In the Spotlight: Aaron Gani

Hi friends 👋 Logan here.

Happy Monday and happy May! We hope you had a great Derby weekend. We are back this week with a very special episode that is a bit rare in the Kentucky startup ecosystem - we got to chat about a Kentucky startup acquiring another technology company. It’s not often that a startup finds enough success to acquire another company, but that’s exactly what we got to sit down and discuss with Aaron Gani, Founder and CEO of RealizedCare (formerly BehaVR).

We first featured Aaron & BehaVR on the podcast almost 3 years ago for episode 150, and in case you need a refresher on what they were up to back then, BehaVR had created a VR platform to deliver virtual treatments for various cognitive disorders. Since then, the company has continued to grow, and they recently completed the acquisition of Fern Health at the end of 2023, rebranding BehaVR to RealizedCare.

Combining BehaVR’s virtual reality therapeutics platform with Fern Health’s digital care management technology has unlocked new opportunities for RealizedCare to provide personalized healthcare experiences while decreasing the cost of care.

Personally, I think it’s really cool that Middle Tech has been around long enough to watch companies evolve and make big strategic moves like this. Aaron is awesome (he’s the former CTO of Humana, btw), and the mission they’re pursing is an inspiring one. This episode is definitely worth a listen.

Key Takeaways

1. How the Introduction of AI has Changed the Business: Aaron and his team have been building this company since before AI was as mainstream as it is now. He shares a unique perspective on how they’ve adopted this new technology, both internally and as part of their platform.

2. Decreasing the Cost of Healthcare via Digitization: By delivering treatments via virtual reality (in coordination with a specialist), RealizedCare is able to dramatically decrease the cost of delivering those treatments to patients that need them. With advances in VR technologies, this is a trend we’d be willing to bet on.

3. Executing a Strategic Acquisition: Acquiring Fern Health has unlocked an even larger opportunity for Aaron and his team by integrating their VR platform with a digital care management tool, creating a product that’s more capable and more scalable.

What Else We’re Listening To

• Dream Chaser Spaceplane Environmental Test Campaign at NASA Armstrong Test Facility - I watched this because a UK grad (Jacob Ingram) is actively working on this project, which I think is super cool. Check it out if you’re interested in seeing people from Kentucky do cool stuff.

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