Subversive · Jul 10How Superpower is Reinventing Healthcare
Sells a $499 yearly ($42 a month) membership with twice-yearly tests of 100+ biomarkers and a medical team reachable by text. It dropped a $10,000 starting plan, built a waitlist of almost 200,000 mostly by word of mouth, and sold out a hoodie in 10 minutes.
Tips
- Launch at the price point you want in the long run▶ 8:16The Tesla-style top-down approach was called a bad decision and corrected by cutting to $499 a year ($42 a month).
- Pick a price that forces the product you want to build▶ 31:08Pricing was chosen by feel and by the forcing function, not by a formal pricing study.
- Hold one consumer price early and focus on product▶ 31:52Max chose to stop micro-optimizing price at this stage and put the effort into product.
- Build a distinct brand and visual identity in a crowded category▶ 10:36Almost 200,000 people joined the waitlist, mostly through word of mouth and organic posts on Twitter.
- Launch with an emotional manifesto that names the broken system▶ 12:02Hundreds of people messaged the team on announcement, and they keep a Notion page of hundreds of those stories.
- Replace some ad spend with viral product drops▶ 33:22The hoodie sold out in 10 minutes and resold on eBay for $2,000.
- Target tastemakers first to build a brand and culture▶ 28:06Sign-ups turned out far more varied across ages, income and geography than expected, yet the focus stays on tastemakers.
- Build a membership bundle that lets you price add-ons low▶ 21:46The goal is for care inside the membership to be better, cheaper and more accessible than anywhere else.
- Sell marketplace products near cost to build trust and attach▶ 35:13Once someone starts using the marketplace they tend to keep using it, but the team has not educated members well enough about it.
- Prompt referrals at human touchpoints and make them a product focus▶ 25:55Word of mouth is now a little lower than at launch, which Max attributes to worse member education and no human touchpoint.
- Build growth into the product and business model, not ads▶ 24:41No paid ads yet; media buying will be ramped up later.
- Start with one narrow wedge married to a big ambition▶ 42:53
- Be wary of expert advice when creating a new category▶ 42:30
- Without a category playbook, reason from customers and first principles▶ 29:50
- Screen a company idea against personal, global and scale tests▶ 2:57Applied to health, this led him to leave Goldman Sachs and move to the US to start Superpower.
- Hold the talent bar and stay focused with a founder-heavy team▶ 38:42
- Combine patient context with latest research in AI health products▶ 20:29Max cites the known stat that doctors lag research by 17 years.
