#StartupsEverywhere Profile: Emily Brown, Co-Founder & CEO, Free From Market
This profile is part of #StartupsEverywhere, an ongoing series highlighting startup leaders in ecosystems across the country. This interview has been edited for length, content, and clarity.
Improving Health Outcomes Through Accessibility to Nutrient-Rich Foods
Emily Brown, Co-Founder and CEO of Free From Market, is an ardent believer that food is medicine. She has firsthand experience with the impact that a lack of access to healthy foods can have on health outcomes, and created an e-commerce service to address this very issue. We spoke with her about her thoughts on barriers to accessing capital, compliance with data privacy rules, and current restrictions around SNAP and EBT eligibility.
Tell us about your background. What led you to create Free From Market?
As a caregiver and a patient, I have been involved in the food-as-medicine field for the past nine years. I have two daughters who have chronic conditions that require certain types of food as part of their standard of care. Until 2020, there were no pharmaceutical treatments available for my daughters’ conditions, so alternative dietary options were the only options. During a tough economic time, my husband and I found ourselves in need of support and were on WIC and SNAP. However, we couldn't get the food we needed. To address this issue for other families going through the same thing, I started a non-profit that focused on making special dietary foods available for food banks and pantries.
While doing this work, I became a co-investigator on food-related conditions and food insecurity. I worked with my local children's hospital and served on several boards, allowing me to gain a clinical perspective. I also worked with payers and patients and noticed a shift in value-based care towards investing in upstream innovative interventions rather than waiting until patients were very sick. This shift in priorities opened the door for me to start Free From Market.
What does Free From Market do?
Our company has leveraged this transformation in healthcare to make healthy food accessible to people who have always wanted and deserved it but were unable to access it. It can be challenging to make dietary changes, so we also provide support for people to make those changes. When doctors tell us to adjust our diets, they often don't give us the resources to do it. Our digital health platform allows patients and clinicians to support each other through this process, and make it a bit easier to navigate.
On the front end, we offer an e-commerce grocery service where individuals can filter and order the items they need and have them delivered directly to their door. On the back end, we have robust data management for program management to quantify and manage the return on investment, both in health outcomes and cost. This is crucial as often interventions are made, but there is no data on utilization or whether the patient received what they needed, not just what was available. Our goal is to tie all these pieces together to provide comprehensive support to those in need.
We have a unique closed-loop system where we don't direct our users to another grocery e-commerce company. We manage the entire experience in-house, working closely with our supply chain partners. This is crucial for two reasons: first off, we don't offer substitutions, which is especially important for chronic care conditions. And second, we're able to support patients no matter where they live, in every zip code across the continental U.S. Achieving this level of equity is challenging for many other solutions out there. We're able to offer the same high-quality inventory to members living anywhere from 20 minutes to two hours from the clinic.
Did you face any barriers accessing the capital you need? What should policymakers keep in mind when thinking about this issue?
I'm based in Kansas City, right in the middle of the heartland. Raising capital here can be challenging for any founder, but as a female Black founder, I faced additional barriers. Despite great local support from KCRise Fund, we simply don't have enough funds deploying early stage capital. Most investors in our region won't be the first in and finding a lead investor is crucial to closing an investment round. The pandemic has somewhat democratized access to investors through Zoom, but closing a round usually still requires that in-person handshake, which can be a challenge for those in the middle of the country with limited access to investors.
While I was able to get to other cities to meet with investors, I recognize that this is a privilege not everyone has. The process also remains filled with inherent bias, which I experienced firsthand. Participating in national accelerators helped me break down those unwritten rules and make valuable connections, but not everyone has access to these programs. From a policy perspective, it's important to make it more attractive for smaller funds to write initial checks and help bridge this gap. I also think it is important to lower the barriers as to who can actually be an investor. More people will see themselves as potential investors, which I think also breaks down barriers when it comes to finding investors for funding startups. There's a lot policymakers can do to make that shift and make it easier for founders of color and women founders to innovate and build their businesses.
How do you think about data privacy and security at Free From Market, and what has your experience been regarding compliance with data privacy rules?
We take compliance and data privacy policy very seriously, and we believe that our platform needs to protect our users and be a safe place for them to engage. As an early-stage company dealing with healthcare data in the social determinants of the health space, we have a lot of various regulations to adhere to, and we approach them with a serious lens. We focus on obtaining consent from our users and ensuring that they are in control of how their data is shared. We understand that the field is nascent, and the regulations are trying to catch up. Policymakers have been exploring a federal data privacy standard, which could be helpful for us as a startup. We're keeping our finger on the pulse, looking ahead, and being responsive to our users.
What are the local, state, or federal startup issues you think should receive more attention from policymakers?
As a healthcare company that operates in the food as medicine space, the food access component is a crucial aspect of our business. We partner with hospitals, health systems, and community-based organizations to provide access to our platform.While 30 percent of our users purchase above their subsidized credit using their own debit and credit cards, we are looking to expand other payment options to make it easier for our users to access our platform. Unfortunately, we cannot accept SNAP and EBT because we don't fall within the USDA guidelines for online snap eligibility, which require physical locations.
The limitations on online SNAP eligibility is yet another example of how existing rules can get in the way of innovative, needed solutions for marginalized communities. Imposing these rules on retail chains with a physical presence does not solve the access issue, especially in low-income or rural areas where the retail footprint is not equitably distributed. As someone who has experienced this issue firsthand, I know the challenges of living in a food desert with limited access to grocery stores. Many online retailers require users to pick up their orders, which can be difficult for those without transportation.USDA regulations haven’t yet caught up with how people buy their groceries and understand the importance of equitable access to every zipcode. Today, only online retailers that have a brick-and-mortar presence can accept SNAP. While it is a challenging policy issue, we believe it is essential to solve to create equitable access to food for all.
What are your goals for Free From Market moving forward?
We recently closed our seed round and are thrilled about the new support we received. This infusion of funds is important, but equally valuable is the expertise and experience our investors bring from the various industries our work affects. As we look ahead to the rest of 2023, we are focusing on expanding our platform's reach through partnerships with health providers and payers. We are excited to continue driving change in our community and making a positive impact in the lives of the people we serve.
All of the information in this profile was accurate at the date and time of publication.
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