Katherine Ryder (Founder and CEO of Maven) on Telehealth Networks and How Maven is Resolving Gaps in Women’s Healthcare

Katherine (Kate) Ryder is the Founder and CEO of Maven, the leading women’s and family digital health company. Maven offers virtual care and services across fertility, maternity, and pediatrics, and operates the largest women's and family health telehealth network. With Maven, employers and health plans can see improved maternal outcomes, lower costs, and attract and retain more parents in the workforce. Kate founded Maven in 2014, reimagining healthcare for women and families from the ground up after seeing first hand how the lack of access to care impacted those starting a family and returning to work as new parents.

Prior to founding Maven, Kate worked in venture capital and as a journalist, writing for the Economist from Southeast Asia, New York and London and for the New Yorker. In 2009, she worked with former U.S. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, helping him write his memoirs about the financial crisis.

Named to Fast Company’s “Most Innovative Companies” list, Maven has raised more than $87 million in capital from top investors, including Sequoia Capital, Oak HC/FT, and Icon Ventures. Kate has been named to Crain’s New York Business 40 under 40 and to Fast Company’s “Most Creative People.” She has spoken on stage at industry events including the Forbes Healthcare Summit, Fortune Brainstorm Health, the Oliver Wyman Health Innovation Summit and HLTH. Kate received her B.A. from the University of Michigan and her MSc from the London School of Economics. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband, son and daughter.

Business Today (Kimberley Tran): In the past, you’ve written for The Economist and The New Yorker, as well as worked in venture capital. In terms of access of opportunity for women, how did these industries differ, and was there anything about either industry that surprised you? 

Katherine Ryder (KR): One of the things with venture capital is that there aren't as many female role models for younger associates trying to move their way up the ladder. One of [Maven’s] board members, Jess Lee from Sequoia, started a nonprofit called All Raise, and it’s to get more females in venture capital. Organizations like that are going to be hugely helpful to change the gender dynamics. 

BT: What about journalism? Did you see anything in that industry that could be done to create a more inclusive culture for women? 

KR: To be honest, there are a lot of great female mentors in journalism, so I don’t have much to say about journalism. Journalism actually has about equal amounts of men and women in it. I think that one of the most important things, for a lot of people starting out with their career, is to see a lot of females in leadership positions, and I saw a lot of females in leadership positions in journalism. 

BT: Why is VC so different from journalism at this time, when it comes to the number of female leaders and female representation? What developments happened in journalism that did not occur in VC, and what are some barriers preventing more women from becoming involved in VC?  

KR: Women make up about 11% of VC partners. Given that many VC firms are either pulling in former entrepreneurs, CEOs, or bankers as partners, there aren't many women that make up the ranks of those roles or industries either, hence the numbers we see in VC today.  

BT: How did you feel that your previous experiences as a journalist and also in VC build you up to found Maven? Did they influence you at all? Did you feel that anything you learned from there was able to help you now in your current role as CEO? 

KR: Every entrepreneur that starts a company is a culmination of their experiences beforehand. I think that, uniquely, journalism and venture capital are two examples of industries where you’re building a narrative, you’re chasing down stories or companies, and you’re trying to understand macro trends. And so, they really prep you well for putting structure to chaos. They also [help you learn how to] build out macro theses and strategy for markets. I think that those things are super helpful to entrepreneurship. 

BT: How did you identify the need for Maven? 

KR: I think that by being a woman about to have kids, and with having a bunch of my friends about to have kids--it is pretty obvious that there’s gaps in women’s healthcare, and there needed to be a product that’s uniquely served to help women and families.

BT: What do you think sets Maven apart when it comes to improving women’s health and quality of care? 

KR: We have the largest telemedicine network in the country of women’s and family health providers. Providing that unprecedented level of access to providers is so important in order to really drive impact and change.

BT: Do you see telemedicine networks becoming a trend for the future? As a pioneer in this particular field, how do you think Maven will lead this development?

KR: Yes, telemedicine is one of the most exciting macro trends in healthcare and the trend is here to stay. Major health plans and health systems are launching big telemedicine platforms as it's a great way to increase access while reducing costs. Maven's model, which is a verticalized approach to women's and family health, and a more integrated, care team approach to treat the whole person, is unique in the space. We have over 20+ specialists practicing on our platform. 

BT: In terms of finding those providers, do you feel like the virtual nature of Maven impacts the doctor-patient relationship in any way? 

KR: Yes, in a really positive way. There’s a lot of studies that have been done that show that when a patient is really comfortable in their setting, they’re connecting really quickly with someone, and they can speak from the comfort of home, then they’re the most honest and open. Patients also have more time to discuss major issues. It’s hugely helpful when you’re trying to piece something together, get more information, or talk about symptoms. When you need to talk to the doctor (which often happens), then you can at least go to the doctor with a game plan. 

BT: What challenges did you have to anticipate in order to obtain support and funding for Maven?

KR: Working in venture capital made me very lucky, because I approached fundraising with a little bit more knowledge than some other founders of how the industry works. I highly recommend to many future founders, if they don’t have that experience, to join accelerators and incubators and whatnot. [Fundraising] is very specific and very hard, so definitely don’t go into it blind. 

BT: Do you have any specific examples of the pieces of knowledge or skills that you learned from your time in VC that helped you obtain that type of support and funding? 

KR: Fundamentally, raising money is a sales pitch. If you’re making a sales pitch, you need to know why a buyer is going to buy. It’s having an intimate knowledge of how VC funds work, how they make money, and how they make decisions--these all equip you as an entrepreneur to better speak that language. 

BT: Given growing concerns about data security and that communication over Maven takes place virtually, how do you ensure that information remains confidential and protected?

KR: We’re HIPAA compliant, and we have a ton of security and policies in place. We operate like every other major Internet company, where you have tons of people working on your security teams, and you’re going through a series of audits all the time to make sure that you have a secure platform. We take all of those precautions. 

BT: What types of women’s health issues do you wish are better handled in our healthcare system?

KR: All of them! Women are half the population, and they are the ones who create babies and bring the new population into the world. The system should just support all of their unique needs. 

BT: From what you’ve seen in the industry, why is that not the case right now for “the system”? Are there any specific issues within the healthcare system that deserve prioritization, and how we can address them in business today rather than tomorrow?

KR: The system has been historically a fee-for-service model, rather than a value-based model. That's slowly changing.  

BT: What about the other half of the population? What can and should men and/or other possible allies (besides women themselves) be doing on their end to understand how women's health works and how they can contribute to the cause?

KR: Men can start early on, in the pregnancy/maternity episode, and participate in that experience with both mother and baby.  

BT: What steps can be taken to better promote a healthy, productive conversation in our society in general about these women’s health issues? 

KR: There just needs to be more data, more studies, and more funding for women’s health research. There needs to be more companies like ourselves, working with patients and collecting important data sets. It’s a collective effort across the whole healthcare system. 

BT: What advice do you have for female-identifying readers who are interested in entrepreneurship? 

KR: Go for it! We need more female entrepreneurs and female leaders, and there’s incredible networks of women that can support you. I personally have benefitted from so much female mentorship and support when founding Maven. Never be afraid to ask for help, persevere, and believe in yourself. 

BT: I recently saw that Maven received $45m in a Series C funding round. How do you envision using this funding to expand the outreach and impact of Maven nationwide?  

KR: We also now have the capital to support our theses and invest in the long term. [Our] $45m Series C [is] one of the largest funding rounds by a female founder/CEO in women’s health – all of which we are deploying to double-down on support for women and families.

Here is our point of view on what it takes to build a better and more modern foundation in women's and family health:

1. Keeping tightly focused on access – the single most critical gap in care. 

Maven has the largest women’s and family health telehealth network in the country – and we invested in building this for a reason. Basic access is the single most critical gap we see in care. The most flagrant example is that 50% of U.S. counties don’t have an OB-GYN -- but more subtly, critical specialties like lactation consultants, genetic counseling, or doula support frequently aren’t baked into reimbursement models, even where they exist.  

2. Doubling-down on care coordination – and ensuring that patient advocates have the deep and specific vertical expertise needed to yield results.

Given the complexity of the health system, it has never been more important to have a coherent and informed understanding of options. This includes managing across a range of providers as well as navigating payments, benefits options, health plan options, and the myriad administrative burdens of starting a family. Only 9% of the general population report understanding their health benefits, and 72% of mothers report low health literacy. Many great advocacy models are emerging, but truly driving outcomes requires more than support -- it requires expertise. Advocacy in women’s and family health must straddle traditional healthcare and the practical realities of working parenthood, as well as partner closely with someone’s health plan to make everything easier to navigate. 

3. Doing the hard but necessary work of integrating sophisticated technology with a human-centric care model, because that nexus is what drives outcomes at scale

For at least as long as Maven has existed, there has been excitement about technologies that replace patient-provider interactions in healthcare—from chatbots, to asynchronous care options, to content sites and patient-to-patient forums. Some of these technologies hold promise, but what remains clear to us is that they will supplement, not replace, one-on-one provider interactions – and that a tech-enabled human-centric model is still the key to unlocking better outcomes. 

At Maven, we have found a blended model of telemedicine, care advocacy, and personalized, educational content is table stakes within digital health -- and particularly so in women’s health. Anyone who suggests otherwise is not talking to postpartum moms. Seventy-six percent of Maven members say the relationships they’ve built with our providers are their top source of value, and something they can’t get anywhere else. We continue to see this tech-enabled, human-centric approach as the key to driving improved outcomes in C-Section rates, reduced ER rates, and NICU admission rates. 

4. Relentlessly focusing on the needs of the patient

At Maven, we stay focused on a simple formula: When patients use our product, we generate ROI for our clients. This philosophy means that we don’t take product shortcuts. We will never present quick-fix aggregator services, or direct patients to subpar products, because we know that approach will ultimately limit the impact of our product, and the value we create for clients. 

In addition to driving best-in-class product utilization, our customer-centric formula also leads us to new insights and new approaches that our clients may not be asking for, but that ultimately benefit them. For instance, we recently launched Maven Wallet, a reimbursement product, because our members were struggling with fertility and adoption reimbursement – frustrating members and leading to lost time at work or with their families. 

(Note: Excerpts taken from Katherine Ryder’s LinkedIn blog post on February 19, 2020)