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Fount looks to tackle everyday stressors like jetlag and sleep with its customized approach.<\/p>\n
<\/fbs-accordion>Fount<\/small><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Andrew Herr, founder of Fount<\/a>, wants to customize healthcare. This one-size-fits-all approach, he says, is not working. But to do that, he needs better data. \u201cThe current data we have is garbage.\u201d<\/p>\n Herr, who has worked with the military and executives on optimizing their health, is interested in expanding beyond that elite niche to a broader audience. It\u2019s a step-by-step approach that he hopes will become more and more affordable with each step.<\/p>\n Fount founder Andrew Herr<\/p>\n <\/fbs-accordion>Fount<\/small><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n \u201cRight now, we have a few different problems with the way healthcare is set up,\u201d he explains. \u201cFirst we have these studies and clinical trials that are based on small numbers of people, only about 20 to 40 usually. Secondly, they\u2019re using mice \u2014 and these are not even like mice that you would find in the wild, they\u2019ve been altered. Third, the incentive right now is to turn out more papers and studies, because that\u2019s what medical research is funding. So academics are stuck in this model.\u201d<\/p>\n Instead of small groups of people for clinical trials, Herr says you\u2019d need thousands to build a better data set. Instead of mice, you\u2019d need humans. And instead of a few simple blood tests, you need bloodwork done over a longer period of time, coupled with other forms of testing and surveys.<\/p>\n By working with executives through his coaching business (who pay about $3,000 a month), he already has some of this data. However, he needs to scale it up. That costs money, and requires more support.<\/p>\n This week, Fount announced that it\u2019s raised $12 million for its Series A. Plus, he\u2019s part of a team that has the skillset to move in this broader direction. His co-founder Clayton Kim, for example, has a background in machine learning and AI, having worked as a data scientist at major companies before working on Fount. \u201cSo we have the expertise to be able to build this out,\u201d Herr iterates.<\/p>\n \u201cWe get so much data per client. What we need is about 5000 people to go through the program. That\u2019s not a crazy number of people to get accurate models, that could be used to build out a more customized approach to healthcare.\u201d<\/p>\n