20VC: Oscar Health: How to Deal with a 94% Decline in Market Cap, "Why I Stood Aside as CEO" and The Rebound Journey to $5.8BN in Revenue with Mario Schlosser, Co-Founder @ Oscar Health
The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
The Twenty Minute VC
4.4 • 637 Ratings
🗓️ 5 April 2024
⏱️ 70 minutes
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Summary
Mario Schlosser is the Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer at Oscar Health. The public company that went public with a market cap of $7.1BN. Following a tumultuous time in the markets, their stock price dropped 94%. Today, the company has rebounded and has a market cap of $3.2BN with an astonishing $5.8BN of revenues. Before co-founding Oscar, Mario also co-founded the largest social gaming company in Latin America.
In Today's Episode with Mario Schlosser We Discuss:
1. From German Middle-Class to Public Company Founder:
- How did Mario make his way into the world of tech and come to co-found Oscar with Josh Kushner?
- Does Mario agree with Jensen Huang that "we should all have lower expectations"?
- What does Mario know now that he wishes he had known when he started Oscar?
2. Why Did Oscar Tank 94% in the Public Markets:
- What was the core reason why Oscar tanked 94% in the markets?
- What would Mario have done differently knowing all he knows now about public markets?
- Does Mario regret going public? What are the biggest pros and cons?
3. The Mental Challenge of a 94% Market Cap Decline:
- How did Mario mentally deal with the company being down 94%?
- What does he say to himself in the truly hard times?
- How did Mario use his co-founder, a coach and his family, to get through the really bad times?
- What are Mario's experiences like with anti-depressants? What worked? What did not?
4. Firing Yourself as CEO:
- Why did Mario decide to step aside as CEO? What was the decision-making process?
- On reflection, does Mario think he was a good CEO? Where was he good? Where was he bad?
- What are the biggest management pieces of advice that Mario thinks are BS?
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I don't think I've told the story, but we went public, right? |
| 0:03.0 | I think it was March 3rd or whatever, 2021. Was Josh and I ringing the bell and we're like, fuck here, this is going to be great. And then we open and the thing falls. It opens low right away and it falls right away. The world doesn't end that often. That is actually one of the things you do realize. And so you just need to basically say, step outside of yourself almost and observe yourself and say, |
| 0:21.9 | you've done this before, it is going to be fine. Sometimes the rhetoric is looking at value of like, |
| 0:25.9 | oh my God, laugh and death, whatever, is also just fucking stupid. You are listening to 20 VC with me, |
| 0:30.7 | Harry Stebbings. Now, today we have an incredible story for you. In 2021, Oscar Health went public |
| 0:36.5 | with a market cap of $7.1 billion. |
| 0:39.9 | Following a tumultuous time in the markets, their stock price dropped 94%. |
| 0:45.1 | Today, the company's rebounded and has a market cap of $3.2 billion, with an astonishing |
| 0:50.8 | $5.8 billion of revenue for 2023. |
| 0:56.1 | Today, I sit down with the founder, |
| 1:01.8 | Mario Schlosser, to discuss the incredible journey, how he dealt with it, why he stood aside his CEO, and the insane rebound that they're in the middle of. But before we dive in, |
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| 1:11.6 | together across systems, and it's a waste of valuable time and resources. And as a result, you probably |
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| 1:56.7 | Finally, a solution employees love to use, where buying things for work just works. |
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