Dan Brillman, Unite Us, on the Future of Whole-Person Health

Digital Health Forward

In this episode, we meet Dan Brillman, Co-founder and CEO of Unite Us. Unite Us is the leading outcome focused coordination technology company connecting healthcare, gov’t, and social services together to address the social determinants of health. Together, these partners are leading the care transformation movement towards whole-person care.

Unite Us recently closed a $150M Series C financing round led by ICONIQ Growth, valuing the company at over $1.6B. Investors in the round include Emerson Collective, Optum Ventures and Transformation Capital, as well as existing investors, Define Ventures, Salesforce Ventures and Town Hall Ventures, and several healthcare partners. This investment will ensure the mission-driven company is able to continue to deeply invest in community-based organizations to bring social care to the same priority level as medical care. Unite Us also recently announced the acquisition of personalized referral platform NowPow and leading analytics company Carrot Health. Unite Us and NowPow will add Carrot’s data-driven solutions to their community-based technology that predicts needs, enrolls clients in services, measures impact, and pays for community-based services through its nationwide network — creating a truly holistic experience for people receiving and providing care.

Dan graduated from Yale University in 2006 and worked in finance and consulting before joining the Air Force Reserves as a combat pilot, where he still serves today. After earning his MBA from Columbia Business School in 2012, Dan worked in venture capital in NYC at Scout Ventures, where he focused on investing and technological innovation. Dan co-founded Unite Us in 2013.

Dan is a recipient of the Jefferson Award for Public Service and was included on Business Insider’s “30 People Under 40 Changing Healthcare” in 2019. Most recently, Unite Us was named one of the top three companies in America on 2021 Forbes’ list of Best Startup Employers.

In this episode, Dan and I chat about:

• Dan’s personal story and path — from finance/consulting to joining the Air Force as a combat pilot, venture capital and ultimately, what led him to start Unite Us
• How Unite Us scaled, from the early days of serving the veteran population and in one of the most complex geographies, New York City, to serving hundreds of thousands of individuals in 42 states
• Why social determinants of health matter and the measured impact Unite Us’ platform has had on health outcomes
• What it means to take on something big in order to make long-term shifts in an industry and Dan’s 2022 ambitions for the company