How we’re building the team and the tools to fight biology with biology
Calibrate closes $22.5 million Series A six months after launching digital metabolic reset to double down on the people and product that drive outcomes for our members
Six months ago, our ten-person team launched Calibrate’s first product, our one-year metabolic reset, and I shared this blog post about our mission to change the way the world treats weight. Since then, we’ve grown to 52 team members, we’ve increased our revenue by 54% month-over-month since June, and today we’re announcing a $22.5 million Series A led by Emily Melton at Threshold Ventures, with the participation of our incredible existing investors at Forerunner Ventures and Redesign Health. This investment will allow us to continue to expand our technology platform, powering the delivery of best-in-class clinical outcomes through compelling consumer product, purpose-built tools for integrated clinical care and coaching, and the data infrastructure for real-world evidence.
Obesity is a complex, chronic condition caused by environmental, genetic, and hormonal determinants. Science tells us that it takes a metabolic reset to overcome biological barriers to weight loss, and we believe it’s time to fight biology with biology. Calibrate is defining metabolic health as a new consumer category, one that reflects what the research shows — that weight reflects our biology, not our willpower. Calibrate’s approach uses medication coupled with intensive behavior therapy because it is the most effective line of treatment, driving at least 10% long-term weight loss, a figure that’s proven to be impactful, realistic, and sustainable.
Our values: How we got here
One of my favorite lessons from the years I spent on the founding team at Capsule is that the best businesses are internally and externally aligned, meaning the brand promise to consumers is the same as the company values shared by the team. At Calibrate, we have harnessed this perspective to build a team of Calibraters who enable success for each other the same way we enable success for our members. Here is what that looks like for us.
We’re in this together: Our medical, coaching, and experience teams are in the trenches with each member, making sure they’re supported through every victory, setback, and comeback. Our larger team is in there, too. We have an audacious mission, and we’re building a lot of things for the first time — from the first DTC pharma business within the healthcare ecosystem to the data infrastructure for providing real-world evidence in the largest category of chronic disease. Projects like these require unmatched teamwork. It takes superpowers to build something simple and intuitive within the complex healthcare market, so we identify and work from our individual points of strength. Not everyone has to be good at everything, but we know that when we harness what we’re each great at, we’re unstoppable.
Small wins create big wins: We want long-term results for every Calibrate member, so everything we do is designed to create enduring and empowering habits. We know that incremental steps can add up to something much greater than its parts, and that’s how we built our program. Members tackle one small goal at a time, each building on the last — and all culminating in a whole new approach to health. We know that our members can succeed, but we also know that losing weight isn’t easy. So we ground every experience in optimism, recognizing and celebrating successes along the way. Internally, we celebrate the small wins and the big wins, too. We break projects down into smaller components. And we focus on where we have momentum. We always plan for larger goals with the knowledge that our plans will evolve as we achieve smaller milestones.
You’re in control: Calibrate was designed to fit into our members’ lives, not the other way around. Our program is entirely virtual, so those who need it can access it wherever they are. In the day-to-day, members collaborate with their doctors and coaches to define their goals and the order in which they tackle certain elements of the curriculum. Our team members are in control of their experience, too. While we’re headquartered in New York, we don’t let location stand in the way of the best talent — and from coaches to engineers, many of us are fully remote. At every point on our company roadmap, we empower each other to get creative, develop our skills and ideas, and solve big problems. Our business is multi-faceted, so each Calibrater is hired to be an expert in their piece of it — in control of their own initiatives, in control of their own impact, and in control of driving their own (real) results.
Real results matter: The Calibrate program is built on what’s been scientifically proven to improve metabolic health and lead to lasting results. Over the course of a year, our team and technology help people turn the small changes they make into their new day-to-day. Our members have consistently lost at least 10% of their body weight, and the measurable improvements to their metabolic health extend to lower blood pressure and fasting blood sugar, increased energy, better sleep, and more. We’re obsessed with outcomes because when our members win, we win, and the data proves that we’ve built the best metabolic health program on the market. Our product is our moat; our team members know more about the science of weight loss and healthy habits than anyone else, and we’re eager to share. We’re purposeful, optimistic, and relentlessly confident that we can solve the biggest medical issue of the 21st century.
What’s now — and what’s next:
Since day one, we’ve been on a mission to change the way the world treats weight. This means shifting the conversation from willpower to biology and transforming the model for clinical treatment. To date, we’ve focused our energy on building a compelling, holistic consumer experience that can unlock member outcomes and enable our business to scale. That has meant developing methods for unlocking member engagement and results; creating purpose-built tools for integrated clinical care and coaching; and building a national doctor network that includes interoperability with primary care providers, labs, pharmacies, and payers.
Today we are thrilled to be taking the traction from our first six months, and accelerating it into the next phase of our growth. We’re doing this with the support and partnership of Threshold Ventures Co-founder and Managing Partner Emily Melton who has deep experience increasing access to outcome-driven healthcare companies like Livongo that start from the consumer experience and evolve to market leader. We couldn’t be more excited about how Threshold’s history with category-defining businesses and their focus on the intersection of healthcare and technology will enable us to expand our reach.
In the coming months, we’ll be turning our attention to data infrastructure for real-world evidence to help unlock member engagement and outcomes by constantly iterating our program to develop archetypes, pathways, and intervention guidelines, and to codify and scale our work developing standard-of-care therapies for members. We will also focus on how our data can help others across the healthcare system with early detection of complex chronic conditions in a high-risk population, better regulatory and policy decision making, and accelerated R&D.
We’re thrilled to have the opportunity to double down on our progress, and to understand why you can start with reading the words of our early access members. They tell our story far better than we do. Here’s what we mean:
“I’ve lost nearly 40 pounds in about five months and my blood pressure and fasting blood sugar are down to normal,” says Ruth Scott, an early access member. “I’ve tried a lot of programs, and this is the one time I’ve felt totally in control. Calibrate has helped me to understand that my weight is a biological condition, not something that I should be ashamed of. This is a program that treats the whole person, and I can’t stress enough that the hype really meets the outcome.”
