00:00Let's talk a little bit about how this all came together.
00:03And I'll start with both of you individually.
00:05And Linda, I'll start with you because you took the helm of eMed after spending two years as the CEO
00:11of X, formerly known as Twitter.
00:14And I would just love to hear about, you know, how that happened.
00:18What sort of translates from social media into, you know, running a telehealth company?
00:24Thank you so much. It's a great question.
00:26And when I look back on my career, which will, I think, logically explain how I landed at eMed, you
00:33could probably mark it by one or two words.
00:35And it would be transformation led by technology transformation and innovation.
00:41Right. So throughout my career, whether I was at NBCU for so long, one of the outputs of that was
00:46launching Peacock to then go to Twitter and then X and creating the global town square.
00:54It made sense. Once I decided to leave X, what should I do next?
00:58And about six months prior to leaving X, I became chair of the board of eMed's director consumer business in
01:06England, the number one female focused GLP-1 business.
01:09And why it all came together is because what I learned and was so impacted by the profound nature of
01:17the power of these GLP-1 medications.
01:19And I certainly knew that access needed to happen for people, particularly in the United States.
01:25It's 60 percent of people get their benefits from their employer.
01:30Right.
01:30And only one in five employers cover GLP-1s right now.
01:34So once I was really thinking and considering what to do, tackling transformation in health care to give people access
01:42to these life changing medications was an easy answer.
01:45Well, let's talk about the Tom Brady of it all, because that certainly makes sense.
01:48You know, transforming, transforming X, now transforming eMed.
01:52But Tom, how did you get involved with eMed and who called who?
01:57Well, I've been involved in health and wellness for a long time.
01:59I think as an athlete, I realized that my body was my asset, so I had to take good care
02:03of it.
02:04And every day I had to put the right foods in my body.
02:07I had to have the right hydration, the right workouts, the right training in order for me to go out
02:11there and accomplish my job to the best of my ability.
02:15Um, I started a health and wellness business in 2013 based around all the things that I knew and that
02:20I desired.
02:21I wanted other people to understand about how to keep their bodies and how they can stay active for a
02:25long period of time.
02:26But I also realized there's a lot of discipline that comes to making those daily decisions that allow you to
02:32be healthy.
02:32And a lot of times they couldn't take on this kind of Navy SEAL type training that I did as
02:37an athlete because not many can.
02:39Yeah, not many can.
02:40And we spend hours in our day and we have great resources to be able to do that.
02:44So what I realized with health and wellness in my post-retirement was a lot of times you have to
02:48meet people where they're at.
02:49Yeah.
02:50And you have to kickstart people's journey and partnering with Linda and our friend Michael Ferrer who founded the company.
02:55He's become a great friend of mine down in Miami.
02:57I think we can really help a lot of people.
02:59And like I said, to get people on the right program with the right individuals that's really tailored to them,
03:05they can start to begin to see some great health improvements in their life.
03:09But I'm sure you have to sort of recognize the potential criticism that somebody like you, a WorldCath athlete, I
03:14don't think anyone's ever seen you out of shape.
03:16And yet, you know, you're pitching a GLP-1 alternative for some folks.
03:20And I understand the need.
03:22But why listen to Tom Brady?
03:23Why not listen to?
03:25I think you should listen to your health care professionals who you should listen to.
03:27That's the most important thing.
03:29And I think for me, the ability to promote things that I really strongly believe in.
03:34And again, it's really about being proactive about your health.
03:37One thing I realized, I was able to achieve great things in my life and my career because I was
03:42very proactive.
03:42I didn't wait to get injured.
03:44I didn't wait to get sick.
03:45I tried to stay ahead of those things.
03:46I never wanted to be injured.
03:47If I was injured, I missed the game.
03:49I couldn't do what I love to do.
03:50So now that I get to go out there, do what I love to do in this next part of
03:55my life,
03:55which is try to help other people, give them the best information possible so that they can make the right
04:00decision for themselves.
04:01I think it's really important to point out the why Tom Brady of it all.
04:05In order for you, yeah, the importance is that you have to qualify to get on the EMED program.
04:13You have to take a blood test.
04:15You have to qualify through a variety of biomarkers that we check.
04:19And we want to make sure that you're one of those people that want to take control of your own
04:23health
04:24and take advantage of the unbelievable incremental nature of what these GLP-1 medications do.
04:31So tackle chronic diseases in their tracks.
04:34So it's not like other companies where you can just fill out a form and get a prescription.
04:38No, you stay with us.
04:39So you're working with the employer.
04:41This is basically a flat fee model more or less here.
04:43It could be, yes.
04:43Is there any concern going forward as the cost of GLP-1 prescriptions goes down, oral medications come on?
04:51As that cost compresses, does that affect your fee model in any way?
04:55No, it's actually so exciting because we're finally at a point where we have EMED delivers access to so many
05:02people
05:02that it's been out of reach because of the cost.
05:05So we have this health intervention of a lifetime moment.
05:09So there's a health solution for so many chronic diseases.
05:12And now we have a cost solution for employers because now it's affordable for them to cover it.
05:19And that's exactly where EMED sits at the intersection of that.
05:22Are you going to do secondary markets?
05:24Like, I mean, didn't you have a partnership, I believe, with CVS?
05:27Yes, we have a partnership with CVS, a strategic investor like Aon.
05:32So imagine these gold standard companies coming together, like-minded, woven together to break the cost curve
05:40and impact population health.
05:43What a good seat to be sitting in.
05:45I do want to talk a little bit about how the introduction of GLP-1 pills has potentially changed anything.
05:52When you think about how, you know, willing employers are to cover some of these medications,
05:56it's only been a couple of months, but are you seeing any sort of impact there?
06:00Yeah, we're seeing an expansion of the total addressable market.
06:05It's really interesting data, but unprecedented adoption of the oral pills from the early data that's coming out.
06:13And also important to note, one of the biggest adopters or segments are men
06:18because they have hesitancy when it comes to injections, but they're much more open.
06:23Tell me more.
06:24Yeah, exactly.
06:25Why is everyone so scared of a little, you know, prick?
06:28Well, you know, some of us, Tom, you know.
06:30Women braver, stronger.
06:31That's true.
06:32But so the, that's why there's unprecedented demand and why it's, we're kind of in a moment here
06:38where the opportunity to be able to talk, that's what we're doing here at Milken,
06:42talking to CEOs, talking to CFOs, that now breaking the cost curve is that time is here.
06:49We're able to do that.
06:50I do want to go back to the Tom Brady of it all a little bit more because, Tom, you
06:54mentioned
06:55that obviously health and wellness is a huge personal thing of yours.
07:00And you mentioned that, you know, you founded your own companies in the past.
07:03We talked to a lot of former athletes on the close, actually, about how they sort of approach.
07:09That's actually true.
07:10But how do you evaluate different business opportunities?
07:13How do you decide what to put your name to?
07:15And I mean, how many things are you saying no to at this point?
07:18Quite a bit.
07:19Yeah, I get different opportunities based on, you know, what people are really looking for
07:24and how they want me to kind of play a role in their business.
07:26But I think I want to add a lot of value to what I'm doing.
07:29It's not just really even with E-Med, really being involved with Linda and our friend Michael,
07:34who's the founder of the company, and some of the decision making,
07:37how we're going after and how we're attacking the solution is what's very important.
07:41So to be involved in different ways, because I love learning.
07:44I love growing.
07:45As an athlete, I surrounded myself with incredible mentors over the course of my life
07:49that I was able to learn from.
07:51I was to take the things that they could teach me and then try to apply that going forward.
07:56Now I'm still kind of relatively young in my business career,
08:00but I feel like I have a lot of room for growth.
08:01But you're doing well.
08:02Are you going to take this money, whatever you make off of E-Med,
08:04and put that more into the Raiders?
08:06We're working on the Raiders for sure.
08:08There's a lot to be improved.
08:09But football has always been my first love.
08:14I'm truly, truly obsessed with that.
08:15And you're going to stay tethered to the NFL in some way,
08:17whether as ownership or broadcasting or whatever.
08:20I love football.
08:21I love team sports, and I love that it keeps everyone engaged,
08:23and I love that there's real outcomes every day.
08:25I think the purest thing about sports is that we can see how well we prepared.
08:28We can see what kind of work we put in,
08:30because there's a scoreboard on each end of the stadium.
08:32You get to see how you did.
08:34There's something really finite about that that we're all compelled to watch.
08:37And being involved in it for as long as I have,
08:40it's kind of, like I said, my first love I want to be in for the rest of my life.
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