Pillpack’s Claim To Fame
How a young man’s ambition and following in his father’s footsteps paid off
A young entrepreneur by the name of TJ Parker, 32 who worked at his families pharmacy as a kid, delivered medicine to his families customers in their neighborhood knew early on that medication management required dedication and attention to detail. His families pharmacy thrived in New Hampshire but in order to grow with the changes of time and technology, Parker knew their way of practice needed to be improved and revamped. So along with his father’s original model of sorting and packing patients daily medication, he improved the already existing design and implemented the use of technology and the way he delivered medication to their continually growing patient-base.
Studying to mirror his Father
While in school studying to became a pharmacist just as his dad had become, Parker attended Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences in Boston. Parker met his now business partner Elliot Cohen at an MIT competition that promoted “start-up” ideas. They won their pitch of an online pharmaceutical company which became known as PillPack in 2016. Later they started Techstars whose tagline was “Pharmacy simplified”.
Financial Backings
By 2013, the duo had already received over 4 million from a few investors: Atlas Ventures and Founder Collective. The article also mentioned that TJ and Elliot had already received more than 117 million before Amazon had even threw their hat in the ring to purchase PillPack=== sheesh!!! They even had investors like Nas the Rapper.
It’s Official
It wasn’t until February 2014 that PillPack had made their official launch. Before that time, the company had only had 50 customers and nine employees. After a while, the company had gained ground and caught on to become somewhat of a household name in the pharmacy world. By June 2015 they had shipped more than 1 million drug packages and was named in Forbes “30 under 30”.
A Day Late And A Dollar Short
It was talks in the healthcare world that the Supermarket giant Walmart was in the pipelines to buy PillPack, however in June 2018 they were outbid to the tune of 750 million by Amazon, J.P. Morgan and Berkshire Hathaway for a three-company venture. I’m sure in hindsight Walmart was kicking themselves and probably still are. Investments are like gambling, you must be willing to stomach the lose the same way you relish in the gain.
Thanks so much for reading.
Dannielle
