Latest news with #Virta
Business Wire
30-07-2025
- Health
- Business Wire
Virta Health Selected by CMS to Join National Health Tech Ecosystem Innovating Treatment of Chronic Metabolic Disease
DENVER--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Virta Health, a leader in sustainable weight loss and diabetes reversal, announced today its selection by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to join the newly launched Health Tech Ecosystem Initiative. As one of a small group of trusted early adopters, Virta is proud to help lead a new era of digital innovation and interoperability to better serve Americans living with chronic diseases like obesity and diabetes, particularly those on Medicare. Under the leadership of CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz, the Health Tech Ecosystem is a public-private partnership designed to accelerate modern technology adoption in healthcare. The initiative supports a voluntary, standards-based digital health environment, bringing together apps, EHRs, and providers to integrate with CMS Aligned Networks, with the end goal being the delivery of secure, user-centered, connected tools that provide real-world value to patients and providers. Virta will participate within the initiative's Diabetes & Obesity Prevention and Management pillar, one of three priority areas, bringing its expertise and clinically proven approach to reversing chronic metabolic diseases in older Americans. As part of its pledge, Virta will explore the use of real clinical data from CMS Aligned Networks for personalized support, and actively engage in the Health Tech Ecosystem working group to define the technical and functional framework alongside CMS and other early adopters. Virta also shares the goal of showcasing meaningful progress by early 2026, in alignment with evolving technical specifications. 'Being selected by CMS for this critical initiative is both an honor and a responsibility,' said Sami Inkinen, Co-founder and CEO of Virta Health. 'Tens of millions of Medicare beneficiaries are living with chronic metabolic conditions that are reversible—not just manageable. This effort to unleash the full power of data-driven care is a major step toward transforming health outcomes and lowering tax payer costs at scale, and is directly aligned with our mission to reverse type 2 diabetes and obesity in one billion people.' This partnership underscores Virta's commitment to closing the gap between information and action. This commitment will help reduce fragmentation, support provider decision-making, and improve the lives of people most impacted by chronic metabolic disease. About Virta Health: Virta Health is a leader in reversing chronic metabolic disease. Through a combination of precision nutrition, technology, and expert support, Virta empowers members to build longer, healthier lives—while reducing or eliminating the need for medications. Virta partners with the nation's largest employers, payers, and pharmacy benefit managers to improve the health of their members while reducing costs. Headquartered in Denver, Colorado, Virta's mission is to reverse diabetes and obesity in one billion people. For more information, visit
Business Wire
30-06-2025
- Business
- Business Wire
Virta Health Appoints Laura Walmsley as Chief Commercial Officer
DENVER--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Virta Health, a leader in diabetes reversal and sustainable weight loss with a nutrition-first approach, announced today that Laura Walmsley has been appointed Chief Commercial Officer. A seasoned executive with over 25 years of experience driving transformational growth in healthcare, Walmsley joins Virta to lead its commercial strategy, including enterprise partnerships and all client-facing teams. 'Laura has a proven track record of delivering results and is a world class team builder and leader, with a thirst for growth in her professional DNA,' said Sami Inkinen, Virta co-founder and CEO. 'She joins Virta at a time of unprecedented momentum, and will be instrumental in accelerating our next chapter as we drive toward our mission of reversing diabetes and obesity in one billion people.' That momentum includes record-breaking demand for Virta's Sustainable Weight Loss (SWL) solution—including its 'Responsible Prescribing' capabilities—and continued growth of its diabetes reversal offering. The company now works with over 550 organizations, covers more than 12 million U.S. lives, and is on track to enroll more new members in 2025 than its prior 10 years combined. In Q1 2025 alone, Virta's year-over-year revenue growth accelerated to over 80% on top of more than $100 million annualized revenue. 'I look forward to working closely with our Health Plans, Employers and other ecosystem partners to accelerate our progress towards reversing chronic diseases,' said Walmsley. 'The cost and complexity of GLP-1 use continues to rise, as do rates of weight-related chronic disease. Virta offers a proven and differentiated solution with a 10 year track record of outcomes, and I'm excited to be a part of Virta's incredible mission of saving lives at this critical time.' Walmsley's leadership roles in sales, marketing, client success, and commercial growth include Preventure, Virgin Pulse, and most recently Personify Health. She's led companies through growth phases of over 420% in top line revenue and 1,100% in EBITDA growth. Walmsley graduated from James Madison University and currently resides in New England with her family. About Virta Health Virta Health is a leader in diabetes reversal and sustainable weight loss. Through a combination of personalized nutrition, technology, and expert support, Virta empowers members to build longer, healthier lives—while reducing or eliminating the need for medications. Virta partners with the nation's largest employers, payers, and pharmacy benefit managers to improve the health of their members while reducing costs. Headquartered in Denver, Colorado, Virta's mission is to reverse diabetes and obesity in one billion people. For more information, visit
Business Wire
11-06-2025
- Health
- Business Wire
Virta Health Survey Reveals Secret to Lasting Weight Loss After GLP-1s: Users Who Follow a Guided Off-ramp are 8x More Likely to Continue Losing Weight
DENVER--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Virta Health, a leader in diabetes reversal and sustainable weight loss with a nutrition-first approach, today released a report showing that people can maintain weight loss after stopping GLP-1 medication with the right guidance and lifestyle support—challenging the belief that weight regain is inevitable. Critically, the survey found those who tapered off GLP-1s under medical guidance were eight times more likely to continue losing weight after stopping (56%), compared to the 7% who quit abruptly. In partnership with Wakefield Research, Virta surveyed 500 U.S. adults who previously used GLP-1s for weight loss and stopped taking them at least six months ago. While more than one in three (36%) experienced weight regain after GLP-1s, the data underscores that a structured and supported off-ramp makes the difference for sustaining long-term weight loss. Key findings are below and detailed in the " Virta Vitals: Life After GLP-1s" corresponding report: Guided Transitions Improve Outcomes The survey highlights a stark difference in outcomes for people transitioning off GLP-1s with professional support compared to those who do so independently, with guidance significantly improving post-GLP-1 outcomes. Encouragingly, nearly half (45%) of U.S. adults who stopped taking GLP-1s did so by gradually decreasing their dosage with guidance from a medical professional, while over one-third (36%) tapered off in combination with a specific lifestyle change or diet plan. People who tapered off under medical guidance are eight times more likely to lose even more weight after stopping (56%), compared to those who quit abruptly (7%). Even more telling: 12% of users stopped cold turkey, but among those who failed to meet their weight loss goals, that number shot up to 25%. Going it alone isn't just hard—it's risky. Lifestyle Habits Drive Lasting Results Among the users who stuck with their healthy diet changes after stopping GLP-1s, over half (51%) maintained their weight, and a remarkable 43% continued to lose even more weight, painting a positive picture for life post-GLP-1s. However, a challenge remains: only 36% of users off GLP-1s for 9 to 12 months maintained their new dietary patterns. While GLP-1s can effectively jumpstart weight loss, true, sustained success hinges on integrating and maintaining these fundamental lifestyle habits. Consumers Seek an Exit Strategy Despite pharmaceutical companies often stating these medications constitute a lifelong commitment, user behavior suggests otherwise. The survey revealed that only 26% of respondents used GLP-1s for 12 months or more. This clear preference for an off-ramp underscores the need for effective strategies to help users achieve sustainable, medication-free health. 'The doomed picture of life post-GLP-1s is a myth we're actively debunking,' said Catherine Metzgar, PhD, RD, and health coach at Virta. 'Our findings show that a personalized, nutrition-first approach, coupled with a professionally guided transition plan, can set people up to not only maintain their weight loss after GLP-1 use, but actually continue their journey. Ultimately, GLP-1s can ignite a path to durable health that lasts far beyond any prescription.' Methodology This survey was conducted by Wakefield Research on behalf of Virta Health. Virta commissioned this research to capture the perspective of 500 nationally representative U.S. adults on their experiences with GLP-1s for weight loss. The survey was fielded between March 21 and April 1, 2025, using an email invitation and online questionnaire, with adults ages 18 and older who stopped taking GLP-1 medications a minimum of six months ago. For the interviews conducted in this particular study, the chances are 95 in 100 that a survey result does not vary, plus or minus, by more than 4.4 percentage points from the result that would be obtained if interviews had been conducted with all persons in the universe represented by the sample. About Virta Health Virta Health is a leader in diabetes reversal and sustainable weight loss. Through a combination of personalized nutrition, technology, and expert support, Virta empowers members to build longer, healthier lives—while reducing or eliminating the need for medications. Virta partners with the nation's largest employers, payers, and pharmacy benefit managers to improve the health of their members while reducing costs. Headquartered in Denver, Colorado, Virta's mission is to reverse diabetes and obesity in one billion people. For more information, visit
Forbes
20-03-2025
- Health
- Forbes
5 Ways Growth Start-Ups Can Scale Culture
In the competitive landscape of health tech startups, building a sustainable culture while scaling rapidly presents a significant challenge. Virta Health, recognized for its approach to reversing diabetes and obesity through nutritional ketosis, offers valuable insights into how companies can maintain their cultural identity during hyper-growth. After speaking with three leaders at Virta—Chief People Officer Lucia Guillory, HR leader Marc Mooney, and CFO Manu Diwakar—five distinct leadership approaches emerged that any growth-stage company can adapt to their own journey. These insights are helpful regardless of budget and tools – they're just helpful principles. Most organizations measure employee engagement, but Virta recently made a deliberate shift toward something deeper: pride. "I made the shift from Engagement which focused upon whether or not you 'would recommend Virta as a great place to work' to Pride 'I'm proud to work at Virta,'" explains Guillory. "I pushed for this shift because I believe that the most valuable thing any organization can provide is a sense of self-worth. Pride is about how you feel about yourself vs engagement which is solely focused on how you feel about the company." This distinction transforms how companies can approach culture-building. While traditional engagement metrics like eNPS often measure satisfaction with the workplace itself, pride connects employees' sense of identity with the company's mission and impact. Mooney elaborates on why this shift matters: "Pride creates a flywheel in a way that engagement doesn't." Unlike employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS), which functions solely as an outcome metric, "Pride is both an outcome and a driver of engagement," creating what he calls a "virtuous cycle - pride fuels engagement, and engaged employees are more likely to deliver meaningful impact, which in turn reinforces their pride in the organization." When CFO Diwakar first heard about this pivot to measuring pride, "it brought a huge smile to my face because I hadn't heard that adjective described at work," he recalls. "I think people who are committed to their work and people spend a lot of time at their jobs, they want to feel good about themselves, they want to feel good about the contribution they're making to this world, and they want to feel good about the people that they spend a lot of time with." Growth-stage companies can implement similar measurements, evaluating whether their current engagement metrics truly capture what matters. Shifting focus to pride not only provides a more meaningful metric than traditional engagement scores but actively reinforces the cultural identity companies fear losing during rapid expansion. At Virta, the mission of reversing diabetes and obesity isn't confined to marketing materials—it's lived throughout the organization, starting with the executive team. "Our entire executive team follows the Virta lifestyle, and it's not a requirement by any means," explains Judy Huang, VP of Communications. "Everybody truly just chooses to follow it and has seen really wonderful results and feels great." This embodiment of the mission creates an authenticity that cascades through the organization. Executives don't just advocate for the product—they experience its benefits firsthand, from increased energy to improved mental clarity. "I've been part of that for a number of years," shares Guillory about her participation in Virta's treatment program. "And then we also have a Virta plus one program and my mom has been part of that." This personal investment extends the company's impact into employees' families and communities. Every all-hands meeting features a member sharing their experience with the program. "These member stories are really powerful in uniting all employees and reinforcing why we do what we do," explains Guillory. "These stories are always impactful and often bring teammates to tears." Leaders also routinely immerse themselves in unfiltered member feedback. "You can have your leadership team commit to reading the Net promoter score comments that members are putting in when they're using your app," Guillory suggests. "Every company that is delivering a service, the leaders need to see how members are experiencing that service." For startups looking to strengthen their mission connection, consider how your leadership team can authentically experience your product or service firsthand. Create regular touchpoints with customers throughout the organization, not just in customer-facing roles. When leadership personally experiences the value proposition, the mission transcends rhetoric and becomes reality—a powerful alignment tool during rapid scaling. At Virta, leadership development begins with a fundamental premise: effective leadership starts from within. "I think leadership is highly correlated with wisdom," explains CFO Manu Diwakar. "Leadership is, in my view, largely a journey of personal growth." This perspective shapes how the company approaches developing its next generation of leaders. Diwakar describes his own transformation at a previous company: "I walked into Riot as kind of a cocky, arrogant kid who thought, like, he was on top of the world and can do everything. And I left with a really healthy appreciation of how much I didn't know and how much growth I needed to undergo as a person, both personally and professionally." This focus on emotional intelligence and self-awareness runs counter to traditional leadership development that emphasizes tactics and frameworks. "I think the first thing you've got to work on right away is get people to really think hard about their EQ," Diwakar asserts. "It is often said that EQ matters a lot more than IQ in leadership." Virta operationalizes this philosophy in their Emerging Leaders Development Program, which has achieved a 96% recommendation rate from participants. Rather than outsourcing to consultants with generic frameworks, they tap their own leaders to teach from lived experience. "Those that can do are actually in the best position to teach because they have that experience and that passion, that perspective that they can bring into those conversations," explains Guillory. The program combines asynchronous learning with live sessions where participants engage directly with the leaders who created the content. Growing organizations should reconsider traditional leadership development approaches that focus primarily on tactics and skills. Begin by helping emerging leaders develop greater self-awareness and emotional intelligence—the foundation for all other leadership capabilities. Create the right balance of challenge and support, as Diwakar suggests: "Find the right amount of stretch to give your junior people... only with a little bit of risk can there come growth." In an era where leadership is often equated with flawless execution, Virta's executives model a different approach: publicly owning and sharing their failures as a powerful teaching tool. "I think talking about philosophy is really hard when people don't have a basis," explains Diwakar. "So often what I do is I actually talk about all the times I've messed up." This isn't just casual self-deprecation—it's strategic vulnerability. Diwakar's approach is detailed and thorough: "I talk about what I did. I talk about what the consequences were. I talk about what the results were out of those consequences. I talk about how I dug myself out of that hole... and usually how it has changed my approach to situations." This practice serves multiple purposes. First, it provides concrete lessons drawn from lived experience. "I want you to have the benefit of my experience... it has come from hard lessons in life," says Diwakar. Second, it creates psychological safety for team members to acknowledge their own mistakes. "What I'm trying to do is creating the space for people to mess up. Everybody messes up. The problem only becomes if you don't admit you mess up and you don't learn from it." This is particularly valuable for high-achieving professionals who may have limited experience with failure. "For people who probably aced their essays and got a 4.0 and went to the best schools, this concept of messing up is like, 'What do you mean? I don't mess up. I don't do that,'" Diwakar explains. Guillory echoes this commitment to transparency on an organizational level. "For me, honesty is king," she says. "If you're communicating honestly about what is happening, you are already removing a number of obstacles to success." Virta's leadership team demonstrated this during the COVID-19 pandemic when they were direct about the reasons behind a significant reduction in force. For growing companies, establishing a practice of transparent failure-sharing can transform your culture. Start by having senior leaders share detailed stories about their mistakes and what they learned, focusing on specific situations rather than abstract principles. This creates psychological safety for others to acknowledge when they're struggling and builds an organization that learns from failure rather than hiding it. As companies increasingly adopt remote and hybrid work models, Virta has recognized that employee connection doesn't happen by accident—it requires deliberate design, especially during scaling. "One of the things that we've observed is that people need connection," explains Guillory. "They may not be getting it every day because they're obviously in a remote environment, but the more we can produce that connection, the more people can rely on that connection to produce a sense of goodwill as we go through the natural friction points of life." This insight led Virta to create an "events and community" sub-department specifically focused on fostering meaningful connection among team members. This wasn't just a nice-to-have addition—it was a strategic investment in organizational resilience. "If I know Judy because I saw her three months ago at something, it's going to be easier for us to navigate having a difference of opinion on something than if there are no other touch points," Guillory points out. The company has found that in-person connections are particularly valuable, especially when they incorporate their mission. "We love connecting with members. One other way we connect with them that I didn't mention is in person through our offsites and events. We typically have members attend our annual all team offsite and other offsites throughout the year when possible," notes Guillory. In a post-pandemic world where employees may feel increasingly isolated, these connection points serve another crucial purpose—combating burnout. Guillory observes, "The identity link to a company is something that already is intensified in the context of a startup... If you're saying 'members or die' and then you make a minor change to the way that you're doing things, it's blood on the streets. Because we're so passionate about this mission." For scaling companies, particularly those with distributed teams, intentionally designing connection experiences is essential. Consider creating dedicated resources for community building, just as you would for other business functions. When planning in-person gatherings, incorporate meaningful mission-oriented activities rather than just social events. And recognize that these connections aren't just about employee satisfaction—they build the relational infrastructure necessary to navigate the inevitable tensions of growth. What emerges from these conversations with Virta's leadership team is that building culture during hyper-growth isn't accidental—it requires deliberate choices about what to measure, how leaders develop themselves and others, when to share failures openly, and how to foster meaningful connections in remote environments. As Guillory notes, "As a high-growth company, we're concerned about losing our identity as we rapidly scale. Pride is a measure that allows us to keep a pulse on whether our team feels we're living our values versus just touting them." The consistent thread through all these approaches is authenticity—from executives using the company's own treatment program to leaders openly sharing their failures to measure pride instead of superficial engagement. This commitment to what's real rather than what looks good creates a foundation that can withstand the pressures of rapid growth. For startups navigating their own scaling journey, these insights offer a roadmap for maintaining what matters most. The measure of success isn't just size or valuation, but whether the organization remains true to its purpose and people feel genuine pride in the work they do together.
