Grapevine Technologies is a custom-made platform designed specifically for B2B wholesalers and purchasers in the medical space. And the company’s software helps businesses in the healthcare supply chain to grow their network, automate operations, and achieve greater business success. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Grapevine CEO Luká Yancopoulos to learn more.
Luká Yancopoulos’ Background
From a young age, Yancopoulos was a troublemaker and had difficulty adhering to the rules. Yancopoulos said:
“At some point, it became clear to me that there are some rules worth following and some that need to be broken.”
“I am a proud engineer and graduate of the VIPER Program, a highly competitive dual-degree renewable energy research program at the University of Pennsylvania. My father is a prominent scientist whose favorite catchphrase is ‘You do well by doing good.’ He taught me that thousands of generations of blood, sweat, and tears preceded my life – that our predecessors struggled but fought to survive so that we could be here today. I have felt an obligation for as long as I can remember to make the world a better place. This is the feeling that motivated and inspired me to enroll in the VIPER Program. I thought the greatest existential threat future generations would face was the energy crisis and global warming. I studied hard so that one day I could become a part of the solution.”
“But when COVID hit, everything changed. I saw a world falling apart in front of me. My parents were frontline heroes as healthcare professionals – my father is a Scientific Researcher, Mother a Nurse Practitioner. And I was incredibly scared that I would not even get the opportunity to fight the battle against the climate crisis. This fear is what drove me to change paths to a more imminent threat. That is why I started Pandemic Relief Supply, which has since evolved into Grapevine Technologies.”
Formation Of Grapevine Technologies
How did the idea for Grapevine Technologies come together? Yancopoulos shared:
“We had no intentions of launching a business, fundraising or building technology solutions. At its inception, we were motivated to help healthcare providers around us to fight a battle against an invisible enemy (COVID) with information technology resources at our disposal. We started by looking for information and public databases that we could use to help frontline workers facing medical supply shortages. We cross-analyzed huge datasets from the FDA Medical Device registrar and US Customs and Border Protection to identify verified in-flows of medical devices. We pulled information about the ‘in-flow’ points, or businesses, to contact these importers. We handed off our new contacts to everyone we knew on the frontline, and we thought that was the end of our mission.”
“But we were so wrong. It was about two weeks later that we got our first order. I received a cold call from a customer named Mike, and he informed me that he had an order for me to fill for 1.5 million masks. I was surprised and told him I would see what I could do – but no promises. I powered up my computer systems, found some supplies – and called my buddy to set up a new LLC on LegalZoom.”
“We started as a supplier, an intermediary of medical supplies, selling to other distributors, who sold to other distributors. The redundant transactions, shipments, and orders from intermediary to intermediary felt senseless, and we wanted to build a way for end users to get as close to the source as possible.”
Favorite Memory
What has been your favorite memory working for Grapevine Technologies so far? Yancopoulos reflected:
“When we made the move to Los Angeles. After setting up our business and processing a few huge transactions, we knew we were onto something. We started to look at the data differently and noticed that most of the ‘first inventorizers’ were out in California, importing most medical supplies from manufacturers in India, China, Malaysia, and other countries. My co-founders and I decided that we would be way more capable of building relationships with established importers of medical supplies face-to-face rather than quarantining in our dorm room. So, we got an Airbnb and flights and set off to the ‘city of medical supply import’ – Los Angeles, CA.”
Challenges Faced
What are some of the challenges Yancopoulos faced in building the company?
“I now realize that just because change is obvious – it does not mean people are ready for change. It frustrates me to see outdated software systems and supply chain technology that is so much less efficient like fast-moving consumer goods, which is lightyears ahead of what we see in the healthcare space. Yet, with healthcare, so much more is at stake. If your Amazon order is delayed, you might have to wear those dirty socks for another day, but the inconvenience is minor. Whereas for the healthcare space, that delay could be with essential supplies for an emergency life-saving surgery.”
“But when a healthcare organization pays 10X more than they should on nitrile gloves, that can be the difference between healthcare costs being affordable and being inaccessible. It’s frustrating that monopolization, disorganization, and inefficiencies pile up in what to me, seems like the most important supply chain in the world, whereas billions more is being poured into optimizing systems that seem a lot less relevant.”
Core Products
What are Grapevine Technologies’ core products and features? Yancopoulos explained:
“We offer healthcare buyers free access to our digital vendor network. We consolidate inventory offerings directly from hundreds of importers or manufacturers of the same supplies that they currently purchase from industry-leading distributors.”
“Without taking on overhead costs related to inventory holding, warehousing, and redundant transportation, Grapevine can offer end-users, and healthcare buyers, a wider range of products than any traditional distributor can feasibly inventorize – and we do so at prices that are up to 84% cheaper than the same products offered by traditional distributors.”
“Our technology automates the services that traditional distributors normally rely on people to add, meaning that product costs don’t get marked up to cover traditional distributor overhead.”
“This is how healthcare buyers can purchase nitrile exam gloves on Grapevine for $2.00 / box $2 / box (100 gloves) instead of paying $15.00 for the same product from traditional distributors. We’ve done the research to prove it, with the average price per glove (nitrile exam glove) being over $0.14 per glove from the industry giants and about $0.02 per glove via Grapevine’s vendor network.”
“Beyond access to products, we offer a modern ‘e-commerce’ style purchasing platform to healthcare buyers, so they can source, purchase, and pay in a few clicks, reducing time spent ordering by up to 90%. This platform is free to use for healthcare buyers and allows them to save time and energy when it comes to finding suppliers, preventing backorders, and placing orders in just a few clicks while still documenting all parts of the transaction in the ways that healthcare businesses need.”
Evolution Of Grapevine Technologies’ Technology
How has Grapevine Technologies’ technology evolved since launching? Yancopoulos noted:
“Initially, we cross-analyzed public government databases, including the FDA Medical Device Registrar and the US Customs and Border Control, to find verified ‘in flows’ of medical supplies into the US. This is how we got our footing in the industry, to make a splash and ship large volumes to the megalithic medical distribution companies that dominate the industry. These ‘in flow’ points are what we call ‘first inventorizers’ – importers or manufacturers of FDA medical devices, really the first people in the US to inventorize those products and supplies before redundantly shipping it to other distributors.”
“After months of sales to large distribution companies and large healthcare facilities, we started to notice that the same products we sourced and sold to megalithic distributors were being marked up to end-users and resold at (in some cases) nearly 10X the cost. We were horrified. We now understand the importance and value of disintermediation, of connecting end users to vetted sources of medical supplies.”
“Today, our secret sauce is the technology that allows healthcare facilities and buyers for the first time to connect with ‘upstream’ suppliers, manufacturers and importers who are first inventorizers. Connection is only the beginning, as our platform gives healthcare buyers more transparent insights into the operations and capabilities of these suppliers, allows buyers to gain visibility into the inventory and offerings of hundreds of vendors, and transact in a modern, digital fashion.”
Significant Milestones
What have been some of Grapevine Technologies’ most significant milestones? Yancopoulos cited the following:
— The pandemic
— A call to action
— Our first Purchase Order from a supplier (see above)
— The launch of first software application built exclusively for internal employees in November 2020: This gave internal employees the ability to get a real-time look at ‘in-flow’ and inventory data from FDA-US Importers as a ‘supply source’ (technically grapevine’s predecessor Pandemic Relief supply). This allowed us to ‘see inside’ the warehouses of importers and suppliers of medical devices from our dorm room: who had what? Where was it all? Now internal employees could confidently connect with healthcare buyers with a network of vendors at their fingertips.
— The first ‘customer facing’ software application we built.
— In August 2021 when we started to ‘publicize’ the vendor data we compiled to a group of select customers and recurring healthcare buyers. These buyers began placing their own orders in a very limited capacity due to the abnormalities and ‘outdated’ behaviors of healthcare buyers.
— The President’s Innovation Prize
— In April 2022: Really, what snowballed into a fundraising round that allowed us to rapidly scale to 13 employees in a few months – accelerating our growth by what feels like lightyears.
— The launch of Grapevine’s Vendor Network + Purchasing Platform
— We launched Grapevine’s Vendor network in January 2023
— The transition to Agile Development
— In February 2023 we launched new versions of user-facing software and features every two weeks.
Customer Success Stories
Upon asking Yancopoulos about customer success stories, he commented:
“We’ve saved several multi-facility healthcare practices, clinics, and offices more than 60% on select product categories and more than 50% of their prior medical supply spend. We see this often, and in fact, most customers that come to Grapevine, instantly realize savings of around 50% on supplies. Furthermore, they spend less time and energy managing and reordering their supplies while realizing these savings.”
“Our whole philosophy is that change is hard in itself – so to drive change, we need to help you save time and money. Not just a little, a lot.”
“Healthcare buyers who are open to change, and hear about what Grapevine has to offer, will turn into new customer success stories.”
Funding
Yancopoulos revealed:
“The company raised about $2 million in a pre-seed round that closed in the spring of 2022 (right around the time of my graduation)”
“Some of this funding came from universities, including the University of Pennsylvania, in the form of ‘non-equity funding’ prizes. And some of this funding came from venture capital firms and angel investors.”
Total Addressable Market
What total addressable market (TAM) size is Grapevine Technologies pursuing? Yancopoulos assessed:
The TAM of the Medical Device Market is $200 billion, and spending on the supply chain is $80 billion based on figures by McKinsey.
Differentiation From The Competition
What differentiates Grapevine Technologies from its competition? Yancopoulos affirmed:
“Most ‘healthcare suppliers’ fear ‘transparency’ – we create it. Healthcare buyers are fed up with the dinosaur distributors of the industry – those who hide their resales and fear transparency. And it’s a lot of work to build and juggle a sufficient vendor network.”
“Healthcare buyers want vendors at their fingertips. And negotiated prices that they can tap into, and personalized procurement that allows them to communicate orders, negotiations, and needs directly to any vendor. That is why we built Grapevine, so healthcare buyers can pick from the Grapevine, every vendor they need.”
“Our AI systems handle logistics between any vendor and buyer, collecting data and giving back that data to buyers who make smarter decisions about who to work with and when. We help customers know the people behind the products.”
Future Company Goals
What are some of Grapevine Technologies’ future company goals? Yancopoulos concluded:
“To give healthcare buyers access to supply chains built for the sake of efficiency and resiliency, not for profits.”
“To drop the ‘average spend’ on medical supplies, nationally, by 50%. Not by buying less but by simply buying smarter.”
“To impactfully reduce the ‘overstock’ and ‘waste’ of expiring medical supplies for larger hospital buyers – allowing hospitals to feel comfortable holding less inventory, because they have real-time, transparent visibility into their supplier’s local stock.”
“To reduce the redundancies in supply chain management across businesses.”
