🥼 The Story of Livongo

AND Tech Events Around the City

Author

Landon Campbell
November 18, 2024

85th Edition

✍🏽 This Week on Landon in the Loop:

🥼 The Story of Livongo

📊 Chart of the Week

📆 Events Around the City

🔙 Previous Newsletter Editions

🔙 Highlights from Last Week

We hosted our second Data Night at Drive Capital with UChicago 👇🏽

My good friend Jonathan Ozeran gave me my first tour of the Tempus HQ 👇🏽

I had the opportunity to attend this year's Chicago Innovation Awards at UIC 👇🏽

🥼 The Story of Livongo

I’ve covered a few of Chicago's landmark tech exits, from Tempus to Groupon, Cleversafe, Grubhub and Motorola Solutions

For this addition, let’s dive into one of the largest digital health exits in history: Chicago-founded Livongo.

Here's how a Midwest healthcare veteran built one of digital health's biggest success stories:

Livongo’s Origins

In 2003, Glen Tullman’s eight-year-old son, Sam, was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. Tullman quickly saw the challenges of managing the condition—constant monitoring, insurance battles, and ongoing worry.

Glen, who was already a seasoned Chicago healthcare leader, left Allscripts to launch Livongo in 2014. The mission from day one was to empower individuals with chronic conditions to live healthier lives through personalized, data-driven care.

Livongo’s Impact

Livongo revolutionized chronic condition management through several key innovations:

  • Breaking industry norms, Livongo gave away free test strips instead of profiting from them which was very unique for a digital health company to do.

  • Members received personalized "Health Nudges" and 24/7 access to care coaches.

  • The company's "AI+AI" engine aggregated and interpreted health data to deliver actionable insights.

In 2020, Teladoc acquired Livongo for $18.5B.

Midwest Advantages for Livongo

Livongo was founded in Chicago and kept its sales and business operations there through its acquisition, benefiting from several unique advantages:

  • Chicago’s large network of healthcare companies, providers, payers, and self-insured employers was essential to Livongo’s B2B2C model.

  • Strong ties with many Chicago-headquartered Fortune 500 companies provided Livongo with early customer networks.

  • Chicago offered access to healthcare professionals and top technical talent from leading universities.

Lessons for Today's Healthcare Founders

Livongo's journey offers valuable lessons for healthcare entrepreneurs:

  • Livongo's business model ensured everyone—patients, providers, and payers—benefited from better health outcomes.

  • Building a mission-driven culture with deep understanding of user needs created sustainable competitive advantage.

  • Sometimes being outside Silicon Valley provides strategic advantages, especially in regulated industries like healthcare.

Livongo’s story highlights that transformative healthcare companies can emerge from any location by combining industry expertise, tech innovation, and a genuine mission-driven approach.

My partner, Molly Bonakdarpour, was one of the earliest employees at Livongo and is now a General Partner at Drive Capital, where she leads our healthcare strategy.

  • Read a bit of her story here.

If you’re a founder innovating in healthcare, let’s connect—I’d love to hear more!

📊 Chart of the Week

Yes, winter is upon us. 🥶 

Chicago's average winter temperature has risen by 4.6°F from 1970 to 2024.

📆 Events Around the City

10X Your Developer Productivity Using AI-Tools - Microsoft x Pieces

  • Hosted by Pieces (Drive Capital portfolio company)

  • Monday

  • RSVP

Chicago Growth Hacks Series: SEO

Chicago ~ Talent Collective x Fractional People People (FPP) Coffee Meetup

Downtown Chicago Tech + Startups Social 🍸

Climate Tech Happy Hour with Dipalo Ventures

Inside The Loop Happy Hour

Chicago Meetup with Health Tech Nerds

TechRise Season 4 Finale

Early-Stage B2B SaaS VC/Founder Chicago Coffee Meetup

🗞 Previous Newsletter Editions:

👋 See you next week!

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