As we continue to work on some new episodes for you, please enjoy this episode from June featuring Sami Inkinen, the co-founder and CEO of Virta Health.
Summary:
The medical establishment spent decades telling patients that type 2 diabetes is a chronic and irreversible disease. Today’s guest decided to prove them wrong.
Sami Inkinen is the co-founder and CEO of Virta Health, a company using a combination of nutrition science, remote monitoring technology, and individualized coaching to help patients reverse type 2 diabetes, obesity and other metabolic conditions.
Previously, Sami co-founded Trulia, the online real estate marketplace, serving as COO and president through its IPO and eventual sale to Zillow. He has also held roles at Microsoft and McKinsey, and rowed from California to Hawaii with his wife to raise awareness of the dangers of sugar.
Sami joins us to talk about how his own health journey influenced his decision to start Virta, the challenges of scaling in the health space, and the incredible success they’ve had in treating metabolic disease.
Highlights:
- A personal pre-diabetes diagnosis (2:35)
- Lessons from Trulia (6:00)
- Why reversal, not management (9:30)
- Clinical results and outcomes (12:47)
- GLP-1s and Virta’s approach (15:26)
- Technology and personalization (17:33)
- Selling to employers (20:17)
- Overcoming the status quo (22:33)
- Building a full-stack team (25:15)
- Rowing California to Hawaii (28:30)
- Goals for ‘26 into ‘27 (30:58)
Links:
Feedback:
If you have questions about the show, or have a topic in mind you’d like discussed in future episodes, email our producer,
joe@lowerstreet.co
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