E3: the OVERcast SHINE - Sanarai
Welcome to the OVERcast, the official podcast for OVERLAB. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts and Spotify Podcasts.
“We exist because there is a massive gap to cover the Latino communities’ needs in terms of mental health.”
Episode Summary
Welcome to our highlight show, the OVERcast SHINE, where we shine the light on companies that are successfully overcoming obstacles in their healthcare business.
In this episode of the OVERcast SHINE, David S. Williams III interviews Luis Suarez, the founder and CEO of Sanarai (www.sanarai.com), a startup that provides culturally sensitive mental health services in Spanish to underserved Latino communities in the United States. The key points from the interview are:
Sanarai was founded to address the massive gap in mental health services for the Latino community, with only 5% of mental health professionals in the US speaking Spanish compared to 13% of the population speaking Spanish at home.
Sanarai initially connected Spanish-speaking individuals in the US with mental health professionals in Latin America to provide culturally relevant, Spanish-language emotional support at affordable prices.
Sanarai has faced challenges in its go-to-market strategy, as it has built a successful direct-to-consumer business but is now looking to transition to a B2B approach to better integrate with the existing healthcare infrastructure.
Sanarai has received investment from the California Health Care Foundation to explore offering its services through the Medicaid channel in California.
The interview highlights the importance of cultural sensitivity and language accessibility in mental health care, as well as the challenges startups can face in navigating the healthcare ecosystem and evolving their business model.
Transcript (AI automated)
David S. Williams III (00:01):
Hey everyone, and welcome to a special episode of the OVERcast that we call OVERcast SHINE. I am your host, David S. Williams iii. If you're enjoying the Overcast, please give us that five star review and also subscribe on Apple Podcast or Spotify podcasts. In each Overcast Shine episode, we're going to shine the light on a startup that is overcoming the obstacles of starting and growing their healthcare business. In this episode of Overcast Shine, I am happy to share an interview that I recently did with Luis Suarez, founder and CEO of Sanarai. Now, if you remember in our last episode with Vanessa Verde, she talked about Luis and Sanarai as an example of having a global supply chain and attracting a group of providers who can help globally provide services and why that can be extremely helpful in healthcare. I couldn't agree more. Let's listen in on the interview between myself and Luis Suarez, founder and CEO of Sanarai, and stay tuned following the interview to hear my thoughts about how Sanarai are overcoming their obstacles, and also how sometimes even the best intentioned people like venture capital investors can create obstacles that may not be right for the long-term success of your business.
Luis Suarez (02:00):
I'm Luis Juarez, founder and CEO at Sunrise. At Sunrise, we exist because there is a massive gap to cover the Latino communities needs in terms of mental health. Only 5% of mental health professionals in the US speak Spanish versus 13% of the population that speak Spanish at home. Treatment rates for this community are way below the average and in the context of a mental health crisis with booming demand for services and a shortage of mental health professionals. The problem is exacerbated for this community and the numbers I mentioned, just make it three times as hard to get behavioral healthcare in Spanish. So this is a problem. I experienced myself. I'm originally from Mexico City, came to the US to do my MBA, then worked in management consulting for three years after I graduated. And in 2020 I was looking for mental health support and I was struggling to find someone that I could speak Spanish with that I could fit in my schedule.
(03:03)
So that's when I realized about this issue and decided to start Sanarai initially by connecting folks that speak Spanish in the US to mental health professionals in Latin America to provide culturally sensitive Spanish language emotional support at accessible prices. And that's still the core of what we do today. So services in Spanish not only are super hard to get, but also if you can do behavioral health and services in your native language is going to be beneficial. And then there's a part about cultural relevance that provides a baseline of understanding when you start with your provider. And those initial matches are going to be the best predictors of a better outcomes, and B, that folks stick around for services longer.
David S. Williams III (03:49):
Thank you for basically preempting all of my questions. It's amazing what you've already done at Sun rri. I think that you've identified not only things from personal experience and professional experience, something that I think goes completely overlooked in the United States, which is essentially cultural sensitivity and mental health overall, building a company and delivering much better clinical care, both have real challenges. So I was hoping you could talk about some of the challenges you have in those spaces that you're trying to overcome to make sonari successful and grow larger so you can serve more people. Luis, do you want to talk about some of the challenges you have in building the business and how are you overcoming those?
Luis Suarez (04:35):
Yes, totally. So I mean, one challenge can be go to market specifically. We've built good direct to consumer business so far and and given then wage arbitrage with folks that are based in Latin America, we can make a solution that is culturally relevant in Spanish, but also at accessible prices. So a lot of our client base are going to be, well, one of two cases of folks that are uninsured and underinsured and are looking for an alternative to get some sort of mental health services. And then we have folks that have coverage through work or something, but they want more culturally relevant care and services in their language. So yeah, we're thinking about, and similar to other companies that start direct to consumer and to get customer validation, a lot of feedback and iterate on the product, and then shift to more like a B2B approach. So we're in the middle of that transition. So imagining ways that we can fit into the existing healthcare infrastructure where we know there's a need, there's folks looking for these type of services can be at least two weeks of a wait list. And so yeah, just trying to work around that complexity of that has been challenging. But for example, now we're working with California Healthcare Foundation, they invested in Sunrise, so that's been huge for us to be able to explore specifically the Medicaid channel in California.
David S. Williams III (06:25):
Oh, that's great. And CHCF is really taking the lead on investing in companies that are focused in mental health. I have to ask you now, how can people learn more about ri? How can they contact you? Because from what you've just explained, you're going to get inbound
Luis Suarez (06:45):
So people can find us sanarai.com, our website, there's mostly, it's going to be in Spanish for clients interested and on social media. I think LinkedIn could be a good one, just Luis Suarez is probably going to work
David S. Williams III (07:04):
Perfect. And I will have all of these emails and links on our site as well for this episode. Thank you, Luis, for taking time and talking to us. Love what you're doing. And there you have the recent interview with Luis Suarez of Sanarai. Let's discuss some of the things that he talked about in the context of overlap. We're trying to understand how we can start and grow a business in healthcare by overcoming the obstacles in place. And in the beginning of the interview, you notice I asked him to talk about Sun I, and he was able to clearly, clearly articulate the main problem, his main value proposition, and quantify the major gaps that Sanarai was filling. I'm going to replay that for you so you can hear just how succinctly he was able to deliver those messages. You want to be as crisp in delivering your messages and value proposition as Luis has become.
Luis Suarez (08:20):
And I was struggling to find someone that I could speak Spanish with that I could fit in my schedule. So that's when I realized about this issue and decided to start Sanarai initially by connecting folks that speak Spanish in the US to mental health professionals in Latin America to provide culturally sensitive Spanish language emotional support at accessible prices.
David S. Williams III (08:46):
Now, the other thing that Luis does very well is he discusses his challenges, the obstacles. When I asked him about what he was trying to overcome to be successful, and the first one was go to market, he had created a successful direct to consumer channel, but he was looking at the transition from DTC to more of a business to business or B2B software as a service channel, B2B SaaS. And he was doing that because that's what investors told him that he had to do in order to get their money. This is investors putting up goalposts. We would feel more comfortable investing in you if you had this particular business model, if you achieved this milestone if you did yet. Another thing, investors move goalposts all the time.
(09:48)
My advice is not to simply discard what the investors say, because ultimately if you want to raise funds for your company, you will have to meet some milestones. But my advice to founders is do what's right for the business, do what's right and what works, and lean into that. If you want to raise money and you're showing that you're proficient at generating revenue with a direct to consumer channel to the point where your customer acquisition costs is lower than your unit based revenue, in other words, your unit economics work, then why not continue on with your DTC model? That model could be scalable. That model might give you more control over the growth of your business.
(10:51)
So just because an investor suggests that one business model is superior to another because of their investment thesis, it is your job as a founder of your company to do what's right for its growth potential. Look at the metrics and milestones that you believe, decide when your business is successful and that's when your business will be successful. Keep that in mind when investors are talking to you and suggest that you change what you're doing when it's already working. And now do it. Thank you for listening to this special episode of the Overcast, overcast Shine on Sinai, and thanks again to Luis Suarez, founder and CEO of Sanai for joining us. Like we say at the end of every episode of The Overcast, even when it's overcast outside, just remember, keep shining.