Hinge Health IPO surge: CEO discusses importance of automation

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It's a big day for digital health as Hinge Health (HNGE) makes its debut on the New York Stock Exchange.

Hinge Health CEO Daniel Perez sits down with Yahoo Finance Senior Reporter Anjalee Khemlani on the floor of the NYSE to discuss the company's initial public offering (IPO), healthcare automation, and what's next for the company after years of growth.

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00:00 Speaker A

We're down here on the New York Stock Exchange floor with Hinge Health CEO Dan Perez. A really phenomenal day because we know that the digital health IPO market has been kind of uh dry for some time. So, Dan, talk to us now that you've already rung the bell, the stock is starting to trade. How do you feel?

00:17 Dan Perez

We feel great. We're very, very grateful. We founded this company 10 years ago, and we built it brick by brick. And the, the vision of automating healthcare is as real for us today as it was 10 years ago, and we still have many decades to go.

00:32 Speaker A

I know the stock is uh looking pretty good right now. You know, you started offering at 32. It's up to 39. Uh thoughts on what you expect for the rest of the day and how you plan to keep the momentum going?

00:44 Dan Perez

Thank you. We're, you know, I don't focus too much on where the stock price is today. Um, we're early innings on the automation of healthcare, and I'm more concerned about where we're going to be in five, 10, 15 years from now. But I know this is just one, one day in our history.

00:59 Speaker A

Well, I know all eyes are on you now because the rest of the digital health world is looking at what to do and where to go. So, hopefully, you can keep that momentum going.

01:06 Dan Perez

We're looking forward to it.

01:08 Speaker A

Dan, the weight of the world is on your shoulders right now. How are you feeling about that, and what are you thinking in terms of how you expect this day to go?

01:17 Dan Perez

Well, thank you, Angelie. And look, we've had maybe, I've had maybe a dozen digital health CEOs message us, say, congratulations, good luck, and don't screw it up. And look, we, we appreciate the enthusiasm, but look, we are not as too worried as where the, the stock price ends today. Our vision is to use technology to automate the delivery of care, and that is going to take 10, 20, 30 plus years to continue to realize that vision as we chew across healthcare. And we're focused on physical therapy right now. Our technology automates away about 95% of human clinician hours associated with PT, and we've been able to transform outcomes, experience, and cost along the way. 20 million people have access to Hinge, but we're just getting started.

02:02 Speaker A

Absolutely. Uh I want to talk about your previous attempt. You talked about going public back in 2022. At that time, you were valued at about 6 billion, and it was just cooling off of that pandemic high. Any regrets about not going public sooner?

02:19 Dan Perez

Yeah.

02:20 Dan Perez

Absolutely not. And so look, we, we had a great valuation then, and since that moment, we have quintupled our revenue. We've doubled our gross profit or gross margin, you know, essentially 10Xing our absolute gross profit. We swung from losing a hundred million dollars a year, um back then, to being free cash flow positive for four straight quarters and have a 12% operating margin here in Q1. And so, very happy to go public at this, at this point with these numbers and excited about the future ahead.

02:49 Speaker A

You talked about this just being the start of it. What other areas do you think the platform really is able to serve?

02:55 Dan Perez

Well, that's a great question, Angelie. Look, our vision is to automate the delivery of care. And we've shown that we could exemplify this in physical therapy where we're automating away by about 95% of human clinician hours, but we need to do this in other aspects of care. You know, our aim is to continue to peel away aspects of in-person care and use technology to automate say 70 to 80% of provider interactions and eventually get to 80, 90 plus percent of provider interactions. We must get comfortable with automating care delivery itself, because if we don't, care is not going to become more personalized, it's not going to become more convenient or accessible, and we're not going to lower costs unless we automate care itself. And healthcare, despite all the technology you see in a hospital, all those machines whirring about, most healthcare delivery itself is remarkably manual.

03:43 Speaker A

Another part of that, and I know you've addressed this before, adding technology has actually added to costs in the health system, and you're looking at ways to maybe make that more efficient. And this is also why digital health has had such a pullback in the market. So defending what you do in terms of how you're able to overcome some of those barriers and work within the system, what else do you think is needed in order for digital health to have the comeback that it needs?

04:11 Dan Perez

Healthcare is hard. And but we are unlike any healthcare company that's come before. Most digital health companies before us have been focused on automating say back office operations associated with healthcare, or they're, you know, essentially a marketing company that's focused on healthcare, or their technology on the periphery trying to enable one-on-one provider interactions. What makes us different is our technology is automating care itself. And that just hasn't existed, and that's why investors are so excited. And you see it in our numbers. Fantastic clinical outcomes for our members, fantastic financial outcomes for our customers, and then for the business, 81% gross margin, you know, four straight quarters of free cash flow, 12% operating margin. So we're going to build a really sustainable business, but what differentiates us is from what's come before is that we're actually automating care delivery itself. And that's very fundamental and one of the reasons investors are so excited about this IPO.

05:05 Speaker A

Thank you so much for joining us, Dan Perez, Hinge Health CEO.

05:12 Dan Perez

Thank you, Angelie.