In this week’s How I See It, I sat down with Steve Martocci. You probably know him as the co-founder of GroupMe and Splice, two groundbreaking startups. But what you might not know is that behind the exits and accolades, Steve was battling his weight, his health, and the toll that an all-in startup life can take on your body and mind.
Fast-forward to today, and Steve is healthier, happier, a new dad, and the founder of SuppCo; a company helping people take control of their supplement stacks and their health in a way that’s clear, personalized, and finally trustworthy.
And this last one is important because there’s so much noise out there regarding supplements. If you scroll your instagram feed and search for any supplement, you’re bound to discover that somehow everything’s a gamechanger. Not to mention we’ve placed biohacking ahead of the basics while every influencer wants to sell you the next big thing that’s going to change your life! What bullshit. Add in the fact that nothing’s regulated and it’s easy to feel lost and not know which products are legit. If this sounds like you, you’re going to want to listen to our conversation.
Steve and I talk about taking control of your supplement regimen, transformation, priorities, and the reality of midlife: how to stop sacrificing your health at the altar of your career. Let’s get into it.
Click Here to Watch the Full HISI Interview!
On Health as a Journey:
“This health journey is a constant journey. Right now, I’m studying genetics, which is a new frontier for me.”
On Personalization in Health:
“A good supplement stack is an evolving process. You have to prioritize the things that are most core to you, build that, get the right products, take them for a period of time, and then refine and refine and remove and add. It’s like a living thing, and you’re building a relationship with it.”
On Data-Driven Decisions:
“You need to work from the right set of data. Do a full function labs panel or something similar, do a full body MRI, and do a calcium scan of your heart. That gives you a great baseline to build your routine from.”
On Trust in the Supplement Industry:
“People don’t know who to trust. People are overpaying for things, people don’t take stuff at the right time, and people overtake stuff. We’re just going to make sense of the whole thing, the end-to-end supplement experience, and do it in a way that’s not designed to just say you should take more.”
On Avoiding Over-Optimization:
“There’s a difference between the biomaxers and a true biohacker. A true biohacker is like, ‘Okay, I got this much time, what is the highest efficiency thing I can do to accommodate a reasonable lifestyle?’ You can’t do everything, and even if you have all the time in the world, it still sounds exhausting.”
On Accountability:
“I’ve had to use a personal trainer. I’ve had to set pretty clear boundaries on the non-negotiables, and I need someone else to help hold me accountable. That’s just me, and I know I don’t have the health work ethic as strong as I wish I did.”
On the Power of Diagnostics:
“Too many people are walking around with a ticking time bomb in their heart and have no idea. Even a basic calcium score to know if you have plaque at all can save your life. You need to get the diagnostics and get an understanding of what your baseline is.”
On Genetics and Health:
“My brother has had cardiomyopathy since his 20s, and just yesterday, he found out the cause is a gene mutation that’s extremely hereditary. It’s a 50-50 shot that I have it, and one of the side effects is inability to gain muscle.”
On Building for Yourself:
“Everything always works for me when I have something that’s deeply, personally motivating. GroupMe was made for our friends, Splice was made to help my musician friends, and SuppCo is made to help people get healthy in the way that I did. My canvas for creation is software and code.”
On the Value of Community:
“I joined a men’s group that has been really powerful for me. We would meet once a week for two hours, and it was very intense work. The camaraderie and the ability to hold space for someone else is extremely unique and fulfilling.”
On Emotional Presence:
“Are you capable of being present to what emotion is most present in your body at a given point? Can you just drop into that and not have a big story around it, but really feel into yourself? The amount of release and clarity you can feel once you just identify what’s sitting inside you is extremely powerful.”
On Self-Image:
“I did a tummy tuck in 2020, and it changed my life. I was like, ‘Oh my God, I don’t have a big hanging sack of skin in my stomach anymore.’ It motivated me to actually see myself losing weight, and it was a huge boost to my confidence.”
On the Importance of Feedback Loops:
“The feedback loop of love and support from people who are talking about how much this is needed really helps fuel me to drive more and build more. I just love it. I’m running it a bit differently this time, at a pace that feels really healthy and sustainable.”
On Customer Loyalty:
“I remember hitting a supplement brand up after five years of taking their product, asking for a discount, and they said no. There’s no customer loyalty, and it’s wild. We’re interested in doing things differently, playing the long game, and focusing on healthy outcomes.”
On Product Ratings and Transparency:
“It’s a 29-attribute system. We have a team that does as much research as they can, emailing customer support, scouring for documents, and dialoguing with brands. We’re trying to do it in a way that feels fair and unbiased.”
On Integrating Individual and Institutional Knowledge:
“It’s the battle of the individual and the institution. We’re trying to move into a more integrated space, understanding what individual data is worth, what clinical data is worth, and letting people have agency over their health. It’s about presenting all modalities in an unbiased way.”
On Setting Proper Expectations:
“The easiest thing to do to feel healthier today is press buy on a supplement. A lot of people end up going to supplements first and might have the wrong expectations. We want to properly set expectations and help people understand the right order: diet, exercise, sleep, and then supplements.”
On Leveraging AI in Work:
“I have a team of like 10 junior developers that work for me, and then I’m doing review and tweaks and deployment. Each one of us is becoming the mythical 10x engineer. The tools are just going to get better, and you have to immerse yourself in them to stay ahead.”
On the Value of Experimentation:
“Try not taking it for a month. See where it goes, not taking it for a month. I think this is the thing you’re going to see from us as we get into next year or two: put it all to the test and give it a shot.”
In health,
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Greg Scheinman
Founder, Midlife Male
52. Husband. Father. Entrepreneur. Coach.
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