Case Study:
Wondr Health

Startup journey from a Proof of Concept, through scale to a final $200M exit

Overview

Wondr Health (formerly Naturally Slim) is a Health and Wellness company with a clinically proven behavior-change program that treats the root cause of chronic metabolic conditions to improve quality of life and health outcomes for their participants. Learn how they partnered with Dialogs from the initial phases of the startup all the way through an exit and beyond.
Health and Wellness | Proof of Concept | MVP | Startup | Operations | Scaling

Background and Context

Our client, was a joint venture between Holmes Murphy, a privately held national insurance and benefits company, and Marcia Upson, Nurse Practitioner, the creator of the Naturally Slim program.

Naturally Slim (now WondrHealth) is a 10-week behavior modification program that has been statistically proven to lower BMI and improve health outcomes.

Prior to the joint venture, the Naturally Slim Program had been delivered in-person by Ms. Upson who personally coached participants through a 10-week journey. The Goal of the joint venture was to scale the offering online as a corporate benefit.

Naturally Slim LMS - Learn Module

Naturally Slim LMS - Learn Module

Improving the Prototype

Problem: Naturally Slim at the time, had an existing rough Proof of Concept (PoC) with poor UX comprised of two separate off-the-shelf SaaS products with independent logins

Goal: a branded web portal with one login providing SSO across components, with ability to on-board corporate clients and online purchase for individuals.

Solution: Dialogs worked with stakeholders to develop an online portal experience that greatly improved UX and enabled bulk onboarding of customers.

Outcome: A viable POC that increased top line revenue with minimal investment; increased participant satisfaction.

Building a solid MVP

Problem: Current Proof of Concept lacked a fully-branded custom UX, there were severe limitations of the 3rd party LMS that required compromises in the prototype and the offering did not demo well to corporate prospects.

Goal: an in-house, custom LMS experience highly tailored to the unique requirements of the growing program.

Solution: Dialogs migrated the platform to a custom LMS with tools for the success team to monitor and advise participants, and robust reporting for feature analytics.

Outcome: Increased top line revenue 5x with minimal investment; the new platform demoed well and allowed closing increasingly larger corporate clients.

Naturally Slim MVP Redesign

Naturally Slim MVP Redesign

Scaling Challenges

Problem: Revenue stalled. There was a need to scale the MVP and become a robust product.

Goal: Grow Revenue to land ever larger corporate clients and improve user engagement in weeks 2 through 10 of the program.

Solution: Naturally Slim increased internal staff. The new CTO's expectation was an eminent phase-out of Dialogs Involvement. After working with Dialogs for 6 months, the CTO recognized the value of the partnership; Dialogs continued as a strategic advisor and development partner through exit enhancing the AWS architecture, building endpoint support for iOS and Android mobile apps, implementing Billing as a Medical Claim and working with internal staff to achieve HITRUST certification.

Outcome: Increased revenue 6x since the MVP phase.

Stabilization and Growth

Problem: High-profile clients and a growing user base shifted the focus from rapid-release to risk mitigation.

Goal: HITRUST and SOC 2 Certifications.

Process: Working with the in-house team, Dialogs formalized compliance controls appropriate for a mature application, increased Unit Test coverage and deployment automations that significantly reduced issues in production.

Outcome: Stress-free, scheduled releases; continued growth.

Achieving SOC 2 and HITRUST certifications

Achieving SOC 2 and HITRUST certifications

Optimize for Exit

Challenge: Prepare for Exit.

Goal: Enhance offering by rebranding and maximizing profitability.

Process: Naturally Slim became a highly profitable segment of Holmes Murphy's business with incredible EBITA growth and doubling internal team productivity every 8 months for 4 years using ops automations developed by Dialogs. The Naturally Slim product was rebranded to Wondr Health.

Outcome: WondrHealth sold to a private equity group for an undisclosed amount of money.

Naturally Slim rebrands to Wondr Health

Naturally Slim rebrands to Wondr Health

Final Outcomes

  • Under Private Equity ownership, Wondr Health continued the partnership with Dialogs for 3 years until it transitioned to in-house development.
  • 30-75% YOY top line revenue growth for 4 years
  • 30x revenue growth from the PoC phase to Scale phase
  • Back end automations led to EBITA of 50% of top line
  • The successful and highly profitable sale of Naturally Slim to a private equity group

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