During the pandemic, David Futoran, Roslyn Class of 2015, and his dermatologist Dr. Joel Spitz, transitioned from patient and provider to business partners. Together, on a mission to provide affordable and effective skin care to patients, they founded Honeydew Health.
“Skin care is often dismissed by the healthcare system,” Honeydew CEO Futoran said. “Chronic conditions such as acne, psoriasis, and eczema cause physical discomfort and have well-documented, detrimental effects on mental health, quality of life and productivity.”
Professional care is difficult to access, Spitz added.
“The traditional brick and mortar experience for acne care is broken across the nation,” he said. “Wait lists can be as high as four months and it’s very difficult to get a hold of your care team. Moreover, providers don’t track your progress with photos and there is no infrastructure to manage mediating lifestyle factors including diet and stress.”
Honeydew came into being when Futoran saw Dr. Spitz for his acne. And yes, that appointment took four months to schedule. The two bonded over the flaws in the system and decided to join forces to build a better way.
The pair started by creating a full-service platform to offer high quality, professional acne care to people anywhere they are, on their schedule. Ultimately, they plan to grow Honeydew to become a trusted skin care partner for life, offering professional services, vetted products and diagnostics for patients with any skin condition.
“While plenty of telemedicine websites exist, people deserve a service that specializes in their conditions,” Futoran said. “The few that focus on skincare today usually focus on selling their own products rather than on delivering the highest quality, individualized care. Plus, most telemedicine services are one-and-done visits which don’t match the needs of ongoing skin conditions.”
Since his days at Roslyn High School (RHS), Futoran has been active in healthcare innovation. At RHS he conceived TurboScript, a business that used Natural Language Processing to chart patient records. At the University of Pennsylvania, he led Wharton’s healthcare club. There, Futoran planned the largest undergraduate healthcare conference in the nation. After graduating from college, Futoran joined digital health startup Somatix, helping to take it to market and raise close to $20 million in funding.
Spitz is a dermatologist and a graduate of both Princeton University and Columbia Medical School. He is the author a widely used textbook, Genodermatoses.
Since partnering on Long Island, the two have built and launched the Honeydew platform and raised close to $1 million with support from leaders at Teladoc, Ophelia, Allbirds Owner, and even a famous dermatology TikToker.
Visit https://honeydewcare.com to learn more.
