Improve Your Oral Health - Bristle Health

Team Subkit -

Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in health and wellness but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Danny Grannick, co-founder, and CEO of Bristle Health, located in San Diego, CA, USA.

What's your business, and who are your customers?

Bristle is developing personalized and precision care for oral health. We analyze your oral microbiome (the bacteria, fungi, and viruses in your saliva) to help you understand your risk for oral health conditions like bad breath, gum inflammation, and tooth decay. Based on your results, we provide personalized diet, hygiene, and product recommendations plus 1:1 oral health coaching to improve!

Dental care is inconvenient, expensive, and ineffective. X-rays and observational screenings only detect the symptoms of disease, like tooth decay and bleeding gums. By that time, they’ve already become serious issues that require the invasive, painful procedures we’re all used to - i.e., cavity fillings and root canals. The standard of care revolves around reactively treating disease instead of proactively managing health - and that’s what we’re changing.

Bristle is for anyone with a mouth! We’ve all dealt with issues related to our oral health, but ignoring oral disease doesn’t make it go away. We help people with lots of goals, including:

  • Understanding what’s driving an oral health condition you have, like bad breath
  • Optimizing your oral care routine as part of a healthy lifestyle
  • Getting a “gut-check” on your oral health status if it’s been a while since you went to the dentist
  • Learning about your unique oral microbiome if you’re a science nerd!

Tell us about yourself

Lots of people assume my background is in dental care, but it’s actually in genomics! There’s been an incredible revolution in healthcare. Thanks to advancements in technology (like genetic sequencing), we have an entirely new understanding of health. This knowledge has led to innovations in the way we detect, monitor, and treat diseases - but those innovations have largely been focused on specific areas like cancer, heart disease, and Alzheimer’s. Don’t get me wrong - we should absolutely be tackling those diseases - but I always felt like we were overlooking other areas of health that could massively benefit. I was always looking for where I could make an impact.

When it comes to meaningful, global impact, I think oral health is the lowest-hanging fruit in all of the healthcare we can solve for. Oral diseases are the most prevalent conditions on the planet - over 80M US adults have gum disease, and over 100M US adults have untreated tooth decay - they’re also largely preventable and reversible. Oral health is also critical to our overall health. Our mouths allow us to eat, drink and breathe to communicate through speech and emotion. Research is also unveiling links between our oral health and the risk or presence of systemic diseases, including diabetes, heart disease, and Alzheimer’s. Oral health is a massive problem that we can solve - that’s what keeps me going!

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

We’re solving real problems for real people with a team that genuinely cares - I can’t think of a bigger accomplishment than that.

What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?

You’ll never really be “off,” but you need to try. Burnout is real - and when it’s at the leadership level, it percolates throughout the entire team. It can destroy you as an individual and your company. Consciously building in breathers is critical for survival.

What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?

  1. You don’t need much to get started. Your first goal is to validate an idea that solves a problem, which you can do for free (or close to free). We spent over a year interviewing dentists and patients in parallel with full-time jobs before we ever actually “started” Bristle.
  2. Maintain an incredible vision, concrete values & principles, and a narrow focus.
  3. Talk to your users all the time.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://www.bristlehealth.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bristlehealth
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bristlehealth/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/bristlehealth
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bristlehealth/

If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solopreneur that you'd like to share, then email community@subkit.com; we'd love to feature your journey on these pages.

Feel inspired to start, run or grow your own subscription business? Check out subkit.com and learn how you can turn "one day" into day one.