Found Intro | What makes Found work | Medical Access | Pros | Cons | Should you try it?
It’s more than just a few pounds over the holidays, or a hormonal fluctuation during a certain time of the month.
If you’ve struggled with weight loss, you know that losing a significant amount of weight is about more than just self-discipline and motivation, but you might not know just what that something more is.
Are you sick of all the traditional weight loss options that make you feel like your body and mind are two separate entities?
Enter Found, a direct-to-consumer healthcare company with a focus on supporting your weight loss journey holistically, based on the science of your genetics, personal biology, and gut health.
Found utilizes personalized weight loss plans and online coaching to help you lose weight and keep it off.
They base their program on the five pillars of their community, because weight loss isn’t as simple as cutting calories and going to the gym for an extra workout:
- Mindful eating
- Nutrition
- Movement
- Stress
- Sleep
Found offers prescription weight loss medication, support, online coaching, wellness and nutrition information, and access to a community of like-minded individuals to help weight loss patients succeed.
Although Found uses prescription medication, they consider themselves a holistic alternative to bariatric surgery.
They focus on treating underlying medical conditions that might cause weight gain instead of pinning it on a person’s lack of willpower or dedication to diet and/or exercise.
Who Is Found?
Found, rebranded from Torch Weight Loss (not to be confused with the over-the-counter diet pill of the same name), was founded in 2019 by Jack Abraham (Hims, Hers, Atomic), Emily Yudofsky, and Swathy Prithivi.
The company is a child of Atomic and GV (formerly Google Ventures) who both heavily financed and backed it before its official launch in 2020.
The company is publicly traded and has increased revenue since its rebranding and launch.
What Makes Found Work
Unlike pursuing weight loss surgery, which will undoubtedly help you lose weight quickly but can have serious health impacts, Found focuses on elements of your genetics and gut health to determine if your inability to lose weight stems from these causes.
Found then makes a determination about a course of treatment that is appropriate, based on the patient’s history, BMI, comorbidities, and activity level.
Found has three “paths” or plans for weight loss and management.
- Prescription path. The most popular path involves prescription medication for weight loss that is prescribed by a Found healthcare provider. This track also includes online coaching and access to Found’s online community for support.
- Non-prescription path. This path does not involve prescription medication, but involves coaching and community support. You won’t have access to a doctor with this plan.
- Wellness path. The wellness path is a transitional plan for patients who have completed a prescription or non-prescription path and wish to maintain not only their current weight, but also continue utilizing coaching and online support. We couldn’t really find any major differences (other than the name) between this path and the non-prescription path.
Personalized to your body and with you every step of the way
At Found, we focus on getting you beyond the scale to a place where you feel good physically, emotionally and mentally for the long-term.
- Weight care is more than just “eat less, move more”
- We value consistency over intensity
- You never have to do it alone
Affordability
Found is a subscription-based company. When you sign up, you’ll be placed on one of Found’s three paths, based on your BMI and intake information.
It’s worth noting that you won’t even be considered for a prescription medication unless you have a BMI of greater than or equal to 30, or 27 with certain comorbidities.
The cost for the prescription path is $100 per month. This includes very limited access to a doctor (who you’ll mostly use for the prescription and any side effects you have), online coaching and support, the cost of your monthly medication, and shipping.
If you decide to get your prescription through a local pharmacy, your monthly membership will change, based on the amount the pharmacy charges for the particular medication.
For wellness and non-prescription plans, the monthly cost is $50.00.
Found does not accept insurance of any kind.
Online Support
Research shows that online support can help you increase your chances of being successful in terms of continued weight loss.
Found offers online and text support while you are on your weight loss journey, and beyond, should you choose to continue using their service when you’ve met your weight loss goals.
However, the factor that sets Found’s weight loss community apart from others is that the community is made up of only Found members using the Found program’s philosophy and/or products to lose weight and maintain wellness.
You can certainly find other weight loss support communities online, but if you are planning to use the Found method, using their online community for support will be a useful tool on your journey.
Ease of Use
Using Found is very simple. It’s based on a three-step process: evaluation, determination, medication.
Put simply, you fill out their online questionnaire, and within seconds they determine if you are eligible for medication.
If so, your information is sent to a doctor who will contact you within 72 hours to collect additional information and suggest a prescription.
If not, you’ll immediately be directed to the Found non-prescription and/or wellness plan. For purposes of this review, we signed up for Found using the persona of an adult female, age 41, with an average height and weight.
Within minutes, we were told our BMI of 21 did not qualify for a prescription (which our ego was happy to go without) and directed to the $50/month wellness plan.
It was an easy and painless process.
Medical Access
If you choose the $50 wellness plan, you won’t have access to a doctor. The only plan that gives you access to a doctor is the plan that includes prescription medication.
The non-prescription and wellness paths give you access to a certified health coach and an online community.
Before you begin any weight loss program, you should consult your primary care doctor to make sure you are a good candidate and to discuss any underlying health issues that could prevent your success or complicate your journey.
Other Weight Loss Options
| Image | Product | Features | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
GLP-1s and More  | Prescription weight loss that puts you first!
| Buy Hers Weight Loss | |
GLP-1s and More  | Prescription weight loss that puts you first!
| Buy Hims Weight Loss |
The Benefits of Found
If you’ve had trouble gaining momentum with weight loss, Found could be the perfect solution. Their approach to total health as it pertains to weight gain and loss helps their clients lose weight and keep it off successfully.
Here are some of the facets of Found’s program that we love.
Easy and Confidential
Unlike other telehealth portals, there is very little back-and-forth contact with Found. Once you’ve been initially evaluated by a doctor and prescribed your medication, no news is good news.
You determine how much coaching and interaction you want from your coach.
Found is confidential. It’s a discreet way to get weight loss medication shipped directly to your door and avoid uncomfortable doctor visits where you may be asked to disrobe for before and after pictures, etc.
With Found, you can choose your own level of discretion by sharing only what you want with your online community.
Holistic
We’d all like to get by with less medication and better ourselves with the least invasive measures possible. Found embraces these ideas by only prescribing medication when it is necessary and giving you the opportunity to lose weight without invasive surgeries or super-strict diet and exercise programs.
Found gives you freedom to move around in your own skin while you lose weight and stay comfortable while doing so.
Let’s be honest: weight loss requires more than a calorie deficit, and it’s important to consider the role that hormones and genetics play.
With Found, you’ll never feel bullied into thinking your weight issues are due to a lack of willpower or motivation. Found has a zero-tolerance policy for these mindsets.
Access to Prescription Medications
The doctors working for Found are able to prescribe the same weight loss medications as your primary care physician.
Medications like Orlistat, Qsymia, Contrave, and numerous others are available if you qualify for them.
Pharmacy and Lab Partners
Found partners with Truepill pharmacy and Grassroots labs to offer you discounted lab work (if it is needed for your prescription). Truepill offers fast shipping of your medications to your door, with no need to make a trip to the store.
Ways We Think Found Can Improve
While reviewing Found, we “found” it difficult to locate many online reviews of their service. (Sorry, we couldn’t help it.)
This doesn’t mean that Found isn’t a reputable company, it simply means they may be relatively new.
That means you may want to expect the same types of growing pains that other startup companies experience, from outgrowing their staff to rapidly changing their policies. However, the benefits may still outweigh any disadvantages.
Of the reviews found, here’s what resonated most.
Value
Although Found offers a unique product, some users feel the service may be overpriced.
Says Trustpilot user Kelly:
“This company purports to be a combination weight loss coaching and medication… The medications are generic and you could get them for way less if your normal doctor prescribed them.”
If you have insurance, seeing your doctor and using your benefits to cover the cost of your medication may be a better option if the prescription you are seeking is generic.
However, if you do want your medication and coaching to be bundled into one service, Found may be beneficial.
Cancellation Policy
Reviewers seem unsure of the cancellation policy offered by Found. While you can try Found for 30 days risk-free, your card will be charged on the 31st day based on the plan you have.
- For non-prescription paths, you can cancel anytime, within 48 hours of the next billing cycle.
- For prescription paths, you may find it harder to cancel. The website says you can still cancel within 72 hours of the next billing cycle, but some users have found this difficult to achieve. Most likely, this is because Found is a growing company that currently has a limited staff.
We noticed verbiage on their website about ensuring you’d be refunded from the time you contacted them to cancel, even if they weren’t able to respond to your request for a few days.
So, you may just need to wait it out if you do reach out to cancel.
Customer Service
With only three reviews found off-site, it’s hard to determine the level of customer service Found currently offers.
The Found website does offer 55 pages of reviews that are all between 4.5-5 stars.
After scrolling 11 pages of reviews, it becomes clear they don’t allow negative or neutral reviews to be published on their website, which is standard procedure for most companies.
Should You Try Found?
Found could be the weight loss solution that finally works for you.
If you’ve had trouble losing weight in the past, or prefer the privacy of obtaining weight loss advice and medications through an online, telehealth-style portal, Found could really work out as a great tool.
References, Studies and Sources:
Effect of Telehealth Extended Care for Maintenance of Weight Loss in Rural US Communities|NCBI
Found (Other Healthcare Services) Company Profile: Valuation & Investors|Pitchbook
Bridget Reed is a Tampa-based content development manager, writer, and editor at GR0; specializing in content related to varying fields including medicine, health, and small businesses. Bridget went to St. Petersburg College and majored in Management and Organizational Leadership.
Owner, entrepreneur, and health enthusiast.
Chris is one of the Co-Founders of USARx.com. An entrepreneur at heart, Chris has been building and writing in consumer health for over 10 years. In addition to USARx.com, Chris and his Acme Health LLC Brand Team own and operate Pharmacists.org and the USA Rx Pharmacy Discount Card.
Chris has a CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) designation and is a proud member of the American Medical Writer’s Association (AMWA), the International Society for Medical Publication Professionals (ISMPP), the National Association of Science Writers (NASW), the Council of Science Editors, the Author’s Guild, and the Editorial Freelance Association (EFA).
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