In just about 2 weeks’ time, millions of Americans will step on the scale - with some trepidation and some hope - and set a resolution: “new year, new me”. And yet, only weeks later, many will abandon those goals out of frustration and discouragement.
About half of Americans attempt to lose weight every year, and yet only 5% succeed. Five percent. With nearly 73% of Americans overweight or obese, and an average weight gain of 30 lbs during the pandemic, it’s clear that we need manageable and lasting solutions to support our quest for better health - this is a reality many of us and our loved ones face. But after years of trying to lose weight through fad diets and new exercise trends, that task is feeling impossible and absolutely exhausting.
At the end, almost everyone will feel they have failed, even though we cut out carbs, cooked homemade meals, counted calories, and started power walking every day. The truth is, we are taking action. We are making changes. We are not failing. The weight loss industry is failing us. For too long, obesity has been treated like a failure of willpower but the research shows most traditional weight loss methods don’t take biology into account, which can be the most critical factor for sustainable weight care. It turns out, you can count all your calories but if you are discounting the integral role biology plays, you are missing an important part of the solution.
This is why I’m so incredibly proud to be working at Found, the first truly comprehensive solution for personalized, lasting weight care. We recognize that this is a multifaceted challenge. Weight care is about so much more than “eat less, exercise more” - it’s about your stress levels, your sleep, your hormones, your genetics, your lived experience. We’ve now built a platform, powered by technology and telehealth, to ensure these missing links - many of them tied to biology - are integrated into care.
The way we do this is by centering our program around clinical care in addition to behavior change. We’ve taken inspiration from programs developed at the world’s leading academic weight management centers (we’ve assembled a medical advisory board of renowned doctors from Stanford, Columbia, Harvard, and Johns Hopkins to name a few) to ensure we’re leading with evidence, nurturing with coaching, supporting through community, and creating engaging and sticky experiences inspired by the best of consumer technology
With the millions of weight loss products in the market, we are proud to say Found is based on facts, not fads, and we continue to invest in our science-backed solution. Today, we are announcing the addition of two renowned experts to our leadership team. We are excited to welcome Dr. Rekha Kumar as our Chief Medical Officer and Dr. Acacia Parks as Chief Behavioral Health Officer.
Dr. Kumar is a globally recognized leader in Obesity Medicine and a practicing endocrinologist and obesity medicine specialist. She’s also the outgoing Medical Director of the American Board of Obesity Medicine, where she trained and tested clinicians who were seeking advanced certification in obesity medicine. She’s a pioneer in the field.
Dr. Parks has spent her career designing therapeutic and care delivery solutions to improve mental and physical health, working closely with leaders like Dr. Martin Seligmann to define the field of positive psychology, and shaping science and strategy most recently at Happify, a leading mental health platform. The addition of these new leaders to our organization will ensure Found is offering the best of modern medicine in combination with an evidence-based program that truly transforms behavior for good.
The Found team is committed to enabling longer, healthier, and more fulfilling lives. While our early team has been quietly building, testing and improving the platform since late 2020, we only recently publicly unveiled our offerings and just today have announced $100M in new Series B funding. We’re pleased to welcome new investors to our team, led by WestCap, a growth equity firm founded by former Blackstone and Airbnb executive Laurence A. Tosi, with participation from IVP, The Chernin Group, G9 Ventures, and Able Partners, as well as existing investors at GV, Define and founding investor Atomic, plus some incredible angel investors like Fidji Simo, CEO of Instacart and Julia Cheek, CEO of Everlyhealth. This funding will power investments in our platform, as well as allow us to reach new members and provide them with Found’s toolkit to drive towards healthy outcomes.
We are only just getting started dismantling the diet culture that has failed us for too long. Lasting weight loss with Found through the guidance of doctors, nurses, coaches and a supportive community isn’t just possible, it’s attainable. This resolution season, and every day after, the Found team is committed to helping people find joy in their bodies, through evidence-based, sustainable weight care for all.
Check out how we are stepping up our commitment to dismantling diet culture and enabling longer, healthier, and more fulfilling lives. And we are hiring!