His First Company Went Public For $3.5 Billion, Now He’s Reversing Type 2 Diabetes For 100 Million

In this first episode of The Eric Ries Show, I sit down with serial entrepreneur and intrepid explorer, Sami Inkinen. Sami has co-founded two companies: Trulia and Virta Health. After Trulia was acquired by Zillow for $3.5 billion, he rowed from California to Hawaii with his wife, unassisted. What can’t this guy do? Now, he’s on a mission to reverse type 2 diabetes in 100 million people with his latest venture, Virta Health. In this episode, we discuss: In the interview, we cover: • How Sami got started as an entrepreneur coming over to America with no experience • What it was like to IPO during his time at Trulia  • What he’s learned raising money after a market crash and a zero-interest environment • The best way he found to get great talent • Why Virta is a mission-based company disguised as a for-profit company • What he learned rowing unassisted to Hawaii from California • Why he says you should create a mission that is both simple and ambitious   • And so much more — Brought to you by: Mercury – The art of simplified finances https://mercury.com/ DigitalOcean – The cloud loved by developers and founders alike https://try.digitalocean.com/eric/ Neo4j – The graph database and analytics leader https://neo4j.com/eric/ — Where to find Sami Inkinen: • X: https://twitter.com/samiinkinen  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samiinkinen/  • Website: ​​https://www.samiinkinen.com/  — Where to find Eric: • Newsletter: https://ericries.carrd.co/  • Podcast: https://ericriesshow.com/  • X: https://twitter.com/ericries  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eries/  • YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@theericriesshow  — In This Episode We Cover: (00:00) Welcome to the first episode of the Eric Ries Show (00:35) Meet our guest Sami Inkinen (05:20) Sami reflects on Trulia’s IPO (08:20) How Sami started in entrepreneurship (11:10) Sami’s founding story for Trulia (acquired by Zillow for $2.5 billion) (16:40) Why most people never end up starting a business (18:57) How to find better talent as a founder (23:15) Sami shares how much money he raised for Zillow and Virta (25:20) Sami’s lessons on how to get momentum for your startup (30:30) What changed when Sami took his company public (38:00) Why Sami decided to start Virta and take on type 2 diabetes  (41:55) How type 2 diabetes can affect anyone, even a high-performing endurance athlete (47:36) Sami shares what he tells each founder when they ask for his investment  (53:20) The importance of defining your mission that is both simple and ambitious  (57:30) Trust leads to success  (1:03:07) A mission-based company disguised as a for-profit company   (1:08:10) How Sami built an economic model built on helping his customers (1:14:00) More details on how Sami set up Virta’s company structure  (1:17:08) What is a GLP-1 drug and how Virta is a GLP-1 off-ramp  (1:24:32) Sami’s approach to leadership  (1:26:02) Why Finland maximizes human capital better than most (1:28:00) What are Sami’s thoughts on AI  (1:30:15) How to become one with your pain — Referenced:  • Virta Health: https://www.virtahealth.com/  • Virta Health YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/VirtaHealth  • Trulia Acquired By Zillow: https://zillow.mediaroom.com/2014-07-28-Zillow-Announces-Acquisition-of-Trulia-for-3-5-Billion-in-Stock  • Type 2 Diabetes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_2_diabetes  • GLP-1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GLP-1_receptor_agonist  • Ozempic: https://www.ozempic.com/  • Buddhist Parables Of The Arrow: https://grandrapidstherapygroup.com/second-arrow-of-suffering/  — Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email jordan@penname.co  Eric may be an investor in the companies discussed.