Episode 293: Eric Gastfriend - CEO & Co-Founder, DynamiCare Health

The VentureFizz Podcast

It is hard enough to build a startup in a heavily regulated industry like healthcare, but what do you do when your biggest competitor who is publicly traded files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection? It can be discouraging… or it can be an opportunity. In the case of DynamiCare Health, it is hopefully an opportunity… an opportunity to build a world class company that is helping to improve the lives of millions of people that are dealing with an addiction to drugs, opioids, alcohol, or tobacco. DynamiCare Health was founded in 2016 by Eric and his father, Dr. David Gastfriend, who is an international expert in addiction psychiatry. As a digital therapeutics and coaching company, they are using a pre-existing, yet a previously under utilized treatment called Contingency Management that rewards members for certain behaviors. Their solution combines this method along with the usage of a tech platform and a certified Recovery Coach to help people with recovery and it is working. The company was recently granted a Breakthrough Device Designation from the FDA for one of its products, a prescription only digital therapeutic that treats AUD or alcohol use disorder which affects 29 million Americans per year. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * Getting press for your startup and the pros & cons of using PR firms or doing it yourself. * Eric’s background story and what he learned at the early stages of his career while running a startup called Happy Cloud as its GM. * Why he went back to business school at HBS where he also studied AI and Machine Learning. * All the details about DynamiCare Health in terms of how their platform is helping its members with recovery. * The complexity of the healthcare system. * And so much more.