335. Justin Mares, Co-Founder & CEO of Truemed

Today, I'm joined by Justin Mares, co-founder and CEO of Truemed.

 

Truemed is scaling payment infrastructure to enable HSA/FSA spending on lifestyle-first health interventions like gym memberships, supplements, and sleep aids.

 

In this episode, we discuss building payment rails for preventative health.

 

We also cover:

 

• Prevention economics

• Securing funding from a16z 

• Education, partnerships, and employer integrations

 

Subscribe to the podcast → insider.fitt.co/podcast 

Subscribe to our newsletter → insider.fitt.co/subscribe 

Follow us on LinkedIn → linkedin.com/company/fittinsider 

 

Truemed's Website: www.truemed.com 

Newsletter: justinmares.substack.com 

 

-

 

The Fitt Insider Podcast is brought to you by EGYM. Visit EGYM.com to learn more about its smart fitness ecosystem for fitness and health facilities.

 

Fitt Talent: https://talent.fitt.co/ 

Consulting: https://consulting.fitt.co/ 

Investments: https://capital.fitt.co/ 

 

Chapters:

(00:00) Introduction

(01:18) Kettle & Fire background

(02:19) Letters of medical necessity

(03:42) Payment integration

(05:33) Survey and approval process

(06:32) Loophole criticism

(08:45) Prevention economics

(10:37) Broken default assumptions

(11:34) Merchant excitement

(13:21) Mission-driven founders

(14:09) Scaling challenges

(15:34) Education strategy

(17:07) Partnership approach

(18:12) Employer integration

(19:34) Tracking outcomes

(21:26) Infrastructure layer

(22:12) Evidence-based future

(23:06) Merchant metrics

(24:26) Competitive differentiation

(27:56) Insurance expansion

(29:10) Data gap

(30:05) a16z funding

(31:41) Near-term experiments

(32:27) Conclusion