Breakthrough Labs

General Atlantic Managing Director and Global Head of Healthcare Robb Vorhoff sits down with Mike Pykosz, CEO and Co-Founder of Oak Street Health, a network of value-based primary care centers for adults on Medicare and the only primary care provider to carry the AARP name. They discuss Mike's journey into the world of entrepreneurship after attending law school and spending six years in BCG's healthcare group advising payers; his decision to found the company alongside Geoff Price and Griffin Myers, MD, after witnessing the shortcomings of the traditional fee-for-service model; the day-to-day challenges of Oak Street Health's early days, dealing with the practicalities of founding a business including setting up a Chase business checking account; the ever-changing nature of Mike's role at the company and the new challenges brought on by the business scaling and eventually going public; the impact of COVID on Oak Street Health, and how the company adapted quickly to embrace the new needs of customers with telehealth and vaccine centers; merits and growth of the value-based care model of healthcare, and why Oak Street and other providers have been able to offer Americans better health outcomes for less; reasons behind the healthcare industry's slow adoption of technology; his views on how to select the right investment partner for your business that is aligned with your vision; and other topics.

Martín Escobari sits down with Guilherme Benchimol, Founder and Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors at XP Inc., a leading, technology-driven financial services platform and a trusted provider of low-fee financial products and services in Brazil. They discuss Guilherme's decision at twenty-four to hang out his own shingle after being let go from a job at a brokerage firm; the early days of XP inside a 270-square foot room, and the 'aha' moment about financial education that led to the company's first wave of loyal customers; the ongoing importance of live events to XP's customer engagement, based on lessons learned from US brokerage firm Charles Schwab; the three values that define XP's meritocratic culture, including having an entrepreneurial spirit, and the creative approach that XP takes to employee feedback; Guilherme's transition out of the CEO role, and the theory that got him thinking about making a change; the differences between the business cultures in Latin America and the U.S., including views about making mistakes; the importance of finding an investment partner who is willing to get in the trenches; and other topics.

General Atlantic's Anish Batlaw, Managing Director and leader of Human Capital strategies to support the firm's portfolio, sits down with Bob Bennett, Founder & CEO of EngageSmart, a leading provider of vertically tailored customer engagement software and integrated payments solutions. They discuss Bob's early entrepreneurial experiences, working at a campground marina in Maine as a teenager; Bob's first company, MicroFridge, and key lessons he learned as a young founder; the humble beginnings that paved the way to where EngageSmart is today; the company's customer focused product leadership; and Bob's unique approach to leadership and cultivating a collaborative culture that has helped him scale EngageSmart to north of 900 employees.

In the first episode of the podcast, Bill Ford sits down with Tom Vice, CEO of Sierra Space, a leading commercial space company at the forefront of creating and building the future of space transportation and infrastructure for low-Earth orbit commercialization. They discuss Tom's early fascination with aerospace engineering, including stealthy afternoon trips to walk through out-of-commission planes parked at an Air Force Base near his childhood home; Tom's journey through the aerospace industry, from Northrop Grumman to Aerion to Sierra Space; the next-generation technology that the Sierra Space team is building, including the DreamChaser, the world's only runway-landing spaceplane for civil & commercial use, and the Orbital Reef, the first commercially owned and operated space station; a partnership with Blue Origin to chart a new future for the International Space Station in a project for NASA; why the environmental conditions in space allow for pioneering scientific and medical research as well as disruptive innovations in telecoms, energy and other industries; lessons in leadership, such as the vital role of empathy in fostering successful collaboration; the mission-driven mindset that distinguishes the next generation of employees; and other topics.