Speech to Text:

Mike Koelzer: Britt, for those that haven't come across you online, introduce yourself and tell our listeners what we're talking about today.

Britt Gottschalk: I'm Britt Gottschalk. I'm the founder and CEO of Genom.Me. today we're going to be talking about health data, how to increase its involvement in the clinical research space, how to use that to improve and advance medical science.

Mike Koelzer: That probably comes up in any conversation right away. , there's, why do I give my data and how can it help me and the world maybe? But first of all, want to know what I'm giving. I want to know what you're tapping into. I imagine that's a big part of discussions.

Britt Gottschalk: Yeah, [00:02:00] absolutely. And I think there are a lot of platforms and systems that claim to be patient centric, especially when it comes to consenting and giving control and ownership of that data to patients . Whether Whether that be pharmacists, physicians, whatever it may be, what have you, but with ownership comes that element of true responsibility.

 With what we do the platform, it's called Genome E we allow people to choose and consent over which data, which health data they share. So within their electronic medical record, within their genetic

genomic reports. And really being able to have the, ability to say, hey, you know what, I'm not comfortable with sharing certain things.

I'm not going to share that data to institutions, if I do choose to transfer it there, or if they do choose to purchase it. So that is something that we try to really live within the mission of, My company is making sure that true ownership means that you [00:03:00] know exactly what you're sharing, you know who you're sharing it to, and you're getting true ownership of your data, which means if you own something and somebody else wants it, they're going to have to pay for it.

Some of it is altruistic. Some people like to donate their their medical history to science for clinical research purposes. Other people do like to do that. But on top of that, they do like to receive compensation. They do like to receive a payout. Based on the information that is shared with the Genome platform We have another portal where researchers are able to query the data that's inside of the platform. So let's say if you come in as, you come in as a patient, Bob Smith, and you consent to sharing your medical record and genetic information then we have a researcher on the other side.

That's able to query by allergy condition medication requests, whatever it might be to find that information. And then if they purchase it, you're able to get a payout. As soon as

your data is purchased, 

Mike Koelzer: Can somebody say, I want such and such company to know who I [00:04:00] am and have a conversation? 

Britt Gottschalk: So you can choose whether or not you would like to have your record de identified, or if you'd like to be identifiable. And we do that process through the consenting to being contacted for clinical research in our platform. If you check the box, then yep. Researcher X at Institution Y can go ahead and get in contact with you.

If not you're able to still share your record. Your PHI will be taken out of it. It'll

be de identified. And it'll just be a record.

Mike Koelzer: So Brett, these companies could come up with this stuff on their own, I imagine, but it's probably hard to do. It's probably hard to find volunteers. hard to even get that conversation going. is this convenient for them?

What else is it for them?

Britt Gottschalk: So it's convenient on the clinical research side of it. It helps screen and recruit patients faster. Whether that be for studies, longitudinal studies or any other types of research that they might conduct it's really useful from a [00:05:00] population health standpoint to be able to get large pieces of information on different demographics it's something that I do believe other institutions have worked on trying to get a good sample of the population with this type of data. But a lot of the methods have fallen short. I think the main one that everybody knows is the NIH's All of Us program, To be able to get as many different and diverse datasets that are available for research as possible. But the pieces that are missing from the NIH's program from some of these institutions is that.

They are very out of touch with the populations that they are trying to reach. Data is a commodity. We know that it's very valuable, especially when it comes to specific health data. Institutions use it to develop drugs and treatment plans. And a lot of times, people that have, Relinquished ownership of their data to these institutions are not getting compensated or reimbursed for it.

And so that's [00:06:00] we come in to try to level the playing field a little bit more to be able to get more enriched and diverse data sets because of our ability to Reach different members of populations that were not interested in clinical research before or couldn't afford to be because they were not the demographic that could take a day off of work,

and go do a bunch

of blood tests or yeah, give that kind of information to those institutions.

Mike Koelzer: If you mentioned to me like people that sell their plasma, I have a picture of a certain set of people in my head. When you talk about a company before yours, when you talk about just, data that a drug company is going to get, what. Is the typical population that they're going to get versus some more stuff that maybe you can get, like you mentioned, they're compensated so they can the day off and do kind of thing.

So , if your company's not there doing that what's the general population they're getting and what are some of [00:07:00] the, inadequacies of that then?

Britt Gottschalk: Yeah, to your point, there are quite a few people that are just interested in being able to make some additional money or be

compensated in that way. But there's also a huge demographic that would require gene therapies for some of the different illnesses that they suffer from or

some of the different conditions.

 For example, since we link electronic medical record and genetic data there are populations that are interested in it from that clinical research, clinical trial and recruitment standpoint. Just to give a number, like 25 to 30 million Americans have a rare disease and many of those have a genetic tie in.

There are blood disorders and different types of cancers that have genetic ties. And we're talking about a demographic of people that, yeah, there's There are some people that just want to make money on it, but this is more specific to people that are sick and that are looking for treatments that can [00:08:00] really help them in a more streamlined way than, any kind of current primary care offering that they have. Because the education around clinical trials is not necessarily something that everyone knows about. I mean, you usually have to be pretty sick, If you go to the doctor they might say that you qualify for a study, but In this vein, we not only reach those populations, but we reach populations that are interested, but wouldn't be talked to, wouldn't be talked to about it if they went to a doctor because they're not sick.

This is getting the different types of diverse population data that I was talking about before to the hands of the researchers that can do the most good with it.

Mike Koelzer: I imagine getting that diverse population is important because I think about some studies and, for example let's say there's a study on let's say there's a study on cannabis, there's one that was out about it, affecting people's hearts and so on.

Part of the argument was like, are these [00:09:00] people and is it, causation or not? All the terms that go along with those studies, is it causation or is it actual this and that kind of stuff? And you're like, all right what kind of people would like to do these studies? What kind of people do these studies?

Is it people that have a certain amount of free time or, somebody who's partaking of this is maybe already of a certain type of person that already has this potential problem going on or something. So I imagine just getting a, clean group is hard and the more people you can get involved to that the better.

 In a company like yours, I think makes it easier for people to come across people. Okay.

Britt Gottschalk: Yeah. And I mean, that's the other thing too you're touching on studies where you're going to conduct a study and you want to do it. Effectively, you're going to need a certain sample size, you're going to need a certain population, and a lot of studies that are conducted, potentially the one that you just mentioned the key demographic there might have been from male [00:10:00] Caucasian data, because that's

the data that's widely available, But,

If you're not part of that demographic, then how is, cannabis going to affect you if the control population that's, that they're studying is, white men, if you're not white

male. 

Mike Koelzer: Like in that case, you got a bunch of old fat white guys that already might have condition because these guys may not be mountain hikers because a mountain hiker may not be in this case. They might not be using cannabis, that kind of thing.

And so it's hard to know. Exactly what you got and how good a control group is. And so when I imagine

Britt Gottschalk: yeah, I mean, in order for, certain types of therapies just throwing it out there with the types of data that we collect gene therapies, to be able to, Really understand what kind of drugs influence a body's response. I mean, we're talking about pharmacogenomics and, if you're not somebody who is, a white male and pharmacogenomics is something that's being studied on that demographic, and [00:11:00] specifically with one type of drug, then that study is not going to be effective for you.

That drug might not be as effective for you.

Mike Koelzer: All right, so backing up a little bit, Brett, so I imagine that if you're having a hard time coming up with test subjects, and I talked to a CEO couple shows ago, or, and he was saying, that was one of their bottlenecks of finding subjects. But if you're having trouble finding subjects having a lot of subjects available through maybe using a company like yours.

You have the opportunity then, hopefully a benevolent opportunity, to find a better test group than you might if you're trying to do it but without much of a choice. Cut corners. Now I'm not saying people do, I'm just saying the tendency would be there to cut corners. So it seems like if you have a lot of test subjects available for you, you might come up with a [00:12:00] better study.

Britt Gottschalk: Yeah, I mean, it's specifically, it comes down to what you're studying, right? But I do know that based on The ability for our platform to engage an interest, different types of people from all different demographics. You do have a better pool to select from. And especially when it comes to studies that, Do require some kind of like genetic or genomic testing to be done, something like that isn't always affordable through insurance.

I mean, you probably know more than I would, Mike, but I don't think that's something that normal insurance offers. But, a lot of times when people are. Sick in this way and they need to get certain testing done if they don't really know the pathways to do that our platform does make it very easy for them to be able to have that one stop shop where it's like you have your electronic medical record all in one place, you're able to get your genetic and genomic testing done and then we're able to put that together for researcher populations to find exactly what they need.

Mike Koelzer: For people to want to [00:13:00] take part in tests like this without a company like yours, like you say, it's usually the doctor may be asking them and maybe they're in a spot where if they've just got diagnosed with terminal cancer and it's the first time they found out about this or something, they might not be somebody who would want to partake in this.

So seems to me a company like yours would be. Maybe less emotional making those choices and so on. It's more of a process that's not so much maybe tied to an emotional surprise or something in the doctor's office.

Britt Gottschalk: Yeah. And I mean, and that's something else. It's one of the things that I think is really interesting, and it's a bit of a trend in the space, is that people interact with pharmacists more so than they interact with, their primary care physicians, because you have a

Walgreens on every corner, 

 and with something like our platform, we do kind of take the the anxiety, I guess, out of being able to, get the kind of information that you want, but might not necessarily [00:14:00] be ready to talk to a physician or someone about it, or if you don't have access to one 

Mike Koelzer: So Brett, walk me through this. How does somebody, find out about you? I'm sure that's all companies to have marketing challenges and so on. How do they find out about that? What do they do? do they know they're a candidate? It seems no matter what I read, I'm not a candidate for something, whether it's winning a prize or, signing up for some cable, something or other, because I've already been a customer or you get a free, YouTube premium subscription with your.

Pixel watch, but you've already signed up. I'm like a failure when it comes to joining stuff. So how does someone go about it? How do you market it? And then what are these people doing to get on your program and so on? 

Britt Gottschalk: So it is just as simple as going to our website and becoming a contributor. So you don't need to be referred to us by any kind of physician. You're able to go through sign up. And create an account to become a [00:15:00] contributor. It's pretty intuitive. You're able to log in with either your Epic, Cerner MetaTek account information.

You're able to upload your genetic code. Or genomic report, whether that's from 23andMe, Ancestry. com, or a whole sequence genome report you might get from a specialist and you're able to link your account information through Stripe.

So we make it pretty much a one stop shop for anybody. It doesn't matter if they're sick or healthy to go ahead and create an account. And in terms of eligibility, Yeah, there are people that join the platform that are suffering from different types of disorders and they are looking for that kind of clinical study engagement. But for people that might have more of a clean bill of health it's about being able to give your data in a way that is altruistic, first of Anytime that it is purchased, you will get a payout, and so it doesn't necessarily matter if it's a researcher coming in and conducting some kind of general population study or if it's something very specific for, [00:16:00] a phase three clinical trial for colorectal cancer there's a wide variety of use cases for any type of data.

Mike Koelzer: Let's say somebody signs up for that. Part of the data is going to be their gene sequence from 23 and me or something like that. And then part of it is. like you said their record, let's say my chart, part of it is that record and that information is filled in continually by the doctor with blood pressure and colonoscopies and all that stuff is part of what the doctors keep replenishing.

And so your system would have access to that too. Assuming the client allows that.

Britt Gottschalk: And so we do have access to that. We are a startup. And so it made sense to integrate with these systems that are already available. But as we continue to get more requests from our contributor base we're looking at being able to integrate more everyday use systems. Devices. For [00:17:00] example, might not go to the doctor, you might not have, an electronic medical record in Epic, but you might have some data available on your Apple Watch and so being able to look at other ways for us to integrate different Types of real world data is definitely something that we're looking at exploring,

Mike Koelzer: I'm throwing Thoughts into you, but you may even be able to get things like the, fit bit stuff, to see that this population walks over five miles a week. And as this or that and that maybe would be something you'd want if you didn't want to test just a bunch of couch potatoes 

Britt Gottschalk: right? And I mean, that's the interesting thing about data because like with some of that information that we get from a wearable you want to make sure that it's not just data for the sake of data and it's going to influence any kind of treatment, drug development, any kind of care plan.

 yeah, I mean, looking forward, wearable data is definitely something that, [00:18:00] Would be very valuable, but In efforts to not boil the ocean, we're focusing primarily on EMR and genetic genomic information.

Mike Koelzer: all right. It's a Brit. Where do you acquire these customers? Is this media online? Is it from doctors? Word of mouth? Where do people typically come to your site and sign up from?

Britt Gottschalk: Currently we have people coming from all different types of methods whether that's through introductions by some of like our investors or healthcare professionals that stumbled across our website or Other partners that we've cultivated in the pharma space. We do have quite a few methods for people to get in contact with us. But those have been the primary channels. 

Mike Koelzer: Put yourself in the shoes of a skeptical consumer. What kind of thoughts? Might they come up with what are barriers for you guys and having them, I guess, trust you or whatever. What do you hear from them?

Britt Gottschalk: I think a big one [00:19:00] is, who is using my data? Not necessarily. I'm hesitant about sharing my data, which surprisingly has not really been a roadblock. A lot of

people are like, yeah, Absolutely want to share it. But I just want to make sure that wherever it's going, it's an institution that 

isn't going to do something, Isn't going to do something malicious with it, 

and so, yeah, like, focusing on cultivating I guess, Business relationships with companies that we know from an ethical standpoint, from a moral standpoint, aren't going to do something unethical with the data. So we do choose the partners that we work with in the B2B space very carefully. And that's a vetting process that, that we do.

Mike Koelzer: So somebody signs up for this and let's say one of your testing is on something that they don't agree with. I don't know what it is. Maybe bone lengthening for short people or something like that.

 Which I think is great. Don't get me wrong. I'm not against that. It's just a kind of a big deal. do they Know that? they're just trusting you in general. They don't [00:20:00] know exactly what company their data is going to be shared with.

Britt Gottschalk: Not necessarily, but what we're trying to do to inform our contributors is when there is a purchase that is made informing them, via the channel via the channel that they get the notifications, whether that's email or in their portal Hey, data was purchased.

Congratulations. We want to be able to also disclose the institution that has purchased it.

Mike Koelzer: On the B2B then, how are you getting these customers and I'm not familiar with the area. And so do you have to rise above your competition or is there not competition? Are you new? One, how do you attract them? And two, is your just them doing it on their own? Or are there other companies you're in competition with to get the business association with these companies that needs this information, 

Britt Gottschalk: So there's no shortage of data aggregators, but it's being able to get the specific data [00:21:00] from the patient to the researcher, and so our target market we look at is the pharmaceutical companies and CROs and we typically will partner with them to be able to find the right types of demographics for whatever studies that they might be conducting. There are a couple different ways that we do that channel partnerships or through true client relationships, but the cool thing about the clinical research space is that it's pretty small. once you start to know about some of the larger organizations in there, and you've established some partnerships with, some more established companies. It's something that spreads by word of mouth.

Mike Koelzer: these always medical, Companies that need this for research data or can it be like a market research kind of thing for drugs that are already made 

Britt Gottschalk: there's a piece of the marketing that comes with some of the organizations that purchase the data, pharma companies or CRO companies. But, for the most part, the target market that we focus on is giving that data to pharma R& D. And CROs, [00:22:00] but there have been a couple of edge cases with some AI companies that were interested in using the real world patient data to train different large language models.

Mike Koelzer: Brett. I know your company rises above all this. What kind of. Nefarious things can happen in this industry. 

Britt Gottschalk: I don't think that there would ever be a Gattaca situation. That's not realistic. I think a lot of people like to think that with certain types of data, maybe they're going to be cloned or something along

those lines, which are a little bit science fictiony.

But the biggest threats actually that we face here are data breaches. And that's by companies that are looking to penetrate our infrastructure to get access to medical record or genetic and genomic data. And luckily, like we do so much auditing every quarter and every year of the platform to make sure that, 

any kind of malicious player in that

space. Whether [00:23:00] that's a company that's trying to penetrate the infrastructure, or whether that's somebody who is trying to create an account and trying to siphon data

in a way that, that they wouldn't necessarily be paying for it, or they're trying to get access to more of it that they're not paying for, whatever that might be We take a lot of precautions on the security front to make sure that does not happen

Mike Koelzer: there's some Politicians that seem to do pretty darn well in the stock market. They're like four times the draw of what someone else is going to get. And they might not call it insider trading, but you got to figure something going on. 

Now, Brett, I'm going to say you look like a trustworthy person

Britt Gottschalk: Oh thank you. 

Mike Koelzer: With that said, how do people know? What if I came onto the scene and made a company like yours? How do people know? How do your B2B customers know that they're not playing with a. [00:24:00] Fly by night. And I suppose it could be the same for me. How do my customers know I'm not giving them counterfeit meds and things like that.

I know there's just a certain trust in the industry. How do they know that just from track records there's really no way for anybody to verify data and so on, I guess I'm getting it.

Britt Gottschalk: I think that, the verification of the data is a really good question because when we're looking at different types of medical records coming from all different types of systems as much as we love it to all be structured and beautiful that's not necessarily the case to replicate data in a way where. It would look it would look fake. I would think, there would have to be a level of structure to it that we do not necessarily have with that real world data that needs to get restructured as we provide it for query within our platform. And so when, within medical records, specifically when it comes to any of the information in there It's unique a lot of times even when you're searching by code.

So whether that's SNOMED code, ICD 10 [00:25:00] codes we're human, and so Especially when you go to a doctor and they put the different types of conditions or medications in there, there are nuances to each one. For example let's say, you broke your leg and you you went to the doctor they went and put it in your medical record.

 There's a code for, breaking your leg. So they might just put that one in there, but there's also a code for breaking your left or your right leg. They might also put that code in there. Now, if there's also an additional contusion to it, they might put that code in there.

And depending on which doctor you see, sometimes the codes can be different, just based on Preference and ability to document and that is something that is very human, So for example, you might you might say tomato, I might say tomato, but we both know that we're talking about the same thing, it's just that the

way that we document it might be a little bit different. 

the validation of medical records, or medical information in general since our platform is connected directly to, Epic System, Cerner, Meditech, et cetera [00:26:00] Those records are generally like very rich in clinical detail because they're coming directly from a physician source.

So a lot of times that's hard to replicate. And then they're also coming from credible providers. 

Marker

Mike Koelzer: So Brett, are you saying it's more like that I'm not a robot where they know that if it's perfect, they know you are a robot

Britt Gottschalk: Yeah. It's more about that human nuance of, just general, like you might put a comma where maybe you shouldn't, right? Or you put a period where there should be an exclamation point, that

kind of thing. 

Mike Koelzer: seeing that stuff, they know that it's real.

Britt Gottschalk: Yeah, I mean, there's definitely nuances in the data that we deal with um, and because, you know, it is coming from, different medical

practices, mean, ultimately, it's the same output for

example, if somebody has that broken leg, whoever receives that data on the other side is going to know they have a broken leg, it's just to which degree is that going to be documented, which codes are

being used, That kind of thing.

Mike Koelzer: Give me an example of, a order for you. Don't give me a name, of course, but such and such company wants X thousand Data [00:27:00] points on such and such and how long is that relationship for? Is it a subscription they're doing? Give me a typical B2B customer For you to give us an example of what we're talking about.

Britt Gottschalk: It is a subscription, And so based on what a company might be looking for, that subscription price might change. So subscription to, for example, accessing the platform, but then, you know, if there are different patients with certain criteria, they would want us to help recruit for that aren't a part of our platform, then that's something that we can add into the pricing, that kind of thing.

Mike Koelzer: What kind of numbers are we talking like they want? X thousand X hundred. What are we talking in terms of a typical 

Britt Gottschalk: it depends, I mean, so for example, with the genetic data that we have available a lot of those requests come from either the rare disease focus or oncology focus, and so sometimes those populations can be a little bit [00:28:00] smaller, That are being researched. And so it can range anywhere from, just 25 patients for one

study on a platform, but it's longitudinal 

or it could go multiple years, or we can talk about, a potential chronic condition or a blood disease that is a little bit more common, and that could affect, 1000, 2000 people in the population, or could be something that for example, colorectal cancer but over the course of looking at Yeah. Looking at remission rates over the course of four years could be as large as 100, 000 people, Depends.

Mike Koelzer: I don't think much about the small studies, I guess, because whenever I'm looking in the news and I want to learn something, I'm always looking at a huge longitudinal study because I want to see how long it went and that kind of stuff. I think it adds value to that, but there's a lot of things that you don't need that many.

You're looking for a group just to run a short study on or something. And you can't deal with those kinds of numbers. I imagine. 

Britt Gottschalk: What you're looking to get out of the study, Right,

I mean, if you're looking at a very specific demographic, there might only be, [00:29:00] I don't know, 30 or 40 people, realistically, that you'd be able to recruit for that study in the

time period that you have, And so

there's a lot of parameters around it.

And I hate using the words well, it depends, but in a lot of

cases it does depend.

Mike Koelzer: Right Brett, how'd you get into this? 

Britt Gottschalk: I don't have a background as a clinician or biologist or geneticist by trade. By trade I'm just somebody who likes to solve problems, so I went into psychology. was always good with people, social butterfly, that kind of person.

I started out as a psychologist went to graduate school, got dual master's degrees in business administration and industrial organizational psychology, which is the study of group behaviors in workplace settings. I was lucky enough in grad school.

And then I got out of grad school to work at various consulting firms management consulting firms, where I was able to work with teams in healthcare, finance, insurance IT just to see the different types of problems that, needed to be solved from that level. I worked for a firm in Madison, [00:30:00] Wisconsin for a few years.

The pandemic hit, figured I wasn't doing everything that I wanted with my life. And so I started my first company in the midst of a pandemic. And it was a consulting firm. And so during that time period of about a year, I'd worked with organizations helping with the remote work transition. But as I was starting to get more into it, I was starting to see that there were bigger problems that could be solved.

Nothing wrong with consulting, but was seeing there were bigger problems that could be solved and was noticing that we're just not able to keep up with the McKinsey's of the world. I was a mom and pop shop, and I was looking for a way to tackle a bigger problem. And to figure out a way to be able to stay self employed, right? And as I was doing that I stumbled upon the black box of data sharing and clinical research specifically when it came to cancer studies, oncology, and how, you typically think, oh they're researchers that are at these major institutions, they have the best of everything, state of the art, they're getting exactly what they need. And that wasn't the case, and started digging around to see okay, what [00:31:00] is, you what is that data accessibility issue that some of these researchers are having? And a lot of it was like, okay the, if the, a person's medical records in Epic and we deal with Cerner, like how do we get those systems to talk to each other?

How do we get that data transferred in a way where it makes sense? And so looking at that and knew that I didn't want to create something that was going to compete with like an Epic or a Cerner. But. Wanted to put something that was more of a modern spin on it and that made a lot of sense with the surgence of biotechnology, especially when it comes to our whole genome being sequenced, and then the rise of CRISPR.

And so decided to tie in sharing and linking electronic medical record data with genetic data, but then putting a spin on it where it was going to be commercializable. And so that's where the, Solution of paying people for access to their data came into play. And so in 2021, pitch that idea to a local investor in Milwaukee. And we ended up securing 400, 000 [00:32:00] and we started development on the platform and I shut down the consulting firm and I was like, okay, this is what we're doing now.

Marker

Mike Koelzer: How did you even come across this thought of studies and finding subjects and things like that, from all of your different consulting and things like that, how did you narrow down on this specific thing? Did you know somebody are these people that maybe you've talked to in your consulting before?

How did you even come across this?

Britt Gottschalk: Right. I mean, and it had to do with the conversations that I was having with advisors and clients at the time.

 It was coming out of conversations where data accessibility kept coming up as a bigger issue. Yeah, that's where I started digging. And, after about a year or so of that kind of research, decided to take the leap and try to start Genome E.

Mike Koelzer: you start like that, Do you have to have any proof of concept in terms you thought about this and then you balance that against [00:33:00] talking to a company and saying, Hey, would this be worth it for you? And so on. I'm not talking to your investor. I'm talking to the end business customer, or do you keep pressing along with trusting yourself that this will be needed?

Britt Gottschalk: Oh, definitely not. Like this was something that, we had a, I had a rough idea of okay, so this is the direction we need to go. And like with any startup, any entrepreneurial journey, there are questions that are going to be unanswered. But as you start to talk to different parties that were interested in the space, what they'd be willing to, talk about. pay for if it's enough of a pain point, that's kind of how that journey naturally evolved.

Mike Koelzer: And who's we? When you sit there and ask for that 400, 000, who's we?

Britt Gottschalk: I usually refer to my team as the we and so I've

got a team of about seven people and most of them have been with me since the very beginning in 2021. We Release the proof of concept at the end of 2022 with our beta. And [00:34:00] then at the end of 2023 we had a fully fleshed out MVP with our security certifications, and we were ready to go to market. And so we hit the market around October of last year. And here we are today.

Mike Koelzer: When did that first investment come of the 400, 000?

Britt Gottschalk: so the 400, 000 was for our seed one round, and that was in I believe it was August of 2021. And then we ended up closing our seed one at 500, 000. There were a couple of other angels that came into the pot. Since then, we went on to raise a seed two round for 3. 25 million.

Mike Koelzer: Congratulations. 

Britt Gottschalk: thank you. And that was throughout 2022 and 2023. And that round is partially still open. There were quite a few instances of Like uncertainty in 2023. I think the biggest one for us in the startup world was the Silicon Valley bank closing. And so I had started fundraising, raised 2. 6 and stopped just because the startup climate, especially in biopharma was starting to change. So I halted fundraising, [00:35:00] started focusing on traction because, we had enough money and Now that we've started to create that traction, now we're in 2024, around the same time that I believe Silicon Valley Bank closed last year we're out here and getting ready to go and fundraise again to close the rest of our round.

Mike Koelzer: Before You any money at all? How many people did you have? Did you have people on a payroll before? Were you funding any of that yourself before any of these investors came in? 

Britt Gottschalk: We didn't have a lot of people. I mean, some of the conversations that I had started were when I had my consulting firm, It was me and my business partner at the time.

Mike Koelzer: I gotcha.

Britt Gottschalk: And so when I decided to make the pivot formally from my consulting firm to Gino, me, it was at that point that we started to rely more on investor relationships to be

able to build out a solution, 

Mike Koelzer: What are investors looking for? Are they looking for just a plan? Do you have to show progress already? 

Britt Gottschalk: It's changed quite a bit [00:36:00] since we started 2021. The fundraising climate was very different. With just an idea and a hope and a prayer, you're to

secure some funding. 

But

now as we're seeing like tighter restrictions around venture capital what investors are looking for are realistically what, any good business people should be looking for if they're going to invest in a company and that's traction with users as well as revenue generation and growth.

 Brett, I watch shark tank sometimes. I don't sit and watch it cause there's too many commercials and all that stuff. I just like to pull up some of the stories on YouTube and that, but whenever you're in front of the sharks, they're always like how many sales do you have?

Mike Koelzer: And I would come in and I'd say something like, my sister bought something from me. She thought it was cool. So I think I really have a good plan here, and they're like, no, you have to have, this many million before we even you on this. What is the balance there? How Much do you have to show people in [00:37:00] terms of an idea and then real product. And then finally customers. 

Britt Gottschalk: Yeah. I would say it really depends on the stage , right? And it depends on where exactly your platform's at. And with what we're doing, because we're building a two sided marketplace there's a bit, there's a bit of a critical mass that's needed to be able to show certain traction,

 And so that's where that value really comes in.

Also, it's different if you're just a B2C company or just a B2B company the ability to be able to grow quickly is a lot easier versus, having

to, 

feed both sides of it. And and so basically for what we've been able to do and the traction that we've been able to gain, I would say we are pretty much right on schedule for

what we're trying to accomplish.

But

that's the thing with the type of business model that we have. It takes a little bit longer than just, a direct to consumer platformer product.

Mike Koelzer: Yeah. It's kind of like the first fax machines. I mean, if you're selling the first fax machine to somebody, it's like there's zero value. 

Britt Gottschalk: Right?

Mike Koelzer: there's just zero value until [00:38:00] there's two. Now multiply that out and so on.

Britt Gottschalk: Exactly.

Mike Koelzer: so what are your days like Brett? just on the phone all day. Hoping to get more relationships with investors or so on what do you do all day?

I'm not implying you don't do anything besides looking trustworthy. You look like a damn hard worker too.

I'm just asking.

Britt Gottschalk: I appreciate that. Yeah. And I mean, it's basically like wearing all the different hats, and so on one side of it I'm keeping relationships warm with potential customers making sure requirements are met for our current customer and partner base starting new conversations with them, trying to figure out what types of populations are interested in on the

other side of that building the trust with our contributor base growing that. sharing and educating ways that they're able to get more involved in the clinical research space, how they can share their data, how they can feel safe and secure with sharing their data with us, and trying to continuously engage them. And so it's a balance of all of these things. Oh, and then on top of that, if it's [00:39:00] fundraising then I'm out talking to investors. And It's a balance of all of those things, but I wouldn't have it any other way. I think it's pretty awesome. And hopefully as we continue to grow in 2024, I'll be able to get some more people on that'll help me wear those hats too.

Mike Koelzer: there's a book Michael Gerber. It's The e myth, talks about all your hats, you have all your hats listed, but sometimes you just wear more than one hat. But the trick is knowing what hats there are, even if you're wearing some of them at the same time.

Britt Gottschalk: Yeah. Yeah. There are a bunch of different books I know that I've read in the entrepreneurial space that have really helped me understand more about what I should be doing to be an effective CEO and a founder. But you know, as you continue to grow, it's always, a different piece of the puzzle that you're checking out.

But I

wouldn't have it any other way. I love the environment. 

Mike Koelzer: I was just talking to a pharmacist last week and he is both a pharmacy owner along with one or two [00:40:00] franchises of a submarine sandwich company. And he was saying hates some of the pharmacy stuff, but wouldn't want to not have that.

And you wouldn't want to put all your creative energy into a franchisee that don't have any. Say over no creative juices. So you have to keep your creativity going. 

 Britt, what did you mean by the investor season? Is that a certain part of the year where you get more of that or what?

Britt Gottschalk: When you're dealing with investors and of course I love all mine one of the

things that uh, One of the things you have to do is you have to provide them updates and so I try to do that, whether that's quarterly or, the monthly board meetings that I have.

So there's a lot of documentation that I put together for them there. And then, if we're looking at fundraising then that's, the fundraising season. Getting all of that information together. For new investors to come into the pot basically showcasing why we'd be a great investment.

And so that requires quite a bit of work too. So putting together, the pitch docs, putting [00:41:00] together the financials, putting together like everything around the structure of the of the company. 

Mike Koelzer: So it's not a season in terms of when everybody's taxes are due in April kind of thing. It's your own season of when these roll around again, right?

Britt Gottschalk: yep. Yeah. So I would say there, there are multiple investor seasons, usually at the end of the quarter, and then the other season is when we're getting ready to go fundraise.

Mike Koelzer: As the board goes, I imagine that, Some of the people that are investors are part of that board and then they kind of put their say in and maybe little bit more say for people that have a little bit more invested 

Britt Gottschalk: yeah, that's that's one of the main benefits, I would say, to being a lead into a round is that you get board privileges, typically. And every structure is different, right? Based on the

terms of a startup. But yeah, with ours, yeah. Lead investors typically will have a board seat. And the board's not too big right now. But it's really important to make sure at least, for anybody out there that has a startup, making sure that you [00:42:00] do have a good relationship with your board, because you never know when there might be a time that you might be going through something that they can provide really great

feedback on or direction.

yeah, the board's very important. Thank you.

Mike Koelzer: Talking to you and what I've heard before, as I'm thinking back now is how important those relationships are. You just don't have a handout for money. You've got to have a mutually beneficial relationship. Relationship too, because you're going to be

Figuratively or realistically hanging out with these people.

Britt Gottschalk: yeah, absolutely. Especially, if you're having board meetings once a month like I do that's the thing, you want to have a good relationship and they can also be really they can also be really beneficial as you continue to grow the company, so not

just in the way where they might be able to provide more funding or direction, but also being able to Make those introductions to other investment firms or general investors that would benefit or help grow the company from

some of those other angles.

Mike Koelzer: Out of the week, [00:43:00] Brett, what's your least favorite hat to wear if you have to wear a hat for an hour or two during the week? would that be?

Britt Gottschalk: Oh, really anything like administrative, like I'm not a fan. I'm not a fan of doing the admin stuff, but I know it just has to get done. So typically I try to just eat the frog in the beginning

of the week and, and keep it going. 

Mike Koelzer: Brit, a lot of times people will ask me like Oh, who am I kidding? Nobody asked me this, but if they did, they might say, Mike, what greater you have for this or that and they know my goal is just to come home and Eat my cereal and do my show and things like that.

I I'm an old man, Brad I don't have these goals anymore, but I've got to ask you as far as the whole business what kind of Benevolence do you see that you're putting forth besides just making sure this thing stays afloat?

Britt Gottschalk: My company operates on Genomee that has the [00:44:00] ability to increase awareness and care of health and wellness for populations that previously were not interested in that, first of all.

Second of all, did not really understand that they could play a role in clinical research. And third being able to explore and expand a holistic approach to health and wellness. So preventative care starting there. To, having to take medications or being involved in developing those treatments and drugs through the use of pharmacogenomics.

And the way that I really see the platform being useful is really an end to end solution, and it's something that could benefit. Everyone not just from, the data transparency and sharing part, but also has the ability to increase the overall wellness and health of our society because of its appeal to diverse populations. 

Mike Koelzer: Golly, Brett, thanks for joining us. It's. to uh, [00:45:00] flesh and blood behind data studies. 

Data, as you mentioned always just kind of seems administrative. So it's fun to see a person behind this information that is so needed. So cool stuff you're doing. Thanks for joining us. Thanks for your time.

Britt Gottschalk: Yeah, thank you so much for having me, I'm hoping that Genome E can advance medical sciences in more than one way, and we can get more people interested in being part of the clinical research landscape.

Mike Koelzer: Very cool. Keep it up.

Britt Gottschalk: ​ Thank you so much 

 You've been listening to the Business of Pharmacy podcast with me, your host, Mike Kelser. Please subscribe for all future episodes.