Walt Disney once said: "We don't make movies to make money. We make money to make movies." I think about that quote a lot. Especially lately.
A few weeks ago I was on a panel that was a satellite event of a major healthcare conference, where we were talking about Medicaid and specifically about "moonshots" — the kind of bold, systemic thinking it will take to solve healthcare's biggest, most stubborn problems.
The people in that room were focused on one question: what do the most vulnerable people in our system actually need, and how do we get it to them?
Just a couple of blocks away, at the conference’s main event, a different set of conversations was happening. Also about "moonshots." Also about transforming healthcare.
But the first question in those rooms wasn't "who needs this?"
It was "who will pay a premium for it?" Still calling it a “moonshot,” but with a different definition – and very different outcomes.
I don't say this to be cynical about ambition or profit — you can't build anything sustainable without revenue, and I've never believed otherwise.
ITO Health needs to grow, generate resources, and earn the right to keep doing this work.
That's not in conflict with our mission. It's what makes our mission possible.
But there's a difference between money as fuel and money as the destination.
And in healthcare especially, that difference matters enormously — because the people with the greatest need are almost never the ones with the greatest purchasing power.
We started ITO Health, PBC because we believed the hardest problems in healthcare were worth working on.
Not because they were the most lucrative, but because they were the most important. That hasn't changed.
Walt Disney’s quote gets it exactly right. The moment the money stops being the fuel and becomes the point, something essential is lost. In healthcare, what gets lost isn't an abstract value – it’s a person who needed help and didn't get it.
As a health tech entrepreneur, “why” is the filtering question I ask about every decision we make.