Make an important decision
For one consequential decision, such as a financing term, a regulatory path, a pivotal hire, or a product direction. We help you frame it, assess the options, and commit.
Better decisions, made faster.
Advisory for CEOs of early and growth stage companies building at the convergence of science, technology, and culture to improve consumer health.
Too many decisions, too little to go on.
In early and growth stage companies, the CEO makes consequential decisions continuously: financing, regulatory path, product scope, key hires, when to act and when to wait. The data is incomplete, the team is small, and many of these decisions have consequences. The burden accumulates. Decisions can slow down, or never get made.
Early and growth stage is different. Convergence makes it complex.
Scaled companies have established processes, deep data, and specialists for every domain. Early and growth stage companies have a CEO who covers all the gaps. Decisions can be harder to reverse, evidence is thinner, roles are broader, and cash runway ties each decision to a trade-off.
In consumer and digital health, science, technology, and culture each bring their own standard of evidence, vocabulary, values, and risks. A CEO may weigh a clinical finding, a product trade-off, and a team dynamic in the same week, often within one decision. Convergence is where the decision-making burden compounds.
Our perspectives are shaped by decades of experience leading teams, brands, and companies. For us, it's not academic or consulting theory.
Principal Advisor
Kevin Appelbaum
Thirty years building companies where science, technology, and consumer behavior meet, from concept through clinical validation, regulatory clearance, market fit, commercial scale, and public listing.
Kevin is a three-time CEO of venture-backed companies, spanning consumer internet, over-the-counter medical devices (FDA 510(k)), and prescription digital therapeutics (FDA De Novo). His teams have included scientists, clinicians, product managers, designers, engineers, quality and regulatory experts, and commercial, financial, and operating executives.
Earlier in his career, Kevin worked in scaled, mature organizations. That experience gave him valuable perspective on how the nature of complexity in decision-making varies by stage, and why leadership practices built for large companies often fall short in emerging ones.
Across those companies, Kevin developed and refined his decision-making in pursuit of novel solutions, growth, culture and team building, and extensive capital raising. Cohort Health Advisors applies that experience to the decisions in front of today's CEOs.
Engagements
Most engagements start with a discussion about the decision you are facing. If it is a fit, the work takes one of three shapes. Schedule a call.
Deliver a critical milestone
For a milestone that depends on several functions deciding well in sequence. We work with your leadership team to resolve trade-offs and meet the deadline.
Develop decision mastery
For a CEO who wants to sharpen decision-making skills for long-term effect. We work with you over time on how you frame, weigh, commit, and adapt decisions as complexity grows.
We work with ambitious CEOs building at convergence. This includes consumer, behavioral, and digital health; wearables, sensors, and connected health; preventive health, diagnostics, and screening; and consumer wellness, functional food, and nutrition.
We do not work in healthcare infrastructure, payer coding, coverage, or reimbursement.