Hyperscaling Health

Enjoyed last week’s article on Superpower?

Well, you’re in luck! We’re back with a follow-up article, featuring a founder deep dive with Superpower co-founder, Max Marchione (adapted from a live interview).

Expect the following in this week’s email:

• Rethinking health tracking

• Zero → one founder journey

• Building a company vs. building a brand

Ethan and Arek 🦄

Let us be frank: finding sponsors for our ads (like this one) is one of the hardest parts of running a newsletter.

Before Apollo, finding sponsors for Unicorner meant cold outreach to random companies, hoping they'd see value in our startup audience. We'd spend weeks researching potential partners with no real insight into who actually fit.

Now? Apollo's data reveals which companies in our readership are actively hiring, fundraising, or launching products. In other words, perfect sponsor prospects that are already engaged with our content. We've cut our lead acquisition time in half while improving match quality.

Partnering with a platform we trust means we can focus on building great weekly startup covers instead of hunting for leads. And for you, that means building your greatest product while eliminating the guesswork from your sales leads.

Take advantage of Apollo’s tools with a 50% off discount for your first year.

^{_{This is sponsored content.}}

While the healthcare industry remains entrenched in institutional dogma and clinical sterility, Superpower is forging a radically different path in preventative care. 

The company's disruptive approach embodies several key elements, including the founders' non-traditional backgrounds that bring novel perspectives, a heavy emphasis on compelling branding that humanizes healthcare, and clever growth strategies that hijack attention.

Clearly, an aversion to the status quo runs deep through the team’s DNA and serves as the engine behind their rapid growth in the next generation of health technology.

Max Marchione, cofounder of Superpower, exemplifies this unconventional approach. Unlike typical healthcare founders with medical credentials, his background is bolstered by personal experience and self-education. 

He has maintained an ongoing obsession with optimizing his health for over a decade. For example, he has been systematically tracking his sleep ever since he was 16 years old. He was one of the first wave of users of Oura Ring when it was released in 2016. Additionally, he tested his microbiome and genomics even before consumer-grade tests became mainstream. 

Today, Max follows precise protocols to optimize his daily health and strengthen his immunity. These include a range of mercury detoxification supplements, nootropics for cognitive performance, and digestive enzymes for large meals. To maximize his energy levels, he continually monitors his glucose levels using a continuous glucose monitor. 

In short, Max gets surgical when it comes to optimizing his health. 

Superpower’s mission clearly reflects this. The company operates outside traditional healthcare frameworks to give consumers direct access to high-impact health data in order to optimize their health. As an improvement on the typical annual check-up, Superpower offers a deep dive into your health by running 100+ blood tests. It then creates a “digital twin” of each member, combining these test results with medical records, diagnostic reports, and personal goals.

This unconventional philosophy extends to Superpower's branding. 

While most healthcare companies default to muted blues, whites, or browns to signal trustworthiness, Superpower chose orange. As Max explains, orange is visually striking and signals empowerment.

Another key driver of Superpower's disruptive branding is its viral marketing campaigns.

Max drew inspiration from streetwear brands that build hype by limiting product availability, creating a sense of urgency and exclusivity. One such influence was MSCHF, an unconventional art and media company known for its viral avant-garde art pieces. In one stunt, it created a real-life rendition of Astroboy’s iconic footwear called the Big Red Boot. It sold out within minutes, and reappeared on resale platforms for over $1,400, up from an MSRP of $350. Celebrities like Lil Wayne, Diplo, and even news anchors on Good Day New York were seen wearing them.

Superpower has launched similarly innovative campaigns, such as the release of “the world’s healthiest hoodie.” It is a limited-edition, 100% organic, and biodegradable sweatshirt marketed as free from toxins like BPA, PFAS, and phthalates. Another was the distribution of personalized cards displaying members' biological age, sent to early beta users and designed to encourage social sharing and generate FOMO. 

These stunts were just one part of Superpower’s broader growth strategy. The team also enlisted creators to promote the waitlist and encouraged employees to produce their own content. They made strategic acquisitions to accelerate momentum and implemented a referral system that let users skip ahead in line.

Together, these efforts helped grow Superpower’s waitlist to over 150,000 people in just six months.

Superpower demonstrates how healthcare companies can break free from industry norms without sacrificing credibility. By treating health optimization as a lifestyle choice rather than a medical necessity, it has created a consumer-centric model that could reshape how people engage with healthcare as a whole. 

The best way to support us is by checking out our sponsors. Our partner for this week is Apollo!