It's my grand pleasure to welcome this group of wonderful innovators from Stanford GSB. I'm Amanda Greco. I'm the associate director of the Stanford GSB Center for Social Innovation. And on behalf of CSI and our co-host for this event, Acumen America, I just want to thank you um for joining us in this conversation featuring Stanford Graduate School of Business graduates who are boldly innovating for the safety net in our country. At CSI, our mission is to support Stanford GSP students who are working to build a more
thriving society. And we do that, we have a variety of programs. We cultivate a community on campus and with alumni who are out um in the world, in the field doing great work. And we have a lot of different funding opportunities and programming specifically designed to help these innovators like the people you're meeting today. Often long before their work is really visible to the world as they're starting to put together um their vision for what they think could be built in the world as they're developing
their insights to figure out where the point of leverage is that they might be of use in the world. And so it's really a privilege to spotlight them this morning. And I'm really thankful that they were all able to carve out time of very busy and very important jobs to share with you today. And so to set the stage, I'd like to introduce Aean Anderson. Aean is a co-founder and managing partner of Acumen America. And that is a nonprofit investing platform that is backing entrepreneurs who
are tackling poverty across the United States. And since 2015, Acumen America has invested in more than 40 companies working on health, wealth, and work for low-income Americans. and you may have updates to that number. Um, it's been really amazing to watch what you have gone on to do. And back when you were an MBA student at Stanford GSP, you distinguished yourself in so many ways for your commitment to impact. You were a Miller a Miller fellow for social innovation. You received our social change leadership award
and you received a prize upon graduation that was largely intended to help propel you in your vision to bring impact investing to address poverty in America. So, thank you for coming back. And for all of you in the audience, whether you're here as a caring citizen, a funer, an adviser, or as part of the next generation of leaders, um I just hope you hear something that you know brings you to a sense of urgency to do something or that inspires you about the work that's happening
out there in the world to address things that can feel very intractable and hard to address because there's a place for all of us in building a more thriving society. So, Aman, I will pass it over to you. Thank you so much, Amanda. It's it's such a pleasure to be here. Really excited for uh the conversation and Amanda, you have been instrumental in making this all possible. Uh you're the best. Uh thank you very much. Um and thank you all for for joining us. Uh as
Amanda said, I'm Aean Anderson, um co-founder and managing partner at Acumen America, where we invest in earlystage companies tackling problems of poverty across the US. Uh we've now invested in 51 companies across 18 states. We do that at the preceded and seed stage in the sectors of health, wealth, and work. And we've now seen many of these companies go on to reach really compelling national scale, reaching over 13 million low-income Americans and and mobilizing $ 1.4 billion in follow-on capital to these high impact founders across
the portfolio. Um, and you know, this really the best part of my job is the the gift I get of of spending time with founders and entrepreneurs and builders like we have convened with us here today. And so it's really such a pleasure and an honor to to be uh um hosting in uh this conversation. Um, and over the next hour, you'll hear from four of my favorite companies uh in the world, don't tell all the rest, uh, that are meeting, you know, most some of
the most urgent needs uh, uh, facing low-inccome Americans and building models that we can all really learn from. Um, I will also note that Acumen America is a very proud investor in Malama Health uh, and, uh, who is joining us uh, here today. Um, so to get started, we'll do quick twominut introductions from each of our panelists. Um, and I'd invite you all to share your name, uh, organization, the issue you're working on, why you're doing this work, and why your organization matters for the world.
We'll start with Stacy, then Charlotte, then Mika, then Kim. Stacy, over to you. >> I'm so sorry, I hit the wrong button. Uh, it is lovely to meet you all today. Thanks so much for joining. Um, I am Stacy Taylor. I work with a company called Propel. We work on um access to information about SNAP benefits. Um I lead our policy work there which includes our government and nonprofit partnerships and we use our platform to help ensure that households who are eligible for benefits are able
to retain them and are able to manage them in an easy dignified way. Um I came to this work after years of working on food access policy as well as um nonprofit uh strategy in a variety of ways and saw the ability to scale a solution and reach millions of households in their time of need. Um because Propel reaches about one in four close to one in three or one in two households in many states. It's a tool that people have in their pocket and turn
to regularly. And that puts us in front of people at the moments that count um like right before they need to renew when they're finding out um whether or not they have the money to spend on food for their family in that moment and how to navigate um challenging policy changes. So um look forward to digging into many topics with you all today. Thanks, Stacy. Charlotte, over to you. >> Cheers. Uh, it is so wonderful to be here today. My name is Charlotte Winer. I'm the
co-founder and CEO at Front Door Benefits. To share a little bit about our work at Front Door Benefits, we build navigation for safety net benefits starting with SNAP. Um, you know, we exist because last year, you know, over a hundred billion dollar in public benefits for low-income families just sat on the table unclaimed, right? There are tens of millions of people in this country who are eligible for free health care through Medicaid or, you know, food assistance through SNAP. Um, you know, literally, again, we send
our money to the federal government uh in taxes. is the federal government distributes money to states and literally yearover-year billions and billions of dollars in benefits go unclaimed. Um so at Front Door Benefits we build navigation for SNAP specifically we support families from end to end in checking their eligibility for SNAP in supporting families through enrollment and then maintaining their benefits over time. Um, it's wonderful to be here also with Stacy. In many ways, uh, we sort of, one of the ways of thinking about our
work is kind of sitting on either end of Propel and helping families get enrolled in benefits. Propel does an incredible job in helping families maintain and manage their benefits over time. Uh, and we support folks through renewal. Um, yeah, I just will say to date, we've helped families access over a million dollars in SNAP benefits. Uh, and we look forward to continuing to grow over time. And it's yeah, wonderful to be here together with you all. >> Thanks, Cheryl. Ma, >> hi everyone. Good morning. Happy
Wednesday. Great to be back. I wish we were in person at the GSB. Always looking for an excuse to be back on campus. Um, I'm Mika, co-founder and CEO of Malama Health. Malama means to nurture, take care, to take care of, and we exist to essentially nurture and take care of moms. Um the US ranks dead last amongst all OECD developed countries in terms of maternal mortality and maternal health outcomes. And unfortunately, it's only gotten worse with um cuts to Medicaid and um funding for rural
hospitals. And so what Malama does is help connect these women mainly from historically underserved groups where disparities are starkkest and greatest and connect these women to insurance covered benefits including um support through doulas who are birth assistants and provide physical, emotional, psychological, spiritual support through birth as well as other community based resources many of which were talked about by other founders here. uh medically tailored meals, housing um housing navigation, transportation benefits and so on. And uh we also started out of the GSB with startup garage
with a with an app. Um we went through a bio design program and that app has been now used by nearly 70,000 women across all 50 states. And so super excited to be back here and on this panel today. >> Thanks Mik. Kim. >> Hi everyone. It's so wonderful to be here with all of you. So my name is Kimberly Shriber and I'm the co-founder and CEO of Neuronav. Uh that stands for neurodeiversity navigation. And so the issue that we work in is supporting uh individuals
with developmental disabilities like autism, cerebal palsy, down syndrome um across the US in both accessing and managing um their Medicaid services and support. Um it's near and dear to me. My little brother is autistic and one of the beneficiaries of this program. um and saw firsthand how broken it is, how difficult it is to access, and once you receive that access, um it is more systemdesigned than designed for the person to make individual decisions. So, what Neuronav does is we help uh individuals access self-directed options.
So, turning those same Medicaid dollars into things that they can use and design um in services that they want to use. So, um, we've, uh, helped people access over $44 million a year in public benefits that they can customize, um, hire their own staff, uh, design their own alternatives to day programs, um, volunteer in their communities, and really access, uh, things in their their neighborhoods that they've never accessed before. Um, we really hope to use data to spread uh the the positive benefits of putting the
person with a disability in the driver's seat um to show outcomes improve uh and we can better utilize our Medicaid dollars in this way. >> Thanks, Kim. And you all can now see why this is such a, you know, exciting conf conversation for me as as I'm sure it will will be for you uh over the next uh hour here. Um thank you all for being here today and for all the work that you do. Um before we get into the main event which will be
conversation with these uh incredible uh leaders, I want to set the stage with a bit of context on poverty inequality and the safety net in America and why this conversation that we're having here today is particularly meaningful right now. Uh when I reflect on poverty and economic mobility in America, this is the first graph that always comes to mind. for you know as you can see you know there for many years there was this braiding together of growth in productivity and and growth in wages. Um
and you know this was at a time where labor was essential and and carried really critical power in the market. But 50 years ago a gap started to form and that gap has grown increasingly uh over the years. Um and on the next slide you know this goes to show what the you know what like tells us how our economy has shifted in terms of how it's divided. You know what you can see you know over a similar graph of history is that those productivity gains
have largely accumulated to capital which has grown in its share of our national income while the share for labor has fallen over a similar period of time. the on the next slide, you know, that so so what does all that mean in sort of like real life terms? Well, that's that's resulted in a meaningful shift in how wealth is distributed in this country. The increased power of capital in the market has fueled a shift in how wealth is distributed. And those with higher incomes typically have
more assets and benefit more from capital appreciation than the rest. And the strongest growth in wealth has been for the top 0.1% which held 8.6% 6% of wealth in 1989 and now holds over 14% of wealth today. The 50th to 90th percentile, the vast majority of Americans, many of whom are those wage earners on the on that earlier slide, have seen the greatest uh contraction among this group. So, you know, what what is that? You know, let's let's double click through like the these wages have
failed to keep pace over time even as as costs have grown up. Uh the like forlike minimum wage today is less than half what it was in 1968. And that minimum wage isn't enough to keep a person out of poverty in America, let alone a family of four. You know, all this sums together to to tell a story that low-wage working families have sh seen their share of prosperity diminish relative to others. And even full-time work isn't always enough to break out of poverty in America.
That said, we've seen the official poverty rate go down. There has been real economic growth over the last 25 years and that has had a demonstrable benefit in terms of poverty alleviation period. Um but the red line here the supplemental poverty measure shows another interesting story the role and power of public benefits the safety net. During CO there was this unprecedented increase in the safety net and we saw a steep decline in poverty in America. And this data tells me that the safety net can play
a really incredible role in reducing poverty and expanding economic opportunity, giving those working families a better chance of building wealth and participating in the shared prosperity of growth. So what are we talking about when we talk about the safety net? Well, you know, for one thing, it's uh it's never been static. Um FDR gave us social security. Lyndon Johnson added Medicaid, Medicare, and food stamps. Dixon took food stamps nationwide and added social security income for the older adults and and those with disabilities. Ford added the
earned income tax credit. Reagan expanded it. Clinton uh should replace welfare with the temporary assistance for needy families and added work requirements. George W. Bush brought prescription drug coverage to Medicare and Obama expanded coverage to the Affordable Care Act. has been a bipartisan, you know, multigenerational evolution of benefits and each era has shaped and reshap shaped the safety net over that time. Um, and the purpose has really held through to help Americans through hard times like losing a job, falling ill, struggling to feed their family.
And these creating these guard rails has been a really critical part to sustaining the growth and and growing prosperity that we've seen since World War II. And these remain essential programs today. 24% of us are on Medicaid, 20% of us are on Medicare, another 20% are on Social Security, and 12% on SNAP. Um, but these programs that play an essential role in communities across the country and communities that we all live in are facing a generational disinvestment. As some of the panelists noted in their introductions,
the HR1 legislation from last year, in addition to other recent policy changes will mean that up to 2.7 million Americans may lose access to food assistance and 14 million may lose access to health coverage. I mean, huge numbers that, you know, require all of us to really pause and reflect on what this means for for our country and and our neighbors. Um, and this is largely due to the administrative burden of work requirements that there's new paperwork that requires you to many Medicaid and SNAP members
to prove that they're working 80 hours a month. Uh, many will satisfy this technically, but there's this complexity and administrative burden that means that despite being technically eligible, many folks will fail to to survive that that eligibility. That's a lot, but the you know, this conversation today is a hopeful one. These are four amazing leaders building innovative solutions saving lives and building models that we can all learn from there. There will be real cuts to the safety net and the harm will be widespread period. Um
but I believe that this is a threshold moment and on the other side there's a real opportunity to redesign what comes next as we think of the safety net. Uh radical cuts will force us all to engage in an exercise of radical re-imagination. Uh we're in a moment of emerging technology that opens up huge potential for innovation. And the widespread impact of these cuts give us the opportunity to reset narratives and build new alliances around economic mobility in America. And these are four leaders that are
building towards that possible future. And I'm so grateful for them for you uh and I'm looking forward to this conversation. So let's jump in. Um Stacy, we'll invite you in first and and start uh with this question. you work directly with customers and also partner with government at scale. Can you sort of start start us out with like tell telling a story of like what what what Propel looks like to the customer and then zoom out to to how you think about partnering with government. >>
Absolutely. I can start with our origin story. That can sometimes be a good way to grasp why we exist. Uh so we started in the front of a grocery store. We were there to um we had a seed of an of an idea. Uh people aren't accessing SNAP benefits. um always when they are able to. How can we make it easier for people to apply for SNAP? We were in a a grocery store in Northwest Philadelphia chatting with folks and most people came in and we
asked about if they'd heard of SNAP or were accessing it and most people pulled out what in Pennsylvania is called your access card. That's your EBT card, the card on which SNAP benefits are distributed. SNAP is food assistance that is uh essentially cash but restricted to purchasing certain items, food items in a grocery store. Um, so people already had this program, but then we watched, we sat back and watched and most people, a lot of people picked up a banana and checked out and we thought,
"What's going on with the bananas in this store? Why is everybody buying a single banana?" Well, because it's the cheapest, easiest um eligible item somebody could pick up, check out, and see their balance at the bottom of their receipt. This was year a few years ago, but still everybody had a smartphone. So, we also watched people come in and pull out their smartphone and dial a 1-800 number. They had their 19-digit EBT card number memorized, typed it in, typed in all of the prompts to hear
their balance on their EBT card, and then started their shopping trip, often with sort of kids in tow, juggling papers, lots of things going on, and looked at our phones and thought, "Well, gosh, I have 15 different apps I I have access to today that I have my bank account connected to, my mortgage, my partner's account, um, budgeting tips and tools, etc., But I cannot add my EBT card. If I had an EBT card, I could not add it to that. So that was the innovation
is extending that type of financial insight and management to an EBT card. So someone could easily pull out their phone and with one tap see how much they had to spend that day. And um it uh proved valuable in that um we were able to launch in any and every state that has an EBT card. Uh millions of people use it every month. Um on average over five million people in any given month, over 10 million people a year to manage their EBT balance. And then
this is a point in time when we're in front of people to share relevant information. And it could be information that helps extend a budget, discounts and savings um on grocery items for example. It can be a point in time to message this is how the your program is changing or steps you need to take or to connect with partners like Charlotte um to help people take the next step to retain their benefits. Um and it is a moment to have a conversation with families who
um may be in crisis at different points, may be looking for new resources, local and federal. And uh and so for the majority of our history, we uh we are a private company. We operate a consumer we operate as a consumer software company. Um and for the majority of our history we've been sort of complimentary to a government system outside of government contracting. We are free to um SNAP participants. We do not um contract with or charge states. Um but with the changes that have come
with um the one big beautiful bill act or HR1 um states are being asked to do a lot more with uh fewer resources. So the um there is more to do and the administrative cost shifts have changed for states and so we've started partnering with states directly uh because this tool is a tool that can help get the right information in front of the right people to take the right action at the right time which is what states need people to do right now is have
easier access to that information so they know what they need to do to interact with the um state system in a way that reduces administrative burden on them and reduces the paperwork burden on the state. So, this is also not a revenue play, it's a partnership play with states, but it's a new way of working um in a way that helps to um improve the experience for um customers or SNAP participants as well as the meet the needs of the states in this moment. >> Really
appreciate that St. such incredible work and you know from the inside of a of a banana as a a sort of you know like um balance you know checking you know mechanism to to the work you're doing now for millions of Americans across the country. Mika would love to draw you in on this question here as well sort of again starting with like bridging the consumer experience what does it look like to you know to be a patient you know that's working with malama and then
how have you thought about bridging that up to you know partnership with government at scale. >> Thank you. Excuse me. Um, so like Stacy, I feel the origin story is always helpful to kind of illustrate sort of why we started and kind of the pain point we're trying to solve and then ultimately what it looks like today, which has evolved quite a bit from our early um, startup garage days. But so I experienced this myself. So my first high-risisk pregnancy, I was working at United Health
Group. I was on the United Healthcare side. Um, and I had my first high-risisk pregnancy. I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes. And I realized that after, you know, 12 years of working in in healthcare at that point, that if it was this challenging for someone, you know, with privilege who had I was on a high deductible health plan, which was which was United's health plan at the time. Um, but my I ended up paying over 20K out of pocket in costs and the the birth, which
I didn't even have time to get an epidural um and and birth my my son, um, ended up costing over $130,000. And I just thought, you know, if it was this challenging for someone to navigate the health care system with this inside of a view plus this expensive to the system, like this is not sustainable and and obviously had known that working in healthcare, but I think experiencing it firsthand um made me realize just you know the the maternal health and pregnancy health uh journey is
really built around these incremental you know 15minute visits. Um but pregnancy and any you know anytime this is the first time really healthy kind of young adults engage with the health care system in a meaningful way but it it happens 24/7 and most of what decides you know how it goes and the outcomes um happens between those visits and and so today you know some of the clients that we have the privilege of serving they live here they're like you know 10 minutes away from us
they're in Silicon Valley they're giving birth to their cars they're living you know staying in their cars potenti potentially um experiencing homelessness, don't have a a a stable place to stay. And we realized to really truly move the needle and and you know, we always uh knew that we were going to sell back to payers. And just given my background, um to really move the needle on outcomes, which is what payers care about ultimately in the form of cost savings, um that we had to not
only address the the high-risisk clinical condition, but really address the health rellated social needs. And so what we started to do was in addition to help just with data transfer and we piloted out a Stanford hospital with some of the MFMs there um was to also connect to insurance covered benefits and um in terms of engaging with the government and and uh private sector what we do is we contract directly with Medicaid managed care plans. So Medicaid covers 40% over 40% of births in this country.
Um it's, you know, it is the safety net for um you know, millions of of um Americans living across the country. And what's scary is that especially outside of California, we see many um patients are not aware that they're insured by or covered by Medicaid or, you know, um reliant on Medicaid and the benefits that it includes. Um and so we help them navigate those benefits and get them in touch with those benefits to uh fundamentally address health rellated social needs whether it's meals you know
a ride to the appointment to to help um you know bring in data like blood pressure readings for example um and malama surrounds each mom with a care team that is there between visits the doulas the care coordinators um and then of course our technology and how moms experience us um is the way that they describe when we interview them is really it's a friend who helps and who's there to hold your hold their hand throughout the journey throughout the matrience period or trans transition to
motherhood. Um and it's interesting because no one really uses the word doula and moms really describe what we do for them not necessarily the job title which I think really speaks to again the the human aspect of just needing someone there in your corner throughout a um highly vulnerable point in your life. Thanks, Ma. Um, you know, finding those opportunities where really, you know, um, horrible outcomes overlap with significant cost basis, you know, working in a space where there's disproportionate Medicaid coverage, but then rooting all
that in, you know, a really experience of deep human accompaniment. Um, really really appreciate all that. Um, the would love to bring you in, Kim, on this next question. um what do you wish people knew about your sector? What's the most common misconception or or unhelpful narrative that you run into when you're doing your work? >> Um thanks Ammon. I two different answers uh to different parts of that question. So for me, I thought as an American that we did a really good job of taking
care of people with disabilities in our country. And it was through my experience as a sister to my autistic younger brother that I saw once uh he turned 22 and no longer um had his rights through the idea act to u care and structure in our education system. uh he fell off what uh families in our space call the service cliff. Um so all of the supportive services that he received in special education went away overnight and he was on a wait list for Medicaid long-term
service and support dollars. Uh and so for us that as a family that was a a crisis moment and uh he didn't receive any of he was on a wait list for what could have been seven years. Um and only got those got access to those services through a crisis a mental health crisis. Um so that experience taught me that we do not care well for people with developmental disabilities in the US. And so I think that is one of the big um misconceived uh notions
in our country. And the other is that um and this is something I see in the work we do every day. Um just a lot of view that the person with the disability uh is incapable or not able to make decisions around their lives. Uh, and that's something that we really work hard to disprove and show um that a person with disability can be in the driver's seat and should be in the driver's seat of making decisions around what their lives and their care and service
and support look like. >> Thanks, Kim. Stacy, I wonder if you, you know, have a perspective on, you know, misconceptions as it relates to food insecurity in the US that you mentioned. >> Sure. So, um I think as we look at some of the changes that have come at the federal level and how states are implementing those changes, um there's some conversation that there's real risk that states will um sort of overturn their SNAP programs or there'll be great upheaval in how SNAP is administered or
if states are really up uh upkeeping the programs um in the current form. And um there's sometimes debate about sort of how the um philanthropic sector or the charitable sector can fill the gap there. And the the philanthropic sector, namely our food banks and food pantries, play a critical role in our communities. And uh we should all be contributing to them, especially right now. They are they are overrun with long lines and um and a lot of challenges and um uh uh cut uh budgets in
many cases and uh and they're really important institutions in our communities and they cannot replace the SNAP program. Um, Feeding America estimates that is, as you probably have heard of, the largest food bank uh, provider across the country um, estimates that for every um, meal it provides, the SNAP program provides nine. Um, and so as we see the SNAP program, if we see a SNAP program shrinking at a dramatic rate, um, it is hard to imagine any scenario in which a charitable program can replace that.
We also know that um the SNAP program helps to support our institutions in our local communities like the grocery store where we founded Propel. um many um are um sort of bu are built upon um accepting payment from the SNAP program. And we've already seen some independent grocerers that have um seen um real losses um and the um full impacts of some of the changes are have not even begun to be implemented yet, let alone feel the impact on them. Uh and so I think that
there's a worry that if the SNAP program shrinks that we'll have this sort of ripple effect that will not be able to be filled by any type of charitable giving um and is uh would be difficult for local communities to um to weather. >> Thanks Tacy. um would love to shift here a bit to you know bu building these companies in in this space and and what it actually takes to get this work off the ground particularly for building companies in in the safety net. Um
and and Charlotte maybe I'll start with you. Uh what kind of capital did it take to to build a company like yours? Who did you raise from? Why? What tensions have come up from you for you along the way? >> Yeah, I'd love to love to speak to this Aan. Um you know so our our very first funding actually came from Stanford um through the Stanford impact founder award. Um you know from there we raised our catalytic funding at front door benefits from a family office
and a couple of angel investors. You know, I think from the start, my co-founder and I really did seek out missionaligned investors, you know, who both recognize the scale in the business opportunity in the work and also shared our mission, vision and values. You know, I think in our early days, you know, part of the clarity and the fundraising approach that we had as a team was just saying that, you know, my co-founder and I were clear from the start in the business that we're building
in just the onetoone alignment between our impact and the business model that we were building. You know, I think from the start when Ben and I set out to build front door benefits, we were very clear about in just saying, you know, we build work where we get paid when people get benefits, right? We do not get paid when we like a light, you know, a life is touched. We do not get paid when we screen someone for benefits. When we submit an application for SNAP,
we get paid and we sell into grocery stores and grocery delivery services. We partner with government and other private sector players. We get paid when people get benefits, when they activate their card and when they are enrolled. And then over time when we support them in managing their benefits and submitting the paperwork to stay compliant with work requirements so they don't get kicked off or when we support them in completing a renewal so they keep their benefits you know so I I think in that that
orientation um and that lack of tension between mission impact you know we decided to incorporate as a public benefit corporation as a for-profit company and raise from investors you know I I I will say you could imagine that path then and saying um you know a very broad set of investors um were interested in our work from the start. You know I think we um did still then have this orientation towards missionaligned investors just in saying it's so powerful to then have folks in our corner
who really understand the benefits access space the communities that we're serving. You can imagine, you know, uh other investors who might say, "Oh, you know, you could just start charging, you know, it's a very large market. There are 40 million people who are navigating SNAP every day. Just charge people, you know, $5 every time you re renew their benefits." Um, and so it was very important to for us from the start to to raise for mission aligned folks so we wouldn't have any sort of uh
mission drift from our investors. >> Thanks, Charlotte. M' invite you into this as well. And you know there was a a question that came in um through the RSVP RSVP forums about you know other types of capital that might be available for you know founders building businesses in this space. So I'd love to hear a bit about the malama journey capital journey but also to the extent you've looked at other alternative sources what sort of catalytic roles those have played. Yeah, I think just first echoing
Charlotte, it's really critical if you do, you know, take on outside capital, just ensure that that capital, you know, doesn't push a company or your organization to really drop your hardest to serve members. So, essentially patient capital and impact investors like Acumen, um, who really understand the pace, especially if you're building in, you know, in Medicaid. Um it revenue can come in slowly through credentiing and contracting and going through um you know billing procedures state by state and each uh state looks a little bit different
and each managed if you go through managed care plans managed care organizations each plan looks a little bit different. So um Malama has been fortunate to I would be remiss if I didn't state our first check also came from the um CIF prize the Stanford impact founder um prize back in 2022 and then um and and that really gave us I think the courage to go out we went that summer to YC we were accepted um and then we went on to raise this and we
closed this past spring acumen as our lead who's been an amazing um partner at the table and uh we also took on capital from uh Wisdom Ventures, from Capital F, Coyote Ventures, um Alpine Social Ventures, and of course YC. And I think um and then we also uh raised um or took on a grant from the NIH, an SBIR grant, 2.3 million uh fasttrack um grant to build out our postpartum wellness program based around the CDC approved diabetes prevention program along with about a million in
state funding. So through um the state of California and there are other additional grants uh out as well right now. And I go into detail there because I think it's important to note just kind of that blended capital stack is important because one for the entrepreneurs in the room don't give up if one door shuts there there are there are many others um and I think two that each source of capital can really serve a different purpose. So for example, the grants can fund a lot
of the R&D, which is really what the NIH vehicle is, the SBIR is designed to do um to fund early R&D, um and really evidence building as well as the state grants for kind of pilot programs and to generate that evidence needed to then scale nationally. Um equity of, you know, can fund growth and expansion to additional states in our case. Um and is there another form thinking of um oh and then just revenue from the plan like you know the actual revenue you're generating too
that can really fund you know existing operations and um the care that you're providing. So, all of which to say, you know, diversify, uh, look for different sources and and don't be afraid to, um, apply for, you know, for grant funding, which I think especially coming out of the GSB, that was was the path sort of less traveled at that point. >> Yeah. Thanks. Thanks, Mika. And glad that you add that that last piece around revenue and how important that can be and in helping you
know companies reduce burn and expand runway and and weather the storm of you know whatever macroeconomic uh or political moment you might find yourself in when you would be raising. >> Yeah. Um, Kim would love to to shift to product and invite you in to talk about how you incorporate and really build technology into your model, leverage technology in your model and how you discern where AI can be, you know, most impactful, but also where digital tools have limitations where, you know, there's, you know, good
old-fashioned relationships and human trust that are are the unlock. How do you think about you know how do you how do you think about that tension and how's that informed how you built the company? >> Uh it's definitely something that we do very very carefully and intentionally as uh our end user are people with developmental disabilities and so we want to make sure accessibility uh is at the forefront. So um have always been very transparent that we intend to be a tech enabled service model in
that um we believe there will be a human involved so that someone with a disability can always call or text um and just say hey I need to talk to um the my navigator the person who is going to help me with this. Um on the back end of that we have done a lot to automate and build great tools and systems that um support that individual and have different ways of doing kind of shared team models that our technology allows. Um we're working on an
AI knowledge base uh that we may have a consumer um portal into if they want to interact directly with that knowledge base. um but it's it's meant to serve our navigators who then have a relationship with our um end consumer. So it's always been for us a very careful bal balance of how to um build that trust because we are helping people make very intimate decisions around their daily lives and who and how they're being cared for and supported uh and being accessible. If there's a
service provider who hasn't been paid um and our individual with disability is worried about losing their staff, they can always reach out to the person assigned to them um and and have an existing trustful relationship with that. So um that is that's our our kind of ethos uh towards how we make those trade-offs around what can we automate, what we can we use technology for and how can we continue to have a great relationship and great accessibility for those that we serve. On the other side,
we are experimenting with AI anonymizing our data and being able to use that as a powerful tool to look at trends over time um for how our uh clients are actually allocating their service dollars to different service providers. How is that changing their goals that they came in with? So every year we do an update to their person- centered plan and we look at are they making progress in employment, in housing, in these other areas that they were hoping to make progress in and what helped
make that progress and using that analyzing that data is both helpful um to share trends around outcomes with our state government partners and to inform uh other customers of maybe you want to try this service provider towards this goal in your area. Uh so those are ways that we are currently deploying AI to help uh both improve the customer experience and help shape policy with our policy partners. >> Thanks Kim. Stacy would love to pull you in on this one too. How how do you see
that high-tech versus hightouch tension and and how has uh the emergence of AI shaped how you think about product development and the opportunity at Propel? So, so building consumerf facing software and building for this safety net sort of everything in our history has always been about coming back and testing with the people who are using the tool or would use the tool. And so we use that user research to check whether what we're building is meeting the needs we think it's meeting in the way we
think. Um, and AI can be a really powerful tool in that toolbox. and it sits next to good design and it sits next to good research and it sits next to human researchers. So it's not in place of them but in addition so for example we've um used we've um used some AIdriven uh user research to invite users in to um review content we've written for example to read this like complex policy distilled into something we hope is more user friendly is are we conveying the
messages we think and we sort of have someone read the article or the uh or the tool and give us feedback in real time or give an AI partner feedback in real time and speak to it. This is working. This is the this is a question I have. And then we can do that at scale and we can aggregate aggregate those results. And we can layer that in next to our sort of our our my colleagues who are doing um user research who are having more
sensitive conversations or talking to people in a more sensitive moment in their lives or um digging into questions that have more complexity and layer those together to improve the product and the service with that sort of scaled learning and that those individual conversations as well. Um as we think about the um like the deeper uh high stakes use of AI in the safety net um we think about sort of agentic AI to submit the right paperwork make sure that that paperwork is accurate that's the correct
information that it's being submitted in the right way. um as we push to those higher stakes users, we need to be really intentional about where human judgment is needed um and really in partnership and in concert with the state partners who are operating those systems. So for example, if AI is sort of touching eligibility, we need human judgment at that moment. Um if we if it's if AI is touching a place where benefits could be lost or changed, we need human judgment in that moment. Um,
and that needs to be available and empowered and sort of focused where is most important. And so that often means as we design these systems and we're having conversations with states and leading partnerships with states where we're able to sort of test towards some of these models, but it means separating out those consequential decisions from routine paperwork. Um, it's putting oversight into sort of denials or negative actions first and staffing to review um to staffing in that way to to provide those reviews. Uh and and
it means really close collaboration, conversation, transparency, and partnership with the people who operate and run those systems. >> Thanks, Stacey. Um hard to believe we only have uh 10 minutes to go. Um uh so much more we could talk about. Maybe quickly would love to close on a couple of questions for you all to go around um and hear your perspective on. Maybe just before that, um Charlotte would love to talked a little bit about the the the uh potential loss of benefits, you know, that
are facing many of those in the safety net. Would love to um ask you what that's looked like, you know, from your perspective sitting in your seat for the company. >> Yeah, absolutely. You know, I I know that we've talked a bit about in the conversation already, you know, the federal changes to the SNAP program and to Medicaid that came with the big beautiful bill or HR1 last year, you know, I think when we reflect at front door benefits and think about these federal changes, largely
what just comes to mind first is really this feeling of, you know, my co-founder and the folks on our team, we have worked in the benefits access space for a really long time and we never could have anticipated sort of just how urgently needed the work that we are building has become right the focus of our work as a company is we help eligible people access benefits you know I think I'll reflect briefly on the changes what we've seen since the implementation of federal legislation and
what it's meant for our work you know you had pulled up this slide at to start in on the size of the SNAP program and exactly you know it used to be last year you know there were about 42 million people enrolled in the SNAP program now that is down to about 38 million um you know it remains the single largest anti-hunger program in this country right it used to be around one in eight people in this country were enrolled in SNAP now it's around one
in nine And I the main reflection though is that you know we've already seen to your point people who are no longer eligible for SNAP are now no longer enrolled in the program. But for those one in nine people who are still enrolled in SNAP and navigating the experience of trying to maintain benefits, the program has just become so much harder for every single one of again those 38 million people to access these paperwork hoops, accumulation of complexity in these government systems. You know, we saw
that since last year around one in three of the households who have lost access to SNAP benefits lost benefits despite still being eligible. Stacy sort of referred to this a little bit earlier. Um and so that you know what it that has meant for us at Frontier Benefits. Again, our entire focus is helping eligible people get enrolled and stay enrolled in SNAP. And so it is just I would say added increasing urgency to our work and in our work in scaling up and just saying you
know we can be there to help people interpret complicated notices reply to the state navigate these programs. So I will just say yeah in in all we feel uh yeah ever deeper urgency in the in the work that we're building. >> Thanks Charlotte. Yeah, I would love to to close with uh um each of you to reflect a little bit on what keeps you up at night, what gives you hope, and then perhaps a call to action for, you know, the folks that have joined us
in in this conversation today. Um and I'll talk slowly to buy you a little bit of time to think about that three-parter and then Mika, I will uh invite you to uh kick us off. >> Thanks, Aean. Um, I would say what keeps me up at night, I mean, these problems, you know, they're they're in our backyard, so to speak. They're they're here. Um, and they're not going away. They're getting worse in in our world in, you know, the maternal health landscape. Um, though, you know,
Medicaid insured women, pregnant women are excluded from these work requirements, it doesn't mean that they're not losing coverage. We're seeing women who are afraid to enroll baby in in California in medical because you know they live in a mixed household for instance and then they're delaying wellch child visits they're not going in for vaccinations etc etc so it kind of compounds um so these things trickle down and we're going to see a lot of effect kind of moving forward after uh January 1st what gives me
hope is that I think there's always a silver lining um and as a you know a business person you always have to find that silver lining or Great one. Um, and in our case, it's that, you know, Aean, what you opened with, which is that radical times require radical innovation and, uh, safety net hospitals, for instance, are going to be, you know, have to kind of are being forced to adopt a lot of the technology to really extend care teams and um to uh, really help
support what I see as the fundamental marker of the health of a society, which is maternal and child health. I would say uh call to action. Medicaid is not niche. It covers in our world again 40% of births in this country. Um and if you want to build something that matters at scale, this is really it. And if you're a founder, come build in this space. Um take the less glamorous job at a health plan, a state agency, or you know, come join any one of
our companies on this panel. That's really where you learn how the system actually works. Um, and for everyone, I would just say please vote because the election the voting window is closing for mail-in ballots, I think, today. Thank you. >> You're here. Thanks, Mika. Um, Kim, how would you respond to those those three? What keeps you up? What gives you hope? And a call to action. What keeps me up at night uh is some of the um impact of the HB1 where there's been a lot
of talk of how disability won't be affected and people with disabilities can continue to have their Medicaid health care benefits. Um however, the uh Medicaid long-term service and support that really helps people live in their communities is an optional program for every state. And so as state de budget deficits um are occur due to the the changes in Medicaid um these programs are already facing massive scrutiny and cuts. So um people have the right to institutional care in our country. Um so you have the right
to be removed and live in an institution the rest of your life but it is optional um to have the same care in your home and community base um for those service waiverss. So, what keeps me up at night is the impact um that that will be having and and how that will um increase the already 700,000 people on a wait list um for any type of those services. Um what gives me hope uh is that I actually um really deeply admire our partners at the
state level and uh their good intentions and hard work to try and make these programs flourish even if there are some cuts. Um, so I'm hopeful that through collaboration, partnership, and advocacy, um, we can still maintain a a good level of support, uh, for this this community and how you can contribute. Um, you know, each one of us are very passionate about the different um, areas that we work in. Uh, it's it takes a lot of courage to, you know, tie your financial future into that
work. Um, but I can say uh waking up every day and doing what I deeply care about versus selling widgets I've never regretted. >> Thanks, Kim. Charlotte, how about you? >> Yeah, I on what keeps me up at night. I would largely echo um what has been said just in the urgency of the work that we are building and the urgency of need for more accessible safety net benefits. I mean thinking about those charts that you shared at the top it's just the scale of inequality
in this country and the fact that you know it's tens of millions of our neighbors are fighting for their basic needs um in this country of such such deep sort of wealth and opportunity um that that keeps me up at night and again we're talking about you know one in eight people in this country and so you know that that work or that urgency um just informs our work every day. Um you know I think on what gives me hope I will just say you know
for I I think still in my class at GSP I was probably the one person in our class who was just like completely obsessed with social services. Um and and that said, you know, I think for GSP students, for recent alums, for folks thinking about working in this space, you know, I think it both gives me hope and is a call to action of, you know, when I started working in the benefits access space about 10 years ago now, we just didn't even like the idea
of navigation technology as a space that didn't exist 10 years ago. Um and so, you know, we didn't have the words for that. And you know I think of Propel as one of you know the early companies that built you know an incredible has built an incredible company in the space and other early players here but now there is just this really powerful community of founders and folks building in this space so many new funders and investors from you know next ventures to acolpen there's just
a really robust and growing community of folks building in this space so um that brings me so much hope and I think is on my call to action of just you know come come and build with us. Um it's a it's a very exciting time to be working in this space. >> Thanks Sean. Stacy please bring us home. >> All right. Well one thank you all for taking time to learn about this. I think that is most important learning outside your lane asking the questions informing
yourself. If anyone wants to learn more about the human impact of the changes to the SNAP program I highly highly recommend Jason Deparl's work. and uh you'll get my email. I can send you any of those articles. Um I also like to think of um having impact in this space as taking a portfolio approach. What happens in your local community matters a lot. Uh like I said earlier, um I would uh support my local food pantry. Um, if you're looking to get uh support directly to
SNAP participant households who have lost benefits, Propel is running a campaign in partnership with Give Directly right now where we're able to identify households who didn't get a payment in October when they expected one and are at risk of not getting one in November and getting them um cash assistance right now so that they can have food on the table when they gather for Thanksgiving. Um, and uh looking for opportunities like that. Um, I agree. Uh, vote and I would vote with an eye on not
just big flashy issues, which I know you're not. It's why you're here, but implementation of program matters. Like the policy can get very wonky, but that's how people really experience the dayto-day is how programs are implemented. So, go ahead and call your local rep and ask what they're thinking about SNAP because SNAP's administered um, in some cases by your county and in other cases by your state, but it is local. And uh and so that's what keeps me up at night is this program is in
flux right now, but the people on this call, the leaders on this call give me hope. When big shifts like this happen, they open up room to rethink what's possible. And if we focus on that, focus on implementation, focus on building a safety net that's accessible and efficient and actually works for families, there's real opportunity in this moment. We've seen some real changes, but we but the end isn't written yet. We don't know how this ends. Uh, and so now's our time. Thanks, Aan. Thank you,
Stacy. Thank you all for your incredible work. There's applause in 60 Zoom screens all around the world that you can't hear today. Um, and you all are doing such incredible work and it really is the sort of joy of my life to be able to, you know, connect with entrepreneurs like you all. Feel so lucky to be able to do that as my job and and have such admiration. So, thank you. Um, thank you to the GSB for uh for organizing this and Amanda uh welcome
back to video and thank you in particular for all of your heavy lifting to to make this uh make this possible. Um and really appreciate all those who have joined us today. Um this is a movement. We need all of you and whatever you bring to the table. It's going to take all of us to really create that uh reimagined future that that's possible. So thank you all. >> Brilliant. Thank you Aean. Thanks so much Kim, Charlotte, Stacy, and Ma for sharing the heart and insight
that you bring to your work and inspiring everyone. Thanks everyone for joining us. >> Hope to see you soon. I did put a link for a feedback survey in the chat. Your input is really helpful to let us know if this kind of conversation is something that you value. uh I'll pass along feedback of course to the panelists and also take it into consideration in case we can pull together other um sources of light for you to learn from and join um in their good work
that they do. >> Bye everybody. Hope you have a great rest of your week. >> Thanks everyone. >> Bye everyone. Thank you.