GUEST BIO

Joanna Strober, CEO, Midi Health
Joanna is the founder of Midi Health, a virtual care platform for women, with a focus on perimenopause and menopause. Midi brings expert care, covered by insurance, to women across the nation. Before Midi, Joanna founded Kurbo, the first digital therapeutic for childhood obesity, which was scaled to help tens of thousands of children worldwide. The company was successfully sold to Weight Watchers in 2018. Before diving into digital health, Joanna spent more than 20 years in direct private equity and venture capital investing in health and consumer companies, including several notable consumer internet companies, such as Blue Nile, eToys, BabyCenter, HotJobs, and Flycast.

Joanna is the author of the book "Getting to 50/50," a primer on how women can succeed and thrive at work and at home. She has spoken extensively to corporate and graduate school audiences on the topic of women and leadership. She was named to Forbes' 50 over 50 list of top Innovators, the CNBC Changemaker 2025, and Time 100 Healthcare Leaders.

MODERATOR BIO

Michelle Snyder, Investment Partner, McKesson Ventures
Michelle is a Partner at McKesson Ventures.  The firm invests in venture and growth stage companies that build innovative software and tech-enabled services businesses for the healthcare and pharma industries.  The Ventures team has deep healthcare investing and operating experience – and brings the expertise and connections of McKesson, one of the large healthcare companies in the world, to help portfolio companies succeed.  Michelle ‘s investments include Atropos Health, Midi Health, RxVantage, Galileo, Lumata Health, and CancerIQ.

Before joining McKesson Ventures, Michelle spent over 20 years helping build digital health companies in Chief Marketing Officer and GM roles, including building Epocrates into one of the most beloved physician technology products.  Prior to McKesson, she worked in other operating, investing and consulting roles at Welltok, InterWest Partners, the Lewin Group and the Wilkerson Group.  Michelle received her MBA from Kellogg School of Management and her BA from Carleton College.  While she will always be a cheesehead from Wisconsin at heart, she calls the Bay Area home and enjoys hiking, paddleboarding and traveling the globe finding new adventures with her husband and son.

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TRANSCRIPT

Announcement: 0:07

Welcome to the Breaking Health Podcast, a series of discussions with the most disruptive CEOs and leaders in digital health.

Michelle Snyder: 0:20

Hello everyone. This is Michelle Snyder, partner at McKesson Ventures, and I am so excited to have Joanna Strober, the CEO of Midi on today's Breaking Health podcast. For the past several years, Joanna has been building Midi into a market-leading women's health platform in a category that frankly has historically been overlooked and or ignored by both the healthcare industry as well as some investors. But I am excited to talk to Joanna today about her journey and how she is. And I quote from her website turning a broken system into a movement. And I also personally know that there have been so many women who have found the Midi platform invaluable and sing its praises. So I'm very excited for everyone to learn more about Midi today. So with that, welcome, Joanna.

Joanna Strober: 1:12

Thank you. I'm excited to be here.

Michelle Snyder: 1:14

Great. So I really, most of the podcast, I want to talk about Midi. But before we get there, I wanted to start a little further back with your background because one of the things I found interesting was that you came from being an investor to being an entrepreneur. And typically you see people going in the opposite direction. So I guess my first question for you is did you always know you wanted to be an entrepreneur and start a company?

Joanna Strober: 1:41

No, absolutely not. Um, I was very fortunate to get a job in venture capital early in the dot-com era, which dates me a bit. And I was investing in consumer internet companies like Blue Nile, which sells diamonds, and no one thought the diamonds would be sold online, um, or a company called Baby Center, which was really a very early digital health company in many ways. And um I I loved being an investor. I I liked working on those companies. And but eventually I had an idea for my own company. And um I was like, oh, well, you know, I could do this too. Uh and so I got very excited about leaving my job as an investor and actually starting my own company.

Michelle Snyder: 2:24

And the first the first company you started was not actually Midi, right? I wanted to talk about Kurbo for a little bit because initially you started Kurbo, and we just kind of loved to hear, you know, a little bit about that experience, but really mostly maybe what you learned from that experience that then brought you to Midi.

Joanna Strober: 2:44

Yeah, a lot. So Kurbo was a digital therapeutic for childhood obesity. And we used an app and we used coaches to help kids to lose weight. And I was so excited about this because we started doing a pilot and it became really clear that we could use this program to help kids to learn better eating habits and really reach a healthy weight. But here's what I learned. First of all, this was prior to COVID. And most children, many children who are overweight are lower income, and we needed insurance to pay for this. And we thought, oh, well, that should be a no-brainer for insurance companies to pay for this.

Joanna Strober: 3:21

But it wasn't because the costs of the costs of obesity are many years down the road. They're not first year costs, they're long-term costs. And most insurance companies don't have a family for more than 18 months. So they were never gonna see the costs of these overweight children. So it was not unnatural for them to, it was not unnatural for them to pay for our services. And then the other part, which was actually interesting as an entrepreneur, is that this program was very effective and time constrained. After three to four months, we had taught the kids a lot of skills and they were able to do these skills without us. But that meant that it wasn't a good business model. So if I had a really good product, they didn't need to stay with us for very long. And uh so as I thought about you know starting my next company, the things I really wanted to optimize on were number one, insurance coverage, and number two, um, something that would be a longitudinal offering, not something that would be a short-term offering.

Michelle Snyder: 4:18

Got it. And I think uh, well, we get into this with Midi, but um, you've been very successful um on both of those fronts. So why don't we dig into Midi then? Maybe for those in the audience that don't know about Midi, could you talk a little bit about um what does Midi do and the business model? How do you make money?

Joanna Strober: 4:35

Yeah. So now Midi is a national care company that is providing virtual, so online care for women's health. And we really are focused on perimenopause and menopause, but we provide a very broad range of women's health from period cramps to hormonal issues to weight loss to libido issues. It's a very broad range of care. And it's all delivered online by experts and it's all covered by insurance. So we think of it as building the first national expert care company focused on women's health.

Michelle Snyder: 5:09

And was this the concept you had when you started, or has it evolved into something bigger than you thought it could be?

Joanna Strober: 5:18

Um, we very much started thinking that we were a hormone company. So the big aha moment for us is that women didn't have access to hormonal health and they needed experts in hormonal health to advise them. So we started off very focused on hormones and creating a women's hormone company. And then what we found is that women don't have access to hormones, but they also don't have access to a whole lot of other care. And so the opportunity was much larger than we thought it was to take care of all aspects of a woman's body, not just their hormones.

Michelle Snyder: 5:53

Got it. Interesting. And so were you getting that feedback from the customers, or like how were you identifying that there was this bigger need?

Joanna Strober: 6:02

It was really women asking us. A lot of what we do is we find, we follow the we follow the women. That is really what we do is we follow the women. So we we are very much following what they are asking us for. And they were asking us for much more care than we were initially providing. And so then we trained our providers to offer this additional care. Got it.

Michelle Snyder: 6:23

And that's actually a great segue into another topic I wanted to talk about was you were talking about training the providers. I mean, just being in healthcare so long and looking at some of the stats, you know, we have not really trained our healthcare providers to understand menopause in particular, but you know, even the issues surrounding menopause in women's health. And so my understanding is there's very few people out there that are actually trained in menopause. So as you're building this big platform, I guess, how do you find people? And if there aren't people out there, I'm assuming you are then the ones training the healthcare professionals.

Joanna Strober: 7:02

We do have to train them, yes. So they are but they are not trained when they come to us, or very few of them are trained when they come to us. Um, menopause care is not something that has historically been taught extensively in medical school. So we do need to train people ourselves. So we have a very extensive training program. And also what's exciting is we have so much data. So now we actually treat more menopausal women than anyone in the world. So we're able to really get good data on what works and what doesn't work. And so now we're able to, I believe, give higher quality care than anyone else because we have all this data. So it is definitely a cyclical thing where we get the information, we can see what is working as a combination. Maybe it's a GLT one and a hormone and a supplement, right? Like we can see what is giving people the best outcomes, and then we can help women to optimize.

Michelle Snyder: 7:49

And then I'm assuming you can also use that data when talking to um insurers, employers, and others just about the need for this care and the, I guess, impact financially it can have.

Joanna Strober: 8:02

Yeah. And so the the exciting thing is that taking good care of women does have a significant short-term and long-term financial benefit. So, short-term, the average woman has gone to six of the wrong visits before she has come to us. Maybe she went to a sleep specialist, or maybe she went to a therapist, right? They've gone to the wrong person. So once we come to us, we're able to eliminate a lot of unnecessary specialist visits. In addition, we are making sure that women get their primary care done. So we're making sure they get their mammograms done, their colonoscopies done. We're also getting blood tests and finding out that they're pre-diabetic and we're able to take care of that. So we are short term able to save the financial insurance companies significant dollars. But then long term, if we get you the right care, um, the likelihood of having osteoporosis goes down, the likelihood of heart disease actually goes down significantly. Um the benefits of proactive women's care using hormones as the basis of that are significant. There's emerging research that's showing that hormones are linked to a reduction in Alzheimer's disease. So getting early care is very important. And our job is to get that information to women to get them on the right protocols. And then long term, we will also save the system a lot of money.

Michelle Snyder: 9:15

So it sounds like you actually, maybe in some respects, you're becoming the primary care physician for many of these women as you're building this longitudinal relationship with them.

Joanna Strober: 9:27

Yeah. For about 50% of the people who come to us, they don't have another care provider. So some percentage of people have a primary care provider and we collaborate with that primary care provider. We're not trying to take women away from them. But if they don't have a primary care provider, then we do end up becoming that for them.

Michelle Snyder: 9:42

I uh I don't think it's just me, but I have been noticing that um menopause seems to be having its moment right now. I see articles everywhere. I'm I'm guessing a lot of that is due to Midi and you raising awareness. But would love to hear your thoughts on why you think we're having more conversations about the topic now. And then maybe a corollary question is you know, if you had started Midi 10 years ago, do you think you'd be in the same place? Oh, that's so interesting.

Joanna Strober: 10:11

Um, you know, one thing I'm really excited about is that I think women are demanding better care. So I think they are realizing that they have been undercared for for a long time. And there is a movement happening of women asking for better care. And so we are, we are filling that, we are filling that hole for them. I also believe that science is changing and science is slowly catching up. And so the research available five years ago, 10 years ago uh was much less. And so we were unable at that point to give the right information to women because there was a lot of science, open science issues. So now the science is much more clear. That doesn't mean that providers are educated on the science, but the science is much more clear. And so we really are able to give better care to women. And that is that is just very exciting. So we're able to now take the science and and give women access to the best research and to the best science. And and so that there's a lot of things kind of coming together that are resulting in this period of time when women are demanding good care and we can make it available to them. So it's kind of like the perfect storm right now, right? Exactly. Great.

Michelle Snyder: 11:21

I'm a um, so I guess going along that thread, we're seeing more interest from women. We have the science. Um, but with Midi in particular, you've also done a lot of work in terms of kind of marketing and branding, right? And getting women to become aware that they deserve better and they deserve more. And I think you're one of the best companies out there from what I've seen in terms of your marketing and branding. So would love to talk about that a little bit more. Maybe we'll start with the branding side, right? How important is that to you and how have you been able to build a strong brand with women?

Joanna Strober: 11:59

Such a good question. You know, when we first started, we went to a branding firm and we did our original brand. And honestly, our brand was very conservative. We we wanted to be taken seriously. And so we thought a lot about what colors we would use and how we would come across to be taken seriously. And now, as we keep going, we are getting much more brave. We want to be louder and we want to be braver and we want to basically show, you know, honestly, being conservative is no longer benefiting benefiting us. So we are being louder. And I think it's actually really fun. Uh, it is it is fun to think about yelling about women's sexual health. A few years ago, we probably were not doing that. Um, we are we are basically saying women deserve great care and we should yell that from the rooftops. And there's no, there's nothing good to us about being quiet about it. And that has been a really good learning, and we've gotten braver over time.

Michelle Snyder: 12:52

Well, and also just, I mean, some of the kind of messaging and marketing I've seen. Actually, the thing I'm impressed is it's not necessarily you telling the story, it's the women out there that you've served. And I don't know, when I've watched a couple of the videos, I even get teary-eyed sometimes. You can just hear the passion and how thankful they are for being heard.

Joanna Strober: 13:17

So I am, I am obviously the best part of my company is that we get to help women feel good, right? Like that, that is the best part of my company. And I'm so grateful to those women who tell their stories and they tell their stories to their moms and they tell their stories to their friends. So a lot of our, a lot of our traffic now is just word of mouth of women amplifying their stories. And I I feel really good about that. I get hugged all the time from people saying that, you know, I saved their marriage, um, that they were able to stay at their job because of Midi, that they just feel better about their lives because they had Midi. Like we, we really are giving women expert care. And I'm I'm just really proud of that.

Michelle Snyder: 13:53

Well, the other thing I remember you telling me is that it's not only women, sometimes it's men too that didn't know anything about menopause. And they're, you know, trying to be understanding, right? And understand what's going on with their partner or spouse and that you provide that value too.

Joanna Strober: 14:11

So I think that is a really important component of this. Uh, but you know, many, most all, I don't know, men love their wives. They want their wives to feel good, right? Uh, they really do. And and they they have not had the language to have this conversation. So I often get things in my LinkedIn saying, can you tell me how to talk to my wife about the fact that she needs Midi? Um, how do I talk to my wife about the fact that I see that she's experiencing these challenges that you're talking about, and I don't know how to cop this conversation. So we actually just published something on Midi's website about men and menopause and how to have this conversation. And and I think communication is obviously really important and we need to get better, all of us need to get better at communicating about these issues. Um, but I think one thing I've seen is that, you know, the men, they really do. They love their partners and they want them to feel good. And so they very much feel bought into what we're trying to solve.

Announcement: 15:04

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Michelle Snyder: 15:20

All right, as much as you know I love marketing, I would love to stay on the marketing topic, but I also realize that I cannot have a podcast in 2025 without talking about AI. And um, so I'm gonna switch topics a little bit here. Also because I know you've been very intentional at Midi about how you use AI, right? And either on the patient-facing side or the operations or in clinical decision support. And I know this is a topic I get asked about from entrepreneurs a lot. I'd love if you could talk a little bit more about how you are leveraging technology at Midi, maybe in general. And then another question that I think is important for you, because building trust is really important. How do you kind of maintain trust, kind of both from patients and providers who are using the technology as you're kind of entering this new frontier using AI?

Joanna Strober: 16:16

Yeah. It's interesting, right? Because as as I'm listening to you, I'm always struggling. Is it do you talk about AI and technology? Like it's kind of the same thing, kind of different, right? Um, it's a little bit interchangeable at this point. The opportunity to use AI slash technology to make every part of our business better is real. And I can just give you a little example by developing an AI insurance card reader. We were able to give people real-time insurance verification. That actually was hard to do. It's not, um, you know, there's thousands of different insurance plans. People want to know if they're insured before the visit. That was actually an interesting AI challenge that was fixed using AI. We now have AI reviewing every one of our charts to make sure that all the care that we're providing is really high quality and making sure that every visit is living up to our Midi standard because the AI reviews the charts and compares against the care protocols and makes sure that we did a great job. Um, we can have AI looking at your the clinician inbox and figuring out what needs to be actually answered by a patient, excuse me, by a provider and what can be answered by AI. So we are using AI to make every part of the experience better for both the patients and the providers. We are probably different than many other companies. We don't want to take away the human connection. So we believe that for the foreseeable and even distant future, people are going to want to actually have a provider talking to them to give them the care. And so what we think about is how do we use technology on every other aspect of it? So that interaction between the provider and the patient is as high quality as possible. And all the other things around it can be automated.

Michelle Snyder: 17:53

No, I think that's a great point. I mean, one of the other things I didn't touch on, um, kind of around your business model and marketing, is you know, you are, you know, a direct-to-consumer company, although you're also working with employers and payers as well. But to me, it seems like, you know, different from some other maybe direct-to-consumer companies, building that trust and the relationship is really important. This isn't just a transaction. So I can see how then thinking about technology, right? And the right places to use technology or not is really important.

Joanna Strober: 18:30

I think technology is just every part of the, every part of this is going to be technology and people. And then we got to figure out what part, right? Yep. That's how I think of it. Is what part is technology and what part is people, and how do we balance that out?

Michelle Snyder: 18:42

Yep. No, I agree. Um, let's uh shift topics a little bit to um maybe fundraising advice. We get asked that from many entrepreneurs, and you've had kind of the uh, I guess fortunate uh uh experience of being on both sides of the table, right? Coming from the investor side and then becoming an entrepreneur. And would love to hear maybe, I don't know, if you have some advice for some of the listeners of this podcast on, you know, how did it help you being on the investor side, or did it help you and then coming to be an entrepreneur in terms of building Midi fundraising? And, you know, were there things maybe you wouldn't have known as an entrepreneur raising money if you hadn't been on the investor side?

Joanna Strober: 19:27

So I think that's a good question. A lot of people think they need to raise venture money for their companies. And clearly there's a big advantage to raising venture because then you can build your company and you can scale and you can hire people to work for you. Um, most businesses are not gonna give investors the scale, the scaled returns that they need. And so I think a lot of times people are are offended when they don't get funding. And I don't think you need to be offended. I think it's really important to understand that investors are human. Investors make a few bets a year. They are looking for really big opportunities that can make a big dent in their fund.

Joanna Strober: 20:08

And so understanding venture economics is very helpful in terms of understanding what kind of companies the investors are looking for and then determining whether your story is able to create that. I think it's really hard. Like a lot of people, quite honestly, a lot of women's health companies, for example, they have really good ideas. They are wonderful things that should be offered to women. And I wish they would be what offered to women, but that doesn't necessarily mean that they're a great venture-funded company. And I think that people have a misunderstanding of the venture people and what they're looking for and what they need to provide to their investors. So it's just very important for them to understand what when you're talking to investors, what those investor returns are and how you can show a story to get there.

Michelle Snyder: 20:49

Now I'm glad you brought up that point. I one of the things I always say is that there's a lot of good ideas in healthcare, but it's really hard to build a large-scaled company, even if you have a great idea. So there's kind of the investment part of getting money, but then maybe just on that theme of building a large-scaled company, which you have done at Midi here, like what is important to focus on? Are there, you know, I guess you're at the point now where you've scaled considerably. And, you know, that is a good problem to have. How do you keep growing at the exponential rate you have been? What keeps you night? What keeps you up at night about, you know, growing so quickly and having to build this scale, large-scale company? Michelle, so many things.

Joanna Strober: 21:38

Uh, you know, we're taking care of 20,000, over 20,000 people a week. I've got to make sure that every one of them gets good care. I have to make sure that we do a great job for every one of those patients. We need to make sure that all of our nurse practitioners are um treated well and that we're creating good jobs for them. Um, I think all the time about making sure that I've created a really great place to work. So that's a very high priority for me. The uh the demand for our company is really high. So we're not we're not constrained by the demand. We're constrained by how efficiently we can grow. And um, do we get supply-demand matching correct all the time? Do we make sure that you know we have the right number of providers available so you can get your visit on time? Like there's a lot of operational challenges in running this, and that's a lot of what we end up spending our time working on.

Michelle Snyder: 22:24

And then probably not to mention the you launched products recently, right? So you had been more of a services company and you were getting demand from the market for products as well, which brings up different issues, right? About, you know, supply chain and delivery.

Joanna Strober: 22:42

So what we heard from our women, loud and clear, is they do not want to go to a visit with us and then be told you need to go to one pharmacy to pick up one medication, and then to a drugstore to pick up another medication, and then someplace else to go get your face cream, right? What they wanted us to do is basically say we can be a one-stop shop, both for your care and for the products that you're looking for. And so we are looking to build that out. And it makes sense, right? When someone gives you after the doctor, when they give you four different prescriptions and you have to go to three different places to fill that, it's it's very frustrating. So we are building out both the care experience and then the one-stop shop so you can get everything that you are looking for.

Michelle Snyder: 23:23

And that really goes with your, I think what you have said you wanted to do from day one, right? Which was really make a great experience for women.

Joanna Strober: 23:32

Yeah, that's right. I want to make this, I want to make care a delight, ideally. I want you to feel seen and heard by us, and I want you to feel cared for. And and I think if I do that, then we will end up having a great business.

Michelle Snyder: 23:43

So I used to hate when people ask me this question. What would you you tell your younger self? And so I'm even though I don't like it, I'm still gonna ask you, Joanna. So I know I know Midi is not that old as a company, but if you went back to the beginning of Midi, kind of knowing what you know now, what would you tell yourself?

Joanna Strober: 24:01

So I'm gonna answer your question a little differently. Um, I have three grown children. I've had a long career, and I've had five careers. I've done a lot of different jobs, and um, some of them successfully, some of them less successfully. And I think that when I look back on all of that, could I, in many ways, I feel like everything that I've done has culminated in what I'm doing now. Um, but in many ways, I had no idea what I was doing. And a lot of it was was just being adventurous and taking risks and trying new things and being open to new ideas. Um, just, you know, I was gonna say five years ago, but maybe it's seven years ago, you know, Telehealth wasn't even really a thing, right? So like everything that I'm doing wasn't even invented 10 years ago. So I don't think you have any idea what's ahead. And I think the idea is to stay curious and to stay open-minded and to stay open to taking risks. And I think all those things have worked in my favor. Um, and you know, look, there's been some also some really hard times. And I think a lot of it is just being resilient. So those are those are all things that I think about.

Michelle Snyder: 25:01

Right. No, I think that is wonderful advice for everybody. In terms of meetings specifically, has there been anything that like maybe you worried about at the beginning that I guess either you should have worried about or you know, you didn't need to worry about? I need to worry about everything. Well, maybe I'll ask this is the market, is the market as big as you thought, bigger than you thought?

Joanna Strober: 25:24

The market is bigger than we thought. So we are not market constrained. The the demographics are in our favor. Half the counties in the United States don't even have an OB-GYN. There's a huge shortage of primary care providers. Many primary care providers are going concierge instead of um insurance-covered care, which makes it harder and harder for women and everyone, not just women, but everyone to get access to high quality care. So our opportunity is to fill that gap, and it's a big gap. And then the issue is just how do you do that with really high quality care and operational efficiency. So those are the things that I need to focus on.

Michelle Snyder: 25:57

Yeah, it sounds like from everything I've heard from you and read, Midi has been really instrumental in getting not only healthcare providers, but employers and payers and women in general to talk about menopause in a way that they haven't really done in the past. But I think there's still so much that we need to be talking about and know. So, my last question for you is love for you to tell the audience maybe three or four things about menopause that most people don't know, that they should know.

Joanna Strober: 26:27

Oh, cool. Okay. So here's what's really important menopause doesn't mean much. Okay. Menopause means you haven't had your period for a year. Perimenopause is the 10 years before menopause. And all that means is that your estrogen is fluctuating and going down. Estrogen is in many ways the fountain of youth for women. So as your estrogen goes down, that's when we start having bone issues. That's when we start having anxiety, depression. Um, that's when our heart attack risk goes up, right? Estrogen is basically body protective. So as the estrogen goes down, that's when the changes start happening in women's bodies. So think of it as a hormone transition. Menopause just means you haven't had your period for a year. And people like talk about a menopause company. Like that's a that doesn't mean anything, a menopause company, right? Because that's all it means is that you haven't had a period. What is really relevant here is the 10 to 15 years before menopause where your hormones are fluctuating.

Joanna Strober: 27:20

And then, and I want everyone to remember this the years after, because people always tell me I'm done with menopause. And it makes me want to cry because no, they are not done with menopause. Their estrogen is still going down, which means they are putting their brain, their bones, and their heart at higher risk. So if you think you are done with menopause, you should still be considering hormone replacement therapy to help your bones, your brain, and your heart. So, what I really want people to understand is that menopause is a day, but being pre-menopause, post-menopause, it's all just hormonal issues. And really from 35 and up, you should be thinking about these issues, if not younger. So please don't be one of those people who say I'm done with menopause, because the things that we can do to help you will continue until look, I'm gonna have my hormone patch on until I die. There's real benefits to it. All right.

Michelle Snyder: 28:13

Well, Joanna, I could not have ended any better than you just did. Thank you again so much for joining the Breaking Health podcast. And thanks to all of our audience for joining in as well. And we look forward to bringing you more digital health innovators in the future.

Joanna Strober: 28:28

That was fun. Thank you.