Tag Archives: end addiction

(Re)Meet Pelago: Well-Funded Quit Genius Rebrands to Make Addiction Treatment More Accessible

June 15, 2023Business, Health, Innovation, StartupsAddiction, Dr Yusuf Sherwani, end addiction, Health Moonshot, Health Moonshot Update, Logan Plaster, moonshot, Pelago, Quit Genius, Yusuf Sherwani MDNicole Kinsey

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 28:27 — 39.1MB)

When we first met today’s StartUp Heatlh NOW podcast guest, he was a newly-minted doctorpreneur. After finishing med school Yusuf Sherwani, MD, teamed up with a couple fellow doctors to tackle a massive, pervasive problem they were facing in their clinics: Day after day they were seeing patients struggling with addiction, whether smoking or drinking or opioids. These were people stigmatized by their addictions into fear and inaction or they’d reached out for help and found the options unsuccessful.

This group of physicians thought, with today’s technology and breakthroughs in addiction management, there has to be a better way. So they built Quit Genius, the world’s first virtual clinic for substance use management. They combined the best digital health tools with leading cognitive behavioral therapy and medication assisted treatment.

Their solution met a hungry market. Since inception, Dr. Sherwani and his team – who joined StartUp Health in 2020 – have helped more than 750,000 people manage their substance use, and with $77 million raised, they are poised to scale even further.

We wanted to sit down with Dr. Sherwani to hear their scale-up vision and also to get the story behind their recent rebrand to Pelago. In this episode, Dr. Sherwani explains the name change – it’s derived from the word archipelago – and shares where this growing company is heading next.

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Live From the Conflict Zone: How David Sarabia of inRecovery Is Supporting His Team in Ukraine

April 19, 2022Business, Health, Innovation, StartupsAddiction, David Sarabia, end addiction, entrepreneurship, Health Moonshots, Health Transformer, Health Transformers, InRecovery, Moonshots, UkraineNicole Kinsey

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 32:25 — 44.5MB)

This week, we talk with David Sarabia, the CEO and Founder of inRecovery, a StartUp Health-backed company that brings digital health tools to the addiction recovery market.

David was on vacation in Mexico when he saw the headlines: Ukraine was under attack and Russian forces were moving in on the capital. After the initial shock of the news wore off, David snapped into action. He’d spent a good deal of time in Ukraine, cultivating a development team there for his startup. And now his team was in trouble. So instead of taking his flight back to California, he booked a ticket to Poland. He had no plan and few connections, just a desire to help.

David has been on the ground in Krakow now for more than month, organizing supply runs into Ukraine while still running his company. When we heard about the important work he was doing we tracked him down for an interview. Exhausted but encouraged by the strength of the Ukrainian people, he shares a bit about the work he’s doing and how others can help.

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Connect with the team at inRecovery via email.

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youturn’s Shay Houser Is Making Addiction Treatment More Accessible

November 8, 2021Business, Health, Innovation, Insights, Startups, UncategorizedAddiction, end addiction, Health Moonshot, Health Moonshot Update, Health Moonshots, Logan Plaster, Shay Houser, youturnStartUp Health NOW

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 26:17 — 24.1MB)

On this podcast episode, which was recorded live on the floor of HLTH in Boston in October, StartUp Health’s Logan Plaster sits down with Shay Houser, the CEO and Co-founder of youturn. Shay and his team are working to fight addiction by making addiction treatment resources more accessible. They’ve recognized that it isn’t just the addicted person who is effected, but a wide community of friends and family, so they’re working with employers to address problems early and to respond to addiction as a community of support. Shay comes at youturn as both a serial entrepreneur and as someone who has struggled with addiction. That combination of tactical and personal experience has helped the startup secure important early partnerships, which Shay discusses in the interview.

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These Three Startup Health Entrepreneurs Are Working to Fight Addiction and End the Opioid Epidemic

September 28, 2021Business, Health, Innovation, Insights, Startups, UncategorizedAddiction, chronic pain, end addiction, Health Moonshot, Health Moonshot Series, Health Moonshot Update, India Edwards, JD Meints, Logan Plaster, moonshot, NuLife, NuLife Virtual, opioid, overdose, Quit Genius, StartUp Health, Sumeet Maniar, WellBrain, Yusuf SherwaniStartUp Health NOW

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 21:39 — 29.7MB)

This special episode is part of our monthly Health Moonshot series. Each month we take one of StartUp Health’s 12 audacious health goals and highlight founders working to make the impossible a reality. This month we’re talking about the moonshot to End Addiction & the Opioid Crisis. Hosts Logan Plaster and India Edwards discuss three entrepreneurs from the StartUp Health portfolio who have developed incredible technology to help fight addiction. J.D. Meints, CEO and Founder of NuLife Virtual, has created a behavioral health platform that extends the benefits of a close-knit rehab community into the home. Yusuf Sherwani, MD, CEO & Co-founder of Quit Genius, has built one of the world’s first digital clinic delivering a comprehensive medication-assisted treatment program for multiple addictions. Last but not least, Sumeet Maniar, CEO & Founder of WellBrain, has developed a digital chronic pain management platform for providers.

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