Rapidly Growing Consumer Health Care Startup Expands to Cincinnati

Why the Queen City is a key part of TruePill’s nationwide project

In 2020, Silicon Valley-based TruePill was named Business Journal’s 2020 fastest-growing private company, boasting a growth rate of a whopping 1698%. But the company wants to continue that growth, and is turning to the Cincinnati area for its next expansion efforts. Late last year, the company announced that it would be opening a nearly 21,000-square-foot pharmaceutical fulfillment facility in Sharonville that will help the company improve service to its patients, bring its services to a central location and benefit from the logistical advantages of Ohio.

“We looked at our patient population and where we see gaps in our existing pharmacies, and Ohio was the first answer we had for where we needed a site,” said Rebecca Wolfe, director of business operations and strategy. “We have a big presence in California, New York, Washington, Florida and Texas, so we didn’t have a presence in the Midwest. We wanted to get somewhere central and Ohio made sense for a number of reasons. The patient population is there and we’re close to all the major shipping carriers there, which allows us to give same-day shipping for patients. This location decreases the time it takes something to go from our facility into a patient’s hands, which is really critical for us.”

TruePill is particularly exciting because of their focus on health care for the modern world. The company has already partnered with a variety of companies — like Hims, GoodRx or Nurx — to help expand telehealth and prescription capabilities.

“We’re powering the shift of consumer-driven health care,” Wolfe said. “We started out when we first launched, really focused on pharmacy fulfillment, mostly for direct-to-consumer health brands as our starting point. Since then, we’ve continued adding layers and added telehealth and diagnostics as well, providing a platform across the board. We have the ability to partner with customers across the healthcare world, from payers and provider groups to health brands and manufacturers.”

The company’s expansion into Ohio isn’t just about proximity to customers or easier logistics. Wolfe said TruePill received major help from Ohio organizations like REDI Cincinnati and JobsOhio, who made the process easier and highlighted the area’s benefits. She also said the expansion will help TruePill continue to grow existing partnerships and add corporate partners, a key part of their strategy. And to do all that, they needed the right mix of benefits, economic environment and local talent.

“When we were looking at Ohio, one of the key things that jumped out about Cincinnati was the fit,” she said. “We did a lot of research on pharmacy regulations in different states and where there was a board of pharmacy that was great to work with. And with a 21,000-square-foot facility that has not only pharmacy fulfillment but also a lot of front-end processing and functions, we needed to be somewhere where there was a good labor market to fill all different types of roles. We worked closely with the REDI Cincinnati team, who shared a lot of data with us. Sharonville perfectly fit our needs for the site and met all the requirements we had.”

In the process, TruePill will bring more than 120 jobs to Sharonville over the next three years. Wolfe said the company should be opening the facility relatively soon, and is working on hiring in many areas now, from pharmacy to IT. Those who join the process will be working to improve health care as a whole, which is the goal of everything TruePill does.

“We want to improve the experiences of consumer-driven health care across the board,” Wolfe said. “Health care is slow to move forward in some ways, so we’re helping companies create truly consumer-centric experiences. There are a lot of other industries that do this really well, but when you think of health care, there are a lot of different pain points that come into play. If you get a traditional prescription, you have to physically go to a pharmacy and go through all the steps involved there. You may not even have the ability to see a doctor or get medication from the comfort of your own home. That’s what we want to be able to drive, and we want to do so from a business-to-business perspective.”