From building an alternative health plan to powering them: what Yuzu learned and why they pivoted | Russell Pekala & Will Gillach

Russell co-founded Yuzu as a health plan before pivoting to become the infrastructure layer powering alternative health plans.

He walks through what the team learned building a plan from scratch: that technology alone doesn't differentiate, that the employers most in need aren't startups but cost-pressured blue-collar businesses, and that the real opportunity was in powering the plans already winning on price rather than competing with them. 

The conversation covers how alternative health plans are beating traditional major health plans through reference-based pricing, direct primary care, and navigated cash pay, and why those plans needed an all-in-one TPA and platform to operationalize it.

Russell also discusses the $35M raise and the growing employer appetite for alternatives as healthcare costs continue to rise.

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