Startup Revolution: Katie D’Amico of CareQuest Innovation Partners On How Their Emerging Company is Changing the Game
An Interview With Dina Aletras
Be, and remain, focused
This is especially important when it comes to go-to-market and roadmap. Critical choices followed by disciplined execution are essential. Some of the most important choices are what not to do and where to buy or partner vs. build yourself. Lastly, establishing and continuously assessing progress against key metrics drives accountability, failing forward (and learning) fast, and agility.
Startups are at the forefront of innovation, driving change across various industries with fresh ideas and cutting-edge technologies. These emerging companies are not only disrupting traditional markets but also creating new opportunities and transforming the way we live and work. What makes these startups successful, and what can we learn from their journeys? As a part of this series, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Katie D’Amico, VP Growth & Innovation at CareQuest Innovation Partners.
Katie is a mission-driven, health care leader with over a decade of experience identifying, operationalizing, and scaling transformative solutions to some of the industry’s most complex challenges, across digital, women’s, and oral health. In her current role leading CareQuest Innovation Partners — the for-profit subsidiary of the largest oral health nonprofit, CareQuest Institute for Oral Health– Katie is advancing the critical mission to make oral health more accessible, equitable, and integrated for all through accelerating innovation and medical-dental integration across the health ecosystem. From partnering with Fortune 100 companies and innovative startups to leading the team that convenes a global ecosystem via the SMILE Health accelerator, and contributing to her Chicagoland community, she has touched millions of lives and remains committed to improving the overall health care system.
Thank you so much for your time! I know that you are a very busy person. Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
Throughout my career, I’ve had the opportunity to work in many emerging areas across health care to launch new offerings and businesses, and establish data and innovation capabilities. The defining moment that brought me to oral health was a project I led with a global consumer products company to grow its role in the health care ecosystem by augmenting its traditional oral health business with services. After about a year, we launched new data-centered and integrated health offerings, such as a diabetes management program that included digital therapeutics bundled with an oral health screening and toothbrush. This program successfully engaged thousands of people in routine health behaviors, enabled earlier interventions, and improved overall health including better glycemic control. Given its positive impact, similar programs were launched, and customized for mothers, children, and at-risk populations.
Working with this industry leader not only gave me a newfound appreciation and deep understanding of oral health in the care ecosystem, but also showed me that oral health is overall health and that a healthy body is inextricably linked to your mouth. With these new insights came the realization that oral health has–and continues to be–widely overlooked, despite the fact there are simple actions we can all take to drive significant physical, mental, financial, and societal benefits for us as patients and for our families, communities, and businesses. What else in your bathroom has the potential to help you as much as your toothbrush?
Oral health, including medical-dental integration, remains a greenfield opportunity with tremendous value and impact potential. However, it will take system-wide changes and multiple players to make it happen. This need for systemic change and the congregation of multiple stakeholders to break down current silos is exactly what we are focused on at CareQuest Innovation Partners. We sit at the intersection of multiple points within health care, oral health, and investment to create positive, sustainable change, especially for underserved and represented populations. We are uniquely positioned to convene an incredible ecosystem of mission-aligned partners across sectors and maturities–including startups, insurers, providers, technology and data companies, and more–to solve complex problems that directly impact lives. Leading the charge to drive meaningful impact on communities is the most fulfilling part of this career.
Last but certainly not least, having grown up with a brother and father who have type 1 diabetes and witnessing the daily challenges and the disease’s impact on our family, these experiences fuel my passion and why I have dedicated my career to building a better, more inclusive health care system.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began at your company?
For the past two years, I have led our SMILE Health accelerator focused on identifying, validating, and advancing solutions that increase health equity and accessibility, propel the integration between oral health and overall health, and support diverse founders. Through this first-of-its-kind accelerator and community, I have seen over 200 startup solutions from 11 different countries and worked in close collaboration with 25+ leading industry and investor partners. Serving as an extension of industry leaders’ innovation teams has made for many interesting stories, and has deepened my understanding of oral health from a global point of view.
One of my more interesting stories comes from working with a SMILE Health startup with a simple, low-cost, teledentistry solution that can be attached to a phone for full mouth scans, remote monitoring, and consults. At the time, this startup’s solution was largely used in orthodontics; for example, to monitor teeth straightening. We partnered with them to pilot the same solution for preventative mouth scans to address access barriers for adult, Medicaid patients in rural populations. The pilot program met people in local community settings where many adults had their children with them and enabled both clinical and non-clinical people to conduct the scans.
During this pilot, something very interesting happened: the children who were with their parents also wanted to get scans so that they could see inside their own mouths — a part of the body unbeknownst to most of us. Today, this same solution is being used in Head Start programs with an estimated reach of 37 million low-income children and families enrolled in Medicaid. Further, the innovation is changing behaviors and sentiments about oral health at a young age, thereby welcoming more people into our health care system through a new ‘front’ door. This story is a great reminder that innovation can happen when and where you least expect it.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
In 2023, CareQuest Innovation partnered with HLTH, a leading health care innovation conference, to bring oral health to the conference for the first time in its six-year history. We convened our ecosystem of partner companies and emerging startups for our SMILE Health Demo Day and had an on-site pavilion footprint, featuring approaches to integrated health and innovative solutions like wearable devices monitoring saliva, mouth scans to proactively detect tooth and gum anomalies, and integrated medical-dental programs and EHRs.
There was tremendous interest in this ‘new’ topic at HLTH, and alongside this rising interest came the uptick in traffic of attendees curious as to whether we had a toothpaste or toothbrush giveaway. Although we didn’t have them last year, we certainly won’t forget the toothbrush and toothpaste the second time around at HLTH in a few months!
What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now?
In support of our mission, I am proud to be working on several initiatives driving change in the health care investment and innovation space including, but not limited to:
SMILE Health Accelerator: In our third year, the 2024 cohort is focused on completing their data-driven validation studies, a unique element of SMILE Health where startups partner with industry and investor leaders to advance business priorities, while generating proof points and playbooks to catalyze action. The studies vary based on startup need and industry partner match, and I’m thrilled to see how our partners — such as Colgate-Palmolive and Henry Schein — and emerging business leaders collaborate to not only impact the startup community but also the health care industry as a whole.
ACCELERATE: This year we introduced ACCELERATE, an exclusive funding opportunity for SMILE Health alumni to accelerate impact. Our first recipient, Grin, is using these funds to further scale its solution with the potential to benefit millions more underserved people through schools, long-term care facilities, and clinics focused on serving Medicaid populations.
Impact Investing & Portfolio Company Advisory: We’re continuously working to identify mission-aligned, innovative startups with significant potential to improve the health care ecosystem. We provide the funding, platform, and connections needed to advance their solutions and accelerate impact. We’re proud to work alongside our portfolio companies like MouthWatch and Enable Dental to help expand efforts to help rural and elderly patients through in-home, telehealth, and affordable offerings.
Our 2023 Impact Report highlights additional key impacts, for those interested in learning more.
You are a successful leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?
Authentic leadership — Leading by example, doing (and meaning) what I say, having a genuine passion for the work, and creating environments to set others up for success, both personally and professionally. Doing this right requires fostering deeper connections where you share in success, together.
Whether helping a company establish a digital organization, eventually scaling to thousands of people globally, or leading a small, multi-disciplinary team to run a pilot program, creating opportunities for people to grow and knowing I played a role in helping them accomplish their goals, has been one of the most rewarding aspects of my career.
Trust and transparency — Empowering teams and partners to deliver, while fostering trust through transparency. People won’t remember everything you say as a leader but will remember the way you made them feel.
A while back, I worked with a CEO physician from a leading cancer center who created a solution to help people recently diagnosed with cancer better understand their diagnosis and care plan through visuals and simple language. His passion and expertise were unparalleled; however, his team was caught in constant pivot due to a lack of focus and go-to-market strategy, preventing them from achieving their ultimate goal: to help as many people as possible during a traumatic time in their lives. Building a trusted partner relationship from the start was critical to enable the successful deployment of the solution in cancer centers all over the US. This solution built trust through transparency at one of the most critical moments in someone’s life, which in turn improved care plan adherence and reduced disparities.
Growth and mission-first mindset — Staying curious and open to new opportunities, surrounding yourself with people who challenge you, being able to translate complexity into actionable tactics, and remaining focused to achieve them. Achieving results requires approaching the many complexities of the business world with a solutions-driven mindset, while not compromising or sacrificing the values you and your organization uphold.
One example of remaining both growth and mission-minded is from my experience working with a large discount retailer on building a data monetization business to create a new revenue stream. This opportunity could then enable the business to launch new health offerings to better serve its largely rural diverse consumer base across its stores in nearly every state. Despite many, financially attractive opportunities remaining focused on the ultimate mission and commitment to best serve communities, yielded more growth long-term than any short-term strategy would have achieved.
Ok super. Thank you for all that. Let’s now shift to the main focus of our interview. What was the initial inspiration behind your startup, and how did you turn that idea into a reality?
While not a startup, CareQuest Innovation is a new entity playing a needed, transformative role in the health care ecosystem to improve overall health through oral health — for all. Why is this so important? Nearly 3.5 billion people worldwide are affected by oral diseases, of which 90% impact systemic health. From a financial standpoint, the global economy feels the wake of poor oral health, with the economic burden of oral diseases amounting to an annual $710 billion worldwide. Additionally, according to a Crunchbase analysis, in 2023 less than $200 million in funding was raised by US dental startups compared to almost $17 billion raised by US health care startups. At CareQuest Innovation, we are changing this by propelling emerging innovation, convening key stakeholders to activate change, and sustaining momentum through awareness and tangible impact — including shifting mindsets and investment capital into an area in desperate need of upending.
Can you describe a significant challenge your company faced and how your team overcame it?
One of the main challenges we face is a lack of consumer understanding and appreciation when it comes to oral health care and its impact on overall health. Consumers influence every aspect of our society — from health policies to employer benefits — and play an important role in catalyzing and sustaining change in our health care system, including medical-dental integration. Consumers are also business leaders, decision-makers, and investors who require compelling insights and implementable tools to take action, which can be especially challenging with the inundation of information, a plethora of choices readily available, and competing priorities.
To address this, we take a multi-pronged approach to activating consumers and markets including:
Rallying our ecosystem partners to reach and influence millions of consumers faster, leveraging existing touchpoints, and trusted brand relationships, and unlocking network effects by activating more people and resources around a shared mission
Educating via data and operational tactics to drive key decision makers to action through codifying pilot playbooks and emerging models like co-located medical-dental care, in addition to CareQuest’s many educational programs, research publications, and SMILE accelerator insights
Lowering barriers to entry and investment risks by putting our money where the mouth is and leading first-of-its-kind programs & services that serve as a launch pad for entrepreneurs and innovators across health care
We continuously learn and adapt our approaches to each unique challenge and monitor our results to hold ourselves accountable. Recognizing there is not a one-size-fits-all approach to consumer education and activation, we continue to innovate and evolve with our target audience’s needs and preferences.
How do you foster innovation within your company to stay ahead of the competition?
The broader CareQuest network enables us to continuously innovate through complementary approaches and collaboration across disciplines — from policy advocacy and research to business innovation. As an ecosystem convener and extension of our partners’ business innovation teams, we have extensive visibility and access to global innovation — from early stage to advanced. Through this platform, we partner with startups to accelerate a wide range of solutions like detecting cancer earlier through AI, improving access to health insurance and social programs for those in underserved populations, bringing dentures to vulnerable populations, and more.
To us, it is not about staying ahead of the competition but rather empowering our ecosystem to make a greater impact, together. Competition is a driving force for innovation and thus is a net positive for furthering our mission.
Based on your opinion and experience, what are your “5 Things You Need To Create A Highly Successful And Innovative Startup” and why.
I have had the privilege of working with many startups and founders in some of the world’s top innovation ecosystems, including in the U.S., Israel, Australia, India, and Korea. Whether launching a new product or advising startups on their Boards, working with startups has been extremely rewarding and inspiring!
While there is no one winning equation, I have observed key patterns over the years that I believe increase the probability of success:
Passion
First and foremost: passion is vital — not only for your solution but also for entrepreneurship. Working in the startup environment is not for everyone, and it takes an incredible amount of passion, discipline, and sacrifice to persevere through the journey. Passion is what drives a strong work ethic and keeps you motivated to see whatever challenge or task you face through to completion.
Market fit
As obvious as this may sound, it is often overlooked. Know what important need your solution is solving and your differentiated value proposition. Make the time to talk to your current or potential customers/end-users, and objectively assess (and re-assess) the competitive landscape. Health care offerings are not like other offerings in that just because you build it, they will come.
Early in my career, I worked on a patient discharge process optimization for a health system, working tirelessly to document every step in the process and generate complicated recommendations, rather than spending time and asking the right questions to actual patients to get to the root cause of the situation. Patients weren’t being discharged on time because they wanted to stay for lunch and providers approved it for people to have access to food. After discovering this, the solution was quite simple; in the form of to-go lunch boxes. No complex process flow chart maps required. This experience ingrained in me the need to always listen, learn, and avoid making important assumptions — guidance I frequently provide to startups and innovators today.
Be, and remain, focused
This is especially important when it comes to go-to-market and roadmap. Critical choices followed by disciplined execution are essential. Some of the most important choices are what not to do and where to buy or partner vs. build yourself. Lastly, establishing and continuously assessing progress against key metrics drives accountability, failing forward (and learning) fast, and agility.
Recently, I’ve been working with a startup that created a novel device to continuously monitor saliva data. With saliva containing thousands of biomarkers and data points relevant to nearly every aspect of health, coming up with use cases has not been difficult. Rather, picking a use case, proving it can be implemented (including how it embeds within the mouth and is powered), and works, is the challenge and what the startup remains laser-focused on — including during our SMILE Health accelerator where there was no shortage of ‘shiny ideas’ they could have chased.
Build and activate champions
Beyond building a diverse and expert team, external stakeholders also play an important role in a startup’s success. For example, having advisors who can guide and mentor you based on previous experience, and connect you with the right people will make a huge difference when you’re ready to pitch investors or roll out your solution. Like with your internal team, clearly outline and communicate key success metrics to ensure alignment on outcomes.
This is a large focus of our SMILE Health accelerator and community: helping startups make key connections sooner to advance innovation and impact. For the benefit of startups and to progress our mission, we have also activated partners like MATTER and Rock Health with extensive global networks and influence in health care.
Deliver better (not necessarily faster or cheaper)
At the end of the day, it all comes down to execution. Knowing ‘how’ to do something is just as important as the ‘what’ — especially when it comes to scaling. Successful startups excel at pilots or proof of concepts with paths to scale, making the ‘go’ for key decision-makers an easy one.
Working with a few direct-to-consumer digital therapeutics (DTx) and at-home testing startups at their peaks opened my eyes to how ‘easy’ it can be to deliver faster or cheaper but not necessarily better, which does not sustain long-term. For example, delivering late or inaccurate testing results or clunky experiences, like needing to log in through multiple apps, will inevitably cost you. Preparing for scale, prioritizing experience, and strategically thinking through your business model strategy, including going direct to consumer or through a channel partner, can make or break a startup.
Because of the role you play, you are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)
One movement I am focused on is making our health care system more inclusive to help more people and encompass the whole person/body, including the mouth. As a leader in the health VC space, I’m in a position to drive real change for patients, providers, innovators, insurers, and investors and work on endeavors across the health care landscape for the betterment of our society at large. This movement could take the following steps:
Small nudges with big impacts: Increase collective understanding of oral health and thus improve oral hygiene habits (i.e. brushing our teeth 2x/day for 2 minutes + daily flossing), changing behaviors for the long term and proving significant impact on our overall health.
Inspire the community to innovate: Empower entrepreneurs and innovators to continue growing and building their new and unique solutions. By showing momentum and value, more capital is invested to propel further scale and impact, while attracting other key stakeholders to the ecosystem.
Drive change with a united front: Dental and medical providers, insurers, startups, and consumers all play a key part in improving overall health through oral health. Collective activation and continuous innovation create a virtuous cycle resulting in healthier, happier, and more productive communities in the years to come.
One of the most profound results that would stem from this movement is that health disparities would be improved and barriers to health care equity would be lifted. Oral health is a key entry point to our health, and when the time, correct resources, and proper investment are put into it, the outcomes will be transformative.
This was really meaningful! Thank you so much for your time.
About the Interviewer: Dina Aletras boasts over 20 years of expertise in the corporate media industry. She possesses an in-depth understanding of growth, strategy, and leadership, having held significant roles at some of the UK’s largest media organizations. At Reach PLC, the UK’s largest tabloid publisher, she served in various director capacities. Additionally, she held leadership roles at The Independent Magazine Group and DMGT. Her extensive knowledge spans editorial, digital, revenue, sales, and advertising.
Upon relocating to Switzerland, Dina took on the responsibility of managing and promoting the international section of Corriere del Ticino — CdT.ch pioneering the English page “onthespot.” She also was the Co-Editor of Southern Switzerland’s first official Italian and English bilingual magazine.
