Backing generational founders since 2005 🗽
New York, NY
Joined November 2009
- Tweets7.4K
- Following532
- Followers21.9K
- Likes9K
FirstMark retweeted
$270M to $3B+, with fewer people than we had in 2021. The proudest work of my career, alongside the best team I know.
The point was never fewer people. It was more for patients: helping millions reach their health goals, for less.
FirstMark retweeted
It’s so cool to read stories like this.
Two of my smartest friends from college have been at Ro for a long time, unsurprising that they pulled it off but $3B is no joke!
FirstMark retweeted
In 2021, Ro was growing 9% annually with a $270M revenue run rate.
Today, it's at $3B+ with fewer employees than it had five years ago. ARR per employee has increased more than 10x.
@ZReitano shares how they refounded the company in 2022 and what changed.
My conversation with Zach Reitano (@ZReitano), co-founder and CEO of Ro
In four years he took Ro from a $250M run rate to over $3B, with about a third fewer people
Zach rarely does long conversations like this, so it was fun to talk about the details of what that took and everything happening in healthcare
Plus, his answer to the closing question is amazing
We discuss:
- the state of the US healthcare system
- refounding Ro
- strong attract, strong repel culture
- the notion of jobs over lives
- the power of celebrities in marketing
- the importance of tailwinds (AI, GLP-1s)
- trying to recreate his dad in software
Enjoy!
TIMESTAMPS
0:34 How Much Should We Spend on Health
4:59 The Patient Is Not the Customer
10:24 Inside Ro's Business
18:28 The Future of GLP-1s
25:46 Jobs Over Lives
30:02 The Turnaround
47:43 Where Healthcare Goes Next
1:00:27 Recreating His Dad in Software
1:06:33 Marketing Into Stigma
1:19:06 Zach's Hottest Take
1:20:58 The Kindest Thing
FirstMark retweeted
Have listened and learned from @patrick_oshag and his guests for years. When I decided to do this conversation, I went straight to him. Hope you enjoy it.
Still just the beginning!
My conversation with Zach Reitano (@ZReitano), co-founder and CEO of Ro
In four years he took Ro from a $250M run rate to over $3B, with about a third fewer people
Zach rarely does long conversations like this, so it was fun to talk about the details of what that took and everything happening in healthcare
Plus, his answer to the closing question is amazing
We discuss:
- the state of the US healthcare system
- refounding Ro
- strong attract, strong repel culture
- the notion of jobs over lives
- the power of celebrities in marketing
- the importance of tailwinds (AI, GLP-1s)
- trying to recreate his dad in software
Enjoy!
TIMESTAMPS
0:34 How Much Should We Spend on Health
4:59 The Patient Is Not the Customer
10:24 Inside Ro's Business
18:28 The Future of GLP-1s
25:46 Jobs Over Lives
30:02 The Turnaround
47:43 Where Healthcare Goes Next
1:00:27 Recreating His Dad in Software
1:06:33 Marketing Into Stigma
1:19:06 Zach's Hottest Take
1:20:58 The Kindest Thing
FirstMark retweeted
Nine years ago, we set out to put patients at the center of healthcare. Today, @ZReitano shared that @ro has passed $3B in ARR.
For us, this means patients want healthcare that's simpler and more accessible, and they've shown up in numbers that are hard to ignore. We've helped millions of patients, in virtually every county in America.
But a milestone isn't a destination. $3B is the proof that the model works, and clear evidence that we've built a brand and a platform that patients deeply trust. We're so thrilled to continue building on this foundation with our patients front and center!
xitter.twitterapi.xyz/ZReitano/status/212050…
Tenacious, ambitious and incredibly principled… truly one of a kind founder. Proud of @ZReitano for telling the story that is really just beginning. Let’s go @ro!
My conversation with Zach Reitano (@ZReitano), co-founder and CEO of Ro
In four years he took Ro from a $250M run rate to over $3B, with about a third fewer people
Zach rarely does long conversations like this, so it was fun to talk about the details of what that took and everything happening in healthcare
Plus, his answer to the closing question is amazing
We discuss:
- the state of the US healthcare system
- refounding Ro
- strong attract, strong repel culture
- the notion of jobs over lives
- the power of celebrities in marketing
- the importance of tailwinds (AI, GLP-1s)
- trying to recreate his dad in software
Enjoy!
TIMESTAMPS
0:34 How Much Should We Spend on Health
4:59 The Patient Is Not the Customer
10:24 Inside Ro's Business
18:28 The Future of GLP-1s
25:46 Jobs Over Lives
30:02 The Turnaround
47:43 Where Healthcare Goes Next
1:00:27 Recreating His Dad in Software
1:06:33 Marketing Into Stigma
1:19:06 Zach's Hottest Take
1:20:58 The Kindest Thing
FirstMark retweeted
Tenacious, ambitious and incredibly principled… truly one of a kind founder. Proud of @ZReitano for telling the story that is really just beginning. Let’s go @ro!
My conversation with Zach Reitano (@ZReitano), co-founder and CEO of Ro
In four years he took Ro from a $250M run rate to over $3B, with about a third fewer people
Zach rarely does long conversations like this, so it was fun to talk about the details of what that took and everything happening in healthcare
Plus, his answer to the closing question is amazing
We discuss:
- the state of the US healthcare system
- refounding Ro
- strong attract, strong repel culture
- the notion of jobs over lives
- the power of celebrities in marketing
- the importance of tailwinds (AI, GLP-1s)
- trying to recreate his dad in software
Enjoy!
TIMESTAMPS
0:34 How Much Should We Spend on Health
4:59 The Patient Is Not the Customer
10:24 Inside Ro's Business
18:28 The Future of GLP-1s
25:46 Jobs Over Lives
30:02 The Turnaround
47:43 Where Healthcare Goes Next
1:00:27 Recreating His Dad in Software
1:06:33 Marketing Into Stigma
1:19:06 Zach's Hottest Take
1:20:58 The Kindest Thing
Congratulations @saman on an incredible milestone!
It’s been an honor to be on the journey with you. Excited for what’s to come! 🚀
In 4 years, we've grown Ro's revenue 10x. Today we passed $3B ARR — with fewer employees than we had in 2021.
Since our refounding, the team has locked in every single day. With maniac levels of focus.
Grateful to fight for patients alongside @ZReitano and the entire @ro team.
We're just getting started. Wait until you see 2027.
🚀
1
7
649
@ZReitano is a singular founder and this ep is MUST listen 👇
@ro has helped millions become healthier and happier, and the company journey is full of twists and turns that every builder can learn valuable lessons from.
Incredibly proud to have backed Z and the Ro team from day one!
My conversation with Zach Reitano (@ZReitano), co-founder and CEO of Ro
In four years he took Ro from a $250M run rate to over $3B, with about a third fewer people
Zach rarely does long conversations like this, so it was fun to talk about the details of what that took and everything happening in healthcare
Plus, his answer to the closing question is amazing
We discuss:
- the state of the US healthcare system
- refounding Ro
- strong attract, strong repel culture
- the notion of jobs over lives
- the power of celebrities in marketing
- the importance of tailwinds (AI, GLP-1s)
- trying to recreate his dad in software
Enjoy!
TIMESTAMPS
0:34 How Much Should We Spend on Health
4:59 The Patient Is Not the Customer
10:24 Inside Ro's Business
18:28 The Future of GLP-1s
25:46 Jobs Over Lives
30:02 The Turnaround
47:43 Where Healthcare Goes Next
1:00:27 Recreating His Dad in Software
1:06:33 Marketing Into Stigma
1:19:06 Zach's Hottest Take
1:20:58 The Kindest Thing
FirstMark retweeted
This is gold for any entrepreneur attacking a large market, building a culture or scaling to multi billions 🚀 🚀 GO @ZReitano!
FirstMark retweeted
SurrealDB 4 is here. The database and memory for every agent. And with it, SurrealDB Earth. Serverless SurrealDB, built on @Cloudflare, that scales to as many agents and users as you need, wherever they are.
Start free on Earth, no card needed. 👉 sdb.li/4sHnxYH
FirstMark retweeted
As a customer, what I want: one central brain (AI) that can interact with me whether I text it or speak to it, whether I want to buy something or need support, and can actually do something helpful for me (agentic action) - 24/7, always in a good mood, instantly available.
The combination between @dialpad and @ada_cx creates a major new entrant pursuing this big vision.
As an investor since the Series A, excited for @mimurchison and team to go after it.
We are thrilled to share that @ada_cx and @dialpad are merging to create a new leader in agentic customer communications!
The companies of the future will be teams of people and AI agents, serving customers who increasingly have agents of their own.
Together, we’re going to power new experiences customers should expect, the collaboration businesses will need, and the communications that will make it possible.
Ada has served more than 1 billion people and deployed more than 500 customer-facing AI agents that handle complex interactions. Dialpad, founded by members of the Google Voice team, powers more than 50,000 businesses around the world.
As one company, we will make entirely new customer experiences possible: people and AI agents working as one team around every customer anticipating needs, taking on complex work and doing more than customers thought to ask. Together, we have the reach, resources and technology to bring that future to billions more people, faster.
Read Mike’s letter on what we’re building: ada.cx/full-stack-with-dialp…
FirstMark retweeted
Major moment for @SurrealDB
Building a database is an incredible grind - if you get that initial open-source pop, you then face years of unglamorous hard work to build a truly world class product
SurrealDB 4 is now that product. Multi-model (vector, graph, document), ACID compliant, w/ a rebuilt engine, native Postgres/MySQL support + massive scalability via @Cloudflare handling 10B+ peak rows/sec
The modern database for the agentic era.
SurrealDB 4 is here. The database and memory for every agent. And with it, SurrealDB Earth. Serverless SurrealDB, built on @Cloudflare, that scales to as many agents and users as you need, wherever they are.
Start free on Earth, no card needed. 👉 sdb.li/4sHnxYH
FirstMark retweeted
Models will change. Enterprises need the freedom to adapt while maintaining control over their AI.
Proud to see Dataiku named a Leader in the IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Agentic AI Platforms 2026 Vendor Assessment.
dataiku.com/blog/idc-markets…
FirstMark retweeted
We just crossed $100M in run rate.
Four quarters ago, we were at $1M. Then this year alone, we grew 37.5x.
Not long before that, we did a hard pivot- handed our old customers to competitors, rebuilt from scratch, and relaunched with a few months of runway left.
The bet was: models think on GPUs but work happens on CPUs.
So every agent that writes code, opens a browser, or runs an RL job needs a composable computer that's isolated, stateful, and ready in milliseconds.
$1M to $100M in about a year puts us in the same cohort as the likes of Anthropic and Cursor. It’s humbling to share that lane with companies we’ve learned so much from.
Congrats to @maximbarkogan, @gil_elbaz_, and the entire @Onyx_Security team for being named to the 2026-27 Fortune Cyber 60 🚀 Proud to be on the journey with you!
