around wearing One Medical t-shirts, no one, or Hims hoodies. And I think part of creating a brand is defining culture. And culture tends to start with taste makers: fashion and finance in New York, wellness and media in LA, and technology in SF.
If you had to bucket Superpower into like a particular category, like could you put it obviously like in longevity?
I don't think longevity is really a category. I think this is a word that is thrown around that is awfully imprecise, and I think that people call any company that is doing consumer healthcare that is preventative and focused on human performance rather than just sickness 'longevity.' I don't really know what longevity means. So I prefer to think that we are at the intersection of health and wellness and doing healthcare the way it should be done.
I like that way better. That's a great breakdown. I like to — when I have people come on the podcast, especially for the first time, I'm sure you get this all the time, right? Like, where did the idea come from? I don't care about that. I care about the final domino that got you to start the company. Everyone has that: 'Okay, here's the story of when I had the idea.' What was the final domino that took it from an idea to, 'No, I'm going to do this and do it right now'?
Um, yeah, that's weird. I'm trying to think about the point in time where I'm like, 'I'm doing this.' I don't think there was a final domino point in time. Basically in around August 2022 I was thinking what I wanted to commit the next 30, 40, 50 years of my life to, and I decided that it would be healthcare — healthcare done better, built the way it should be built, knowing everything we know about the latest technology. And it took a year of experimenting and learning and forming thesis and meeting people to actually say, 'Okay, this is the thing I'm targeting.' But I was quite resolute from early on that I would build in healthcare.
Okay, that's — I mean, there's no wrong answer either. That was great. I would love to hear a little bit maybe about — doesn't have to be the challenges, but I guess challenges, lessons in running a company like this, right? It can't be easy. This is a huge problem to solve. You said it yourself when you were thinking about it. You wanted to see, like, what were you going to do? What area were you going to focus on the next 30, 40 years? So what's been the biggest challenge so far, and I guess what lessons have you learned along the way?
The hardest thing was all the advice that you get, and I think the role of a founder is to discard 50 to 90% of advice you hear, because most of it reasons from the past. And the most insidious form of advice is the one that comes from industry insiders, right? Because insiders always reason from the past and think about the challenges and everything that can go wrong, rather than the future and everything that can go right. The reality is the future is going to be very different from the past, and therefore it's hard to generalize our past learnings. So that was tough. It psyched me out for 6 to 12 months where I didn't stand by my convictions, and then after 6 to 12 months of seeking advice, I realized that a lot of it could be discarded, and I came full circle to where I started.
Thank you so much for sharing. When you look at your kind of day-to-day, right? What does a typical day look like for you? I know it probably can change quite rapidly, but what does that typical day look like? And then are there any rituals or habits that help you kind of stay on top of your game?
I get up too late at the moment, say around 9:00 a.m. And I will more or less work from 9 a.m. through to roughly 1 a.m. And is that health-optimized though? But I joke that sometimes I'm unhealthy so that other people can be healthy. The reality is company building is very brutal. When I wake up, I have green tea. I'm off coffee at the moment. I don't like the impact it has on a bunch of different systems. I take supplements. I have like an oral hygiene protocol that I'll follow in the morning, which includes oil pulling amongst other things. But then I start the day. I'll sometimes get sunlight. I'll sometimes go for a walk, but to be honest, I'm normally at my desk within 15 to 30 minutes. I think that we've entered this era of 'I do my morning routine for productivity' and two hours later people are still doing their morning routine. I think often the best morning routine is to be like, 'Yeah, I feel amazing.' That's not — I don't have to check my Oura ring. I don't have to externalize how I feel. I can just choose to feel amazing, maybe get outside and get a little bit of sun, then just start and get into things.
So that's what I do. I try not to eat anything until 1 p.m. If I do eat something at 1 p.m., I try to stay away from carbs in particular. I find that they mess with my metabolism. They cause brain fog. They cause afternoon fatigue. And as often as possible, I try to make the first meal of the day a smoothie, which is a hack. The way I'll make a smoothie, it has 60 g of protein, 20 of fiber, all sorts of micronutrients and minerals, and probably only like 3-400 calories, right? So it's something that fills you up like a 1,000-calorie meal whilst only taking 3-400 calories in, and is good for metabolism as well as all sorts of other facets of health.
And then — I'll typically, on an ideal day, exercise around 5:00 p.m. A lot of days are not ideal because founder life can be disruptive. And then I'll eat dinner around 6:30 p.m. right after exercising. That tends to be my post-workout meal. As a result, I can eat as many carbs as I want at dinner, and I don't feel guilt because carbs are good following exercise. And then it comes time for bed around 1:00 a.m. Thirty minutes before, I'll supplement glycine, theanine, magnesium in particular. Sometimes I'll add a few other things. I'll brush my teeth and I'll hop into bed. I try to dim all lights and all computers and the rest at least one to two hours before going to bed. I do stay on my laptop up until 15 minutes before. Is it optimal? No, for health. But I find that my health is good in spite of that. Positive attitude can make you feel great, right, all the time. So I just actually switched to blue blocker glasses late at night at least. And although sometimes it doesn't make working on your computer ideal, especially if I'm doing a design. But hey, if anyone sees anything that's awfully colored, because I was doing designs too late at night.
Um, I need to go back quickly to that smoothie because I've been trying to do more smoothies. What do you put in it usually? So you said protein, but what other stuff is typically in it?
I'll go three different kinds of protein: organic goat whey, collagen, and a vegetable — I think it's a pea protein or some sort of vegan protein blend. I find if I do too high a dose of any one of them, it causes a tiny bit of brain fog. I also like the balanced amino acid profile of mixing them up. I will also add a berry base, typically strawberry, blackberry or blueberry. Blueberry is the most common because I like the cognitive benefit and it's higher in antioxidants than some of the other berries. I will add fiber either as flaxseed or a fiber powder. I will add maca powder. I'll sometimes add cacao powder. I'll sometimes add ginger powder. I will add some sort of antioxidant powder, either acai berry or dragon fruit. And I'm sure I'm missing a few things, but then I'll add phosphatidylcholine as well because I want to get choline up. And occasionally, if I want it to be a tiny bit sweeter, I'll add some Manuka honey. And that is very nutrient-dense, very metabolically safe, a fast way to get protein in, and fills you up. So that's my go-to at the moment. I'm making a protein — as soon as we get off this. I mean, a smoothie as soon as we get off this.
