Mar 14, 2025 · 28m · tbpn
Justin Mares talks Tru Med, MAHA, and the Future of CPG.
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Serial entrepreneur and angel investor Justin Mares discusses TruMed's mission to fund preventative healthcare through HSAs, the operational integration of AI in consumer brands, and actionable strategies to address America's chronic disease and toxic food crisis.
How this conversation actually went
Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. How this is scored →
The hosts as informed peer 4.1 Guest teaching 4.0 Guest disagreement 1.5 The hosts pushing back 0.9
speaking balance: gold is the hosts, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 16:40 Condemning the medical system for profiting off chronic illness
Justin forcefully condemns the modern medical-industrial complex, asserting that patients are made sick by a toxic environment and then drugged for institutional profit.
Hardest push from the hosts ▶ 26:00 Pushing back against the ribeye satiety limitJohn immediately interrupts and rejects Justin's assertion that one cannot eat three ribeyes in a row, defending his junkyard dog eating habits.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 23:12 Detailing supply chain nutrient depletion ratesJustin educates the hosts on agricultural logistics, explaining how produce like spinach loses 70 to 90 percent of its nutritional value over a standard 12-day distribution cycle.
The host holds their own ▶ 19:47 Extending Atrazine lore to Jurassic Park and media cyclesJohn demonstrates impressive historical recall by citing the original Berkeley study behind pesticide endocrine disruption and explaining how Michael Crichton incorporated it into Jurassic Park.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | The hosts as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | The hosts pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Welcome and Banter on Forbes Cover | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | The conversation opens with friendly banter regarding Justin's Forbes cover and the SF versus Austin tech scenes. The tone is highly collaborative and casual, with Justin sharing his viewpoint on why AI founders belong in San Francisco. | |
| TruMed's $36M Funding and Healthcare FinTech Mission | 4 | 5 | 1 | 1 | Justin announces TruMed's $36M round led by a16z and explains how IRS rules allow HSA/FSA funds for preventative health. John asks an informed architectural question about expanding from e-commerce checkout to physical POS layers. | |
| Brotherly Ventures and Tackling Environmental Toxins with Light Labs | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | Justin discusses his brother's venture Light Labs and asserts that the American food supply is toxic to weak-willed consumers. The hosts engage with self-deprecating humor regarding John's 'junkyard dog' diet. | |
| Angel Investing Strategy and Sourcing Alpha | 4 | 4 | 1 | 0 | Justin shares his early angel investments in Crusoe Energy and Mindbloom, emphasizing Bay Area founder proximity as an information edge. Jordy and John validate the thesis and discuss the strategy of backing talented peers early. | |
| Early-Stage Check Writing and Valuation Philosophy | 3 | 5 | 1 | 0 | Justin explains his pre-seed pricing advantages through being the first check and outlines how Kettle & Fire utilizes AI to streamline copywriting and factory operations. The hosts listen and prompt for operational details. | |
| The MAHA Movement and Fixing America's Chronic Health Crisis | 3 | 6 | 3 | 1 | Justin critiques the $4.5T healthcare system for incentivizing chronic disease management with pharmaceutical prescriptions over root-cause fixes. The hosts ask clarifying questions about clinical obesity definitions and entrepreneurial opportunities. | |
| Environmental Toxins, Atrazine, and Cultural Perceptions | 7 | 4 | 2 | 2 | Justin highlights pesticide deregulation such as Atrazine, referencing its hormonal impact on frogs. John showcases deep domain trivia by tracing the research origin to a Berkeley professor and its cultural adaptation into Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park. | |
| Information Sourcing, Nutrient Depletion, and Naturalist Nutrition | 4 | 6 | 2 | 1 | Justin explains modern soil and transport nutrient depletion, noting that spinach loses 70-90% of its nutrients during the 12-day supply chain transit. Jordy probes whether the solution lies in GMO biofortification or naturalist local sourcing. | |
| The Efficient Markets Diet and Satiety Mechanics | 7 | 4 | 2 | 3 | John presents his theoretical 'Efficient Markets Diet' framework, proposing that price correlates directly with nutrient purity. Justin agrees and elaborates on biological satiety mechanisms, prompting playful pushback from John on slamming ribeyes. | |
| Wrapping Up and TruMed as the Ultimate Tax Optimizer | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | The segment concludes with humorous banter about TruMed functioning as a private tax-elimination loophole before the hosts thank Justin and sign off. |
Statements from this episode (15)
Mares: Building an AI startup outside San Francisco is a bad idea
“The reality is I think that like in SF, if you're building an AI company and you're not an SF right now, it's just, it just seems like a bad idea. Like you should just move to the place where all the AI stuff is, is happening outside of that though.”
Mares: Austin is a much better hub for health and defense tech than SF
“I mean, I think that you could make a pretty compelling argument that Austin is a way better place to build a health company, a defense tech company, like any number of these sort of hard tech or other companies that You know, the Bay doesn't necessarily have …”
Justin Mares: TruMed raised $36M led by Andreessen Horowitz
“The big news is that we actually closed a round led by Andreessen Horowitz. Yeah, so we raised thirty six million dollars led by Andreessen Horowitz.”
Mares: Exercise and sleep treat chronic conditions better than pharmaceuticals
“If you look at studies, they show that exercise, sleep supplements, all these things actually work better for treating many chronic conditions than, you know, SSRIs or any such sort of other like pharmaceutical intervention.”
Mares: The US food system is poisonous to weak-willed Americans
“The American food system is basically poisonous to weak willed people like most Americans.”
Mares: Engaging founders pre-launch yields angel pricing advantages
“If you can play some role in the journey that your friends have, or like other people, you know, have, In going from, should I start a thing to I'm doing this thing? Oftentimes you have pricing advantage of that, but you're also like part of the journey and pa…”
Mares: Kettle & Fire Has Stopped Hiring Copywriters and Ad Creators
“For Kettle and Fire specifically, we are not hiring like ad creators. We're not hiring copywriters. Like there was this whole slew of marketing adjacent people that we previously, you know, had to hire. We had a copywriter for the first like five and a half ye…”
Mares: Kettle & Fire Is Building a 150,000-Square-Foot Factory
“We are building a factory. It's like a massive 150,000 square foot bone broth you know, bone broth kind of spot.”
Mares: 90% of $4.5T Annual US Healthcare Spend Goes to Chronic Conditions
“Like healthcare, four and a half trillion dollars a year in spend. 90% of that goes towards chronic conditions.”
Mares: Atrazine is the third most used US pesticide and banned elsewhere
“Our third most popular pesticide is called atrazine. Just to give an example, it's banned in the EU, banned in Mexico banned in Canada. Third most popular pesticide in the US.”
Mares: Atrazine exposure turns 40% of male frogs into fertile females
“And provably, when you expose atrazine, expose male frogs to atrazine, like four out of 10 of them become female frogs to the point where they can bear offspring.”
Mares: Environmental toxins will be the biggest trend of the next decade
“I think environmental toxins are going to be the biggest trend of the next decade. And we just don't even understand or begin to understand how bad a lot of these things are.”
Mares: Average American food is 40% to 70% less nutrient dense than 50 years ago
“Like, you know, the average American's food is something like between 40 and 70% less nutrient dense than it was even just 50 years ago.”
Mares: Spinach loses 70% to 90% of nutrient density during 12-day transit
“Like if you grow, you know, spinach in California, package it, put it on average, like a 12 day kind of like supply, put it through the supply chain. It gets to where you're eating at 12 days later. In that 12 day period, that spinach is going to lose like rou…”
Mares: Keto Lost Staying Power Because People Ate Low-Quality High-Fat Foods
“And this is why things like keto didn't have necessarily the staying power where people were like, oh, that means I can buy dog shit cheese and dip it in butter and just like max out on fat content and not eat any, like anything healthy.”