An Interview with Wellphoria Founder Vin Cardillo

Recently Reality Sandwich and Evolver entered into an arrangement with Wellphoria, a directory-membership service for alternative and holistic healthcare where members can receive up to a 30% discount from service providers. For every purchase of a Wellphoria membership that comes through the banner ads on our websites, we receive a percentage of the sale. We wanted the RS/Evolver community to know more about this innovative program, so we talked with Vin Cardillo, founder of Wellphoria and the Wellphoria Foundation, about his company and the vision that drives it.

Chris Kaplan:  You founded the new Wellphoria alternative healthcare service which has access to 37,000 wellness providers. What made you move in this direction? Do you have any background in alternative/holistic healthcare?  

Vin Cardillo: I like to think of myself as a business guy turned social entrepreneur. I spent ten years in the dental industry and after being successful in my previous business it became boring and unfulfilling. I decided to make a transition and sold my business. I spent a couple years contemplating what my next venture would be.  I looked at companies to buy, companies to invest in, but nothing was really hitting home for me.  

I took some time off to figure out what I wanted to do next.  This turned out to be a more difficult task than I expected. I decided to try and create my own business concept based on the things that are important to me and my life. It's been about seven years since I began practicing Yoga.  It's since grown to be a part of my life and who I am. I continue to practice and meditate daily. So I started to think about creating this new business and came up with some non-business criteria:

I wanted to prove that a business can provide profits, and happiness, all the while having a positive impact on the community. Because I know that running a start-up, or any company consumes time, and at first it would be limited. Giving back to the community was important; the business had to be able to support giving back.  Hence 5% of membership fees going to one of five charities, and 10% of profits going to the Wellphoria Foundation.  

I also wanted to raise the awareness of natural living. We can do this by showing people all the options that exist out there so it's easy to find providers, websites, products, retreat centers, etc. And by giving them the ability to obtain these products/services at a savings allows them to have more of it. I wanted to surround myself in a business, and people in that natural living space, by doing so it will help me to live this type of a lifestyle and continue to grow.

What we have seen is just phase one of Wellphoria. We have multiple phases to implement that are quite encompassing.  But it's our mission to create a community and marketplace that connects natural living providers and merchants to wellness seekers in a socially responsible manner.  We improve peoples' lives by educating, supporting, and creating awareness in natural and healthy living.  Our vision is deep rooted to where we plan on assisting providers to build and grow their businesses also.

The Wellphoria Foundation's mission is to help children and their families achieve healthier lifestyles through improved nutrition, urban renewal projects, and more.  The Wellphoria Foundation will aim to foster healthier families and communities, and aid the homeless. Together with our partnering providers, we will be working with local community centers to create a community-based natural living center. 

Joining Wellphoria gives members a 10%-30% discount with any of the affiliated providers. How is it decided what is covered by the discount for Wellphoria members? Is it based on the individual providers, or does the % apply across the board?

Our providers do not pay to be on the network, they are agreeing to give a discount and it is their choice between 10%-30%.

You currently have 37,000 affiliate providers. How do you see Wellphoria growing in the future?

The goal is to have about 150,000 (providers, merchants and websites) all providing our members savings and/or incentives.  Our goal is to have 850,000 members.  So the combination of merchants and members gets us to 1,000,000.  There is no doubt that this is an audacious goal, however we feel that it will become an economic no-brainer to join. As part of this, we plan to bring the providers/merchants together with their members. We feel strongly that grass roots efforts such as Evolver and Reality Sandwich are integral to believing and becoming part or the Wellphoria community.  

In the wake of the Health Care Reform bill, many people are disappointed with the overall lack of change it presented, mainly the lack of a public option. Though a necessary first step, does this have a positive or negative effect on something like Wellphoria? Is there any talk of working with insurance providers? 

Well, many of the services provided on the Wellphoria network are not covered by traditional medical insurance.  This connects with the main drivers of Wellphoria: To make it more affordable, to increase usage, to educate about who's in your area and how they can help you.  The nation's foremost alternative medicine leaders: Mehmet Oz, Dean Ornish, Andrew Weil and Mark Hyman have testified before the Senate on how alternative medicine can help solve the worsening health care crisis in this country.  They have made tremendous strides and we are blessed to have them lead the way in Washington, however I think there's a long way to go before it becomes mainstream.  In the meantime it's Wellphoria's mission to fill in the gap, by bringing together the providers/merchants and members in such a manner that members begin to ask their employers for Wellphoria as an employee benefit.

Wellphoria works with only US alternative healthcare providers; seeing that we are fast becoming a global culture, do you see Wellphoria going international? And do you feel there is a need for something like Wellphoria when so many countries outside of the US have governmental provided health care for their citizens?

At this time we are focused on the USA.  Each country has different systems when it comes to health insurance.  Also, in most countries alternative medicine is mainstream.  It's time for its treatments to help the USA become healthy, by spending time with patients and getting to the root of the problem, and taking the appropriate steps to reverse it.  As opposed to writing a prescription to act as a bandaid until another issue surfaces and then there's another prescription, and before you know it the patient's on five different meds and all the issues that come along with this. I may be wrong, but I'm not sure if there are studies on how five different medications at different dosages effect a human... kind of scary.  But I'm not advocating that there is not a need for medication in certain circumstances. 

It seems that you have a truly earnest vision in aiding the evolution of the collective mindset in the US, helping younger generations make wiser choices regarding their health, and thereby aiding healthcare practitioners and alternative medicine. Since this will hopefully teach people to be more mindful about their care, do you foresee, or have already experienced, any negative opposition from the pharmaceutical industry and "mainstream"? 

The pharmaceutical lobbying group is very strong in this country. The only ones that can push this group are the insurance lobbyists and the American people.  The insurance lobbyists will be ready to push when the evidence of natural living (prevention, food, exercise and caring for the earth) through alternatives to drugs continues to show positive results on the population and by saving the insurance companies big bucks in drug reimbursement, and less time on in-patient care. Hopefully someday Wellphoria can aid in this process with all our members and providers collaborating to create the proof.

The pharmaceutical industry is aware. I do not have direct knowledge, however I hear big pharma is coming out with prescription vitamins. It will be very interesting to see what happens to the current small manufactures of these vitamins. Will they be acceptable to government standards when big pharma wants in? Or will government force insurers to only reimburse vitamins from certain "guess-who?" factories?

The market is supposed to speak for the people, but that doesn't work when there is a poor understanding of who is actually dictating the market, like big phrama. It feels that your ideology is sound with first and foremost informing the community and providing a system for people to make informed decisions on their healthcare. Does Wellphoria have any plans for any negative backlash by the opposition?

Can't imagine what this could be, but can't wait to address it when it happens.

Is there a thorough screening process involved in actually selecting what providers become enlisted with Wellphoria? 

My philosophy on this is based on my ten-plus years of experience in the dental industry.  A majority of the best clinical dentists had more difficulty expressing/educating the patients as they were mostly introverts. Whereas the extroverts -- the ones who had charisma -- did educate the patients, their dentistry was usually not as strong clinically.  There are a few that have the package. So, the patients like the extroverts and think they are great.  Whereas the "insiders" are well aware and would have their dental work done by the introverts.  So, it depends who's making the determination of the quality of the dentist.  I believe we expect that the universities, governing bodies and states that give doctors and providers their credentials have conducted the first layer of due diligence.  Beyond this, we can only institute credentialing applications.  With all of our providers, we have a signed provider agreement that agrees to the discount, a copy of their license as required by state and a copy of their insurance as required by state.  This is all through a third party partner. 

It is my belief that ultimately patients are the final decision makers, a doctor you like maybe someone that I do not like, so does this make the doctor good or not? If you ask someone five times why they like their dentist, they will come up with one of three answers all the time.  A patient has no idea what the dentist is doing in their mouth when the dentist is performing a procedure.  However, at the end of the day, communication amongst the patients (our members) regarding providers will flush out the providers who are providing an unacceptable standard of care. 

In addition, providers are people and have life issues as we all do, things affecting their world outside of work sometimes influence their work world, so today they may be great but next year they may have developed a drug problem.  I've seen it. So our answer is to have a member area that rates providers on different areas of their practice, with the intention to give our providers feedback as to where they might be able to improve. If there is no improvement, the provider will no longer be on the Wellphoria provider list.  This function will come out in our next phase of the website.  We do not plan to be or intend to be a governing body, only an independent third party, aiding providers and the public, while creating awareness in living a more natural life.  

You mentioned earlier about the Wellphoria Foundation. What is the status of the foundation? What are the upcoming projects? 

Upon reaching our first milestone of members, the foundation will be created and our first pilot project with a community center will most likely be in Massachusetts. The particular project has not yet been defined, however its mission is to help children and their families achieve healthier lifestyles through improved nutrition, urban renewal projects and more. Together with our partnering providers, we will be working with local community centers to create a community-based natural living center.

How has Wellphoria been received by the community? We all feel the need for change amongst our communities and overall governing bodies, how has the participation been amongst people in taking an active role towards change?

Well I can tell you this, when we approached experts to dedicate some time to help with answering questions that people have in their area of expertise, we had too many replies. We are all passionate about living naturally, saving the earth, and the shift in global consciousness.  The more help we can get, the quicker we can spread Wellphoria's impact to all.  And I would really like to thank all the experts and other volunteers that have been helping Wellphoria become a reality.

A plan like Wellphoria requires an overhaul of imbedded ideology from the collective masses. The Wellphoria Foundation has a stated mission of helping children and their families achieve healthier lifestyles, has there been any outreach in the public and private school sectors to have Wellphoria talk to students at their schools?

We actually recently completed a small project at the McAuliffe Charter Public School in MA. Here's an excerpt of the endorsement letter from the Principal Rachel Romano:

"One of our school's design principles is 'The Having of Wonderful Ideas.'  We encourage our students to come up with solutions to real world problems and put them into action.  It is this kind of work that fosters entrepreneurial thinking that our youth will need to compete in the future.  Working with Wellphoria not only promotes the concepts of wellness and sustainable living that we teach our students but has also provided a model for how wonderful ideas can turn into successful businesses.  What our students loved most about working with Wellphoria was that their work was adding value to our community and the world around us.  

As a token of appreciation for our students' hard work, Wellphoria offered to make a donation to a local charity of our choice.  Feeling inspired by Wellphoria's emphasis on wellness and sustainable living, students chose to donate money to Heifer International, an organization that helps families improve their nutrition and generate income in sustainable ways.  Not only is Wellphoria a young company providing a great service to it's members, but their early and genuine investment in our next generation of entrepreneurs demonstrates a real commitment to the MassChallenge vision of 'a creative and inspired society in which everyone recognizes that they can define their future, and is empowered to maximize their impact'".  

However, we feel that the biggest impact in the schools is to team up with some of the great organizations out there that are working on changing what the children are fed at lunch.  And also help by educating some of the educators at these schools, so they change the way they eat and feel the impact. When this happens, they will become our advocates/evangelists. 

What Wellphoria and the Wellphoria Foundation hope to achieve is a great example of the paradigm shift that is necessary for the benefit of the overall community, bridging the gap between the consumer and business, creating a solid foundation based on informed decisions for the general wellbeing. We at Reality Sandwich and Evolver are proud to be working with Wellphoria. Thank you again for taking the time to answer these questions, and we wish you the best in this auspicious endeavor.

Image by maveric2003, Courtesy of Creative Commons license.