Government officials nor science have yet to solve America’s obesity crisis and with more than 175 million Americans overweight, those with entrepreneurial mindsets are jumping into action. Calibrate is the latest startup envisioning the future of weight loss by building a digital metabolic reset program rooted in biology; instead of the latest fad diet. Calibrate’s signature program integrates metabolic medication with one-on-one virtual coaching on nutrition, sleep, exercise, and emotional health to help clients lose up to 10% of body weight. Calibrate is available DTC and works with clients’ insurance companies in order to cover lab work and medication costs.
AlleyWatch caught up with CEO Isabelle Kenyon to learn more about how Calibrate is creating a modern medical approach to weight loss, the company’s funding round, and future plans.
Who were your investors and how much did you raise?
$5.1M in Seed funding, led by Kirsten Green at Forerunner Ventures, along with Redesign Health.
Tell us about the product or service that Calibrate offers.
Our one-year digital metabolic reset is built on the latest weight health science and is vetted and approved by a world-class clinical advisory board. We are a modern, medical approach that combines medication with one-on-one coaching—all personalized to your biology, your goals, and your life for a 10% weight loss that lasts.
What inspired the start of Calibrate?
Our mission is to change the way the world treats weight.
A personal experience helping my mom navigate the healthcare system, opened my eyes to the decades of obesity medicine our leading academic research institutions had pioneered. We founded Calibrate to bring this proven science to everyone, everywhere.
For the majority of people, traditional weight loss programs don’t work long-term. Which means they don’t work. The weight loss industry has been focusing on the number on the scale, but the science tells us it’s more complicated.
Sustainable results are driven not by diets, but by metabolic health. Our program combines what’s proven to achieve it—metabolic medication and coaching on food, exercise, sleep, and emotional health habits. The result is sustainable weight loss and success beyond the scale—whole-body health, from reduced disease risk to improved day-to-day health. Weight doesn’t reflect willpower. It reflects your metabolic system. It’s time we treat it that way.
How is Calibrate different?
Calibrate fights biology with biology. Our one-year program combines metabolic medication with one-on-one coaching on food, sleep, exercise, and emotional health to help you lose 10% of your body weight.
What market does Calibrate target and how big is it?
Calibrate is pioneering a new market in making metabolic health accessible through telemedicine and virtual coaching. We know that nearly 9 out of 10 Americans are not in optimal metabolic health, with more than 175 million American adults overweight. We also know that both consumers and health plans spend hundreds of billions of dollars each year on weight loss and weight-related issues, all to have Americans gain 1-2 pounds per year.
What’s your business model?
We are a direct-to-consumer metabolic health business—consumers sign up and pay for our services directly, and we work with insurance companies to cover your lab work and medication.
How has COVID-19 impacted the business?
In the face of COVID-19, we know that there has never been a better time to fix our metabolic health. Dr. David Ludwig wrote that “Americans Are Already Too Diseased to Go Back to Work Right Now” in the New York Times.
Drs. Mark Hyman and Dariush Mozaffarian (Calibrate Clinical Advisor) explained that our “shocking rates of poor metabolic health—with nearly 9 out of 10 American adults unhealthy—is a major reason the COVID-19 crisis is so much greater than it needs to be” in the Boston Globe.
We believe that skyrocketing consumer telemedicine adoption and an increasing focus on our underlying metabolic health, will both be strong tailwinds for our business.
What was the funding process like?
We looked for partners who believed in our mission and vision from our earliest conversations. We found natural fits in Kira Wampler, and the team at Redesign Health, who pushed us to focus the business on holistic metabolic health, addressing the root cause, and driving success beyond the scale.
Kirsten Green and Nicole Johnson at Forerunner Ventures helped us obsess over and refine customer experience, brand messaging, and positioning from our first meetings.
What factors about your business led your investors to write the check?
The teams at Forerunner and Redesign believed in both the incredible market opportunity and the proven, science-backed approach—the chance to change the lives of more than 175 million Americans by giving them control of their health.
The teams at Forerunner and Redesign believed in both the incredible market opportunity and the proven, science-backed approach—the chance to change the lives of more than 175 million Americans by giving them control of their health.
What are the milestones you plan to achieve in the next six months? Where do you see the company going now over the near term?
In the next six months, we’re working to onboard our early access members and help them unlock weight loss with a metabolic reset. We will constantly iterate our product and experience with their feedback. We will also continue our geographic expansion to treat new members across the country.
What advice can you offer companies in New York that do not have a fresh injection of capital in the bank?
Work with people who are as excited about your mission as you are—you can always find a way to combine flexible timelines with equity to make it work.
What’s your favorite outdoor dining restaurants in NYC?
Malatesta in the West Village.
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