In March, we announced plans to make it public as early as April, and then wrote about Hinge Health and hoped to ride the sector’s rebounds. The company later delayed its timeline. Currently, digital physiotherapy startups are not waiting for IPO freezes to be thawed.
Famous names like Klarna and StubHub have paused when they’re made public, but digital physiotherapy startups are moving forward. The company submitted its IPO documents in March and is aiming to make its debut on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker “HNGE.”
It’s a bold move. Market volatility has led many businesses to remain on the sidelines. But Daniel Perez, co-founder and CEO of Hinge, is embracing the moment. That resilience is nothing new. Perez has spent 10 years pushing the company through tougher cycles and tougher markets. He asked his employees to adopt the same mindset. Internally, he is awarded the staff the “Cockroach Award.”
From Cockroach Awards to Wall Street: Hinge Health drives IPO
Perez once decorated his old London office with huge photographs of cockroaches. Employees wore cockroach t-shirts to celebrate their endurance. Unofficially named Flossy, the insect moved quickly and became a symbol of a company that never intended to break things.
“It was the identity of every individual in the company,” Joshua Sturm, Vice President of Hinge from 2019 to 2024 and now Chief Revenue Officer of Cancer Prevention Startup Color Health, told CNBC. “We’re all together. No matter what happens, we’re going to survive together.”
Hinge, which currently has a team of 1,400 people and headquarters in San Francisco, bets that it can break through investors’ hesitation. The digital health sector has slowed for years, even before President Trump’s latest tariff policies rattle the market again.
Digital Health IPO slowed down to crawl. Terradock, once a space giant, saw his valuation plummeted after he acquired Ribbongo on a $37 billion worth of contract. That Betterhelp unit is struggling to keep users up after the pandemic.
Despite sector challenges, Hinge reported revenue of $390 million last year, up 33%, reducing its net loss from $108.1 million to $11.9 million. Its client base has grown to over 2,200 organizations with over 532,000 individual users. This includes major employers such as Target and Morgan Stanley, which cover access to Hinge’s virtual therapy tools and wearable neurostimulator ENSO.
Hinge has raised over $1 billion so far, with its final valuation reaching $6.2 billion in the second half of 2021. InsightPartners and Atomico hold the largest shares.
Founded in 2014 by Daniel Perez and Gabriel Mecklenburg, Hinge Health helps patients recover from musculoskeletal injuries and provides treatment from the comfort of their home. Potential IPOs are drawing attention to the digital health sector that has struggled since the Covid-19 pandemic.
The startup traces its roots back to the UK, where former PhD student Perez and co-founder Gabriel Mecklenburg sketched their ideas in 2014. They built their first prototype within a few months.
Early on, the two met weekly to discuss their progress. The ceremony continues today. Not on a weekend morning, but on a Wednesday night. Mecklenburg is currently the executive chairman. Perez became his father last year.
The company culture has always been intense. The former employee describes Perez as direct, ambitious and mercilessly focused. At one point, the Cockroach Award was replaced by the “Movers Award.” This is a shift to better reflect the company’s branding regarding exercise and physical rehabilitation.
The Hinge hiring process is notorious. Perez is known for drawing inspiration from Amazon’s document culture by writing notes and pressing the slide deck. In many cases, meetings start with a long written brief, and then clarify your thoughts without hiding behind the breaking news to the team.
Employees say it made them a better thinker.
“He’s one of the rare founder CEOs I think I’ll be able to go all the way,” said Paul Kruzzewski, a former employee who joined Hinge through the acquisition of WRNCH.
Perez is a heavy reader and encourages his team to read too. Executives often discuss book chapters such as “Crossing the Chasm” and “Innovator’s Prescriptions” at team meetings. He sends books like some CEOs SEND COMPANY SWAG.
“He didn’t really care what people thought of him. That’s the strength of my book,” said Richard Badenhausen, former dean of Perez.
Early supporters of startups like Atomico saw something in the grit. “Of course, there’s a lot of learning along the way, like a big tech modification in the middle,” said investor Carolina Brochado. “But that’s one of the rare examples of a huge market that’s not really invaded.”
“I’m just the second most successful twin, but I think that’s fine,” said David, a twin brother of Perez, who is now a partner at a major law firm.
The Hinge story was neither clean nor easy. And that’s the point. The company was built to survive. Now it’s time to find out if Wall Street agrees.
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