Healthyish

I consult, advise, and invest innovative, mission-based health & healthcare companies (and their leaders) with a focus on marketing, but also product, strategy, AI, & growth.

A few companies I've had the privilege of working with:

- NOCD (fractional Chief Marketing Officer & Advisor, helped hire FT team)
- Oshi Health (fractional CMO & Advisor)
- Commons Clinic (fractional CMO & Advisor)
- Elion Health (fractional CMO & Advisor)
- Midi Health (interim-Chief Content Officer & Advisor)
- Parsley Health (fractional CMO & Advisor)
- Propel (marketing & content support)
- Ro Health (marketing & content support)
- GoodRx (helped start GoodRx Health)
- Greatness Media (helped launch Greatness.com)
- Elo Health (fractional CMO & Advisor, founding team)
- Ours Privacy (fractional CMO & Advisor)
- Hone Health (early content + marketing support & Advisor)
- Digital Media Society/DiMe (early marketing & strategy support)
- Undivided (fractional CMO & Advisor)
- First Dollar (fractional CMO & Advisor, helped hire FT team)
- Particle Health (fractional CMO & Advisor, helped hire FT team)
- Galileo Health (early marketing support & Advisor)

- Certify (Advisor, introduced to Series A lead)
- Peloton (Advisor & Investor)
- Allara Health (Advisor)
- 305 Fitness (Advisor & Investor)
- Two Front (Advisor & Investor, introduced to first institutional investor)

A few companies I've been lucky to invest in:

- OpenAI
- Anthropic AI
- Monument
- Elektra Health
- Juno Medical
- Kindbody
- Handspring Health
- Photon Health
- Hello Patient AI
- Journey Clinical
- Guaranteed Health
- Q Bio
- Luminate Medical
- Affect Therapeutics
- Bobbie
- Recess
- Sanzo
- Plunge
- Kingdom Supercultures

Consultant, Advisor, & Investor

Healthyish Content

Healthyish Content is the only health-focused SEO & content agency, producing premium (“best answer on the Internet”) articles for health & healthcare companies to diversify their acquisition and reduce costs.

Current/former clients include Midi Health, NOCD, Parsley Health, Oshi Health, Ro Health, Propel, Elion, First Dollar, Particle Health, Hone Health, & GoodRx.

Managing Partner

Herman-Scheer

Senior Advisor

Aequitas Partners

Lakehouse Ventures

Venture Partner

Ness

At Ness, we swung big to compete with AmEx and build the next great credit card company, health-first.

Some highlights:

- Raised $50M in equity + debt from best-in-class early investors like Accomplice, Will Ventures, Portage, Core, and Digitalis.

- Landed best-in-class partnerships with Sweetgreen, Seed Health, Prenuvo, Exhale Spa, GlamSquad, Whole30, & Jonathan Van Ness plus reached a monthly audience of 150K per through an online publication and weekly newsletter.

- Grew a proprietary database of 20K+ healthy merchants across the country, mostly relying on user-generated submissions and machine learning-driven approval.

- Built and led a tremendous fintech & healthcare team (ex-Capital One, AmEx, Mastercard, Wells Fargo, Oscar Health, Cityblock Health) to successfully launch a consumer credit card that rewarded members for healthy spend & activities.

- Developed a credit card platform from scratch, bringing together great partners like Mastercard, The Bank of Missouri, Galileo, Canopy, Alloy, Evervault, & Plaid to create our own credit card stack for flexibility and financial upside.

- Engineered a novel HSA integration, flagging eligible purchases and allowing users to pay them down directly from their HSA account.

- Ultimately, Ness cardmembers spent over $2K/month and achieved 640K healthy actions. Our top 50 cardholders spent $4.8K/month with 40 average monthly transactions. 76% of cardholders said the Ness card led them to make healthier choices.

After almost pivoting into building co-brand B2B2C card with health plans like UHC/Optum, we unfortunately shut the business down in late 2023.

CEO & Founder

Greatist

At Greatist, we built an iconic health & wellness brand and media company, reaching 20M unique visitors per month, 2M daily email subscribers, and 1M+ social media followers at its peak.

Some highlights:

- Grew traffic through 100% organic methods (SEO, social/Pinterest, and more) with a unique emphasis on high-quality, science-backed, and expert-approved content.

- Built a profitable 8-figure business from advertising, affiliate, and sponsorship revenue (Target, Mars, KIND, Kaiser Permanente, RxBar).

- Hired and led an amazing team of 100 employees with an award-winning culture.

- Raised $20M in venture capital from world class investors like Floodgate & Gary Vaynerchuk.

Acquired by Healthline / Red Ventures.

Clicker Media Inc

Growth & Strategy

GTM-Savvy Business Builder | Founded Ness & Greatist

I'm a mission-driven business builder deeply passionate about making health affordable and accessible for everyone.

I previously built Greatist into the largest health & wellness media site on the Internet for millennials (acquired by Healthline/Red Ventures in 2019) and built a health-first credit card company from scratch with Ness (unfortunately shut down in 2023.)

Over the years, I've become a truly full-stack health & healthcare marketer, growing and engaging consumers (or key B2B decision-makers) at scale across almost every channel—all packaged into a builder mindset of a successful 2x startup founder.

Currently, I'm involved in various projects through my personal holding company of sorts called Healthyish.

I don't typically connect with folks I haven't met over LinkedIn, but feel free to send me a message.

Last month, I celebrated my 38th birthday—and the fact that I’ve lost 38 pounds since January.

A pretty epic coincidence.

10 years ago, I crash-cut to a six-pack in six weeks and hated every minute: I had to be insanely restrictive and completely antisocial. I was constantly hungry and grouchy.

This time, I found those abs again across six months of habit changes. No gimmicks—just systems that could survive my real life.

Here's what was different from the first time:
1. I tracked everything. 
MyFitnessPal for food, Oura + Whoop for sleep and activity. (Overkill? Maybe. But data helps.)
2. I committed HARD to protein. 
200+ grams daily through egg whites, protein powder, bars, and bone broth. Surprisingly tough to hit every day.
3. I worked out 5x per week. 
Weight training, rock climbing, tennis with Sara, and shorter cardio sessions. Movement I actually wanted to do.
4. I tried GLP-1s. 
Microdosed tirzepatide for a few months, then stopped. (I wrote more about this in my 5HT newsletter.)
5. I didn't beat myself up. 
I enjoyed the occasional beer and happily devoured pastries in Europe. I simply got back on track the next day without any guilt.
6. I respected rest and recovery. 
I did daily meditation, stretching and foam rolling, and tried (not as successfully as I’d hoped) to get better sleep.

In a nutshell: I chose sustainable habits over suffering. A healthyish approach, rather than healthy-always.

And though I focused on consistency and moderation, the result feels extreme: I feel like a whole new (younger, leaner, fitter) person. 

(See the photographic proof below: me with one of my girls six months ago, and a recent shot showing my progress—and how fast they’re growing!)

I’ll always be transparent about what works and what’s just hype, because I know the power of vetted, science-backed health information first-hand.

So I’m pumped for year 38, and more committed than ever to making health more accessible for everyone.

Derek Flanzraich

Builder & Health Founder | CEO, Healthyish Content | Writes 5HT weekly | Advisor to brands making health more accessible

The name Fixie Dust came to me early. 

The branding? A much bigger challenge.

The name is inspired by Pixy Stix from my 90s youth, by my obsession with mythological things and Scottish folklore, and—well—trying to help fix things.

I figured the branding would be charming and whimsical, but I still wanted it to feel premium and stand out. Not granola-crunchy or tarot card-y. Sleek and distinctive on, say, Erewhon shelves..

I of course went straight to my friends at Herman-Scheer (my fave branding agency, where I’m lucky to be an Advisor). And they came back with two very different directions:

Direction 1: What you'd expect. Fairy dust vibes. Browns and greens. Think elevated Tinkerbell energy. 🧚

Direction 2: Totally unexpected. More radical. Almost psychedelic. Brain scans with pixie dust granulation as subtle texture. Science-forward with just a sprinkle of magic. ✨

I thought I knew what I wanted. I didn’t.

The second option blew me away almost instantly.

With a name already whimsical enough, the bold, science-meets-magic look stood out as unique, vibrant, and memorable. It wasn’t at all what I pictured going in, but it was better. Much better.

And that’s the point, isn’t it? In CPG, branding isn’t decoration—it’s a critical part of the product. You can have the best formulation in the world, but if your story doesn’t stop people in their tracks (or their TikTok feed), they’ll never pick it up.

The big lesson for me is the importance of staying open-minded. Sometimes the best ideas are the ones you couldn’t have pictured until someone else put them in front of you. 

Being open to the unexpected may be just the way you go from “nice to have” to “need to have” (and I sure hope that’s the case for Fixie Dust).

When people ask what I majored in at college, I tell them "extracurriculars."

(Better than saying "Well, at Harvard they're called concentrations, not majors." 🙄)

It's a joke, but it's also true.

What I did in undergrad that still matters today:

🎤 Co-founded and hosted "On Harvard Time,” a web TV series modeled after The Daily Show that's still running.

📺 Built a platform called HUTV so other students could more easily make their own TV series, too.

🏛️ Participated in Harvard Model Congress, which runs & simulates Congress for high school students.

🎭 Performed in drag on Broadway with The Hasty Pudding Theatricals (claims to be the oldest theater company in America)

And that’s just a few things. I said yes to nearly every activity I could cram into my schedule. Missed a lot of classes—no regrets!

These experiences taught me about building from scratch, leaning into your passions, and not being afraid to look ridiculous.

I still perform constantly: Speaking gigs. Client presentations. Bedtime stories for my daughters.

My career is all about stretching myself to try new things. The willingness to say “yes” has led me to start two venture-backed businesses, consulting work, starting my own content agency, and launching a CPG brand. 

To anyone worried their college major doesn't match their career goals—it really doesn't matter.

What you learn transcends whatever's printed on your diploma.

Your curiosity and willingness to try new things are what actually shapes your path.

(Pic of me drawing on all that theater training to film something for work 😆)

Your body already makes its own GLP-1.

The question is: Can you turn up the volume naturally?

Since January, I'm down 40 pounds total and feeling great. Part of that formula was microdosing GLP-1s, which I stopped two months ago. 

I always planned to get off GLP-1s. They were a tool, not a permanent solution.

And I know I’m not the only one thinking about life after Ozempic.

Now I'm experimenting with natural GLP-1 boosters. Your body produces this hormone in your small intestine—it helps with insulin, slows digestion, and signals fullness.

There's a whole wave of "natural GLP-1" supplements hitting the market–many . Some with ingredients like berberine (called "nature's Ozempic"), chromium, green tea extract, and cinnamon. Some hype, some promise.

I'm trying two different products with two different approaches: 

→ Supergut's Gut Healthy GLP-1 Booster (high-fiber blend for gut health) 

→ Veracity's Metabolism Ignite (polyphenols from lemon verbena and hibiscus)

Will you drop 15% of your body weight with supplements alone? Probably not.

But paired with gut-focused nutrition, mindful habits, and movement? Your body's own GLP-1 production likely increases.

Plus, those things are worth doing anyway.

The real test for me: Can I maintain this weight loss long-term using my body's natural systems instead of external medication?

I'll report back on what I learn. I’d love to hear anyone else’s experience with trying to boost natural GLP-1 production.

Celebrating some wins in my network from the past few weeks!

My friend Julia Lipton launched fixtheformula.org to fund testing of baby formulas so the public can see exactly what’s in each brand. Our baby formulas mostly suck in this country—and sorely need improvement.

As I’m working on improving my sleep quality, I’m personally grateful for Mollie Eastman, Sleep Is A Skill and her advocacy for the importance of sleep. Check her out if you want to level up literally every aspect of your life.

Healthyish Content welcomed Sarah McNaughton as an SEO partner 🎉. Sarah is an award-winning SEO and content strategy expert with more than a decade of experience at top health and lifestyle publications, including LIVESTRONG, Hearst Magazines, and Everyday Health. She’s the best in the business and we couldn’t be more excited to work with her.

We also welcomed Kate Nelson as a Healthyish Content editorial partner 🥳Kate is an editor, writer, and content strategist with 8+ years of editorial experience with brands like Verywell, Firefly, and Greatist—where she was an early intern, small world!

Congrats to Matt Hurn for joining BetterHelp as VP of Growth Marketing.

Congrats to old pal Denny McFadden for starting a new position as Design Director at Counsel Health.

After writing the best weekly newsletter in the MSK space (just saying), Benjamin Schwartz, MD, MBA officially joined Commons Clinic as SVP Care Services & Strategy. 

Healthyish Content partner Midi Health just launched a supplement store to support women in midlife; check it out on their website.

5HT reader and member of our 5HT+ Slack community Cory Zacker has been killing it with her recommendations, two of which made it into recent newsletter editions: Japanese walking and cognitive shuffling.

And a big shout-out to recent sponsors of the 5HT newsletter: Future, Seed Health, Myo, and Fitt Insider

Who else deserves a round of applause this week??

Open article: Fix the Formula - Test Baby Formula for Safety by fixtheformula.org

Fix the Formula - Test Baby Formula for Safety

I never really thought of myself as a “consultant.” The word makes me picture someone who talks a lot, charges a lot, and never actually does a lot. Not me.

Instead, I think of myself as a builder. A founder. Someone who likes to make things that matter.

After I sold Greatist, I started advising (and yes, consulting 😅) a handful of health companies to learn more about different parts of the industry and help with things I’m good at. That curiosity snowballed into projects with co’s like Galileo, GoodRx, Allara, Certify, First Dollar, and many others.

And it turns out I loved it. No, I didn’t have the “CEO” title anymore. But I got to dive into new challenges, assemble teams, build go-to-market strategies, and then step aside when it was time for others to take over. Consulting—if you want to call it that—kept me learning and building, just in a different way.

After all, I like to stay busy. I’m endlessly curious. That’s why I write my newsletter every week—it’s how I share the questions and ideas bouncing around in my head with other equally curious people. 

Consulting became another outlet for that curiosity, with the added bonus of working directly with some of the most amazing founders and teams.

So yeah, consulting has become a meaningful part of my career. And my stereotype of “consultants” was… wrong. Sure, there are plenty of busts. But the good ones can be game-changers—accelerating an early business in ways full-time hires often can’t, or helping later-stage companies sharpen their go-to-market without wasting months.

For me, though, it always comes back to the mission. My whole thing is making health more accessible. I only work with companies moving the needle there.

So whether you call me a consultant, advisor, founder, CMO, CEO, strategist, or content nerd—it doesn’t really matter. As long as I’m helping more people access better health, I’ll wear whatever hat fits.

Fresh week = fresh content opps. 😎

If you haven’t caught on yet, it’s now (or has always been?) cool to be healthy—and that means health brands are hiring. Whether you’re a designer, content marketer, or writer, your next gig might just be in this week’s round up. 

Good luck! (Links to apply, as always, in the comments.)

✴️ Content Marketing (Contract) at Elion: Take the lead on the newsletter, social presence, and SEO/AEO-driven content for a company helping healthcare providers understand and select tech products. 3-5+ years of experience in content marketing, editorial, or related roles required. 

✴️ Chief of Staff (PT) at Healthyish: Work with me to help keep my venture studio humming–own project coordination and make stuff happen across Healthyish Content, Fixie Dust, and 5HT. Potential to lead a business line as GM.

✴️ Lead Designer at Allara: Elevate and evolve the visual identity across every touchpoint for a telemedicine platform delivering expert, multidisciplinary healthcare for women with hormonal conditions. 4–6 years of experience in brand, visual, or marketing design, required. 

✴️ Digital Marketing Specialist – Content & Social Media Focus (Contract) at My Senior Health Plan: Develop engaging content, coordinate multimedia projects, manage social platforms, and assist with storytelling across channels for a Medicare coverage helpline. 5-6 years of experience in content-focused marketing roles required. 

✴️ Freelance Communications Professional at Everyday Health : Lead outreach and manage correspondence with media outlets for an org empowering healthcare professionals and consumers with trusted content and services. Experience in the health and wellness space is strongly preferred.

✴️ Partnerships & Social Media at Farm To People: Elevate the brand presence, grow the community, and build meaningful collaborations for an online farmers market and grocery delivery service specializing in sustainably sourced, local produce and artisanally made foods. 2–4 years experience in social media, brand partnerships, or affiliate marketing required. 

✴️ Pitches for longform essays at Asterisk Magazine: A quarterly journal of clear writing and clear thinking about things that matter is now accepting pitches on hard science. From public epistemics to clinical trials and questions like how do we best fund science or how do we do science faster? send your pitch—drafts due in October. 

✴️ Freelance Senior Copywriter at amika: Transform strategic insights into campaign platforms, headlines, scripts, and social-first stories that stick for a  Brooklyn-born, salon-raised haircare brand rooted in clinical results. 7+ years in agency copywriting, beauty industry experience required. 

Follow me to see updates like these every Monday!

Looking for your next gig in health & wellness? Start here. 👇

These eight gigs caught my eye this week  👀. We’ve got opps for writers, editorial strategists, growth marketers, and moreee. 

Find your fit and hit apply. (Links, as always, in the comments.)

✴️ MD Medical Content Reviewer at Function Health: Ensure the accuracy, credibility, and scientific integrity of social media and marketing content for the company empowering you to live 100 healthy years.

✴️ Head of Growth at BetterBrain: Scale and optimize the D2C growth playbook for brain health and dementia prevention platform, managing everything from digital marketing to conversion optimization while building a high-performing growth team. 5+ years of growth marketing experience at high-growth D2C startups required. 

✴️ Senior Marketer at Hoag Health System: Develops and executes comprehensive marketing strategies for a nonprofit, regional health care delivery system in Orange County, California. 7+ years of experience required. 

✴️ Health Staff Writer at Fortune: Play a key role in expanding our evergreen content to help consumers make important decisions about products pertaining to nutrition, sleep, and aging for the global leader in business journalism. 3+ years of experience covering health topics required. 

✴️ Editorial Director at WebMD: Oversee high quality content planning and execution across a variety of interactive editorial products for the leading provider of health information services to physicians and healthcare professionals. 5+ years in medical digital publishing required. 

✴️ Director, Editorial Strategy + Lead Writer at Chan Zuckerberg Initiative: Produce compelling content covering the purpose, people and scientific and technology advancements of the organization, which is helping solve some of society’s toughest challenges. 10+ years writing for science- and tech-focused organizations required.

✴️ VP Health & Wellness at CNN: Lead the expansion and transformation of CNN’s efforts in the health space and be a part of the mission to help readers live a longer, healthier life. 12+ years of general management or product ownership experience required.

✴️ Writers (Pitches) at Medscape: One of the leading online global destinations for physicians and healthcare professionals is looking for pitches exploring the human side of life in medicine, from mental health issues to interesting side gigs to relationships and parenting. $1/word for reported features of 1.5K words, and up to $1.5K for video content interviews. 

Follow me to see updates like these—every Monday!

Here’s a little secret about how we’re building Fixie Dust.

Most CPG companies start with ads; we started with answers.

Because if we can’t explain brain fog better than anyone else, why would you trust us to help fix it?

So before the product is even live, we’re building a content engine:

-Articles written by expert health writers
-At least two medical reviewers for accuracy
-Original, shareable graphics to make the science easy to digest

Take our very first article: “What is brain fog?”

On the surface, it’s a simple question—but most health sites either:

❌ Offer generic, surface-level lists of symptoms
❌ Don’t cite sources or mix science with speculation
❌ And usually skip straight to selling supplements

Instead, our guide: 

✔ Defines brain fog clearly and empathetically (so people feel seen, not dismissed) 
✔ Breaks down the most common causes with peer-reviewed research (not hearsay)
✔ Uses beautiful, custom graphics to visualize the biology behind it
✔ Compares brain fog symptoms against ADHD and potential dementia behaviors
✔ Suggest specific tests and follow ups to take action on if you’re concerned
✔ Ends with evidence-backed strategies people can try today (before they ever hear about Fixie Dust)

This is the Healthyish Content playbook in action: create the best answer on the internet, meet people where their questions start, and build trust (before the product/service/sale starts).

It’s still early days, but the foundation is set—and we’ll keep sharing how it unfolds.

👉 Take a look at the first few articles at the link below (and give us a linkback if you like ‘em, please!)

Taplio

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