# VitalFlo

VitalFlo helps doctors measure, monitor, and predict their patients' lung health

- Canonical URL: https://wefunder.com/vitalflohealth
- Entity ID: wefunder:company:123315
- Last updated: 2026-06-22T05:03:39Z
- Generated at: 2026-06-22T15:39:32Z

## Quick facts
- Backed by Geekdom Fund, Elevate Capital, and Purpose Built
- UPDATE (1/12/2022): >26K spirometry tests performed on platform – 2.6X growth year-over-year!
- UPDATE (1/12/2022): >1.5X subscription growth quarter-over-quarter throughout 2022!
- UPDATE (12/13/2022): Awarded ADDITIONAL $500K, 2-year expansion of NSF SBIR grant!
- Launched with 90-hospital Health System group in May 2022
- Raised $2M+ in Seed funding in 2021 from 3 VCs and several Angels
- Change asthma and COPD treatment to proactive, preventative care
- Won $1.2M+ (Update: $1.7M+) in grant funding from National Science Foundation (NSF) and others

## Active fundraises
- wefunder:fundraise:77523: 506(c) successful (USD)
- wefunder:fundraise:70357: 4(a)(6) successful (USD)
- wefunder:fundraise:70358: 4(a)(6) successful (USD)

## Story
What if you had to go to the cardiologist to get your blood pressure taken?That would be absurd. Of course you should be able to get your blood pressure tested with your primary care doctor, and by yourself at home!So why are we making the 40 million Americans with asthma and COPD go to the pulmonologist to test how their lungs are doing? It's insane.And it is part of why only 50% of people with COPD have ever had a pulmonary function test. (Can you imagine if only half of people with cardiovascular disease had ever had a blood pressure test?)We founded VitalFlo to unlock pulmonary function testing, also called spirometry, for patient and their primary care doctors.We're backed by the bestTo help us on this mission, we've been backed by great VC investors like Techstars, Geekdom Fund and Elevate Capital.We've also won support from the National Science Foundation.Now, we're opening up the opportunity for the whole world.Why is now the right time to invest? Because we're already working with some of the best customers in the world, and we're growing. Fast.A massive problem, that VitalFlo can solveThere are three major reasons that treating patients Chronic Respiratory Diseases like asthma and COPD has become such a big problem:Reactive Care is Expensive. The US alone spends $100 Billion per year on asthma and COPD care. And $29 Billion of that is on ER visits and hospitalizations! Reacting to symptoms instead of proactive testing and treatment is responsible.Respiratory Care is Hard. Most of this testing is done by specialists like Pulmonologists. That is because Pulmonary Function Testing (aka spirometry) has traditionally been a difficult test to do well. As a result, 40% of cases are underdiagnosed. And fully 50% of COPD patients have never had a pulmonary function test! How can we help patients before they end up in the hospital, if we don't know how they're doing?Trends are Making it Worse. Unfortunately, a respiratory pandemic has made chronic respiratory disease an even bigger problem. COVID has impacted everyone, and especially the ~23 million who have long-haul COVID symptoms. And with other trends like climate change causing more pollen and allergy symptoms as well, this problem is becoming increasingly urgent.Sources: see list below.One of the biggest challenges is a lack of access to testing.That's because the testing is typically stuck in the Pulmonary Lab.And in the wake of COVID, Pulmonary Labs all across the country are backlogged by 4-6 months.The solution is to make spirometry available to your regular doctorWe've designed our software and data tools to make spirometry remarkably easy to do, all while maintaining the highest quality readings.By pairing with 3rd-party hardware devices, we have focused on making super simple, easy-to-use mobile and web apps.Our products help Primary Care Doctors & Health Systems quickly and easily evaluate the respiratory health of their patients – both in the clinic and at homeWe're built for Primary Care, so we're ready for everyoneWe're built for primary care providers (non-specialists), which makes us a fantastic tool for many different clinical settings.We have sequentially launched into three markets over the last few years: Researchers, Independent Primary Care providers, and now: Health Systems.Academic Clinical Researchers were great early-adopters.We helped elite research groups like UNC School of Medicine, the CDC, and UT Austin Dell Medical school to shift their studies from in-person to remote following COVID.VitalFlo also helped groups like Stanford University's Sean N. Parker Center for Allergy & Asthma Research and Duke University design never-before done fully-remote, fully decentralized research studies.Independent Primary Care launched earlier in 2022There has been a great need for spirometry testing that we are helping to fill for primary care practices across the country.Since launching our products to this segments earlier this year, we've been growing fast, and we're continuing that growth through the end of the year and into 2023.Health Systems are backlogged by all of the pulmonary function testing they need to doWith 4-6 month waits to get the testing they need done, Health System accounts need help getting more throughput.We launched our first Health System earlier this year. Sovah Health has seen a great ROI by working with us: paying back the system cost in the first 6 weeks of use through insurance billing.This is a massive market with large account sizes: the system we launched with is a 2-hospital system that was recently acquired by a 90-hospital group, which we will be working to expand into through the rest of the year and 2023. A business model that worksAs a software and data platform, we have both a SaaS and transactions-based revenue streams.Subscriptions: We charge annual, auto-renewing subscriptions on a per-device basis. We are competitively priced, and by scaling with the number of devices deployed instead the number of patients or providers, our structure works great for both small and large practices.Disposables: When the devices are used in the clinic, there are mouthpieces that must be replaced after each test. So in addition to the annual subscriptions, we are also driving revenue by increasing testing volume.Aligned Incentives: Our customers are paid by insurance for each test they do, which makes the system pay for itself quite quickly. One of our health system customers has reported a 6-week payback period and success on 100% of the insurance claims they have made so far.Our next service: Virtual CareIn addition to in-clinic services, VitalFlo is about to launch its home-based program. For this offering we will be subcontracting virtual service providers to help oversee the patients while they are at home.Our first customer will be a 150-provider Allergy & Asthma group based in the Midwest.This product has been highly requested from our customers. It requires one device subscription per patient, and will dramatically expand the SaaS income associate with our accounts.The result: continued, rapid growthWe are in our growth inflection, and it's an exciting time to invest in continued sales and marketing efforts.With a product that is ready to scale, and new services launching, we are primed to dramatically expand our revenue over the next several quarters.In fact, in 2022 we grew the number of spirometry tests performed on the platform by 2.6X year-over-year:Join VitalFlo on our growth journeyWe have an award-winning team that has successfully growth the company to this point, brought on over $2M in Venture Capital backing, as well as over $1.2M in grant support from federal institutions like the National Science Foundation.Our clinical advisors include:Carl Mottram - professor-emeritus of Mayo Clinic School of Medicine and author of the definitive text book on Pulmonary Function TestingDr. Wes Sublett - Sr. Partner and Medical Director of Clinical Research of one of the largest PE-backed Allergy & Asthma clinical groups in the USDr. Todd Rowland - Medical Informatics Fellow of Harvard/MIT, and Chairperson of the Telehealth Innovation Group of the American Academy of Physical Medicine & RehabilitationWe believe we are primed for growth and invite you to join us on our journey!Statistic sources:ER Visits, Hospitalizations & Hospital Readmissions: CDC, JACI, CDC, Pharmacy Times, CDC, CDC, NIHUnder-diagnosis: AAFP and ERSUnder-testing: CMAJLong-haul COVID: UC DavisPollen Increases: Nature

## FAQ
1. **Not to say much, I think we are very much interested in this project but then we are not opting for the crowdfunding route. We also want to know what you see your valuation will look like in 3 years. We were wondering if you have provisions to accept alternative financing. Wit...**
   - Thanks Thomas! Yes, we are simultaneously raising from accredited investors on the same terms, and I'd be happy to discuss it further :)
2. **Hi, Can you tell us approximatey how much the machines cost to rent, how many get manufactured per year, and whether they can simply be bought and used by patients at home, like a blood pressure machine? Many thanks, Martin**
   - Hi Martin -- thank you for the question! We have been thoughtful about our device partnerships in order to make sure we have supply chain security and the ability to quickly scale-up! We have two primary device partners currently. Our model is to bundle the off-the-shelf third party devices into our SaaS subscription for the software, which scales up with the number of devices the provider needs (both both in-clinic and at-home). Though there is some variability based on the account type, we ...
3. **Sounds like a great idea. I wish you the best. I do have two related questions. What type of IP do you have? What are you offering that another company couldn't easily replicate?**
   - Great question! We've built out our defensibility in two key areas: (1) the user-interface and ease-of-use to help patients and non-specialists perform spirometry quickly and accurately, and (2) the clinical decision support software that help non-specialists more quickly and easily understand the results. User-Interface & Ease of Use: Through our partnerships with clinical researchers, we have learned how to provide real-time coaching in our app. Basically, while performing the test, our...
4. **This sounds like a great idea. I do have a couple of questions: do you plan to seek out government partnerships in the future, at any level? Given your comparisons of pulmonary tests to blood pressure tests and the constant debate over what Medicare and Medicaid should cover, ...**
   - Hi Rachel, thank you for the thoughtful question! First, it's worth clarifying that our business model currently relies on both public insurance (like Medicare and Medicaid) and private insurance (like United Healthcare, Blue Cross Blue Shield, etc). Regardless of the insurance type patients have, our platform helps doctors do tests that are covered by existing insurance billing codes. As an example, one of our customers, Sovah Health, has received 100% of the insurance payments they have sub...
5. **Any Investor Perks. This Idea seems great. Everyone knows someone who has asthma or COPD.**
   - Thanks Adan! That's exactly why we started the company: to help those we love more proactively manage their conditions in partnership with their doctor. Because our service does require working the with a medical professional, we aren't currently offering any perks other than a great deal supporting a great mission :)

## Team
- Luke Marshall (Founder & CEO)
- Andy Taylor (Co-founder & COO)
- Carl Mottram (Clinical Advisory Board Member)
- Dr. Wes Sublett (Clinical Advisory Board Member)

## Recent posts
- VitalFlo is Finalist for $300K Investment (2023-04-27T20:10:13Z)
- VitalFlo Launches its 2nd Health System (2023-04-10T23:24:17Z)
- Techstars invests $150,000 in VitalFlo (2023-03-02T18:58:43Z)
- VitalFlo wins $100K investment at Pitch Oregon Competition (2023-02-15T21:24:37Z)
- VitalFlo is PITCH OREGON 2023 Finalist! (2023-01-30T23:28:42Z)
- National Science Foundation backs VitalFlo with $500K SBIR Grant Expansion (2022-12-14T02:01:05Z)
- 🚀 New Services Announcement! We're launching Turn-Key Virtual Care services with our partners. (2022-11-18T22:27:55Z)
- Customer Love ❤️: "VitalFlo does what it says. No ifs, ands, or buts, it does what it says. And that is really amazing in the healthcare space." (2022-11-08T21:58:16Z)
- 🎧 Listen to VitalFlo's CEO on the TechLink Health Podcast (2022-10-24T15:56:37Z)
- VitalFlo selected as Finalist for Bend Venture Conference! (2022-10-11T21:40:09Z)

## Q&A
- Q: This sounds like a great idea. I do have a couple of questions: do you plan to seek out government partnerships in the future, at any level? Given your comparisons of pulmonary tests to blood pressure tests and the constant debate over what Medicare and Medicaid should cover, have you thought about how changes to those systems might affect your products and services?
  - A: Hi Rachel, thank you for the thoughtful question! First, it's worth clarifying that our business model currently relies on both public insurance (like Medicare and Medicaid) and private insurance (like United Healthcare, Blue Cross Blue Shield, etc). Regardless of the insurance type patients have, our platform helps doctors do tests that are covered by existing insurance billing codes. As an example, one of our customers, Sovah Health, has received 100% of the insurance payments they have submitted for, for procedures done using VitalFlo. That allowed them to pay for the cost of the system in the first six weeks of use! Additionally, we are actively pursuing some other relationships with government partners. We have actively been engaging with strategies to work with Veterans Affairs, the Indian Health Service, and the Military Health Service. These are early-stage discussions, and we cannot provide more details or guarantee their outcome at this stage. However, they are in our growth plans. Thank you for your interest and for the great question!
- Q: This is interesting for someone that needs to get spirometry done every 6 months! The lab machines are large, seems incredible that they can be replaced by hand held devices. How trust worthy are the results of the devices you partner with - have drs readily accepted the validity of these tests for their patients?
  - A: Hi Dipanker, great question! We're already in dozens of primary care clinics across the country, as well as a hospital-based pulmonary lab (and several academic research studies). The results have been very reliable and trustworthy for the most common use cases for spirometry. Our focus is to use our software and data tools to make these new, more affordable 3rd-party devices as advanced and easy to use as possible. So far we are seeing that plan work well in the market!
- Q: 1. What are the FDA approvals necessary to sell your product and their timeline? 2. Do you have a proforma forecast you can share ? 3. Who are your competitors, direct and indirect? 4. What is your moat? Thank you.
  - A: 1. We use off-the-shelf, 3rd party spirometers all of which are FDA cleared. The analytics tools that we build to assist our customers with understanding the results are clinical decision support software, which does not require a clearance. We maintain robust quality management and security practices to make sure we are in compliance, and have passed multiple institutional security reviews with university, governmental and health system partners. 2. We don't have this available publicly, but do have some basic forecasts available on in the slides on the previous page (and with the Reg CF rules, it's worth reiterating that we cannot guarantee forward-looking forecasts). 3. There are a couple of other startups in our space that make their own hardware systems. We elected not to pursue this path because the market has already commoditized the devices, so chose to build the higher-value parts of the stack via our software and data platform. There are also legacy device manufacturers (some of which are our vendor partners, other which are competitors). We are much better positioned to move quickly because we are a software-led product and ship regular feature and clinical standards updates to our customers, which hardware manufacturers cannot do easily. 4. We have a few: first, some of the most elite respiratory research institutions in the world choose us to help them run their studies. This gives us early and exclusive access to the newest clinical best practices as they are being developed, and validation in the market that cannot be easily replicated. Second, that experience has led to an incredibly simple and fast user experience. Using our platform, non-specialist primary care physicians are able to do spirometry testing quickly and easily, which was not possible before (e.g., most of our customers have converted to us from traditional, hard to use devices). Third, we are building one of the most robust spirometry datasets in the world, which gives us the ability to build out analytics products that no one else has sufficient data to build.
- Q: Sounds like a great idea. I wish you the best. I do have two related questions. What type of IP do you have? What are you offering that another company couldn't easily replicate?
  - A: Great question! We've built out our defensibility in two key areas: (1) the user-interface and ease-of-use to help patients and non-specialists perform spirometry quickly and accurately, and (2) the clinical decision support software that help non-specialists more quickly and easily understand the results. User-Interface & Ease of Use: Through our partnerships with clinical researchers, we have learned how to provide real-time coaching in our app. Basically, while performing the test, our technology quickly assesses the test based on established clinical criteria, and lets the user know if they did it correctly. And if they didn't do it correctly, how to adjust and try again. The result is we can help care teams accurately do this test in 3-5 minutes (when previously it could take 20-40 minutes). Clinical Decision Support: By automating several different types of reports, and providing quick visualizations based on the latest clinical standards, we can help our care teams (especially non-specialists) assess their patients quickly and easily. We also provide feedback and reports that help with clinical workflow as well as insurance reimbursement.
- Q: Hi, Can you tell us approximatey how much the machines cost to rent, how many get manufactured per year, and whether they can simply be bought and used by patients at home, like a blood pressure machine? Many thanks, Martin
  - A: Hi Martin -- thank you for the question! We have been thoughtful about our device partnerships in order to make sure we have supply chain security and the ability to quickly scale-up! We have two primary device partners currently. Our model is to bundle the off-the-shelf third party devices into our SaaS subscription for the software, which scales up with the number of devices the provider needs (both both in-clinic and at-home). Though there is some variability based on the account type, we typically charge $400/year per device subscription. We also have a consumables model for our in-clinic applications (every in-clinic test requires a one-time-use mouthpiece). There are some over-the-counter devices on the market called "peak flow meters" or "peak flow spirometers" that can be purchased and used by patients at home. However, these devices do not provide all of the data doctors need to diagnose patients or update their care plan, so we do not support them on our platform. We focus using on prescription-level spirometers (that correct full flow-volume loop spirometry), that provide a rich dataset for the care team and provide more data for our analytics models.
- Q: Being a respiratory therapist and now a physician assistant, I see the great value in a product like this. Through the years we have focused on building up our center of outpatient health to help prevent ED visits and 30 days admissions. The standard peak flow meter has much variability if the effort is poor. It will be interesting to see this product in action sometime.
  - A: We totally agree! Enabling more access to full flow-volume loop graphical spirometry is a big benefit for helping with proactive and preventative care. We are already live in dozens of primary care offices across the country. If we can be of help in your practice, please let us know!
- Q: If hospitals are making money back in just 6 weeks, shouldn't the price be doubled? A quarter payback is still extremely fast. Price it on value, not cost.
  - A: Thanks for all of the great questions, Jeremy! Yes, you're correct and we have a planned price increase going into 2023. In order to balance the cost-sensitivity of our small independent practice customers (many of which do not bill insurance) with the ROI for our insurance-based Health System customers, we are increasing pricing by ~20% going into the new year across the board. For our Health System customer (who had the example of a quick payback period), we are also creating minimum purchase bundles: basically moving them to larger account values right out of the gate vs. the current model of land-and-expand.
- Q: More information from an e mail I got on May 7, 2025 from Luke Marshall: This is an except from that e mail: "Tomorrow – May 8, 2025 – we will be publicly announcing our acquisition by Doktorconnect. There are a few things to note about how that news relates to Wefunder investors: First, this wasn't a good financial outcome – we sold the company for a small SAFE in the acquiring company. On paper, the SAFE is valued at approximately $0.07 per $1 that VitalFlo raised in its lifetime. Second, because the offer was made as a SAFE (a security in the acquiring company), and the acquiring company is not Reg CF crowdfunding compliant, we have been informed by Wefunder that it is unable to participate in the SAFE Third, the only two options available to all investors (whether Wefunder or otherwise) were to either participate in the offer made by Doktorconnect, or to relinquish their holdings (we had several non-Wefunder investors relinquish their holdings as well, typically for tax reasons). Unfortunately, there was no other way to do the transaction. Fourth, if we had not completed this transaction, we would have already closed down the business." As I mentioned previously, this was the first notice I've gotten about this change and the explanation doesn't explain anything about where I stand because I have not participated in the offer nor have I relinquished my holdings.
- Q: I just got an e mail from Luke Marshall with this news: "As you may know from our updates, VitalFlo has been struggling for survival over the last year. During that time we were seeking an acquisition as a way to land the plane. Tomorrow – May 8, 2025 – we will be publicly announcing our acquisition by Doktorconnect. There are a few things to note about how that news relates to Wefunder investors:" From there the email went on to discuss options for Wefunder investors: This next is the third of 4 points made in the email: "Third, the only two options available to all investors (whether Wefunder or otherwise) were to either participate in the offer made by Doktorconnect, or to relinquish their holdings (we had several non-Wefunder investors relinquish their holdings as well, typically for tax reasons). Unfortunately, there was no other way to do the transaction". I have nether withdrawn nor participated because this is the first notice I've gotten about this. So my question is- Where do I stand? Dan
- Q: It's been a while since I've seen any updates on your progress. Would like to see anything on that. I see your postings on LinkedIn, but not much else?
  - A: We do our investor updates via email — it looks like you got our latest one on Feb 7!
- Q: What did 2022 and 2023 Q1 revenue look like?
- Q: do you have 2022 Financials that you can share?
- Q: Hello, what is the difference between you and Kevahealth currently raising on startengine ?
- Q: Hello, I am currently living in UAE and am a citizen of Pakistan, can I invest or are there any clauses or catches that I need to be aware of?
- Q: what is your 510 K and CPT codes ? are you CE mark ? Thanks Richard C MD
  - A: We use off-the-shelf, 3rd party spirometers all of which are FDA cleared and have CE marks (we currently are focused on the US market). The analytics tools that we build to assist our customers with understanding the results are clinical decision support software. We maintain robust quality management and security practices to make sure we are in compliance, and have passed multiple institutional security reviews with university, governmental and health system partners. There are several CPT codes that our customers can use, including very well established spirometry codes (e.g., 94010, 94060, 94070) as well as newer remote monitoring codes (e.g., 99454, 99457).