Responsum Health is raising a Crowd SAFE at a $4.5 million valuation with no discount. This is an extremely fair price, far more reasonable than the vast majority of early stage startups raising crowdfunding rounds. Responsum already has significant traction with users and paying healthcare companies. The company generated $839,000 in revenue last year and even achieved profitability. With a portfolio of five live apps, a pipeline of exciting contract opportunities, and proven operational strength, Responsum seems primed to grow quickly to exceed this valuation.

There are a couple of ways to assess the market opportunity for Responsum Health. First and most simply, there were 133 million Americans suffering from a chronic illness in 2014, a number that has undoubtedly grown in years since. Back then, the National Health Council projected that 157 million Americans would have a chronic illness by 2020. That estimate could not factor in the millions of people now suffering from long-haul COVID-19. Given how many Americans COVID-19 has impacted, pharmaceutical companies would undoubtedly be extremely interested in accessing this group if Responsum could tap into even a quarter of it. 

From another angle, Responsum Health sits alongside the patient engagement solutions market, which is growing rapidly. It was sized at $15.1 billion in 2020, with an expected annual growth rate of 21.4% for the next seven years. As the medical field increasingly goes digital, Responsum Health has a major opportunity to own the market for a variety of chronic illnesses. 

It’s difficult to precisely assess how many prospective clients Responsum Health could target, and the company doesn’t share many details on the precise contract structure and revenue opportunity from these deals. However, it’s clear that Responsum Health is addressing a huge and growing population with a tool well-suited for tailwinds in the medical industry. The company is well-positioned to grow alongside its target market.

Responsum Health was founded by Andrew Rosenberg, a public policy expert with decades of experience in politics and government affairs. Rosenberg’s career on Capitol Hill was focused on healthcare and disability policy, including a stint on the staff of Senator Edward Kennedy, a renowned healthcare policy leader. Rosenberg co-founded Thorn Run Partners, a leading government relations firm that focuses on health policy. Rosenberg has advised numerous healthcare sector stakeholders and spent six years on the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute Advisory Board on Clinical Effectiveness and Decisions Science. Rosenberg holds a BA from Amherst and a law degree from the University of Virginia. 

Beyond Rosenberg, the Responsum health team includes Vice President of Operations Yury Salazar Smith and a handful of contractors. Salazar Smith’s qualifications are unknown. Her LinkedIn profile is blank before Responsum. 

The Responsum Health team is very strong given founder Andrew Rosenberg’s significant healthcare expertise. It’s worth noting that the rest of the Responsum team isn’t as obviously qualified, and Rosenberg likely works on Responsum part-time alongside his other consulting projects. However, he clearly has the expertise needed to integrate Responsum with the healthcare market, which bodes well for the company’s future success. 

Differentiation is Responsum Health’s biggest weakness. While the core concept of the Responsum product (a simple way for patients to engage with chronic disease information) is obviously valuable, there’s little reason why a competitor couldn’t build a similar product. Responsum’s technology isn’t obviously proprietary, and the company doesn’t seem to have defined a particularly unique way to aggregate and vet medical content. Without a full-time engineering team, it seems unlikely that Responsum’s product will evolve quickly, which poses a risk from competition. These are concerns which Responsum will need to address as it expands.

Responsum Health has strong performance indicators. Financially, the company is growing sustainably. Responsum generated $839,500 in revenue last year but only spent about $730,000. That resulted in a profitable net income of $110,153. Responsum seems to have the potential to continue scaling profitably in years to come, given how well-developed the company’s technology already is and the strength of deals in the pipeline. 

Regarding those deals, Responsum has demonstrated a strong ability to win contracts with healthcare companies interested in accessing its community of patients. The company has built out various compelling use cases for these clients, ranging from access to a pool of clinical trial participants to the ability to promote healthy disease management. Companies in the pipeline include Lilly, AstraZeneca, Bristol-Meyers Squibb, the National Institutes of Health, and more. 

It’s worth noting that Responsum first started in 2014, so it’s not as though the company has moved from zero traction to this level of traction in a short time. However, Responsum has a validated business model, has already achieved profitability, and has great opportunities to continue expanding in the near future.

Responsum Health is a relatively low-risk investment compared to other crowdfunding deals. Responsum has validated its business model already with established revenue streams and even profitability. The primary risk at this point is Responsum’s team, which only seems to include one full-time staff member (who is not the founder). While minimizing staff is undoubtedly one reason Responsum has been capital-efficient thus far, scaling will be difficult to achieve without a larger investment in personnel. Beyond team risk, investors should note minor risks in terms of time, product, and funding. Tied together, there’s a risk that Responsum can’t build a high-quality product fast enough without more funding. All in all, though, Responsum is a proven, de-risked business. 

Responsum Health has achieved strong traction with a minimal staff. That’s impressive and is a major reason why Responsum achieved profitability last year. However, prospective investors may be concerned that this lack of staff reflects a broader lack of interest in resource investment for Responsum’s growth. The company’s founder isn’t fully dedicated. Without more significant time spent from leadership, Responsum may be able to continue to grow, just at a slower pace than most startups. A senior engineering or product hire may be necessary to push the Responsum platform forward, making it stickier for patient users and thus more attractive to paying healthcare clients. Without these investments, there’s a risk that Responsum might not deliver strong value to investors. 

Responsum Health was organized under a simple premise: help chronic illness patients better learn about and manage their diseases. The need for a solution like this is very compelling, with nearly half of American adults struggling with some form of chronic illness. The best part is that helping patients live healthier lives also makes strong business sense given Responsum’s revenue model. Responsum has a patient community and dataset that healthcare companies are willing to pay for. It seems like a win-win for all entities involved. 

Responsum Health began as a research project in conjunction with Carnegie Mellon University graduate students. Since then, the company has grown steadily to become a trusted resource for patients and a valuable asset for healthcare companies. With nearly $1 million in revenue last year and a positive net income, Responsum Health is proving product-market fit on both the patient and enterprise client side. It’s no surprise that the founder behind this success has deep ties to the healthcare sector, undoubtedly facilitating the company’s strong sales pipeline. 

Responsum Health is a well-established, profitable business offering potentially life-saving resources to chronic illness patients. Given the major pharmaceutical deals in the works for 2021 and beyond, Responsum has strong potential to scale significantly and deliver strong value to investors. 

Responsum Health has created five disease-specific apps to gather a community of chronic disease patients and share vetted, organized resources to help them manage their conditions. Healthcare companies — ranging from research entities like the National Institutes of Health to pharmaceutical giants like AstraZeneca — are willing to pay for access to these communities. They can run clinical trials, receive survey responses, and improve patient knowledge and medication adherence. Responsum generated roughly $840,000 in revenue last year and turned a profit of more than $100,000. Strong, profitable performance like that matched with exciting potential for future deals makes Responsum a prime investment opportunity. 

Prospective investors should consider that Responsum doesn’t have a large team right now. Even the company’s founder doesn’t seem to be fully dedicated, as he continues running a large public affairs consultancy that he co-founded. Responsum Health might not scale very quickly unless its team grows and the product continues to develop. Even then, there’s a strong chance that investors can still reap returns at this fair valuation. Therefore, Responsum Health has been rated a Deal to Watch. 

For questions regarding the KingsCrowd staff pick or ratings for this company, please reach out to support@kingscrowd.com.