Tara Viswanathan's guest appearances

Tara Viswanathan

Just Go Grind with Justin Gordon

Below the Line with James Beshara

Find The Others

Penn Momentum

Startup Foundations

In Depth

Startups for Good

Pear Healthcare Playbook

Jonny Price

Josh Clemente

Joel Milne

Edward Sullivan

Brett Munster

Cat Castellanos

Muriel Clauson

Garry Cooper

Gary Skulnik

Caroline Waxler

Alec Thomson

Sophie Beren

Analisa Goodin

Tido Carriero

Corbin Petro

OwlTail

This week, we’re super excited to have Tara Viswanathan, CEO and Co-founder of Rupa Health, a healthcare company building the digital platform for the next evolution of medicine: root cause medicine. Founded in 2020, Rupa is revolutionizing medicine by enabling access to root cause medicine, where practitioners aim to identify and solve the true underlying causes of an illness. A root cause approach looks at a person's health holistically and employs advanced comprehensive diagnostics to understand everything from genetics to diet, stress, cortisol levels, the microbiome, and more. Rupa solves the most difficult part of practicing root cause medicine: lab work. Prior to founding Rupa, Tara was on the early team at Parsley Health working on product and operations after earning her bachelor's degree from the Wharton School and master’s in management science at Stanford University. On top of this, she's also a certified nutrition and wellness consultant! In March this year, Rupa announced a $20 million Series A round led by Bessemer with participation from First Round Capital, Lachy Groom, and more.

This week, we’re super excited to have <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/taraviswanathan/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Tara Viswanathan</a>, CEO and Co-founder of <a href="https://www.rupahealth.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Rupa Health</a>, a healthcare company building the digital platform for the next evolution of medicine: root cause medicine. Founded in 2020, Rupa is revolutionizing medicine by enabling access to root cause medicine, where practitioners aim to identify and solve the true underlying causes of an illness. A root cause approach looks at a person's health holistically and employs advanced comprehensive diagnostics to understand everything from genetics to diet, stress, cortisol levels, the microbiome, and more. Rupa solves the most difficult part of practicing root cause medicine: lab work. Prior to founding Rupa, Tara was on the early team at <a href="https://www.parsleyhealth.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Parsley Health</a> working on product and operations after earning her bachelor's degree from the Wharton School and master’s in management science at Stanford University. On top of this, she's also a certified nutrition and wellness consultant! In March this year, Rupa announced a $20 million Series A round led by Bessemer with participation from First Round Capital, Lachy Groom, and more.

Lessons from Tara Viswanathan, Rupa Health, Enabling root cause medicine with specialty lab infrastructure

Today’s episode is with Tara Viswanathan, co-founder and CEO of Rupa Health. Tara started Rupa Health in early 2018, but the product vision today looks very different from what she first built. As she’ll talk about over the course of today’s interview, she went through plenty of sometimes painful pivots on the path to finding product/market fit for Rupa.  Tara is incredibly candid about all of the things she had to learn the hard way as a first-time founder going from zero to one. For the first half of our interview, we pay particular attention to her lessons in finding the elusive startup holy grail of product/market fit.  We cover the aha moment that the first iteration of the product wasn’t going to work, and why she thinks hiring a few folks before finding product/market fit was one of her earliest mistakes. We then dive into her decision to create a new product knowing that it wasn’t going to be the thing that ultimately worked — but was bullish that it would lead down the right path.  In the second half of our interview, she talks about hiring Rupa’s early team, and her tactics that go against the grain of conventional startup wisdom. For starters, she leaned heavily on external contractors rather than full-time employees on the path to product/market fit — and she thinks more founders should consider doing the same. She also dives into why she hates job descriptions, and what she prescribes instead.  As a founder still in the trenches, Tara is game to get super tactical about the things she’s tried along Rupa’s winding journey that did and didn’t work. It’s a must-listen for other founders — or anyone that’s got a burning curiosity about what it’s actually like to be an entrepreneur.  You can follow Tara on Twitter at @taraviswanathan.  To learn more about the “who” interview, check out the book “Who: The A Method for Hiring.” Be sure to check out  the recent coverage of Rupa Health in Forbes.  You can email us questions directly at review@firstround.com or follow us on Twitter @ twitter.com/firstround and twitter.com/brettberson

Today’s episode is with Tara Viswanathan, co-founder and CEO of Rupa Health. Tara started Rupa Health in early 2018, but the product vision today looks very different from what she first built. As she’ll talk about over the course of today’s interview, she went through plenty of sometimes painful pivots on the path to finding product/market fit for Rupa. Tara is incredibly candid about all of the things she had to learn the hard way as a first-time founder going from zero to one. For the first half of our interview, we pay particular attention to her lessons in finding the elusive startup holy grail of product/market fit. We cover the aha moment that the first iteration of the product wasn’t going to work, and why she thinks hiring a few folks before finding product/market fit was one of her earliest mistakes. We then dive into her decision to create a new product knowing that it wasn’t going to be the thing that ultimately worked — but was bullish that it would lead down the right path. In the second half of our interview, she talks about hiring Rupa’s early team, and her tactics that go against the grain of conventional startup wisdom. For starters, she leaned heavily on external contractors rather than full-time employees on the path to product/market fit — and she thinks more founders should consider doing the same. She also dives into why she hates job descriptions, and what she prescribes instead. As a founder still in the trenches, Tara is game to get super tactical about the things she’s tried along Rupa’s winding journey that did and didn’t work. It’s a must-listen for other founders — or anyone that’s got a burning curiosity about what it’s actually like to be an entrepreneur. You can follow Tara on Twitter at @taraviswanathan. To learn more about the “who” interview, check out the book “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Who-Geoff-Smart-Randy-Street-audiobook/dp/B001H97LVO/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&amp;keywords=the+who+interview&amp;qid=1627333911&amp;sr=8-3" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Who: The A Method for Hiring</a>.” Be sure to check out <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jairhilburn/2021/08/27/this-startup-just-raised-58-million-to-make-it-easier-to-diagnose-disease/?sh=4916d4a53277" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> the recent coverage of Rupa Health in Forbes</a>. You can email us questions directly at <a href="mailto:review@firstround.com">review@firstround.com</a> or follow us on Twitter @ <a href="http://twitter.com/firstround" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">twitter.com/firstround</a> and <a href="http://twitter.com/brettberson" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">twitter.com/brettberson</a>

How to pivot your way to product/market fit & other 0-1 lessons — Rupa Health CEO Tara Viswanathan

Tara Viswanathan is the CEO and Founder of Rupa Health, whose goal is to make functional medicine more accessible, affordable, &amp; available to patients everywhere. Their first product, Rupa Labs, is a lab ordering portal for telemedicine providers that turns 15 hours of weekly physician admin work into 15 mins. Rupa is HQ’d in San Francisco and backed by world class investors like First Round Capital, Floodgate Capital, Ron Conway / SV Angel, and more. We talked all about her journey to starting a Rupa Labs, her self care rituals and routines, how she harnesses the power of solitude, and much much more. Give Tara a follow on IG https://www.instagram.com/taraviswanathan/ and you can check out Rupa’s website https://www.rupahealth.com/ and Tara’s personal site http://www.taraviswanathan.com/

Tara Viswanathan is the CEO and Founder of Rupa Health, whose goal is to make functional medicine more accessible, affordable, &amp; available to patients everywhere. Their first product, Rupa Labs, is a lab ordering portal for telemedicine providers that turns 15 hours of weekly physician admin work into 15 mins. Rupa is HQ’d in San Francisco and backed by world class investors like First Round Capital, Floodgate Capital, Ron Conway / SV Angel, and more. We talked all about her journey to starting a Rupa Labs, her self care rituals and routines, how she harnesses the power of solitude, and much much more. Give Tara a follow on IG <a href="https://www.instagram.com/taraviswanathan/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.instagram.com/taraviswanathan/</a> and you can check out Rupa’s website <a href="https://www.rupahealth.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.rupahealth.com/</a> and Tara’s personal site <a href="http://www.taraviswanathan.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.taraviswanathan.com/</a>

#073: Tara Viswanathan on starting Rupa Labs, root cause medicine, and the power of solitude

Tara is founder &amp; CEO of Rupa Health, an integrative health tech company that aims to make root cause medicine the standard of care. Their first product, Rupa Labs, is a lab ordering portal for telemedicine providers that turns 15 hours of weekly physician admin work into 15 minutes.Tara joins me today to discuss how she bridged her worlds to create Rupa. She shares with us about the early days and the low tech way that her and her co-founder would get the work done at first. We learn about the scale and the future of her company. Tara shares her philosophy of interviewing and the importance of growing a great team.“If you can just be really kind and make everybody be genuinely interested in the people you're talking to, and care about them and their life and what their wants and needs are. So if you're a founder, and you're meeting an investor, take time to learn about their life and what you know what they've done. And that will go a long way. And people forget about that.” - Tara ViswanathanToday on Startups for Good we cover:Weaving conventional medicine with other styles How it feels when you reach market fitSelling your product when it isn’t quite readyFundraising strategyThe importance of momentumConnect with Tara on her website, LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram. Subscribe, Rate &amp; Share Your Favorite Episodes!Thanks for tuning into today’s episode of Startups For Good with your host, Miles Lasater. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a rating and review on your favorite podcast listening app.Don’t forget to visit our website and sign up for the newsletter so you don’t miss any information about our upcoming guests. Connect with Miles on Twitter or  LinkedIn, and share your favorite episodes across social media. For more information about The Giving Circle

Tara is founder &amp; CEO of Rupa Health, an integrative health tech company that aims to make root cause medicine the standard of care. Their first product, Rupa Labs, is a lab ordering portal for telemedicine providers that turns 15 hours of weekly physician admin work into 15 minutes.Tara joins me today to discuss how she bridged her worlds to create Rupa. She shares with us about the early days and the low tech way that her and her co-founder would get the work done at first. We learn about the scale and the future of her company. Tara shares her philosophy of interviewing and the importance of growing a great team.“If you can just be really kind and make everybody be genuinely interested in the people you're talking to, and care about them and their life and what their wants and needs are. So if you're a founder, and you're meeting an investor, take time to learn about their life and what you know what they've done. And that will go a long way. And people forget about that.” - Tara Viswanathan Today on Startups for Good we cover:<ul><li>Weaving conventional medicine with other styles </li><li>How it feels when you reach market fit</li><li>Selling your product when it isn’t quite ready</li><li>Fundraising strategy</li><li>The importance of momentum</li></ul>Connect with Tara on her<a href="http://www.taraviswanathan.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank"> website</a>,<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/taraviswanathan/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank"> LinkedIn</a>,<a href="https://www.facebook.com/tarav" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank"> Facebook</a> and<a href="https://www.instagram.com/taraviswanathan/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank"> Instagram</a>.  Subscribe, Rate &amp; Share Your Favorite Episodes!Thanks for tuning into today’s episode of Startups For Good with your host, Miles Lasater. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a rating and review on your favorite podcast listening app.Don’t forget to visit our<a href="http://startupsforgood.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank"> website</a> and sign up for the newsletter so you don’t miss any information about our upcoming guests. Connect with Miles on<a href="https://twitter.com/Startups4Good" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank"> Twitter</a> or <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/mileslasater/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank"> LinkedIn</a>, and share your favorite episodes across social media. For more information about<a href="https://www.startupsforgood.com/giving-circle/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank"> The Giving Circle</a>

Tara Viswanathan, Founder and CEO of Rupa

Tara Viswanathan W12, M.S. Stanford ’15, spent the last 15 years passionate about helping people make better health-related decisions. From working hands on with chronically ill patients to becoming a certified nutrition counselor to designing Stanford research experiments on the mind-body connection - she developed deep experience across the health space throughout her career. Previously, Tara worked at Parsley Health, Lululemon, and the Stanford d.School. Now, Tara is founder &amp; CEO of Rupa Health, an integrative health tech company that aims to make root cause medicine the standard of care. Their first product, Rupa Labs, is a lab ordering portal for telemedicine providers that turns 15 hours of weekly physician admin work into 15 mins. Rupa is HQ’d in San Francisco and backed by world class investors like First Round Capital, Floodgate Capital, Ron Conway / SV Angel, and more.

Tara Viswanathan W12, M.S. Stanford ’15, spent the last 15 years passionate about helping people make better health-related decisions. From working hands on with chronically ill patients to becoming a certified nutrition counselor to designing Stanford research experiments on the mind-body connection - she developed deep experience across the health space throughout her career. Previously, Tara worked at Parsley Health, Lululemon, and the Stanford d.School. Now, Tara is founder &amp; CEO of Rupa Health, an integrative health tech company that aims to make root cause medicine the standard of care. Their first product, Rupa Labs, is a lab ordering portal for telemedicine providers that turns 15 hours of weekly physician admin work into 15 mins. Rupa is HQ’d in San Francisco and backed by world class investors like First Round Capital, Floodgate Capital, Ron Conway / SV Angel, and more.

Tara Viswanathan W12 - Founder & CEO of Rupa Health

https://bit.ly/Go_BelowtheLine James talks with Tara Viswanathan, the CEO, and Founder of Rupa Health, whose goal is to make functional medicine more accessible, affordable, &amp; available to patients everywhere. They talk about the outward appearance of everything you want in a start-up, how struggles have still persisted throughout the life of the company, as well as finding a proper work/life balance.  Tara Viswanathan https://RupaHealth.com  Hit the show hotline and leave a question or comment for the show: 424-272-6640    "The most exciting new podcast in the startup world.” - Eric Ries, Founder, and NYTimes bestselling author    About your host, James: James Beshara is a founder, investor, advisor, author, podcaster, and encourager based in Los Angeles, California. James has created startups for the last 12 years, selling one (Tilt, acquired by Airbnb), and invested in a few multi-billion dollar startups to date. He has spoken at places such as Y-Combinator, Harvard Business School, Stanford University, TechCrunch Disrupt, and has been featured in outlets like the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Fortune Magazine, and Time Magazine. He’s been featured in Forbes, Time, and Inc Magazine’s “30 Under 30” lists and advises startups all around the world. All of this is his “above the line” version of his background. Hear the other 90% of the story in the intro episode of Below The Line. You can email James questions directly at askbelowtheline@gmail.com or follow us on Twitter @ twitter.com/gobelowtheline — “Below the Line with James Beshara" is brought to you by Straight Up Podcasts LLC.

<a href="https://bit.ly/Go_BelowtheLine" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://bit.ly/Go_BelowtheLine</a> James talks with Tara Viswanathan, the CEO, and Founder of Rupa Health, whose goal is to make functional medicine more accessible, affordable, &amp; available to patients everywhere. They talk about the outward appearance of everything you want in a start-up, how struggles have still persisted throughout the life of the company, as well as finding a proper work/life balance.  Tara Viswanathan <a href="https://RupaHealth.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://RupaHealth.com</a> Hit the show hotline and leave a question or comment for the show: 424-272-6640   "The most exciting new podcast in the startup world.” - Eric Ries, Founder, and NYTimes bestselling author   About your host, James: James Beshara is a founder, investor, advisor, author, podcaster, and encourager based in Los Angeles, California. James has created startups for the last 12 years, selling one (Tilt, acquired by Airbnb), and invested in a few multi-billion dollar startups to date. He has spoken at places such as Y-Combinator, Harvard Business School, Stanford University, TechCrunch Disrupt, and has been featured in outlets like the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Fortune Magazine, and Time Magazine. He’s been featured in Forbes, Time, and Inc Magazine’s “30 Under 30” lists and advises startups all around the world. All of this is his “above the line” version of his background. Hear the other 90% of the story in the intro episode of Below The Line. You can email James questions directly at askbelowtheline@gmail.com or follow us on Twitter @ <a href="http://twitter.com/gobelowtheline" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">twitter.com/gobelowtheline</a> — “Below the Line with James Beshara" is brought to you by Straight Up Podcasts LLC.

#85 — Tara Viswanathan — The Honest Truth

Tara Viswanathan is the Co-Founder &amp; CEO of Rupa Health, a functional medicine platform streamlining the process of specialty labs for practitioners.  Connect with Tara Viswanathan and Rupa Health    Rupa Health LinkedIn Twitter Instagram Facebook    Some of the Topics Covered by Tara Viswanathan in this Episode    What Rupa Health is and how it started The initial iteration of Rupa Health How Tara initially got people on the Rupa Health platform How Tara got the first prototype for Rupa Health built for only $800 Tara's business model for Rupa Health initially and how this was one of her biggest "mistakes" Tara's troubles in raising her Seed round and how raising a Pre-Seed round was actually a blessing Tara's experience raising a $250K Pre-Seed Round Conversations around splitting up equity and why Tara changed her mind after initially decided an amount Why relative equity is more important than absolute percentages How Tara is approaching growing Rupa Health today Tara's approach to hiring as she scales her company How Tara takes care of her own mental health Tara's journaling routine and how it helps her Tara's experience working with Wim Hof   About Our Partners   This episode is brought to you by Hawke Media. Hawke Media is a full-service Outsourced CMO based in Santa Monica, CA, providing guidance, planning, and execution to grow brands of all sizes, industries, and business models.   Hawke Media was recognized by Inc. as the country's fastest-growing marketing consultancy and is proudly one of Glassdoor's "Best Places to Work"​, 2019 #893 on the Forbes 5000 list, UpCity Top Los Angeles Digital Marketing Agency. Hawke’s collaborative process, à la carte offering, and month-to-month fee structure give clients the flexibility they need to boost digital revenues and marketing ROI.   Hawke Media The company has serviced over 1500 brands of all sizes, ranging from startups like Tamara Mellon, SiO Beauty and Bottlekeeper to household names like Red Bull, Verizon Wireless and Alibaba.   Listen to our interview with Erik Huberman, Founder and CEO of Hawke Media, in episode 23 of the Just Go Grind Podcast.   This episode is also brought to you by Toptal. Toptal is an exclusive network of the top freelance software developers, designers, finance experts, product managers, and project managers in the world. Top companies hire Toptal freelancers for their most important projects.

Tara Viswanathan is the Co-Founder &amp; CEO of <a href="https://www.rupahealth.com/" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Rupa Healt</a>h, a functional medicine platform streamlining the process of specialty labs for practitioners. Connect with Tara Viswanathan and Rupa Health <ul> <li><a href="https://www.rupahealth.com/" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Rupa Health</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/taraviswanathan/" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow" target="_blank">LinkedIn</a></li> <li><a href="https://twitter.com/taraviswanathan?lang=en" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Twitter</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.instagram.com/rupa_health/?hl=en" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Instagram</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.facebook.com/rupahealth" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Facebook</a></li> </ul> Some of the Topics Covered by Tara Viswanathan in this Episode <ul> <li>What Rupa Health is and how it started</li> <li>The initial iteration of Rupa Health</li> <li>How Tara initially got people on the Rupa Health platform</li> <li>How Tara got the first prototype for Rupa Health built for only $800</li> <li>Tara's business model for Rupa Health initially and how this was one of her biggest "mistakes"</li> <li>Tara's troubles in raising her Seed round and how raising a Pre-Seed round was actually a blessing</li> <li>Tara's experience raising a $250K Pre-Seed Round</li> <li>Conversations around splitting up equity and why Tara changed her mind after initially decided an amount</li> <li>Why relative equity is more important than absolute percentages</li> <li>How Tara is approaching growing Rupa Health today</li> <li>Tara's approach to hiring as she scales her company</li> <li>How Tara takes care of her own mental health</li> <li>Tara's journaling routine and how it helps her</li> <li>Tara's experience working with Wim Hof</li> </ul> About Our Partners This episode is brought to you by <a href="https://hawkemedia.com/" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Hawke Media</a>. Hawke Media is a full-service Outsourced CMO based in Santa Monica, CA, providing guidance, planning, and execution to grow brands of all sizes, industries, and business models. Hawke Media was recognized by Inc. as the country's fastest-growing marketing consultancy and is proudly one of Glassdoor's "Best Places to Work"​, 2019 #893 on the Forbes 5000 list, UpCity Top Los Angeles Digital Marketing Agency. Hawke’s collaborative process, à la carte offering, and month-to-month fee structure give clients the flexibility they need to boost digital revenues and marketing ROI. Hawke Media The company has serviced over 1500 brands of all sizes, ranging from startups like Tamara Mellon, SiO Beauty and Bottlekeeper to household names like Red Bull, Verizon Wireless and Alibaba. Listen to our interview with Erik Huberman, Founder and CEO of Hawke Media, in <a href="https://www.justgogrind.com/erik-huberman-podcast/" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow" target="_blank">episode 23</a> of the Just Go Grind Podcast. This episode is also brought to you by <a href="https://www.toptal.com#bring-in-solely-eye-opening-software-contractors" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Toptal</a>. Toptal is an exclusive network of the top freelance software developers, designers, finance experts, product managers, and project managers in the world. Top companies hire Toptal freelancers for their most important projects.