Episode
335. Justin Mares, Co-Founder & CEO of Truemed
- Podcast
- Fitt Insider
- Published
- Apr 20, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 1995
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Summary
Today, I'm joined by Justin Mares, co-founder and CEO of Truemed. Truemed is scaling payment infrastructure to enable HSA/FSA spending on lifestyle-first health interventions like gym memberships, supplements, and sleep aids. In this episode, we discuss building payment rails for preventative health. We also cover: Prevention economics Securing funding from a16z Education, partnerships, and employer integrations Subscribe to the podcast → insider.fitt.co/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter → insider.fitt.co/subscribe Follow us on LinkedIn → linkedin.com/company/fittinsider Truemed's Website: www.truemed.com Newsletter: justinmares.substack.com - The Fitt Insider Podcast is brought to you by EGYM. Visit EGYM.com to learn more about its smart fitness ecosystem for fitness and health facilities. Fitt Talent: https://talent.fitt.co/ Consulting: https://consulting.fitt.co/ Investments: https://capital.fitt.co/ Chapters: (00:00) Introduction (01:18) Kettle & Fire background (02:19) Letters of medical necessity (03:42) Payment integration (05:33) Survey and approval process (06:32) Loophole criticism (08:45) Prevention economics (10:37) Broken default assumptions (11:34) Merchant excitement (13:21) Mission-driven founders (14:09) Scaling challenges (15:34) Education strategy (17:07) Partnership approach (18:12) Employer integration (19:34) Tracking outcomes (21:26) Infrastructure layer (22:12) Evidence-based future (23:06) Merchant metrics (24:26) Competitive differentiation (27:56) Insurance expansion (29:10) Data gap (30:05) a16z funding (31:41) Near-term experiments (32:27) Conclusion