John Linss - Investor / Founder CoreSpeed Health

Hey, welcome to another CEO Wisdom podcast. We have John Linz with us today. Uh, John's a CEO, director, CTO, uh, ex-Fortune 500, global expertise, uh, in business, all about transformation, strategic investments in Las Vegas, Las Vegas, Nevada. Uh, his current company is called CoreSpeed Health. Um, he also built PharmaBuilt, which is a very interesting supplement stack. As most of you know, I was an ex-founder of a nootropic company, and as soon as I saw the supplements, like, yeah, that's a pretty neat formula. It's something that I would buy. Hopefully I'll get one at my door here in Mexico pretty soon. So, John, welcome to the podcast. Can you tell us a bit more about yourself and what you're building here?

Thanks, Charles. Great to be here today, and I'm sure we can arrange to get you one of our protocols.

Nice.

So we, um, we started off a couple of years ago when I had a bad patient experience with a fertility clinic. My wife and I were going to have a baby and we didn't end up having a baby, but they had asked us to use some supplements and she said, where do I get them? And they said, anywhere, just go on the internet. And, I knew better. I'm an endurance hiker. I'm a wilderness photographer. I take a lot of supplements and I knew that wasn't the case. You just can't go anywhere. There's published studies that show that many of the supplements that are on the market are fake or they don't match the label. And so, this is a pretty important thing. We're spending a lot of money. We want to have a baby. And, I knew it wasn't the doctor that was the problem. It's not their fault. They're not trained on wellness and nutrition or on fitness. So I thought about it. It percolated for a couple of months, and I realized that maybe I might be interested in helping them have an easy button to make recommendations for very high-quality supplements and enable them to help their patients become more healthy, and go down the path of healthspan. I make the differentiation between longevity and healthspan. Longevity is just living long. You may or may not be well during that time. I don't want to live 100 years and be sick for the last 30. I want healthspan. I want to live long well. And so I started down this path, built— we built some technology that allowed us to generate a website in about 6 to 8 minutes. It's fully branded for the physician. We've also expanded into wellness and fitness, by the way, and that allows them to have their own brand. We give them a brochure that has QR codes in it. All they have to do is check a box and say, here, I want you to take this, and the patient hits a QR code, adds it to the cart, checks out, and every 30 days they get a box in the mail with 60 daily packets. So a morning and an evening packet. All they gotta do is open it up and take it. Makes it really easy on them too. So it's an easy button for both the doctor and for the patient to be compliant to the doctor's recommendations. But—

And what was your background? Like, how did you get to this? I believe you worked Fortune 500. Why are you the right guy to build this company?

So I've spent my whole career building businesses in different areas, different industries. And I was the CTO at Caesars Entertainment. We provided obviously services around resort and casino gaming in 55 properties around the world. And we were acquired by Eldorado Resorts in 2020. I presided over that. I helped We created an integration with the loyalty programs. We found that we had significant improvement in results when you have a loyalty program that is integrated with multiple properties. And so that probably had about a $100 million benefit to the new acquirer. After that, I did some M&A and took a company public. And then I was in essence, uh, impersonating a retired person when I decided to do this.

But you were an entrepreneur, like, before you accepted these big corporate roles, right? So tell me about, like, yeah, some exits you had along the way. Which one was your biggest home run?

So we've had a number of exits over the years. Um, Clearnova was bought. Um, it was a rapid application development environment. Salesfusion was acquired by SugarCRM. So we've had a number, I've had some that didn't go anywhere or because of regulatory issues that changed, they just weren't going to fly. And so I sold the technology IP to usually private equity entities and they rolled that into their products and businesses. So we've done a lot of different things over the years.

And this time you're going into actual physical product and supplements. It's like your first time launching, uh, CPG, cuz you've always been in software.

Yeah, except for the first 15 years of my career where we imported and distributed, uh, very large, uh, woodworking machinery, very automated throughout North America. So we did have products. I have done product management, but not, not this kind of product. So I started off—

yeah, go ahead.

Sorry, go ahead.

How does this one feel, uh, like compared to all the last software companies that you've started? Is it like business on very hard mode, or do you also have like pleasure building that one? Because you're taking your own supplement, you're getting feedback from customers. Like, what's How does this one feel different?

It's been quite an adventure, I can tell you. I started off looking to buy individual pills of supplements, right? Capsules of, so magnesium and curcumin and that sort of thing. But, I realized that the same reason why I didn't want to just go on the internet and buy what they suggested at the fertility clinic, impacted me because I don't trust most of the supplement manufacturers that are out there. And I felt like we really needed to have something different. I mean, the difference of the technology and the, the easy button for the doctor and for the patient, that was a difference. But I believe the product is key to really having an impact in the lives of the people that work with us.

Yeah.

And so instead of just going out and buying a bunch of capsules and putting them into packets, we hired a nutritional supplement scientist and compound pharmacist that had 40 years of experience, and we crafted proprietary blends that were focused on certain health protocols. So things like anti-aging, men and women's health, GLP-1, brain health, blood sugar. You know, one of the biggest issues in our country is that 74% of the people that die, die from lifestyle illnesses. And a big one of those is what I call diabesity. Diabetes and obesity together becomes diabesity, and it kills more people than you can imagine. Uh, and so we started looking at those kinds of things when we calibrated our protocols. So these blends are proprietary to us, they're trademarked. That said, we don't hide any of the ingredients, we're fully transparent, and they're focused on giving people exactly what they need and nothing they don't. When I was taking 25 capsules a day, I cobbled it together from anecdotal conversations I'd had with other people or internet or advertising. And I said, well, I need to take these things. And I just took them all in the morning. That's not the right— that's not the right way to do it. They fight each other, right? If you got something that you should be taking in the evening and you're taking it in the morning with the other stuff, it's a problem. But I was lazy. And so I was taking 25 pills a day and and now I'm taking 13 capsules a day. I sleep better, I feel better, every area of my life is better. And I've tried all of our protocols except for the women's health. So I know that when I take these protocols, I feel better. And I, I would challenge anybody that is on supplements today, stop taking them for a few weeks. See if you feel the difference. See if your energy levels are the same. See if your sleep is the same. Your mood is the same. I think you'll find that more than likely they're not because they're fighting each other and you're getting too much of one thing and not enough of another. It's not been calibrated. So that's where we've headed with this, and the doctors love what we're doing. Most of them, when we sit down with them and explain the evidence-based foundation of our products, they love it because that's, that's what they're taught in medical school— follow the evidence. So all of our products have clinical studies behind them, and we provide all that information to the doctors, right?

So what's your B2B plan other than doctors? You and I, we talked about retail. Uh, would it be smart to email some companies and have some of their employees at the office on the, the supplementation? What, like, innovative B2B channel have you thought about?

Well, we are looking at, um, self-insured employers for their wellness programs. Um, we, we obviously go down the path of, uh, wellness practitioners like chiropractors, acupuncturists, uh, fitness centers. We really targeted originally the, uh, the trainer-based gyms, sort of the private gyms where people go and they work out with a trainer multiple times a week. Those are usually affluent patients, and we made the best, right? And the best cost money. But as we grew, we found that other practitioners wanted access to our programs. And so we reformulated some of our products so that we have sort of a good, better, or best scenario that provides access to anybody. I don't care if you're a dishwasher or a ditch digger or a CEO of a Fortune 500 company, we have something for you. And, we also added in gummies because not everybody can take capsules. You just can't put the number of actives into a gummy that you would into a capsule.

You're on. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] May not have the budget, right, $250 to pay that. So, what would you have to say to that?

So, that's why we split our program into a good, better, or best scenario. So we start at about $40 a month. These are subscriptions. It doesn't make sense to us to take something for a month and then not take it and then take it for a month and not take it. This, you know, supplementation is best when you are consistent, you have a discipline. Most people don't have either one of those. So they run out of their supplements, they forget to buy them, they stop taking them for a while. It's not easy for them. And that's why we felt like they needed an easy button. So all they have to do is take a packet in the morning and one at night, and they're good to go. They don't have to think about it. The box shows up in the mail every 30 days. It makes it really easy for them to comply with a good protocol.

With so many ingredients, how do you avoid gut distress?

Well, many of our products do have adaptogens and nootropics. And so some of them will have as many as 30 or 40 million CFUs. These are live cultures of probiotics.

I've shit myself through probiotics, by the way. So how do you make sure that these are the good kind? Yeah.

Yeah. Well, that's why we make it ourselves. We do not, we do not buy things from other people. We make them. We buy ingredients, obviously, but we test those ingredients before we use them in any of our preparations. When a new shipment comes in, we test what's in the shipment to ensure that we have quality and purity, and that way I feel good that the products that we're putting into the market are top rated regardless of whether you go good, better, or best. You're gonna get the, the efficacy of a high quality product.

In general practice, it's like mix supplementation with food, right? Like generally food is like better at hiding stuff that your gut might be, uh-uh, this is weird stuff, I'm gonna attack it. Right? So that's, that's a good protocol. Also sleep supplements. I had to try like probably 10 brands to find like one pill that was adequate that could actually help me sleep. And I've tried all the top brands, right? I've been affiliated with, with Qualia, with a whole bunch of like top supplements. And yet, a simple Mexican supplement was the one that worked. And also, I don't rely on these to sleep, right? I think it's easy to just start developing a habit of taking these pills constantly as soon as you think, oh, I'm not gonna sleep tonight. These are only used when, like, I don't know, something is weird happening to my gut and I need to sleep, so I, I take it, right? Because I don't want to keep on wasting time not sleeping. So why, why do you think I struggle so much, uh, finding the, the right fit for my sleep supplement?

Well, sleep is a hard thing. It's very individual, right? And there needs to be a foundation for quality sleep. So what we've done is we've created a blend that we found to be really effective in supporting good restorative sleep. Just because you sleep through the night or you don't wake up doesn't mean that you're getting good restorative sleep. You take a sleeping pill, you wake up groggy in the morning, right? You take melatonin, people have really bad reactions very often to melatonin. Probably 60% of the people out there will have some sort of reaction to taking melatonin. We don't include any of that in our products. What we've done is we've built out a solid foundation for solid restorative sleep. We've added in, you know, a variety of other products that support that. And what we found is It's not a situation where you wake up groggy. When I wake up in the morning, I feel refreshed. I have energy and have a good attitude. And sometimes I don't get a lot of sleep because I'm running a business. And I have employees all over the world, literally. And so sometimes I'm up late, I'm up early, And, uh, so I— but this preparation helps me have a great day regardless.

Yeah, I mean, I wouldn't say don't wake up groggy. I mean, it's improved, right, like, uh, over the years. I still have like some micro clouds over me, but I go immediately for a walk with my dogs, right? So, and then like my system With the walking starts, yeah, my metabolism is activated, right? So just walking, breathing fresh air, right? And some physical activity. I try to engage in a small jog with my dog, especially if I'm late to my first meeting, right? But yeah, what does your protocol look like, John? Like, give me your full day in your life as a biohacker.

So I believe I have to start in the morning with gratitude. I got to start with that because I've been blessed. I've had many, many blessings in my life. And I think about that. I have a connection that meditation supports to a comfort, right? And a joy in my life. I start with that. I believe that you have to have physical activity. To be healthy, right? So I start my day with meditation. I read some good stuff. I get some exercise, get that blood flowing. I eat something that's good for me instead of pancakes and syrup, right? And that is a foundation that I think is important for anybody regardless of whether or not you take supplements. If you're not doing that, see, I set my alarm for 30 minutes before I have to get up. And I've been doing that for over 40 years. I'm 67 years old now.

And you look like 50 or something.

Thank you. I appreciate that. Yeah, I find that that really makes an impact. I just feel better. You know, it sets my, it sets the tone for my day. And when I'm in my meditation, I look, I do look at my calendar after I've gone through some initial meditation. I look at my calendar and I meditate on my day. What's going to be the most important? What are the things that maybe I don't need if I get behind? And that way I avoid stress and anxiety throughout my day also.

Right. And then any other protocols? What about physical activity throughout the day? What about Yeah, supper after supper, right? Like me, I tried to crunch in the last session of work after supper. Before I get supper, workout, hard workout, sauna, cold bath, bathroom, and then yeah, eating. And then I try to crunch in my last session of work, but I find myself under-energized after supper, right? Because it's my biggest meal of the day. So I try to have a mint tea after the supper, walk with my my daughter. She's like a month old right now, so just walking with digestion helps a lot, right? Any other protocols about in that part of the day?

So I try to make sure I move during the day. If I'm not on the road, I get up and walk around. I get up from my desk and walk around. I give myself a chance for my brain to rest a little bit, right? Because if I'm all in here, my mind doesn't have an opportunity to process, right? And so it's really, really important during the day for me to have those mini meditation moments, right? Where I turn off all the screens, close my eyes, get mindful, Relax, and then I can go back into my day. I tend to have smaller meals during the day. I don't have any big meal, and I might have a little snack that's good for me, you know, a few hours before I go to bed. But I also, in the evening, have a time for meditation to review the day to ensure that I'm not missing anything that I should be thinking about and to just sort of get calm. And that really helps. That really helps a lot. And then, you know, that way I'm beginning my day in a contemplative way and I'm ending my day in a contemplative way.

Yeah, I like that. One quick insight, right? Like as entrepreneurs, I think, and especially in the age of AGI, I think the goal is, yeah, short-term, obviously still execute, right? But a bunch of us execute on random stuff that won't like bring the needle forward. And to stop executing on bullshit, I think, like you said, you need micro moments of stepping back and getting clarity, right? And if you get clarity, not only are you gonna execute on meaningful stuff, which obviously should impact your bottom line, but you're also going to be motivated, right?

Yes.

Step in behind your computer, you're like, oh, that's the one thing I need to focus on. That's what I'm after. It's like pit bull chasing iguana, right? It's like, it's like hyperfocus versus just opening your computer and then like not having clarity. And then, oh shit, what should I do now? I check my emails, that's a distraction. Then I open YouTube to listen to some music, but then I have this distracting Shorts, right, that I need to listen to. So if the brain doesn't have clarity and focus, it's just going to pick random stuff that's not going to bring the business forward. Any thoughts on that?

Well, yeah, I think first of all, one of the biggest problems I have is doing the things I want to do, not the things I need to do, right? It's very easy to look at my day and pick those things that I enjoy. But sometimes and most times, the most important things are not those things that I enjoy doing. But they're part of running my business and making sure the business is healthy. And so I have a tendency to tackle those things initially, but my day is usually segmented. I start my day catching up from the evening before because, as I said, I have a global business and I want to see what's going on in the different teams and make sure that I'm not missing anything important. And then I structure my day so that part of my day is focused on meetings and activities. And because I'm the chief sales officer too, I also want to make sure that I'm doing something to grow my business through promotion, right? I don't do all the sales, don't get me wrong, but I, you know, I'm brought in very often to help close business. And so I want to make sure I'm doing some of my day focused on that. And then some of my day in strategy because there's so much going on right now with AI and changes in policies from a regulatory point of view. I'm really, really passionate about trying to get the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare, to make a policy that requires physicians that work with them to have a wellness program and to measure that wellness program. I think with a policy like that, you have an immediate impact in our population health. And they're doing some good stuff at CMS. They've, they've gotten the universities to change their curriculum, add some wellness programs in, but it's only 40 hours in 4 years. I think there's more that they can do, and I'm hopeful that they will begin to do that.

What are your main goals for this year? What do you want to accomplish with like 7 months remaining to the year?

So we have recently launched a direct-to-consumer program. That takes a long time to do it right if you're going to use all the tools at your disposal. I've built 3 marketing automation platforms over the course of my career. The last one I mentioned that we sold to SugarCRM. So I've built a 4th now because if you're not if you're not plugged into your customers, if you're not, you don't have your finger on the pulse of the market, then you're gonna make mistakes from a product market fit. And I wanna make sure that we always are looking at what is the market looking for? What are the changes in the market that might lead us to focus on one product or another? GLP-1, for example, is huge right now. So we've got a number of initiatives around that. There's no way we're going to be able to fully, uh, execute. Uh, there's so many opportunities in that space. There's a lot of room for, for a lot of competitors here. So I don't worry a lot about competitors. We're fairly unique. The, you know, the CAGR for nutritional supplements in general is at about 7% right now, but for personalized supplements is between 15% and 17%. So we're in a growth mode. And I want to take as much of that growth as possible into my business. And so we're looking at what comes next, uh, what are the strategies that we're doing. But ultimately, I do want to begin to move into international distribution, and that takes a lot, takes a lot of money, and it requires a lot of my time, I'm sure, because we will be doing our own manufacturing in these other countries as well.

Interesting. Well, thanks for being on today, John. Where can people find out more about you?

Well, you can go to my LinkedIn page. Um, my name is John Linss, L-I-N-S-S. corespeedhealth.com is our website for just general information, and also for our practitioners, you can see what our practitioners get access to. And then we also have pharmabuilt.ai. when people hit that, there's an assessment tool that algorithmically takes them through, uh, different health needs. And we support that with AI generation of content, but the recommendation comes from our scientific foundation and they have the ability to poke around and play with that. So makes it really personalized to their needs.

So that was John and Charles for, uh,