Transcript
Speaker: Welcome to Parent Tech Allies, where we share insights from the movers and shakers shaping the field of parent support from fertility through the teen years.
Speaker: I'm your host, Carly Buxton.
Speaker: Let's get started.
Speaker: Today, we're joined by Dr. Lindsey Garby, the chief medical officer and co-founder of Blueberry Pediatrics, a pediatric telehealth company focused on providing high quality, excellent care to kids across America.
Speaker: She graduated from Emory University and attended Tel Aviv University School of Medicine.
Speaker: Dr. Garvey is a board certified pediatrician, also in neonatology.
Speaker: She loves working in medicine and enjoys running, traveling, and spending time with her husband and three children.
Speaker: Welcome, Lindsay.
Speaker: Thanks for having me.
Speaker: So happy to be here.
Speaker: Yeah, I was very interested in your company because, and I've looked online and seen a lot of people who
Speaker: suddenly started noticing that Blueberry Pediatrics exists.
Speaker: I'm in Virginia and doing a little bit of digging, I learned that you just got approved to start promoting the product in Virginia.
Speaker: So I feel like it's sort of wildfire that it's spreading and catching on and I'm hearing more and more about it.
Speaker: But for those listeners who may not know and might be hearing Blueberry Pediatrics for the first time, could you tell us a little bit about the company and what you do?
Speaker: Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker: So we offer very high quality care evidence-based medicine to families for their kids.
Speaker: So this is pediatric via telehealth.
Speaker: It's extremely affordable, very easily accessible from the comfort of your home where we kind of make it like an exam room atmosphere from your couch, basically.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: And tell us a little bit about how the idea got started.
Speaker: Sure.
Speaker: So along with my other co-founders, there's a very much acknowledged hole in the field.
Speaker: Like parents, especially new parents, those with young kids.
Speaker: You know, kids don't come with them annual.
Speaker: We say it's a very known stage term.
Speaker: sentence that we've repeated over and over, especially as a parent myself, like you, you don't know what to do in most circumstances.
Speaker: It doesn't always come naturally.
Speaker: I mean, there's some things that just aren't expected to, that fever in the middle of the night that, you know, even the little things like how do I cut my newborn's nails?
Speaker: So we felt like every parent really deserved that hand to hold, a person to reach out to, like as if you had a pediatrician in the family that didn't mind you calling them at 3 a.m.,
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: And how long has it been in the works and how has that trajectory been for you?
Speaker: Like, have there been any significant changes in the service or tell us a little bit about the, from start to where you are now, the growth of the business?
Speaker: It's, so it's been several years at this point, we've grown tremendously.
Speaker: I think it's a service that's very well received.
Speaker: I think parents really recognize the value, like when you hear like what you said, it pops up, you start hearing about it, then all of a sudden you see someone else asking about it or an ad or whatever it is.
Speaker: There's
Speaker: there's such a need for this.
Speaker: Like I'm a pediatrician myself and I still have questions to ask and like things that I don't want to run into the pediatrician for in the middle of the day, take half a day off.
Speaker: So it's been extremely well received by families.
Speaker: We, so what we started like several years ago, six-ish years ago, and we've grown from one state to two to five, and now we're in 28 states across America.
Speaker: We have tons of families on the platform who use us all the time.
Speaker: We have grown our doctor team tremendously.
Speaker: We've grown the business side, as you would expect, tremendously.
Speaker: And what makes us, so there's several things that make us a differentiator.
Speaker: We are a tech-enabled platform, which means that we really enable doctors to do just the doctoring and make that efficiency.
Speaker: We put it all on the technology of our company to be able to do that well and appropriately.
Speaker: Another huge differentiator about us is that we send a kit home where parents have tools in their hands in order for us to make more diagnoses and make them safely and accurately.
Speaker: So they get an otoscope, which is what you look in the ear with.
Speaker: You can look in the throat with it because it's a camera.
Speaker: Look up the nose if you need.
Speaker: A pulse oximeter, which is that thing that goes on the finger in the doctor's office to see how much oxygen is in the blood, see the heart rate, and a thermometer to take the temperature of the child.
Speaker: So we're able to make so many diagnoses from home
Speaker: And we can actually, we can tell you, you know, when is it necessary to go into either your doctor, urgent care, the ER right now, call an ambulance.
Speaker: And I think like even navigation for like, what's the next best step?
Speaker: Do I need to go now?
Speaker: Do I need to go now?
Speaker: Is huge benefit that parents should, should have or should be entitled to.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: It sounds like an absolute dream for a parent of a kid of any age, but I certainly can connect to some of those middle of the night, newborn, first time parent feelings.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: How does it work for a parent?
Speaker: Like what do you pay?
Speaker: Is it monthly?
Speaker: Is it covered by insurance?
Speaker: What's the pricing like?
Speaker: It's so it's a subscription model where it's, there's two options you can pay by month, which means $20 per month.
Speaker: That is a cost for the entire family, no matter how many children there are.
Speaker: And the kit is a one-time separate fee and it's, it's like 40 ish.
Speaker: I forgot the latest cost, but it's,
Speaker: It's still a one-time deal, and then you have that kit, and we are very responsive to any issues that come up with using.
Speaker: Not everyone can figure out how to get in the ear or making sure that they're hitting the right buttons on the pulse exhibitor, so we have a customer support team to support that as well.
Speaker: And so is it really like any time of the day or night, if I'm a monthly subscriber, I can...
Speaker: Make contact and get advice.
Speaker: Yes, it's legit.
Speaker: It's 24-7, 365.
Speaker: We cover vacations and we are always around even in the middle of the night.
Speaker: Parents can, so we usually do a phone call.
Speaker: They can also text messages with us, like as if you're texting your friend.
Speaker: That's how it kind of looks on our app.
Speaker: You just text back and forth to get your answers.
Speaker: As long as it's not needing of a phone call, we are totally available that way too.
Speaker: And it seems to be like a part of our feature that we offer that parents, especially this generation of parents really appreciate.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I'm curious to ask more about the, how you staff it.
Speaker: I imagine middle of the night, doctor working in the middle of the night might be a difficult sell.
Speaker: Are you working with gig workers?
Speaker: Are they on your staff?
Speaker: How do you select them?
Speaker: What's that like?
Speaker: Yeah, so I don't even know what a gig worker is, but it terrifies me in the field of pediatrics just hearing that term.
Speaker: We're taking care of kids.
Speaker: There's no messing around with that.
Speaker: So everyone that we hire is a board certified pediatrician and they are part of our team.
Speaker: We have several full-time doctors.
Speaker: We have several 1099 part-time doctors.
Speaker: Sometimes they have another job.
Speaker: So that means that we get a wide variety of experience levels, backgrounds, diversity.
Speaker: So we have doctors who are all specialized in general pediatrics, which is what we are doing.
Speaker: They might be working in the hospital, an urgent care, a peds office, outpatient.
Speaker: Some are even subspecialized gastroenterology, infectious disease.
Speaker: pulmonology, neonatology.
Speaker: So you're getting what is actually a huge benefit that parents don't realize on their end is that you can be getting the opinion of five, seven, 10 doctors at once because we function as a medical group.
Speaker: So we're not like, there are other telehealth platforms out there that we kind of like function on their own island.
Speaker: Everyone, every doctor works separate and on their own, you know, there's telehealth, so they're home and they're not really engaging with other people on the team.
Speaker: We are
Speaker: as I said, a team.
Speaker: So we engage all the time.
Speaker: We talk all the time.
Speaker: We ask for each other for opinions.
Speaker: What do you think of this year?
Speaker: What do you think of this situation?
Speaker: So there's always like a phone a friend available to be able to make the best diagnoses possible and give these kids the care that they deserve.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: That sounds like a wonderful team approach.
Speaker: I imagine this is something that, you know, all parents could benefit from and really use, but is there
Speaker: a specific target customer you're going after.
Speaker: Tell us a little bit about kind of like your ideal customer.
Speaker: There is no one specific type of customer.
Speaker: I think a parent with a young child though, it's like, who does this benefit the most?
Speaker: Who does this speak to the most?
Speaker: I think that is the kind of person who's
Speaker: likely to choose to use us more than anyone.
Speaker: Because, and I'll speak again from the parent perspective, it's just scary.
Speaker: Like, you just feel alone at times, even though you might even have a wonderful support system.
Speaker: Like, even like I said before, you know, your kid spikes a fever in the middle of the night.
Speaker: Like, you can't really just reach out.
Speaker: There's not many resources around.
Speaker: And even though they are likely okay, you just want someone else to tell you that and to be there.
Speaker: Yeah, so our target customer is that parent who really wants that extra layer of support.
Speaker: I think a lot of us do need it just at baseline, no matter who we are, even parents of older children.
Speaker: Usually we expect kids to have a pediatrician that they're going to.
Speaker: Hopefully they have a great relationship with them.
Speaker: There are also people who aren't, that's not, that's just not accessible to them, unfortunately, in this landscape of medicine.
Speaker: So either they live in a rural area, they're just
Speaker: Like there is no pediatrician accessible around.
Speaker: Their pediatrician is full for the day.
Speaker: They can't get in.
Speaker: They have to wait till tomorrow.
Speaker: Maybe there is an urgent care in town, but it's not a pediatric focus when this is a huge deficit that we know exists out there that only 14% of ERs are really staffed to handle children.
Speaker: So we can even guide once a parent, if a child has to go to the ER and can't be seen by a pediatric specific ER,
Speaker: We can guide the parent and help to be their advocate as to like what needs to be done.
Speaker: What's the next step?
Speaker: How do we keep this kid safe?
Speaker: Have you ever been one of the pediatricians on staff?
Speaker: I mean, are you are you still involved at all in that part of the business?
Speaker: Yeah, I think it's always important as a leader on the team to have like a real pulse on what's going on on the level, like the ground level, let's call it, where, you know, the boots are on the ground and they're really in it.
Speaker: So the doctor.
Speaker: So, yes, I mean, I take part in whatever's needed at any time.
Speaker: It used to be solely me like that.
Speaker: That's how a startup goes.
Speaker: You start doing, you know, 24-7 through 65 and then grow from there and be able to delegate out after that.
Speaker: Yeah, I'd love to ask a few more questions about those early days when it was just you.
Speaker: I think you said six years ago is when you got this.
Speaker: About that, yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So tell us about how you personally made the decision to take the leap into building a startup and how you got customer number one.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So for me, it was a no-brainer.
Speaker: This is such a wonderful, amazing field and position to be in.
Speaker: The field of pediatrics is tough.
Speaker: It's like there's lower reimbursements with insurance companies.
Speaker: It's a lower paid field within medicine.
Speaker: The hours are rough.
Speaker: And so there's real opportunity.
Speaker: And so pediatricians can help their patients.
Speaker: And this just seemed like the ability to help on such a bigger level and hopefully help
Speaker: eventually make changes within the whole landscape of pediatrics to make the lives of pediatricians better.
Speaker: We have, and I think that we in time, I'll get back to your questions.
Speaker: I know I'm going off topic a little bit.
Speaker: But I think over time, we've gained acceptance within the pediatric field by our colleagues to know that everyone was skeptical about telehealth in the beginning.
Speaker: And then on top of that, to do that for children and do it appropriately and safely.
Speaker: So we've upheld all those values.
Speaker: We take that very seriously.
Speaker: So I think pediatricians are noticing that.
Speaker: And so there's a lot of acceptance and we get incoming
Speaker: questions of whether they can work for us all the time.
Speaker: We get resumes sent to us all the time.
Speaker: And it's being noticed as like a really, not just a great,
Speaker: model for doing pediatrics, but a great place to work as a pediatrician.
Speaker: I honestly don't remember the first customer other than like relatives, like friends and relatives is really how we started.
Speaker: And then word got out after that.
Speaker: And then advertising helped us after that.
Speaker: But it really was a lot of word of mouth from the beginning.
Speaker: And then, oh, I don't even know where from growth we went to
Speaker: There was advertising for sure, a lot of Facebook stuff, but not a tremendous amount because, you know, a startup on a budget.
Speaker: So a lot of organic growth because this is if you are a parent and you're in a lot of like mom groups and, you know, parents chat, like you have communities.
Speaker: So I think that's a lot of how we did grow from the beginning.
Speaker: That's interesting.
Speaker: So you, once you kind of got into that word of mouth buzz, you saw a lot happening there.
Speaker: And then,
Speaker: You mentioned Facebook.
Speaker: I first noticed Blueberry Pediatrics on Instagram and then like kept seeing it, kept seeing it.
Speaker: So I do, I feel like that must be a huge part of your marketing approach.
Speaker: Talk to us a little bit about how you chose that approach and why social media is such a big spend for you or focus for you when it comes to your growth.
Speaker: Yeah, so I have to say, I leave this to the genius of our marketing team.
Speaker: This is, you know, actually, I think one part of having a startup and growing is to bring all the right people in to do, you know, to do the things that you can't do.
Speaker: So as chief medical officer, I'm very focused on the medical side and the quality of care and then making the right business decisions, which
Speaker: pertains to the medicine.
Speaker: The marketing team is phenomenal.
Speaker: I think that when they do their testing, they find that that's like the we're always testing new things.
Speaker: So, you know, maybe Instagram now might be like LinkedIn or TikTok tomorrow, but Instagram and Facebook have been our main focuses based on
Speaker: the return on the investment there.
Speaker: And so we've built up our socials.
Speaker: We, I think naturally it's just where everyone is now.
Speaker: Like that's where the eyes are as a parent.
Speaker: I am there too.
Speaker: So that, you know, that's how you get word of mouth out now.
Speaker: And the generation of parents are, are there.
Speaker: How'd you build that marketing team?
Speaker: How'd you find the right people who would be able to
Speaker: get your brand and support a growing startup and kind of build that presence that you have today?
Speaker: Yeah, so it's tough.
Speaker: It's tough.
Speaker: I would say there were missteps on the way to building the team until eventually you find the right people.
Speaker: And I think our mission really does speak to those that we hire and they self-select a bit towards it's health care.
Speaker: It's really making a difference in people's lives.
Speaker: It really, really feels good.
Speaker: it will self-select into people who want to be a part of that,
Speaker: And then we got a phenomenal marketer, was able to build the team, figured out where the need was in terms of social and content, and he's started to grow it from there.
Speaker: I'd love to turn back a little bit to something you mentioned a few minutes ago about almost winning the trust of the medical community.
Speaker: So my own company initially started probably a year after yours, and my background is in lactation,
Speaker: and postpartum doula.
Speaker: And I was trying to do telesupport at that time.
Speaker: And people just, they were not into it at all.
Speaker: And I often tell the story that people were like, Carly, let's just, you know, next time you come to my house, we'll talk about this.
Speaker: When I would try to say like, let's have a Zoom or let's FaceTime or whatever.
Speaker: And, you know, I of course could have had no idea that the COVID pandemic would be
Speaker: require such a huge cultural shift in people's willingness to open up on telehealth and take that approach.
Speaker: So that certainly accelerated things.
Speaker: But aside from the requirement of telehealth that the pandemic brought on, were there other things that you found successful in
Speaker: winning over the medical community, but also parents and building that trust despite not being in person.
Speaker: Yeah, so that's twofold.
Speaker: So let's talk about the medical field first.
Speaker: I think if you are doing the right thing, then
Speaker: I know it sounds simplistic, but that's what wins over trust.
Speaker: If you are following guidelines, you know what evidence-based medicine exists and you're keeping up to date with it and your doctors, hopefully and usually will follow that and believe in it.
Speaker: That's all you need to win over the trust.
Speaker: Just doing the right thing.
Speaker: I mean, there's other things.
Speaker: It's a lot more nuanced, but like, I think that's what it comes down to.
Speaker: And then people take notice and then they get curious and then they start talking about it.
Speaker: And then, you know, there's forums where they start chattering.
Speaker: And then even more so when our own pediatricians start defending it to those who question it, that I think is like the real tell of,
Speaker: You know, we are what we say.
Speaker: We are upholding these virtues with no compromise.
Speaker: And then in terms of families, again, it's about doing the right thing.
Speaker: It's about it's a compilation.
Speaker: So like good medicine, taking care of them how they need, meeting them where they are.
Speaker: and truly being empathetic to their needs.
Speaker: And I think what we've learned is over telehealth, the needs is actually a little different than what an in-office visit would bring.
Speaker: So we've all learned that.
Speaker: I think every doctor who starts with us, I see there's a learning curve in any job, but there's also a comfort curve with telehealth that we go through.
Speaker: So really it's just about having that empathetic ear and knowing how to speak to parents and give them what they need on both the medical and emotional level.
Speaker: Tell me a little bit about the highs and lows of being a founder.
Speaker: I think we have a lot of people who are starting businesses or running their own independent businesses who tune into this and can be inspired by the highs and lows that you've experienced.
Speaker: Tell us a little bit about maybe what has felt best for you and some things that you wish you could do over on this roller coaster of being a founder.
Speaker: Sure.
Speaker: Let's start with highs.
Speaker: This is truly like what a privilege to have this job for me.
Speaker: I say it all the time.
Speaker: The ability to...
Speaker: Again, our bottom line is helping people.
Speaker: So like that's, that's there all the time.
Speaker: And then there's like to be able to create and to lead and to see the potential, like in the things that we do every day, even if it's small things, that is so much fun.
Speaker: Like specific highs.
Speaker: I mean, we, we've gotten messages from parents where they say you saved my child's life.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: that stays a high for forever for your team, for even the engineers on the team.
Speaker: Like everyone contributing to Blueberry helped that child.
Speaker: We've had several of those where we get chills, like you saved my kid's life.
Speaker: Um, so those are the big highs.
Speaker: Um, the lows, like there's a lot of sweat equity that goes into being a founder.
Speaker: Like it's just so emotional.
Speaker: I speak for myself.
Speaker: So much goes into this so much sacrifice.
Speaker: Um, whether it's, it's, you know, the time put in means time, not somewhere else.
Speaker: So missing with
Speaker: time with my family or the, just the stress being up in the middle of the night thinking about things.
Speaker: Uh, and like the responsibility, not wanting to let other people down.
Speaker: Um, sometimes that can happen.
Speaker: We've been really fortunate that I think we've, um, we haven't had to deal with that much, but I think that that stress of like, it's yours to lose is, is very heavy all the time.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Um, well, I know you have a lot of fans.
Speaker: I, I,
Speaker: I was looking online and just seeing what people think who've tried the service before.
Speaker: And I found a Reddit where people were like, why are there no bad reviews of this company?
Speaker: Are they buying reviews?
Speaker: Like what is with all the five-star reviews?
Speaker: Tell us a little bit about how you have,
Speaker: gotten parents to become your advocates in this way so that they are such promoters and sharing it with friends and talking about it in the mom group or what have you?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So I...
Speaker: Again, I think it's just a testament to what we've created and winning their trust over and helping them when they are most needing that help.
Speaker: We are so vulnerable as parents when we are worried about our kids, like nothing in the world matters more than that.
Speaker: So if we've been able to help them in those times of need,
Speaker: I think that that's just everyone's so appreciative of it and they want to share it with the world.
Speaker: I mean, we've seen a lot of those reviews.
Speaker: If we've got, I mean, you can't not get a negative review at some point.
Speaker: So we've seen parents go after the negative reviewers and argue with them about the good stuff too, which is an incredible, incredible thing.
Speaker: And it motivates our team to just push, push, push and keep doing what we're doing.
Speaker: How have you chosen your markets?
Speaker: So 28 states now.
Speaker: How did you kind of plot that out in terms of where you would grow when?
Speaker: Yeah, it's really based on the pediatric population.
Speaker: So we're going with the states where there's the highest PEDS population.
Speaker: OK.
Speaker: And how about the regulatory, you know,
Speaker: hurdles that you've had to cross.
Speaker: Healthcare is no joke when it comes to red tape.
Speaker: I feel sure.
Speaker: Yeah, of course.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And there's so much to keep track of.
Speaker: You have to have a good lawyer on your team.
Speaker: All the doctors have to be licensed where the patients are located.
Speaker: So we go through all of that.
Speaker: We have to have companies who help organize that and license and it's costly.
Speaker: But yes, the regulations we have to and do follow very closely.
Speaker: I feel like this is the future of medicine, not just pediatrics, but kind of all medicine.
Speaker: And it strikes me as a strange phase that we're in right now that companies like yours exist, but then also the pediatrician's office.
Speaker: Tell me a little bit about how you see those two things either working together or coming together or replacing one another.
Speaker: Like what's your vision for what's ahead when it comes to this being the future?
Speaker: Yeah, I do think that the field can exist without telehealth.
Speaker: And the field also can't exist without general pediatricians who help the primary care pediatrician, who is the person that you go to for your well checks for even for your sick visits for your shots.
Speaker: We are meant to augment that never take away the
Speaker: the primary pediatrician role, where I think we could help.
Speaker: I mean, my dream is to be able to partner with all the doctors and work with them.
Speaker: The big health systems and the insurance models make it very, very nuanced and complicated, but hopefully we can be, we are moving towards a system where we are able to
Speaker: decrease the amount of grind the pediatricians are having to do to turn a profit and alleviate the medical healthcare costs in the, in general, and then get these kids out of ERs, out of urgent cares for the regular things that they should be at their pediatrician for things that we can handle.
Speaker: Do you see any space where you are almost like,
Speaker: part of insurance companies, like my own insurance company apparently has some nurse hotline, but like nobody ever uses it because, well, there's a lot of reasons why.
Speaker: I personally haven't used it because I just don't think a phone call will do in that moment or I want to speak with a pediatrician or I imagine being on hold for a hundred years.
Speaker: And so I think that that's ready for replacement.
Speaker: Totally.
Speaker: Do you see that as a potential angle for y'all or how does the insurance company aspect come into play for you?
Speaker: Yeah, so we are in that market as well right now.
Speaker: The model that we've been discussing is our direct consumer side.
Speaker: We are also partnering with insurance companies where we're creating models that like partnering with a managed care organization so that
Speaker: They're paying for the cost of Blueberry for their patients.
Speaker: And in turn, we are providing an ROI that is significant by saving ER costs and where kids are leaving their office to go to urgent care ER and we're sending them back to their pediatrician instead.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: I'm especially excited for that.
Speaker: I mean, I think that that could be huge for the future of how families get help.
Speaker: when they need it.
Speaker: So, all right, well, I appreciate this kind of glimpse into your company.
Speaker: I always like to conclude with trying to understand, you know, how can, what are you looking for right now?
Speaker: How can listeners support you or lift you up?
Speaker: What kind of collaborations are you looking for or types of people you're hiring for?
Speaker: What's your biggest need right now and how can we help?
Speaker: So I think the, hmm, great question.
Speaker: And thank you.
Speaker: We are really pushing into the insurance markets.
Speaker: I think that there are long sales cycles.
Speaker: If like connections into that world is always helpful.
Speaker: Great pediatricians who want to be part of our team.
Speaker: Likely we are going to continue to hire and grow.
Speaker: That's awesome.
Speaker: And then there's always interesting partnerships to be had.
Speaker: Other ways to engage with our community.
Speaker: families like that like lactation or parenting or sleep training spot potty training there's just so many other things so to understand what the needs are is super helpful as well that's awesome well i'm excited to add you to our database of ways that people can ask for help and um i'm hoping that they'll rely on you and um are you tell us a little bit about your your website your online channels just so that people can tune in and follow along
Speaker: Sure.
Speaker: So www.blueberrypediatrics.com is the website.
Speaker: You can find the app in the app store for Blueberry Pediatrics.
Speaker: All our handles are at Blueberry Pediatrics.
Speaker: And thank you for joining us on Parent Tech Allies, brought to you by Nessel.
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Speaker: And thank you so much for listening.
