How Can We Make Maternal Care Truly Communal?
Our Q&A with the Founders of June Motherhood
We’ve all heard the axiom, “It takes a village to raise a child,” but it also takes a village to birth a child in a way that preserves the wellbeing of both mother and baby. The miracle of birth is also a science, and a concerted effort requiring vigilance and support.
Digital access to evidence-based, community-supported care is the brainchild of June Motherhood [June] Founders Sophia Richter (CPO), Tina Beilinson (CEO), and Julia Cole (COO). We talked to them about what they’re doing, what the future of maternal care will hold, and how they’re partnering with us in service of their mission. The following Q&A has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Q: Tell us about June Motherhood. What’s the problem you’re trying to solve?
A: June is a digital health company designing the next generation of care for women and families. June’s community-based model of care combines expert coaching with a small group support system to empower expecting parents throughout pregnancy and beyond.
June’s vision is to create a future where care is communal, lowering costs and improving outcomes so that all families can live healthier lives.
Q: What development or product are you most excited about bringing to market?
We have seen a tremendous response to our small-group prenatal and postpartum programs and are looking forward to making June accessible to more expecting parents and families across the country.
We look forward to expanding our programs to earlier in the prenatal journey as well as later into early childhood and are actively working with our expert team to bring these to market in the coming weeks and months.
Q: How did you [the founders] meet each other?
We met at Harvard Business School, which is where we built and launched June. Julia and Sophia were section-mates and met Tina during Startup Bootcamp, an immersion program for first-year HBS MBA candidates that uses a learning-by-doing approach to build skills required as an early stage entrepreneur.
The founding team immediately connected over a shared passion to empower women and families, as well as a belief that transforming maternal care was an essential ingredient in that mission.
Q: What were you doing before founding June Motherhood?
Tina worked at Warby Parker for nearly six years, driving strategic growth initiatives at the company across Ecommerce, Retail, and Strategy teams. She led Warby Parker’s telemedicine service launch (Prescription Check), which involved recruiting ophthalmologists, setting up the state by state entities, managing regulatory and legal strategy, developing the state by state launch plan, managing back-end development, and supporting the user experience.
Tina also led the negotiation and implementation of Warby Parker’s in-network vision insurancepartnership with United Healthcare (UHC), which included developing a unique benefit that gave UHC’s 18M members access to Warby Parker’s glasses for just their copay. Tina worked hand-in-hand with UHC’s Product and Network Strategy team to pull off the nationwide launch without a hitch.
Julia drove key strategic and operational initiativesat KIND Healthy Snacks as one of two individuals on the Strategy team. As a cross-functional leader, she built the company’s first ever strategic plan, as well as, identified new markets, products, and offerings to drive revenue growth and product velocity.
Julia also worked directly with the President/COO and broader executive leadership team at KIND to implement important initiatives that drove operational excellence. Julia was originally drawn to KIND because of its health and wellness focus — doing the KIND thing for your body, your taste buds and your world. She is excited to build June to help women live happier and healthier lives.
Sophia has spent her career working across the public, private, and nonprofit sectors on issues of health and economic mobility. As a consultant at BCG in New York, Sophia focused on pharmaceuticals and consumer goods, working with some of the largest companies in the world to optimize operating efficiency, data strategy, and brand.
She then spent a number of years at the New York City Economic Development Corporation, working on $100M+ initiatives to support the innovation economy and advance economic mobility. Sophia also spent time at Cherry Ventures, a seed-stage venture fund in Berlin, where she focused on the women’s health space.
Q: How did you and Inflect Health connect?
We were introduced to Inflect through an investor we really respect. We’re grateful to have been connected and look forward to a long and collaborative partnership!
Q: What is it like partnering with Inflect Health?
Inflect is a powerful partner in advancing our mission of democratizing access to high quality maternal care. Inflect’s position as a major provider of front line acute care allows June to support families from the very beginning of their parenthood journey. Their thirst for innovation, coupled with their team of passionate providers and powerful network of 6.5M+ patients makes them an ideal partner in our journey to change the future of maternal care.
Our partnership will allow us to continuously test and improve the June experience, to drive the maternal and infant health outcomes that matter most. The Inflect team’s deep expertise and strong relationships throughout the healthcare ecosystem are invaluable as we develop partnerships with health systems and payors.
Q: How would you describe the Inflect Health team?
It was clear from our very first meetings with the Inflect team that we shared the same mission, values, and passion for advancing access to high quality care for all families.
We also share a common belief that the future of healthcare is in the home and that technology will play an essential role in driving more meaningful interactions between patients and providers.
The Inflect team is made up of experienced and mission-driven providers and operators that are eager to build a better future. They have a palpable enthusiasm for innovation and move incredibly quickly, leveraging a powerful network of providers and healthcare organizations to advance June’s mission. We couldn’t imagine better partners!
Q: How do you see your industry and the health tech space in general evolving? How has it surprised you in the way it’s evolved?
COVID has accelerated many of the trends that were already underway before the onset of the pandemic. This includes of course greater adoption of telehealth, but also fundamentally changed attitudes and preferences about where, when and how to get care. We believe the future location of care is in the home and that technology will continue to play a critical role in driving more meaningful relationships between patients and providers.
In addition, we believe community-based care models will become more important than ever. Already proven to drive improved patient engagement and satisfaction, group care models can be enormously powerful in a world where loneliness and anxiety are on the rise. They create connections and relationships that can fundamentally transform the relationship a patient has with their provider and their health.
Q: What do you wish you could see more of in the health VC space that’s missing or lacking?
Diversity continues to be a challenge across the startup and VC landscape, and digital health is no exception. We are inspired daily by the many amazing female founders working to transform the digital health space, particularly in women’s health. But, we have a long way to go as an industry. Rock Health reported that just 13% of health tech startups who raised funding in 2018 had a female CEO. Although this number has grown in recent years, we hope to see it rise even further in the very near future.
Q: Where do you see June Motherhood in the next decade?
June will be the maternal care partner of choice for providers, hospital systems, payors, and individuals. June’s community-based model of care will improve outcomes and lower costs, empowering expectant parents and families across the country with better health and a better future.
For more information on June Motherhood, its vision for maternal care and how to get involved visit June Motherhood’s website and be sure to connect with them on Twitter and LinkedIn.