Piet Hein van Dam is a seasoned entrepreneur with a strong background in health technology and data. He serves as the CEO and founder of Clear.bio, a company that has been experiencing rapid growth and driving transformative changes in the industry. Piet has a remarkable track record as a CEO, particularly with early-stage ventures, guiding them towards the next level of success. His expertise spans various sectors, including AdTech, MediaTech, HRTech, FinTech, and his current focus, HealthTech.
Notably, Piet Hein van Dam has achieved two successful exits, reflecting his ability to bring companies to fruition and create value. He is recognized for his exceptional intelligence (IQ), emotional intelligence (EQ), and execution quotient (XQ). In addition, his Gallup Signature Strengths—adaptability, Includer, Belief, Strategic, and activator—further enhance his leadership capabilities and drive for innovation.
Below are the highlights of the interview:
Tell us about Clear.bio and its mission. What inspired you to join this company?
Clear.bio is a healthtech start-up in Amsterdam, set up by Piet Hein van Dam and Madelon Bracke in 2019. Our mission is to help people with type 2 diabetes (T2D) to become the best and healthiest versions of themselves. With data instead of pills. And with the most modern technology and the latest nutritional science.
Clear.bio has developed a DTx to help people with T2D improve their health by making the right food choices. A sensor on their upper arm monitors their blood sugar in real time. In our app, they log everything they eat and drink. Our app immediately shows them how their blood sugar responds to food and provides them with nudges and guidance about which foods are or are not good for their body. It is 100% data-driven, 100% personal, and 100% actionable. By making small, smart changes to their food intake and with the help of our dieticians—always available one click away—they improve their blood sugar and health themselves, without any additional healthcare or medication.
The research into the clinical effectiveness of our new data-driven DTx has been realized in collaboration with the biggest Dutch health care insurer Zilveren Kruis Achmea, and the biggest Dutch patient association and social partner Diabetesvereniging Nederland and was under the supervision of the scientific advisory board consisting of internist-endocrinologist Maarten Soeters, PhD, from Amsterdam UMC and Georges Janssens, PhD, researcher and assistant professor of genetic metabolic diseases, from Amsterdam UMC.
As a healthcare provider, Clear.bio has already helped thousands of people with T2D become the best and healthiest versions of themselves. The investors behind Clear.bio are Antler, Healthy.Capital, Future Food Fund, MSM, AIF and Horizon Flevoland.
What strategies do you employ to ensure that Clear.bio remains competitive in the market?
Clear.bio uses personal glucometry as the core of its behavioral change technology. It’s the most powerful technique so far.
With the unique combination of a smart AI-app, real-time glucometry, and real dieticians, always available one click away, almost 70% of people with poorly regulated T2D are able to lower their eHbA1c by 11.6 mmol/mol (-1.1%) within 3 months. That’s better, cheaper, and faster than any local or international alternative.
How do you foster a culture of innovation and adaptability within your organization, considering the rapidly changing landscape of the business industry?
The drive and passion to really make an impact on people’s lives connect all colleagues at Clear.bio. We see and feel it as one of our tasks to contribute to the healthcare transition: making good care affordable and accessible. The needs and user experiences of our target groups are always our starting and end points in everything we do or develop.
Clear.bio has a multidisciplinary team consisting of highly skilled and experienced experts on dietetics, biomedical science, data science, AI and machine learning, user experience (UX) research, product & app development, relationship management, (clinical) project management, quality insurance, marketing, and communication.
Our way of working is content-driven and proactive. We always start with the patient’s needs in mind, and in short-cycle iterations, we look for and test solutions and develop and optimize our products. This way of working is also at the core of collaborations within our extensive networks. In this way, we stay tuned and relevant for our target groups, no matter how rapidly the landscape changes!
How do you prioritize customer satisfaction and ensure that the company provides exceptional service to its clients?
As stated before, the needs and user experiences of our target groups are always our starting and end points in everything we do or develop. We continuously test, learn, and optimize, during each phase of the different customer and patient journeys. Qualitatively (via polls, surveys, and panels) and quantitatively (via data at each owned channel). This way of working has led to a customer satisfaction score of 92%.
What steps do you take to attract and retain top talent in the industry, and how do you encourage professional growth and development within your organization?
We attract top talent via our strong, diverse and extensive network, and by continuously being in the news. Thanks to the media that often publish our news items regarding new awards, new study results, new features, new hires, new deals, new segments, and so on. And thanks for the invitations) to be on stage at health, tech, and food events and to give lectures at universities.
To retain top talent, we first pay special attention to ensuring that these talents match our core values during the straightforward hiring process. Secondly, we organize monthly celebrations, monthly socials, and team-building events, and run quarterly well-being cycles. We strongly believe in well-being. An employee’s mental, physical, and emotional fitness is fundamental to engagement and growth. Next, we stand out in “freedom within the frame”. Especially as a start-up, we need to be resilient and agile to discover, test, learn, and optimize the best possible ways to succeed in our mission. “Sharpen your own skates” is also part of this. This means that each colleague is responsible for their own growth. And I, as CEO, am here to help and facilitate them along their growth journey.
How do you address the increasing importance of digitalization and technology in the sector, and how does it influence the company’s operations and customer experience?
To address the importance of our digital healthcare solution, first we need to know the often very complex local health care systems; second, we need to build relations with the related stakeholders (from policy makers, academia, key opinion leaders, professional and patient associations, and health care insurers); and third, we need to prove the product market fit, the health impact, the NPS, and the return on reimbursement of our DTx by clinical evidence.
What advice would you give to aspiring leaders or individuals looking to join the industry?
The bigger the problem, the more patient you have to be. In our case, we are tackling a huge social problem. In the Netherlands only, 1 million people have type 2 diabetes, and another million are in the pre-diabetes stage. You have to understand very well how the healthcare sector works. In our case, that means, for example, understanding how and under what conditions general practitioners work.
Website: https://www.clear.bio/
