Kevin Marasco

“The thing I am most proud of is that because we built the entire tech stack that we own, from the member app, the company, the client dashboard, to electronic medical records systems and other internal tooling.   We enable providers to spend more time with the patient.” How much longer? 3x longer than the average primary care visit.   This week on the Digital Health Heavyweights Podcast I sit down with Joseph Kitonga, CEO and founder of Vitable Health. Joseph shares his journey from a family background in caregiving to creating a health plan that addresses the needs of underserved workers. He discusses the inspiration behind Vitable, his experience with the Thiel Fellowship, the prestigious Y Combinator,and the unique aspects of Vitable's direct primary care model.   “We are growing extremely quickly” The conversation also covers the challenges of hybrid care models, the importance of empathy in healthcare, and the company's growth trajectory. Joseph emphasizes the need for accessible healthcare and shares insights on building a successful startup in the healthcare space.   How is Vitable impacting clients? An average savings of about 12%   Takeaways ✨ Joseph's family background in caregiving inspired him to create Vitable Health. 💙 Vitable Health aims to provide affordable healthcare for underserved workers. 🎓 The Thiel Fellowship provided Joseph with the opportunity to focus on his startup. 🚪 Vitable's model reduces barriers to accessing primary care services. 📈 The company has about 100,000 members and is growing rapidly. 💻 Vitable's approach integrates in-home and virtual care effectively. 🤝 Building empathy through direct interaction with clients is crucial for Vitable. 🗣️ Joseph emphasizes the importance of talking to users to build a successful product. 🚀 The Y Combinator experience was pivotal for Vitable's growth. 🧘 Joseph practices mindfulness and reading to manage stress and maintain focus. Check out the episode and be sure to like comment and subsc https://lnkd.in/dVAzHMQZ

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🤖 Hinge Health’s IPO is a milestone moment — and a flashpoint in PT. Their AI-driven, digital-first model promises efficiency and scale, slashing clinician time. For some, it’s the future: smart tech enabling clinics to do more with less. But the questions are impossible to ignore: Will digital PT commoditize care? Can we keep the human connection that drives outcomes? What’s lost when AI replaces hands-on treatment? I don’t have all the answers. But I know this: the future of PT should be shaped by clinicians, not just algorithms. The real question isn’t if AI will transform PT. It’s how we make sure that transformation serves patients — not just shareholders.

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A few weeks back, I watched Maggie Hott, GTM leader at OpenAI, confidently navigate her first board meeting at Unify. Having worked with her through Emergence Capital's Operator in Residence (OIR) program, seeing her immediately contribute valuable insights made me think about how most board members receive virtually no training for this critical role. At Emergence, we've built our firm around developing board excellence. We grow all our partners from within and have established a culture of mentorship focused on board service. Junior investors aren't thrown into the deep end—we pair them with senior GPs to observe effective board dynamics firsthand. My initial experience was at DroneDeploy alongside my partner Kevin Spain, where I got great mentorship before taking on independent board responsibilities. We extend this methodology to our OIR program, where operators learn how to be effective board members. Based on my experience mentoring directors, here are the fundamental principles I share with first-timers for how board members can best support founders: 1. Reframe the purpose: Problem-solving, not reporting If your board meeting is primarily reporting, you're wasting your management team's time. Information sharing should happen asynchronously, with board members engaging with materials before the meeting. This enables the live session to leverage collective intelligence on critical challenges. This rarely happens because many directors overextend themselves across too many boards—another reason we maintain a disciplined investment pace. 2. Master the Socratic approach The most valuable contribution often comes through thoughtful questions rather than declarative statements. Your objective is to enhance the decision-making capability of management. I enter each meeting with 1-3 specific areas where I know I can add value, focusing questions on these topics. 3. Follow-through separates professionals from amateurs Diligently document your commitments, establish clear action items, and execute them. It's crazy how just doing this proactively makes a board member stand out. 4. Understand your unique contribution to the board ecosystem A high-functioning board resembles a great basketball team—you need complementary skills, not redundant ones. In every meeting, I stay conscious of my distinct value relative to others in the room, whether that's SaaS expertise, AI knowledge, or a particular relationship dynamic with the CEO. I calibrate my role based on needs—sometimes assertively addressing areas where others have less experience, other times asking probing questions where fellow members have deeper expertise. -- To my knowledge, Emergence is the only VC firm with a formalized program dedicated to board excellence. It's an investment that yields returns where they matter most—in bending the odds of success for our founders. Founders, I'm curious: What board member behaviors have you found most valuable?

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The top 1% of healthtech operators aren’t just looking for comp. They want mission, ownership, and data-backed traction. Candidates ask: “Is this platform clinically validated?” “Does the company understand FDA, CPT, and payer dynamics?” “Are there real outcomes or just a slick demo?” If your team can speak to these things early in the process, you’ll win top talent.

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PMM managers hit a point where they feel disconnected from the work. You’re suddenly... - Reviewing GTM strategy docs/decks you have (more) limited context on - Coaching teams on how to position against competitors you haven’t heard customers talk about directly - Helping with messaging for products you have limited hands on exp with This drift is natural, but risky. The further you get from the craft, the harder it is to make the right calls on strategy, resourcing, or hiring. The fix isn’t to jump back in everywhere. It’s to choose the right leverage points: 👉 Lead one messaging workshop yourself. 👉 Run a win/loss deep dive with a direct report and actually sit and participate on the calls 👉 Own a competitive research project end-to-end These are a few high-value touchpoints where you sharpen your own intuition and elevate your team. PMM leaders who never touch the work risk managing in abstraction. PMM leaders who dive in with intent build sharper instincts - and stronger teams. In my experience...almost every manager begins to feel the balance shifting. Don't be ashamed or feel awkward about it. But DO try and address it - this is where we're all headed.

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What does it truly mean to deliver Whole Person Care (WPC)? It means bridging the gap between a doctor's visit and the real-life social needs that impact health—like access to housing, food, and behavioral support. This is why the recent announcement from SACVALLEY MEDSHARE represents a significant step forward for healthcare in California. They have officially launched the statewide NinePatch, Inc. platform, in a key partnership with NinePatch, Inc. and Solano Women in Medicine (SWIM). John Helvey, CEO of SACVALLEY MEDSHARE, highlighted the impact: "This is a huge step forward for the communities we serve. By integrating the NinePatch, Inc. platform and collaborating with visionary partners like SWIM, we’re helping our providers and counties close care gaps, reduce fragmentation, and improve outcomes for individuals and families—especially those facing complex social and behavioral health challenges." This collaborative vision is shared by their partners. Dr. Lisa Holt, Chief Wellness Officer at NinePatch, adds that the partnership is about "This partnership is founded on a culture of collaboration and a shared commitment to transforming care delivery across the nation. By enabling seamless information flow, targeted referrals, and vendor-agnostic systems, we’re creating the federated infrastructure CalAIM envisioned—one that supports integrated, data-informed care for the whole person.” It's truly exciting to see this level of commitment to making integrated care the new standard in California! IDENTOS Inc. is also working on creating products and solutions for seamless data interoperability between systems that enable the flow of consented information across key stakeholders. Initiatives and projects, like the ones undertaken by SacValley Medshare, highlight the importance of all the hard work we are collectively doing to care for the whole person. https://lnkd.in/gMQ8XbAm #WholePersonCare #CalAIM #HealthcareInnovation #HealthIT #SDOH #Interoperability #HealthEquity #CommunityHealth #PublicHealth #HIE #CIE #DxF

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I spoke with over 15 SME leaders last week about the topic of scaling. One from $1M to $10, and another $50 to $250M. There is a common misconception that "change" and "transformation" are interchangeable terms; however, they are not. "I'm trying to really figure out how to stop reacting to 'change' and drive transformation" Well, here is the difference: Change that happens to you. (A recession. A competitor. A market shift.) Transformation happens because of you. But if you don’t drive it, guess what? Nothing happens. 99% get stuck, debating if AI is a competitor, what's the "best tool"? When it’s actually the accelerator to your North Star, but you need a North Star. Your clients are soon asking: “Why isn’t this cheaper with AI?” “Why do I need this consulting service if I can use ChatGPT?” The problem isn’t finding the best tool. It’s the ideal high-margin workflow. The real winners won't only adapt, they will take this time to imagine & reinvent, i.e AI + Consulting, not or something else.... Start by defining a real North Star and building Zero-Admin ™ workflows that leverage the power of something new, enabling Super-valuable humans to create real value. That’s how you go from $50M → $250M. Not by doing more of the same. By transforming how you get work done. Transformation feels hard. But here’s the truth: no one feels ready, as it's a process that's a good thing! You can keep the lights on and transform. You need the right system and the courage to lead it. In this week's article EQ app I outline a Free 3-step framework to imagine. #BeUnique #Leadership #AI #Transformation #ZeroAdmin

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2025 was an important year for Light-it. As companies scale—especially in healthtech—talent and speed stop being enough. What starts to matter is clarity of ownership, repeatable systems, and the ability to handle complexity without slowing down. Last year, we focused deliberately on strengthening that foundation. The result was a more resilient operating model—and 54% growth alongside it. I wrote a recap reflecting on what that work actually looked like from the inside: https://lnkd.in/dtU_dmyy

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Product leaders like Ari Hoffman have a saying at work when things happen or are done that make absolutely no sense to anyone on the team: "Because healthcare." Tune in to the latest episode of the Lifers podcast to hear from a physician-turned-product leader on the frontlines, as we discuss everything from why it took so long for hospitals to ditch faxes to the future of employer-sponsored healthcare. Links to the full episode are in the comments. 👇

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🚨 13 Common Business Problems Which 3 Would You Fix First? After years of leading GTM teams and partnering with founders, execs, and operators across industries, I’ve noticed most business challenges fall into one (or more) of these buckets: 🔖 Fragmentation-Disconnected systems, teams, tools, or processes 🔖 Communication-Lack of clarity, consistency, or shared understanding 🔖 Execution Discipline -Knowing what to do, but struggling to consistently do it 🔖 Prioritization -Trying to do too much, too fast, with limited focus 🔖 Accountability - Unclear ownership or misaligned incentives 🔖 Clarity of Purpose -Teams not aligned to a compelling mission or “why” 🔖 Talent Mismatch - Gaps in capability, fit, or readiness for growth 🔖 Change Resistance - Fatigue or friction when navigating constant transformation 🔖 Decision-Making Bottlenecks - Slow, unclear, or overly top-down decisions 🔖 Customer Understanding - Losing touch with real customer needs or outcomes because no systematic feedback loops 🔖 Cross-Functional Misalignment - Teams optimizing for their silo, not the company 🔖 Measurement Gaps -Tracking the wrong metrics, or none at all 🔖 Lack of Feedback Loops - No rhythm for learning, iterating, or improving I believe every business wrestles with some version of these. The real challenge? Choosing where to focus first. 👉 I’d love to know: Which 3 are most pressing for your team or company right now? Drop your top 3 in the comments. Let’s compare notes. You might be surprised what themes emerge. #Leadership #Strategy #Execution #GTM #BusinessGrowth #Operations #Teamwork #DecisionMaking #CustomerCentricity

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WellSpan Health, an eight-hospital health system got into a partnership with General Catalyst three years ago to use technology to tackle staffing shortages. It is now expanding that collaboration to codevelop AI tools. Why it is interesting: it is also a great GTM strategy for early-stage companies. The playbook: 1. Capital + customer alignment: startups get a proving ground inside a health system. 2. Pilot-to-scale path: instead of dozens of disconnected experiments, the system commits to deploying at scale if results hold. 3. System-level validation: products get tested across revenue cycle, clinical documentation, predictive models, and patient-facing workflows. For early-stage companies, this helps them get to market faster: - Shortens the long sales cycle that kills many healthtech startups. - Produces real-world validation data that actually improves the product. - Creates case studies that make the next sale easier. In the past two years, WellSpan has partnered with several General Catalyst portfolio companies including Commure, clinical AI startup Aidoc and Hippocratic AI. In healthcare, GTM is as much about distribution design as it is about product. Aligning capital, systems, and startups can turn pilots into platforms. #AIinhealthcare #healthcareGTM #RCM

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I’ve been talking with founders about how painful enterprise customization still is — even in 2025. David Dworsky and Gordon Ritter just put words to what we’ve been seeing: the age of point-and-click configuration is ending, and the next category winners will make customization conversational. For early-stage founders, this is the wedge: - Own one painful workflow - Capture the data - Build toward becoming a system of record If you’re building in this space, I’d love to hear how you’re approaching it. Link to the full article on this in the comments. 

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