Startup Spotlight
This week’s Startup Spotlight features Julia Cheek, CEO and co-founder of health care provider EverlyWell. The Austin-based online service lets people order personalized, easy to use home test kits for key health issues.
What’s so special?
Having constant health problems is never fun, but it’s worse not knowing exactly what is causing your body to feel the way it does. Is it a possibly food sensitivity? Exposure to something from your immediate environment? Or is it a metabolism issue? Despite this, taking time out of our day and paying expensive lab bills only to end up with undecipherable test results can deter many of us from seeking answers.
EverlyWell has looked to tackle this issue by creating a unique system of home testing kits that are easy, convenient, reliable, and which can produce quick results for us to understand.
While some of us may be skeptical about ordering a kit and sending samples for analysis to an unknown lab, EverlyWell’s service partners with certified partner laboratories and local physicians that review and authorize a customer’s order and final results.
Product spotlight
Through the EverlyWell website, customers can order a kit and have it sent to an address of their choice. The platform provides home testing kits for food sensitivities, women’s fertility and health, and even a heavy metal test for those wanting to know the levels of essential or toxic elements in their bodies. EverlyWell has recently expanded their service to include heart health, weight loss, thyroid and chronic inflammation kits.
After receiving a kit, customers simply follow instructions to collect the relevant test sample, return the sample to one of EverlyWell’s partner labs, and then view their results online within a few days.
And the delivery of simple and understandable lab results is, for the founders, a key part of the EverlyWell service. Because of this, EverlyWell has redesigned the standard lab report so that people can easily understand and get the most out of their tests.
Meet the founder
Julia Cheek co-founded EveryWell in 2015 on the back of a number of bad medical experiences. After months of lab tests, paying thousands of dollars, and visiting multiple specialists for her health issues, Cheek received and 15-page lab results document. However, the expansive black and white report gave her little guidance and information as to what the results actually meant. In the end, Cheek had to spend several days googling and searching through WebMD to decipher the document.
For Cheek, this side of the system was incredibly ineffective, cumbersome and obsolete.
With the help of a team of a passionate team, she turned to technology and its growing role in the healthcare sphere to launch EverlyWell.
From working at Deloitte to being appointed the head of global strategy and corporate development for MoneyGram International, Cheek’s extensive general management experience is complemented by her Vanderbilt University degree and MBA from Harvard Business School.
In the media
EverlyWell’s is already present in 46 states across the US, and the company’s growth and innovation in the healthcare sphere has been widely covered by a number of publications, including Texas CEO Magazine, BostInno, and the Austin Business Journal.
This coverage also included the success that EverlyWell enjoyed earlier this year when it came runner up in the prestigious Harvard Business School’s annual New Venture Competition.
To the future
All of us want to understand exactly what is wrong with our health and what we can do about it.
EverlyWell’s vision of providing convenient and accessible tests is slowly but surely opening up that very possibility for many people. By providing simple and actionable healthcare data, Cheek and her team are transforming a normally cumbersome and expensive process into an easy and meaningful patient experience.
The availability of EverlyWell in most states across the country is complemented by its constant expansion of new and helpful kits. And the recent release of three new types of kits is just the beginning for the young company as it looks to establish itself in a growing personal testing market.
Ultimately, EverlyWell’s service will help its patients make the decisions that matter to them, on their own terms, and time.
FACEBOOK: facebook.com/everlywell
TWITTER: @everlywellness
LINKEDIN: linkedin.com/in/juliataylorcheek
