#152: Jim Pshock (Bravo Wellness)

Lay of The Land

Jim Pshock, Founder of Bravo Wellness, which he successfully exited to Medical Mutual in 2020.

After 20 years working in the insurance industry, Jim observed a need and a niche for employee wellness incentives, as health claims data indicated that the vast majority of healthcare spending is related to lifestyle-influenced & largely preventable claims. Health risks such as obesity, tobacco use, and low participation in health screenings that provide early detection of problems were directly correlated with rising costs in healthcare and a poorer quality of life for millions of people.

In 2008, Jim founded Bravo Wellness to improve these lifestyle numbers, saving all parties involved a significant amount of money and improving and extending the lifespans of participating people by offering an outcomes and progress-based-incentive-program that rewards those achieving health goals and provides alternatives for those who are medically unable to meet those goals.

From inception to acquisition, Jim grew Bravo Wellness to serve over 2 million members nationally with over 175 employees, 150 of which were here in Cleveland.

This was an awesome conversation and Jim is an awesome person — we cover everything from the wisdom of lessons learned in kindergarten, to the power of incentives in everyday life, post-acquisition reflections, to what Jim is focused on now, with the bandwidth to invest in other entrepreneurs, advise, consult and be intentional about his work as he spends more time with his family.

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LINKS:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jim-pshock-0343a0a/

https://www.medmutual.com/

https://www.bravowell.com/

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Past guests include Justin Bibb (Mayor of Cleveland), Pat Conway (Great Lakes Brewing), Steve Potash (OverDrive), Umberto P. Fedeli (The Fedeli Group), Lila Mills (Signal Cleveland), Stewart Kohl (The Riverside Company), Mitch Kroll (Findaway — Acquired by Spotify), and many more.

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