1 00:00:02,759 --> 00:00:07,240 Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio news. 2 00:00:07,960 --> 00:00:09,560 Speaker 2: All Right, we want to go back to health and 3 00:00:09,600 --> 00:00:12,200 Speaker 2: wellness for a moment and turn to our health. The 4 00:00:12,280 --> 00:00:14,840 Speaker 2: company is on a mission to help wearers of their 5 00:00:14,920 --> 00:00:18,200 Speaker 2: smart ring live healthier and longer lives by providing personalized 6 00:00:18,239 --> 00:00:20,919 Speaker 2: health data. And in fact, the company's latest funding round 7 00:00:20,920 --> 00:00:23,640 Speaker 2: has or a value at five point two billion dollars. 8 00:00:23,960 --> 00:00:25,840 Speaker 2: We're pleased to say joining us right now is the 9 00:00:25,880 --> 00:00:28,960 Speaker 2: CEO of or Health, Tom Hale. Tom, great to have 10 00:00:29,080 --> 00:00:32,560 Speaker 2: you on Bloomberg Television. I want to start with connecting 11 00:00:32,880 --> 00:00:35,960 Speaker 2: the dot between the weight less loss drugs that JLP 12 00:00:36,080 --> 00:00:39,839 Speaker 2: one drugs and what you provide to your users. Have 13 00:00:39,960 --> 00:00:44,360 Speaker 2: you seen the popularity of those obesity drugs. I'm curious 14 00:00:44,400 --> 00:00:47,239 Speaker 2: what kind of impact or spillover it has to the 15 00:00:47,240 --> 00:00:48,839 Speaker 2: market that you are serving. 16 00:00:49,720 --> 00:00:49,960 Speaker 3: Yeah. 17 00:00:50,000 --> 00:00:53,199 Speaker 4: So we started in sleep and you know, for everyone's information, 18 00:00:53,320 --> 00:00:56,959 Speaker 4: we make a wearable ring that tracts your biometrics and. 19 00:00:56,920 --> 00:00:58,440 Speaker 3: Gives you insights and data. 20 00:00:58,520 --> 00:01:00,320 Speaker 4: And of course one of the things that are stomers 21 00:01:00,320 --> 00:01:03,960 Speaker 4: are extremely interested in is metabolic health. One of the 22 00:01:03,960 --> 00:01:07,279 Speaker 4: things that we did last year was start to enable 23 00:01:07,360 --> 00:01:10,399 Speaker 4: people to track their meals by taking a photograph and 24 00:01:10,440 --> 00:01:13,319 Speaker 4: seeing the results of what they had eaten and then 25 00:01:13,360 --> 00:01:16,720 Speaker 4: start to map that to their metabolic impact. We signed 26 00:01:16,760 --> 00:01:20,680 Speaker 4: a partnership with dex Comm and also received investment from 27 00:01:20,720 --> 00:01:23,920 Speaker 4: Dexcom and Dexcom is the maker of continuous glucose monitors, 28 00:01:23,920 --> 00:01:27,080 Speaker 4: which is a way you understand your metabolic health through data. 29 00:01:27,240 --> 00:01:29,680 Speaker 3: So in Aura, what we see now. 30 00:01:29,480 --> 00:01:32,720 Speaker 4: Is that people who are generally trying to monitor and 31 00:01:32,760 --> 00:01:36,319 Speaker 4: manage their health and improve their and optimize their health 32 00:01:36,480 --> 00:01:39,520 Speaker 4: are really focused on their metabolic health. 33 00:01:39,560 --> 00:01:42,480 Speaker 3: And GLP ones basically affect your metabolic health. 34 00:01:42,480 --> 00:01:46,360 Speaker 4: Now here's a little known fact metabolic health and GLP ones. 35 00:01:46,480 --> 00:01:48,760 Speaker 4: They act on your body in a way very similar 36 00:01:48,800 --> 00:01:50,800 Speaker 4: to sleep. So the more sleep you get, the better 37 00:01:50,840 --> 00:01:53,600 Speaker 4: off you are. It helps reduce it helps reduce your 38 00:01:54,120 --> 00:01:56,560 Speaker 4: appetite at midnight. Snacking is a real thing. If you 39 00:01:56,560 --> 00:01:58,960 Speaker 4: don't sleep, you want to eat, and it also helps 40 00:01:58,960 --> 00:02:00,880 Speaker 4: you feel more satisfied. So one of the things we 41 00:02:00,920 --> 00:02:03,440 Speaker 4: do is we help people understand the impacts of their 42 00:02:03,480 --> 00:02:06,320 Speaker 4: behaviors on all sorts of their health, including. 43 00:02:06,000 --> 00:02:08,480 Speaker 2: Metabolic got it, got it, thank you for explaining that. 44 00:02:08,720 --> 00:02:11,959 Speaker 2: So the ring itself can cost about three hundred dollars, 45 00:02:11,960 --> 00:02:14,480 Speaker 2: and then there's a membership fee as well a monthly 46 00:02:14,480 --> 00:02:17,880 Speaker 2: fee of about six US dollars a month. Do consumers 47 00:02:18,080 --> 00:02:21,760 Speaker 2: have subscription fatigue? And I ask that because your monthly 48 00:02:21,800 --> 00:02:25,160 Speaker 2: fee is pretty low relative to a lot of other 49 00:02:25,880 --> 00:02:28,359 Speaker 2: subscriptions out there, and I'm just wondering how you arrived 50 00:02:28,360 --> 00:02:28,640 Speaker 2: at that. 51 00:02:29,600 --> 00:02:30,480 Speaker 3: Yeah, it's interesting. 52 00:02:30,480 --> 00:02:33,079 Speaker 4: I think people do have subscription fatigue, particularly for things 53 00:02:33,120 --> 00:02:36,080 Speaker 4: that don't provide value. Of course, your health is priceless, 54 00:02:36,080 --> 00:02:38,080 Speaker 4: and so for people who get the value out of 55 00:02:38,160 --> 00:02:41,240 Speaker 4: managing and monitoring their health, actually they're willing to pay 56 00:02:41,320 --> 00:02:43,960 Speaker 4: quite a lot more than the modest subscription fee that 57 00:02:44,000 --> 00:02:46,520 Speaker 4: we charge. The thing that I find most interesting, as 58 00:02:46,520 --> 00:02:49,480 Speaker 4: somebody who's been in subscription businesses for most of my life, 59 00:02:49,720 --> 00:02:51,840 Speaker 4: is that the retention rates. 60 00:02:51,800 --> 00:02:53,760 Speaker 3: For Aura are literally off the charts. 61 00:02:53,760 --> 00:02:56,520 Speaker 4: We are better than best in class than consumer subscription 62 00:02:56,560 --> 00:02:59,600 Speaker 4: products like Netflix or Spotify. It's really sunning, and I 63 00:02:59,600 --> 00:03:02,160 Speaker 4: think that goes to the fact that if you've invested 64 00:03:02,200 --> 00:03:04,440 Speaker 4: in a piece of hardware, which people do, they buy 65 00:03:04,480 --> 00:03:07,200 Speaker 4: the ring first before they pay the subscription, and you 66 00:03:07,280 --> 00:03:10,600 Speaker 4: care about your health, you will retain really, really well. 67 00:03:10,639 --> 00:03:13,600 Speaker 4: And so our subscription business is both large and very 68 00:03:13,680 --> 00:03:14,160 Speaker 4: very stable. 69 00:03:14,200 --> 00:03:15,440 Speaker 3: So we're very pleased with the outcome. 70 00:03:15,600 --> 00:03:18,920 Speaker 1: I am curious, Tom, where's the competition? And when this 71 00:03:19,040 --> 00:03:21,320 Speaker 1: ring first started to become popular, there was this idea 72 00:03:21,360 --> 00:03:23,040 Speaker 1: that you know, you were going to be knocked off 73 00:03:23,040 --> 00:03:24,280 Speaker 1: in a big way. And I know there's been a 74 00:03:24,280 --> 00:03:26,040 Speaker 1: few entrants in this space that have kind of come 75 00:03:26,080 --> 00:03:28,600 Speaker 1: and gone or certainly didn't get traction. Well, I mean, 76 00:03:28,639 --> 00:03:31,600 Speaker 1: what are you doing that? I guess these other companies can, 77 00:03:31,639 --> 00:03:33,920 Speaker 1: and particularly the larger companies, you know, the Apples and 78 00:03:33,919 --> 00:03:35,040 Speaker 1: Samsungs of the world. 79 00:03:35,720 --> 00:03:35,920 Speaker 3: Yeah. 80 00:03:36,000 --> 00:03:37,960 Speaker 4: I think the most important thing is that we've been 81 00:03:38,000 --> 00:03:41,200 Speaker 4: doing this for a long time. As you probably know, 82 00:03:41,320 --> 00:03:45,200 Speaker 4: the power of AI and machine learning really depends on data, 83 00:03:45,520 --> 00:03:48,040 Speaker 4: and we've been collecting not just data from our users, 84 00:03:48,040 --> 00:03:52,120 Speaker 4: but scientific research data to really inform our algorithms and 85 00:03:52,200 --> 00:03:55,360 Speaker 4: inform our product. We're a science first company. We depend 86 00:03:55,440 --> 00:03:58,280 Speaker 4: always on the research and always on the differentiation that. 87 00:03:58,200 --> 00:03:59,320 Speaker 3: Science can provide. 88 00:03:59,560 --> 00:04:01,680 Speaker 4: The other thing that's really important to recognize is that 89 00:04:01,760 --> 00:04:04,120 Speaker 4: as people come to this market, many of them come 90 00:04:04,160 --> 00:04:06,680 Speaker 4: to it thinking about the problem that they're solving is fitness. 91 00:04:06,760 --> 00:04:09,000 Speaker 4: This is sort of a classic use case for wearables, 92 00:04:09,280 --> 00:04:11,800 Speaker 4: So the fitbit, that's how people think about it. Whereas 93 00:04:11,840 --> 00:04:13,680 Speaker 4: I think our approach has been to think much more 94 00:04:13,720 --> 00:04:17,000 Speaker 4: broadly about health. So, for example, we started in sleep, 95 00:04:17,080 --> 00:04:20,279 Speaker 4: we expanded into women's health. Now we're looking at cardiovascular 96 00:04:20,279 --> 00:04:23,080 Speaker 4: health and metabolic health. As we started this conversation and 97 00:04:23,120 --> 00:04:26,320 Speaker 4: the breadth of that offering, people don't necessarily just want 98 00:04:26,320 --> 00:04:27,760 Speaker 4: to think about one dimension of their health. 99 00:04:27,800 --> 00:04:29,920 Speaker 3: They want to think about all of them. So what's 100 00:04:29,960 --> 00:04:30,679 Speaker 3: next for this company? 101 00:04:30,760 --> 00:04:32,800 Speaker 1: We talk about a company that's more than ten years 102 00:04:32,839 --> 00:04:36,520 Speaker 1: old right now, it's at phenomenal growth, phenomenal revenue. And obviously, Tom, 103 00:04:36,560 --> 00:04:39,440 Speaker 1: your appointment a few years ago a CEO raised a 104 00:04:39,480 --> 00:04:42,320 Speaker 1: lot of speculation that they would be ready to go public. 105 00:04:42,360 --> 00:04:45,039 Speaker 1: That was twenty twenty two. Is twenty twenty five? Are 106 00:04:45,040 --> 00:04:46,039 Speaker 1: you going public this year? 107 00:04:46,800 --> 00:04:48,400 Speaker 4: You know, I don't think we have any plans to 108 00:04:48,400 --> 00:04:50,839 Speaker 4: go public, and quite frankly, as someone who's operated public 109 00:04:50,880 --> 00:04:53,360 Speaker 4: companies my entire life, I'm really enjoying. 110 00:04:53,160 --> 00:04:54,560 Speaker 3: Operating a private company. 111 00:04:54,760 --> 00:04:56,440 Speaker 4: Yeah, and so I don't think we've got a lot 112 00:04:56,480 --> 00:04:59,280 Speaker 4: of ambition to go public anytime soon, and if we do, 113 00:04:59,520 --> 00:05:01,120 Speaker 4: we will definitely let you guys know. 114 00:05:01,520 --> 00:05:05,279 Speaker 2: Yes, let's make sure that that happens. Tom final question 115 00:05:05,360 --> 00:05:08,560 Speaker 2: to you, what is your fastest growing customer. Is it 116 00:05:09,640 --> 00:05:12,240 Speaker 2: the young people or is it someone who is on 117 00:05:12,279 --> 00:05:14,640 Speaker 2: a new fitness kick because of something like GLP one. 118 00:05:14,920 --> 00:05:15,760 Speaker 2: Are they seniors? 119 00:05:16,720 --> 00:05:17,719 Speaker 3: Well, this is stunning. 120 00:05:17,800 --> 00:05:20,240 Speaker 4: So we have customers across the entire spectrum, you know, 121 00:05:20,279 --> 00:05:24,760 Speaker 4: from CEOs to moms, to busy dads to teenagers and 122 00:05:24,839 --> 00:05:28,040 Speaker 4: college kids who are managing their health. The interesting thing 123 00:05:28,040 --> 00:05:30,400 Speaker 4: to me is that two big changes in our demographic 124 00:05:30,440 --> 00:05:33,919 Speaker 4: in the last twelve months have been one women. We 125 00:05:33,960 --> 00:05:37,160 Speaker 4: actually used to be majority men and we've slipped to 126 00:05:37,200 --> 00:05:38,400 Speaker 4: majority women. 127 00:05:38,960 --> 00:05:40,440 Speaker 3: And that's on the back of our like. 128 00:05:40,520 --> 00:05:45,080 Speaker 4: FDA approof features like fertile window or just basically the 129 00:05:45,120 --> 00:05:47,119 Speaker 4: ability to predict when you're going to have your cycle, 130 00:05:47,120 --> 00:05:48,960 Speaker 4: which by the way, the ring can do very accurately 131 00:05:48,960 --> 00:05:51,520 Speaker 4: because it's using temperature to predict it. The other side 132 00:05:51,560 --> 00:05:54,360 Speaker 4: of it, of course, is young people have been really, 133 00:05:54,400 --> 00:05:57,520 Speaker 4: really into health and really into being proactive about their health, 134 00:05:57,800 --> 00:06:02,240 Speaker 4: and we've seen that group, basically kids and young adults 135 00:06:02,279 --> 00:06:05,839 Speaker 4: from from eighteen to twenty five is the fastest growing 136 00:06:05,839 --> 00:06:08,880 Speaker 4: demographic and is about a couple percentage points from being 137 00:06:08,920 --> 00:06:11,880 Speaker 4: the largest demographic for AURA. Really interesting to see how 138 00:06:11,920 --> 00:06:15,640 Speaker 4: important health is to the youth and the young people 139 00:06:15,680 --> 00:06:16,279 Speaker 4: around the world. 140 00:06:16,880 --> 00:06:18,760 Speaker 1: All right, Tom, I appreciate you taking time for us. 141 00:06:18,800 --> 00:06:21,480 Speaker 1: Tom Hale CEO, thanks for making really hell or a 142 00:06:21,600 --> 00:06:22,599 Speaker 1: health for now.