#524 Data-Driven Health: Marco Benítez on Building the API Powering the Future of Preventive Medicine

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Mehmet: Hello and welcome back to any opposite of the CTO show with Mehmet today. I'm very pleased. Joining me, Marco Benitez. He's the founder of Rook Marco. I was telling you, I don't like to steal the spark lights from my guests. I keep it to [00:01:00] them to introduce themselves, but I'm always used about to, a little bit more about you, your background, your journey, and what brought you to Star through.

So the floor is yours. 

Marco: Thank you so much. Super excited MeMed to be here and uh, thank you. Thank you. Really appreciate it. Well, I am Marco Menez. Um, my background, I am from Mexico, but now living here, the last years here in the US in South Florida.

Um, I'm biomedical engineer. I have also a second degree in eds. Um, my whole career I was working in data. First of all, I am a a a TaeKwonDo Inga, so I love TaeKwonDo. I love martial arts. My whole life. I was doing that since when I was like five years old. I'm a black belt third done. Now I'm trying with Juujitsu probably.

I'm a little bit old for martial arts, but I feel so good. Oh no. You know, doing that. Um, I'm on my forties, so I really like. You [00:02:00] know, this lifestyle of doing sports, martial arts and all these type of things. So, so for me it's really great that front. And also for me, sports, it's almost everything in terms of that helped me to analyze my life in terms of, you know, when you are building something from the scratch, it's like, be.

Discipline, very persistent and have consistency will help you to reach out different type of things. Um, every goal, it's all around with these three points. Um, and yeah, that's me and of course I'm the CEO and founder of what we are doing today at R. 

Mehmet: Great. Uh, uh, Marco, please. We, you are not old because if you are old I will be old because I'm in my forties also as well.

So you, we are young. We're still young, right? 

Marco: We are, yes we are. Yes we are. 

Mehmet: Uh, you know, very interesting Marco. And this is maybe, you know. The reason I ask every guest about their backgrounds, this is explain to me a [00:03:00] little bit why maybe you decide to start Rook. I'm always curious about the story behind, you know, the aha moment or like you spotted some things.

You know, which maybe someone else didn't and you decided to start Rook. Now, what is the story behind Rook? 

Marco: Yeah. Well this is not my first company. Mm-hmm. In fact, this is our third company, fourth company. Um, the first one we get an exit. We were very young. In fact, my co-founders, I know them from the last.

Almost 20 years from now. Wow. It's like, uh, we have been together a long time. Um, in fact, I know them better than my wife. Honestly. We, we, we, in the, in the college when we were together, it's like we used to live together. We were, you know, in parties. We know each other. You know, everything. So we are very good friends.

And now our wives are very good friends. Our [00:04:00] kids are super good friends. Um, so we are now a family, honestly. So it's, it's very, it's very, it's very funny. Um, but yeah. That was our first company. We built a company on top of data. Uh, we create analytics for hospitals, but then we sold that company in 2006, and we were very young.

We were doing different type of things. And of course on those days, a startup was not even worth, at least in Latin America, in Mexico, where I'm came from. Um, of course here in the us in the US was a very different situation. We, on those days with the.com situation, you know, Silicon Valley and investments and we were in a different position on over there.

Um, however, we have an exit and that gives the opportunity to say, okay, this is interesting. However, on our. On those days, we were young, so we continued studying and we [00:05:00] were in different things. I was involved at the very beginning with the big pharma. In the big pharma. I was doing clinical trials.

Between phase one to phase four, amazing industry from my perspective, because you learn a lot how you know the process of all these drugs. How is the research and development since the idea and then become something more interesting when you are starting to try with, you know, animals and then something with humans, which is amazing.

That process since when you are doing the. Protocol and, you know, integrating all these vendors that are going to be involved in every single, you know, um, uh, yeah, in every single project or trial. So amazing, amazing path over there. And at the same time, we were building companies around the medical devices.

So two things at the same time. When you are young, [00:06:00] you have a lot of energy, you have a lot of stamina, you have a lot of time. Now when you get, you know, when you have a family and everything, it's like, uh. There's not too much time, but still it's like, uh, when you are young, you have this opportunity to do a lot of things at the same time and very successfully sometimes.

Um, but the aha moment where when my co-founder and myself, we were like, okay, we have to do something in the fitness industry. We have a huge opportunity because we started over there and we create a wearable. On those days with, uh, another two friends, ma more, we create a wearable, um, that happened before Pandemics.

The name of that company was Root Motion. Everything was on Mexico, built in Mexico. So we create this wearable was really interesting because was a, um, a heart rate monitor chest. And the other one for the arm. And in real time we have the ability to collect, uh, you know, efforts, zone CalEd, burn, heart rate, um, different [00:07:00] type of biomarkers.

And I can tell you that the aha moment, that's when we changed the business model, uh, was when we started to integrate different type of wearables on our own platform. Mm-hmm. That happened during pandemics because during pandemics. You know, the life as we saw right now changed everything. So everyone was in their own home trying to work out, you know, isolated without, you know, alone.

Some people were alone, other with their family. So too many things at the same time. So we create a space where you can train yourself, do workouts, but with your wearable. And we started to integrate not only our own wearable, but also the Apple Watch one, and we saw a ramp up. First of all, it was very difficult to integrate the Apple Watch.

Honestly, it was super difficult. But then when we integrate that part, we start to see a ramp off of um, how many end users were connected on [00:08:00] our platform. And we started to analyze all this data. And then we say like, Hey, what happened if we started to integrate Polar and then Garmin? It took time to integrate.

And also make sense of all these data because it's very complicated. Each wearable give you the information in a very different way. And, and we, when we start to normalize everything and standardize the data, we're like, okay, this is interesting. And then we start to see ramp more ramp ups mm-hmm. And see more end users connected on our, on our platform.

And that was the aha moment when we changed the business model. 

Mehmet: It is very, very interesting. Um, now you come, you, you told me you come from, um, you know, data background also as well now, and of course you, you, you are a, you are a guy who, who likes sports and, and health and all thing. So there's a passion driven.

I would say [00:09:00] motive for you also. Uh, but, you know, and I'm saying, but again, it's not for a, a, a challenging, uh, question or something, but. We know when we touch anything which is related to people's kind of fitness data, let's call it this way, so that would require some, you know, additional measurements for, for data privacy and all this.

I'm interested to know, like some of the. Hurdles and, and obstacles maybe that down the road you discovered, because you mentioned Apple and I know for a fact from other folks I talked to, whether it's in, in, in, in the wearable space or like even the enterprise space, integrating anything with Apple, to your point, like it's, it's a miracle again, but we understand that Apple are more sensitive to this.

So other than that, like what other like challenges you, you faced Marco when building, you know, the product itself? 

Marco: When, when we were [00:10:00] building the product? That's a really interesting question because one of the first things since the beginning, we, we are biomedical engineers, so all the team, mainly, almost all the team are developers.

Mm-hmm. Um, micro founders are developers too. They are biomedical engineers. So, and my background from clinical trials, big pharma data. For us, the base, the base ground was always, you know, compliance, compliance, cyber security, and HIPAA compliant. You know, all these type of certifications for us was like, uh, something that it's on our bones.

Mm-hmm. Uh, so we understand that. Behavior. We understand that since the beginning, you have to be compliant with everything. I know that for founders, sometimes it's like you have to find, if you have a market fit and everything, you know, on top of that you can, [00:11:00] of course you know the problem and trying to solve that problem.

We. Solve that one specific problem. But since the beginning we built on hipaa, we built on GDPR, we built on compliance with the cybersecurity because we were, we know that we were building on top of data from our clients. And that's really, really important. And we know that in on those days and in these days, right now, it's one of the biggest struggles with.

Every platform. So, so yeah, to your point, um, it's very important. It's super important. Sometimes even better, you know, if you want to work with insurance or big pharma or hospitals, everyone will ask you to have a specific certification and more with HIPAA and GDPR, depending on the, uh, the country that we are working on.

Mehmet: Yeah. Now what's interesting also for me, and, uh, you know. [00:12:00] I will ask you if you have, you know, competition later, but I'm trying to think about the massive use cases that can be open. So usually you're taking the data, you are normalizing it as you explain, like you're trying to make sense out of this data.

Who benefits from this? And of course you did an API, you know, that, that. Uh, any, anyone who wants to connect probably, of course there's a business model, which I will ask you later on, on, but I'm, I'm thinking now, use cases is, so is it like a hospital? Is it an insurance company? Like who are the clients usually today that would be interested in having these data?

Uh, Marco. 

Marco: Yeah. Yeah. Let me do one step back, so sure. We can be in the same, it's, it's very simple. What we are building or what we have. So basically we have an API on our API. We have a lot of wearables, medical devices, lab testing [00:13:00] integrated on our API. So it's very simple for our clients if they want to extract the data from these end users, patients, and.

Want to know the information 24 7. Basically they have to, if they are not using our API, they have to integrate with the Apple watch, with the polar, with the garin, all the wearables outside, then lab testing, CGMs, whatever they are looking for. So they need to integrate everything. Sorry, sorry. It's okay.

They need to integrate with everything, maintain those integrations, and then it's, it's like a, a lot of work. So it take like probably 18 months, 24 months to integrate everything. Instead of doing all these integrations, they only have to integrate my API, which we already have 300, 400,000, uh, sorry, 400 wearables, medical devices, lab testing, different type of things, and immediately in one or three months, they will have everything in their own platform.

So now [00:14:00] they have the ability to track all this data. So at the very beginning, right now, we are like a pipe. We extract the data from the patient, uh, from the wearable patient or the lab testing patient. Then we standardize, normalize, harmonize all the data, and we deliver clean and structured data. Mm-hmm.

Of course, if the client want all these data, raw data, we can give it all the raw data. It depends 100% of their business model Now. Talking about who are the clients who are looking for this type of, um, of, of, of platforms. It's basically wellness apps. Longevity apps, fitness apps. That was our low hanging fruit because that's where we came from.

However, now we are more towards the hospitals. We are working a lot with remote patient monitoring. We are working more with, uh, you know, big pharma, also in big pharma for clinical [00:15:00] trials, for psps, for, you know, um, access for pharmacovigilance. So for different. You know, areas inside the big pharma. So it's becoming something really interesting because just started with fitness industry, which is great.

I love fitness. I love that industry. We are moving towards that health industry, which we can be. We can have a lot of impact in the people's lives and be more in the preventive side rather than in the reactive. Because reactive, it's always. A bad thing, right? Because when you react to something, it's because you have the problem over there.

But there's sometimes that you can prevent a lot of things, and that's where we, it's our sweet spot where we can prevent things. And, uh, we trying to enable those brands to, to have that information. 

Mehmet: Uh, I, I, I can imagine, you know, the benefits that [00:16:00] especially both profiles you, you gave like, uh, any longevity, uh, or like health applications, they, they will benefit out of it because, uh, uh, you know, and I think wearables, you know, you mentioned patient, but you know, I think.

They, they became slowly part of the life. And you, you come also from, from that background, uh, Marco, because you know, very rarely now I don't see anyone who's wearing, um, you know, uh, any smart watch. It doesn't have to be necessarily a, um, a. An Apple watch, it can be anything. Uh, the rings, you know, the, the, what I'm curious about when it comes to, to integrating with that huge number of different wearables, right?

So. When, when is the tipping point where you and the team you decide, okay, looks like we need to integrate, for example, with this device because it looks like, you know, everyone asking about it, or maybe there's an [00:17:00] adoption for it. So what, what would be like, you know, the decision criteria to integrate within you wearable, uh, device?

Marco: Yeah, it's very, it's very simple. It's like, uh, it's like any other of it's.

Client's needs. So again, it depends on the industry that you are going to focus on for, so, mm-hmm. For example, hospitals, they want to integrate with blood pressures. They need CGMs. Obviously because they are looking for specific diseases like, uh, hypertension, or they are looking with, um, diabetes, indu, um, problems or obesity.

So they need a specific, um, devices. So we integrate with all of them if we want to go through that direction. So, uh, it's not like, um. It is not something that we realize from one day to another. This is something that we have to [00:18:00] discuss all the time with our clients and the potential clients. It's like, okay, what type of wearables do you need?

What type of devices you are looking for? And then we go everything through a wishlist that we have internally, and then we have a whole process about how to take these type of decisions. So it's a, it's a process. We have all this product team that is helping me with all this, uh, you know. We extract all this information and then we have a roadmap, and then you know, you know the drill.

You're a CTO. 

Mehmet: Yeah, I'm not a CTO, but I, yeah, I come from, from, I come from technical background, but thank you. There you go. Thank you for, thank you for mentioning this. Now, as you can see, you know, I'm, although, like I come from a technical background, I'm always interested to understand the use cases is why I ask, for example, who uses how they use it now.

One, I'm not sure if this is for you, was, as we call it, you know, a tailwind, like a supporting factor, uh, because you mentioned longevity and you mentioned, you know, like [00:19:00] health apps. Uh, I had, uh, not very long ago, like I think couple of weeks back, John Sabu, who, who runs a company in, in the longevity space.

And, uh, you know, the new kind of, uh, metrics that we are looking for to understand, you know, someone like how we can increase their longevity, you know, and the use case that John, at that time we discussed, you know, he, he's trying to take that and, you know, applied into the financial, uh, you know. Services like retirement and all this.

Now how much, you know, this trend of people who want to track their health. People also who want to make sure that they're getting good sleep helped also, you know, the adoption of course of the wearables in general and indeed it helped you also to have this, you know, tailwind of, um. Of, of, you [00:20:00] know, more vendors who want to get the data and, and get used out of it.

Marco: It's a, it's a really good question. Mm. I can tell you

it's an evolution, right? Mm-hmm. Because I can tell you that 20 years ago. Uh, I remember, no, even more like 15 years, no, 25 years ago when I was doing TaeKwonDo, uh, in, in, in, down in Mexico, I was using the heart rate monitor in the chest. And the only things that you were try, you, you, you, you were tracking was heart rate.

That's it. 

Mehmet: Mm-hmm. 

Marco: And with that, you can analyze your. Your effort zones that you have from zero to four, and depending on your objectives, you [00:21:00] have to be more in the zone four, in the four in the zone three, in the zone one, and all these type of things. But every single time that the hardware evolves, you're starting to track more things.

Um, specific things like, for example, HRV. HRV is a huge, you know, biomarker because that allow you to understand your recovery. And as a sports and as a fitness in the fitness industry, recovery is almost everything. It's like, uh, again, it's like sleep. Sleep. In the eighties, in the nineties and early two thousands, sleep was for a week.

Support people who is very weak. You know, sleep is for those guys that doesn't want to achieve nothing in his life, and doctors were the first ones who sleep is nothing. You, you don't have to sleep because you have to be awake [00:22:00] in the hospital all the time and create all this stress. And you know, it, it now the mentality is completely different.

Now in, in 2025, everyone care about the sleep. It's super important. It's one of the best parts when you recovery from everything intracellular. You know, all these type of things is happening during when you are sleeping. To your point, it's like, uh, all these things matters. And that's how new wearables are focused more in specific biomarkers, like stress levels, like sleep, data, like, uh, HRB, like glucose levels, like temperature, like, you know, every single wearable starting to to be very specific and the best in one specific biomarker.

Mm-hmm. So. The industry now are starting to pull this data so they can take advantage of that information. From the remote patient [00:23:00] monitoring perspective, they are analyzing. Don't know, maybe seniors, they want to know how many times they fall or they want to identify if they have a high or a very big hypertension or a spike of glucose level or I don't know.

So the demand from different industries even it's bigger and bigger. And also they are demanding to have more wearables, more. More accurate information and receive more accurate information. You know, so industry will, it's telling you that they need more information so they can track more things and be also more accurate.

That's why they are. You know, they are starting to receive FDA clearances, um, like the Apple Watch for example. They have, I don't remember, they have like three or four FDA clearance with a specific biomarker. Whoop is looking for the same thing. Aura is looking for the same thing. Garmin is looking for [00:24:00] the same thing.

New wearables are looking for the same thing because they want to be in the medical space. And I think that's the future eventually. So, yeah. Is this what, I'm not sure if I answer your question. 

Mehmet: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Is this what people are calling now, Marco? Um, uh, medicine 3.0 because, you know, uh, 2.0 was, you know, like little bit utilizing the technology.

Is this what people are calling 3.0 or is it something else? 

Marco: It's something, yeah, definitely. Yes. It's all around prevention. It's prevention Medicine 3.0. It's the prevention side. It's, it's something that, uh, it's, it's re light. Make a revolution around that. They have a really great book about it and it's prevention, it's everything.

Um, and you can do a lot of things with all these wearables. You can extract the, a lot of information. You can identify patterns when you are wearing a wearable. It's really interesting all this information because it's like, uh, what happened if you are drinking [00:25:00] alcohol in the night? What happened if you have a late night, a late uh, dinner?

What happened if you are very stressed? What happened with your heart rate? What happened with your sleep stages? What happened with your glucose levels? What happened with your temperature? And when you start to re make all these correlations, you start to change habits. Sometimes start to do more workouts.

Sometimes you start to, you know, do early, uh, dinners to. A boy drink alcohol, you know, all these type of things, small things will change your future. Mm-hmm. That's all around the medicine 3.0. 

Mehmet: Uh, I can't, um, skip nowadays asking about AI and the role of AI in on, in the whole, uh, formula, Marco. And, you know, for you, you are, uh, sitting on a gold mine of [00:26:00] data also as well, which is like, uh, the fuel.

N ai. So, uh, what, what are some really useful use cases? What I'm asking really useful use cases is because what I'm trying also recently to try to educate people about, like, guys, like, okay, AI is a, I'm not saying it's a hype, of course it's, it's a real thing, but let's think about really how we can utilize it.

So what you're seeing in the AI space related to the wearables and what you're also doing. 

Marco: Yeah. AI is the new revolution, right? Mm-hmm. It's like the, 

Mehmet: indeed, 

Marco: it's an the industry revolution. We came from different revolutions all the time. The web was the other revolution. I, I mean, AI is the new revolution.

I don't think it's only a hype. It's changing lives now. Everyone is using AI every single day. Now we have access to new information. We are looking with this Chachi [00:27:00] pt of course, but that's something new. And uh, you know, it is changing a lot of things. Jobs will change also. That being said, ai, it's important only if they have clean data, 

Mehmet: right?

Marco: If they have the data very, they have structured all these information so they can have not only have good information, because if you are injecting garbage, you will receive garbage. That's it. It's very simple. Absolutely. So, yes, today I think that everyone is telling you that they ties the new oil. So, and I, it's 100% true.

We have so many data points. All over the places, but you need someone who can help you to integrate everything in one place and also have everything very clean that can help you to structure all this information. And the wearables are a [00:28:00] really good example because you have so many wearables outside.

You have so many medical devices outside. You have so many lab testing outside and trying to reconciliate everything in one place and try to normalize everything and standardize everything and give it this structuring way. To create AI tools. That's really the important thing. Um, but I think that AI will help you to understand even better, your health and all this correlation that I mentioned before about yourself trying to identify if you have a late dinner or your, I don't know, your alcohol habits, whatever the AI will let you know.

Definitely. So ai, it's quite important. 

Mehmet: What, uh, you know, just out of curiosity, um, you know, the wearables and you talk about the biomarkers and all this, uh, of course, like anything which, um. You know, [00:29:00] it's tangible from, from, you know, all the metrics you just gave. As example, of course, heart rate is the oldest one, blood pressure, the, you know, all the other things.

Now when I think the, the thing I didn't see much done is about not the eating habits more than, I'm not sure if it exists. Maybe it does. And excuse my ior, my ignorance here. Um, let's say if I. Eat a bar of chocolate. Right. So I'm not sure if instantly, of course I know you need to do a blood test for this, but I mean, how this is affecting the whole thing in my body.

Right? Of course. From a medical point of view, uh, are, are we going to see like also things like this, that, because, you know. And I know it from myself to be honest. I'm, I have, I have a coach currently and you know, the only thing that we discuss all the time, like, Hey, I can watch your [00:30:00] motion. I can see how much stronger you're getting in the gym and all this.

The only thing I can't control is like, okay, you track your meals, but we don't know what the food is doing to your body, actually. Is it like really building your muscles? Is it like, so. Are we going to have like these kinds of devices that will be able also to give us, because food is, and I know you're in the states, Marco and I have a lot of friends and always they tell me about the same thing.

Like, we cannot find healthy food. Like, and we know we eat, we don't know what's happening to our bodies after this, where we are in, in this space. 

Marco: This, I mean, I think that healthy food, it's all over the places. The only problem that's better for you going to the McDonald's or going to the. Chick-fil-A and all these type of things that it's like a garbage food.

Uh, of course it's really good. I mean, one time per month, it's practically fine. You will not have any kind of troubles. But the problem is when you are doing that every single day, that's [00:31:00] the problem. Um. To your point, yes. We have some platforms outside that are helping you to understand a little bit more.

We know the basics. Macronutrients are very important. You know, carbo proteins, carbohydrates, uh, all these type of things. We know about it and there is a full, there's a lot of information about that, and I think that's something that everyone should know. This is something that. E every, everyone that it's in the, in the high school and in the college should know about this because it's your future.

Mehmet: Mm-hmm. 

Marco: Um, I always, I am encourage, encourage every single one that I know, that learn about the nutrition because it's very important. It's your, it's your body. At the end of the day when you get old. It's you, you are going to be the result of all the habits that you have when [00:32:00] you were young. So if you drink a lot of alcohol, if you smoke, if you have very bad habits in the nutrition side, if you are not doing workouts, if you are very stressed all the time, if you don't sleep when you get old, you will, you'll see the, the results of all of that.

So Jess, I think the industry is trying to help to understand in a very easy way. Your behaviors. One of them is of course, with the wearables. The other part is the nutrition part. There are some wearables outside trying to help you to understand that. Mm-hmm. For example, we have the CGMs. The CGMs, which is, you can con, you can track your blood glucose, um, in your blood.

And it's really interesting. Maybe you don't need to use all the time one, but at least I encourage to use at least one time to understand what happened every single time that you are [00:33:00] eating something like a chocolate bar. What happened with with your glucose levels, and you will see a really interesting pick.

Just you have to see how stress get your body every single time that you eat a lot of sugar. I mean, it's not a bad thing. It's okay. It's okay that you are eating a part of chocolate. Nothing is going to happen if you are doing once per week or, I don't know. It depends 100% on your habits, but it does nothing bad happened with your.

Um, with your meals and everything, if you can start to incorporate different type of things and making each make it better. But yeah, there is a lot of wearables outside. There's a lot of apps outside that can help you to improve and to know, because knowledge is everything. If you start to learn about those and, uh.

Food, meals and everything that can help [00:34:00] you to improve your health. Definitely. It's something that you can, you can improve. 

Mehmet: Yeah, because, you know, I'm always kind of, uh, um, how I would, how would I describe this, um, perfectionist, let's say. So I'm, I'm, I'm looking for the thing that is kind of real time.

Okay. And to your point, when we talked about the medicine 3.0 preventive, right? So for example, you know, if I had two spoons and you know, like some reaction started to show or whatever I should, it should tell me, Hey, stop. Like you should, or, or even, you know, like, uh, before I take the meal. It can analyze it somehow and say, okay, it'll not be able to know the ingredients.

I, I know this, we didn't reach, but at least say like, hey, like, uh, it's advisable based on your, uh, biomarkers and based the history that I know about you. Maybe it's an health app that does this. I'm aware of this, but hey, like, you should really like not have like more than three spoons of this, you know?

Um, but, but yeah, of [00:35:00] course may, maybe I'm a little bit. Thinking futuristically, but completely, you know, I, and I think this is where. The data, and this is why I'm, I'm very interested to any, um, uh, attempt, you know, for what you're doing, uh, Marco, like, uh, any startup, any company that, uh, is working in this space attracts me because also there is a big impact of having a healthy life and, you know, knowing things time ahead so you don't get in trouble, as you mentioned, in, in, in the future.

So a hundred percent on this. Now, let me shift gears a little bit and ask you about. The business model, like how your business models look like. 

Marco: Yeah. Um, by the way, something that I didn't, I I, I, I make a mistake. I said Peter Thiel. In fact, it's Peter Atia. Peter Atia is the one for Medicine 3.0. I, I made a mistake over there.

Um, it's okay, fine. I don't, I do these 

Mehmet: mistakes all the time. Fine. 

Marco: [00:36:00] Yeah, yeah, yeah. I, the, the, the last name was the problem. Yeah. Um. But yeah, to your point, I think that it's really important to keep, you know, uh, the food as something as you can improve every single time. Um, but yeah, going to the business model, um, on our, on rug.

It's very simple. It's like a B2B SaaS, API platform. It's very simple. It's like we charge, depending on how many end users you are connected, you have connected on our API. It's very simple. It's a no brainer because instead of, you know, have, I don't know how many developers, probably five, seven developers working only in, in all these integrations in the next 18 months and working only.

Towards that in one or three months with, uh, one single API integration, you will have access to everything. So save you money, save you efforts, save you, you [00:37:00] know, all these he edge to, to offer the integration. So it's very simple. The business model that we have today, um. And that's why it's like a no brainer.

Yeah. 

Mehmet: Yeah. Health tech also, uh, Marco is, um, is, is hot, uh, among investors also as well. Have, have you like, uh, did you bootstrap the business or because you are, it's your second startup? Like, uh, anything you can share on, on that, uh, part. 

Marco: Yeah, no, I mean, at the very beginning we invest our own money, uh, when we started and then, um, of course we were looking for when we started to fundraise was here in the us Um, was really interesting because for me it was the first time making this fundraising in the us in in Mexico.

I, I never made that. Um, but when you are. Talking about a company of research and development, you need a lot of money. You need a lot of resources. I have a big team. We, I can tell you that [00:38:00] at least 80% of the team are developers and data scientists. And the data scientists are, are the best, of course. And.

And you need money, you need resources, you need investments to be the best of the best in in the industry. So yeah, I mean for me it was the first time raising money here in the US and it was really inter, it is really interesting. 

Mehmet: It's, it's an experience by itself. Funny enough, you know, I was saying Marco, before we start recording, so before, before we spoke on, I mean, we discussed that, uh, you know, he would be guests with me on the podcast.

Uh, I'm part of like some, uh, uh, some groups where people share deal flows and one of them is, you know, my favorite people from Decile group, uh, Adeo and his team. So I've seen Marco's name. So when he's. Team, I mean, Marco's team reached out to me and said, Hey, hold on one second. That name is familiar. This company name is familiar.

So I figured out like, yeah, like the, and, and everyone was saying like, it's, it's, it's a hot startup in, in [00:39:00] the, uh, met slash health tech because also. What you do is considered MedTech. It's considered health tech also as well, at the same time, um, raising money in, in the US for the first time. You know, uh, it's, it's not something easy.

If you want to, from your learning so far, if you want to give advice maybe to fellow, uh, entrepreneurs and, and founders, like what's the thing really you tell them. To be ready for, for when, when they start this journey. 

Marco: First of all, I always say that you are talking with people, right? So it's like, uh, you have to be a good person.

You are talking with other person. You don't see the other person in front of you with money in his, in the face. It's, it's. It's all around, create relationship with the other person. And the, the only purpose to have the first meeting is to have a second meeting. And the purpose of the second meeting is to have the third meeting and [00:40:00] know each other very well.

And that, for me, it's my, my biggest, um, you know, advice and also. As, as the sports, same thing. You have to be very disciplined, perseverant and con, and receive really consistency. It's all about doing the same thing every single day. Change. Make some tweaks on your strategy, but it's reach as many people as possible.

Go to the network events, try to create a relationship with your investors. I always say that my investors are the best investors I ever had. They are the best. Really, I have a very good relationship with every single one. I have a monthly newsletter I think. Uh, everyone should have one, but also I have a lot of meetings with them.

I try to engage with them. They understand my industry, they understand my company. They understand [00:41:00] why we are looking for this type of money. So again, it's all about be very consistency in all the things that you are doing. I'm very, very open with them, very transparent. 

Mehmet: Mark you're repeating. Of course.

Like same, uh minded people always agree as they say, and you know, they meet for a reason. Like this is exactly when I was asked by um, um, Jason, uh, LeDuc, who, who hosted me. I was the guest that time. You know about my opinion this and exactly I said this. I said, the problem happens is when founders think.

It's like a, just, you know, it's a dating night. So you go to your date night and then okay, you meet, and then you expect like the, the, the deal is done that night. It doesn't work this way because I said like, what I have seen and I learned from, uh, uh, you know, reading about, you know, people, successful investors and reading about like, [00:42:00] even successful founders is that.

You need to, you need to really have this perseverance. You need to have, you know, this, um, you need to be patient, right? So it's, it's, it doesn't, you know, maybe you are lucky and maybe, you know, there's this synergy and this, uh, as we call it, uh, in this part of the world, this chemistry and, uh, you know, you really get together very good.

But even after that, especially if you're talking to a vc, the VCs, they have. Uh, investment committees. So even if the partner you're talking to is a hundred percent convinced, or she's a hundred percent convinced, still there's work to be done. And what you mentioned, Marco, I think it's underrated with founders about sending.

Uh, updates, uh, after things, after or before. What? I mean, I mean, if, if you meet a, a, an investor, Andrew, you really, you like them, you should keep them posted what's happening. Yeah. Like if, even if they tell you no un until they tell you, Hey, like, we're not necessarily remove [00:43:00] us from your list. Okay, that's fine.

But I mean. You should keep everyone updated because guess what? Good investors also the best ones who learn from the opportunities they miss, not from the opportunities. They, they, they, yeah. Get the, you know, the outliers from. So thank you for mentioning this, mark. Exactly. Of course. Marco, what are the plans for you?

Like, uh, where do you want to see R in couple of years? 

Marco: Definitely as a data company, uh, data science company. Uh, I love data again, and I think we can do a lot of things with all the data that we are collecting. We can help industries to understand more the risk about their own patients. So I, I, I do believe that we are going to become more strong on that front.

That's why we are investing a lot, a lot of efforts on security and at the same time with, uh, algorithms that start to make more correlations about. The data that we are receiving versus [00:44:00] the, with all the information that we are, we are having. So it's, it's like, uh, that's, that's where I feel very excited.

And of course, I'm, I am a geek in terms of wearables and I am looking forward to see more wearables outside and. You know, trying to solve a specific biomarker and trying to be more accurate and receive more FDA clearance and all these type of things. So it's a combination between all these type of things and how the industry is starting to use my, my technology.

So, I mean, I'm very excited every single time I talk about that. Yeah. That's passion. Fantastic. 

Mehmet: Do, do you have any customers, uh, from the part of the world where I am located currently in, in, in the Middle East? 

Marco: Yes, we do have, um, and a lot, honestly, it's, it's very surprising. Yes, we have a lot of clients over there.

We have, of course we have clients in the US It's really great. We have, uh, in Middle East, we have in Europe, we have in Asia, we have in, [00:45:00] of course Latin America. Um, I mean, we have clients all over the places, but we have in the Middle East too. 

Mehmet: That's good to know. Uh, because you know, the reason I ask you, because I know for a fact that also some, uh, companies and even government entities, they want to leverage the data and take the next, uh, um, you know, level of, of reaching, you know, this, uh, advancements in technology leveraging.

Anything similar to, to what you offer. And it's nice to, to to hear that you already have customers here. Final question, Marco, where people can get in touch and learn more. 

Marco: Very simple is in try r io. Um, we are like that all in all these places. In the web, of course, in Lincoln, Damian, r. You can find me, Marco, Nita in LinkedIn, in whatever, any social media.

You will find me with the same thing. So with same name. [00:46:00] Um, and yeah, very happy. Great with everyone. 

Mehmet: Absolutely. So for the folks listening or watching this, you, you'll find links and, uh, you know, the website and how to get, uh, the, uh, in touch with Marco on, uh, the social media, in the show notes. If you're listening, if you're watching, of course, in the description of, of the video.

Uh, Marco, I really enjoyed the discussion with you today. You know, it's a, it's a hot topic. It's an important topic. It's. An impact topic because, you know, at the end, uh, monitoring our, uh, health and uh, biomarkers. You know, and although like you are, you are, you are, you are the fuel of all this because you are, as you, I ask what you want to be.

You said a data company, right? And you said before like data is the new oil. I think it's more than oil. Like even oil become. You know, not worthless, but I mean, it's much, much, uh, war than when, than oil, especially when it comes to people lives [00:47:00] and health. Yeah. So thank you for sharing, you know, your vision.

Thank you for sharing also the story behind, uh, Ru. Um, and this is for the audience. Uh, if, if you just discovered our podcast by like, thank you for passing by. I hope you enjoyed it. If you did, so give me a small favor, subscribe and share it with your friends and colleagues, and if you are one of the people who keeps coming in, again, thank you very much for your support for your.

Encouragement. And again, a big thank you for two things. First, thank you for taking the podcast since the beginning of the year. I know maybe I made you feel bored, but I have to thank everybody who keep listening and we are like trending always since the beginning of 2025. In. We keep changing countries.

We visit countries each week in the top 200 charts of the Apple Podcast. This cannot happen without your support. And hi to my recent, uh, top 200 Country, which is, uh, Bermuda, which is very close also to maybe to where you are, Marco now. [00:48:00] And also another thank you for the people. Who supported me on the launch of the book from Nowhere to Next, which happened two or three weeks ago.

Uh, as this is, you know, it became a bestseller on on Amazon. This cannot happen without your support also as well. So thank you very much, and as I say, always stay tuned for a new episode very soon. Thank you. Bye-bye.