Why We're Starting With Multiple Myeloma

Picking a beachhead condition is one of the highest-leverage decisions we make, and it's tempting to pick based on instinct — a condition that feels important, or one with a big, sympathetic patient population. We wanted a sharper filter than that.

What actually matters for our model

Our product is a daily check-in companion, which means it only works well for conditions people live with for years, not months. And our business model depends on pharma partners actively funding data collection right now, not someday. So we looked for conditions where three things are all true at once: a population that's genuinely hard to reach any other way, real current pharma dollars already in motion, and a slow enough disease course that a "check in daily, for years" product actually fits.

What we found

Mature drug classes don't need this — once a drug's post-marketing commitments are fulfilled, the funding dries up. Melanoma checkpoint inhibitors, approved back in 2011–2014, have only 2 active Phase 4 studies running today. That wave is closed.

Multiple myeloma is different. The newest wave of treatments — bispecific antibodies and CAR-T therapies approved between 2021 and 2024 — has 19 active Phase 4 (post-marketing) studies running right now, sponsored directly by companies like Regeneron and Johnson & Johnson. That's a live, currently-open funding window, not a historical one.

And multiple myeloma has a natural precursor population — MGUS and smoldering myeloma — that patients live with under active monitoring for years before, if ever, progressing to disease requiring treatment. That's precisely the kind of long, chronic relationship our product is built for.

What we ruled out, and why

• Pancreatic cancer and cholangiocarcinoma — both have far more competing trials than our current beachhead, but both are aggressive with short median survival. A product built around years of daily check-ins doesn't fit a disease that moves in months.
• Early-onset colorectal cancer — a real and growing problem, but currently only 16 active or upcoming trials. Less near-term pharma urgency than we needed for a first beachhead.
• Cancer survivorship broadly — a huge population (18M+ survivors in the US), but only 5 active trials right now. The need is real; the near-term funding signal isn't there yet.

Where we go next, and why it's not a jump

The same screen pointed at the expansion path. CLL and lymphoma come next — 25 active Phase 4 studies, and critically, the same hematology teams, referral networks, and drug classes as myeloma. The app, the community, and the clinical relationships extend rather than restart.

Then breast cancer, which has the largest post-marketing pool we found anywhere: 71 active Phase 4 studies, and a population living for years on ongoing therapy. It's the biggest version of exactly the problem we'll have already solved at smaller scale.

Cancer-first isn't a hedge. Across every axis that matters for this model — years-long disease courses, live post-marketing obligations, and communities that already track everything — oncology came out ahead.

Trial counts: ClinicalTrials.gov, live searches, August 2026.