This week I had the privilege of interviewing Emma Frane, Vice President of Communications at Noom, Inc. According to their website, “Noom is a mission-driven technology company dedicated to building a healthier world. Our core products combine technology with human empathy, to empower personal change, and these principles are reflected throughout our company.” Noom is a company that is close to my heart as my mom has worked for them for the past few years, and she constantly has stories to tell me. I was able to ask a few questions about the company itself, its beginnings and where they plan to go in the future.
Her Campus (HC): Please introduce yourself! Your name, position at Noom, educational background and any other details you may want to share.
Emma Frane (EF): Emma Frane, VP of Communications. I am responsible for how we communicate about Noom to all of our important stakeholders—from employees to press to investors to users. My team works closely with brand, marketing, product, operations, coaching and more to make sure we are telling a compelling, consistent story.
HC: Noom has taken over the market when it comes to weight loss programs. What do you believe is the main reason for this? Did you see it becoming as successful as it is when you first began?
EF: Noom was created to help people live healthier lives, and we see weight management as a positive benefit to living a healthy and active lifestyle. While weight loss is a common goal for Noom users, the majority of users also list improving their health as a primary goal, along with developing a better relationship with one’s self.
We always knew we wanted to help people with a range of conditions. Starting with weight-related choices was the best way to do that because weight is the best barometer for overall health. That said, the program is not just focused on weight loss. It is focused on health and quality of life—food, fitness, sleep, stress management—because if any one of these things is lacking, the whole system suffers. It’s like trying to drive your car with a wheel missing.
The team tried a lot of things in the beginning related to healthier living, and they’ve been working on related ideas for 14 years! We eventually realized that Noom can provide a service unlike any others by combining technology, data and human coaching in order to help users create healthy sustainable habits. When we work at scale, which we have been doing now for years, our technology and human-coach combination is so powerful because it gets better as we grow.
HC: Noom has earned several awards for being one of the best places to work, and your website even mentions how much you value your employees and their perspectives. Why was creating a space where your employees can not only grow but also feel valued, so important?
EF: Everyone on our team is involved in our company’s vision and success, and we believe that the diverse voices at Noom strengthen us as a team and improve our product. One of our values at Noom is to care for each other like a family. We encourage each of our teammates to invest in their personal growth, and in turn, Noom invests in them with learning and development opportunities such as an unlimited book budget and access to mentorship. The development of our employees isn’t separate from Noom’s success, so we take an active role in making sure any resources employees might need are made available. We could not accomplish all of our goals without employees who feel valued and fulfilled.
HC: When you first began developing the idea for Noom, what were the basic goals that Saeju Jeong and Arten Petakov wanted to accomplish and what were some hard requirements they didn’t want to budge on?
EF: Born in South Korea to a family of doctors, CEO Saeju Jeong has always had a desire to help people. After the death of his father at a young age, he became more motivated than ever to truly change lives for the better. After moving to the U.S., he met Noom’s co-founder Artem Petakov, who shared this vision of helping people live healthier lives and convinced him to leave Google to develop Noom.
Saeju and Artem knew that they wanted to use technology to help people live healthier lives but figuring out a powerful and scalable way to do that is what took time, determination and the input of many smart people along the way.
HC: Did they have to scrap any initial ideas they had for the program? Whether it was app interface, office space, employee interaction, etc.?
EF: Many years ago, the early team started out by building an app that tracked fitness activity and it was followed by an app that counted calories. As you can see, we have left those behind for the product we are building today, but the mission to help people live healthier lives remained.
EF: Our users experience long term change because they are empowered to take control of their own health. This plays out in management as Noom’s leaders empower the team and put them in control. In management-speak, it’s servant-leadership. Saeju often explains, “I’m here to serve, and to help unlock creativity and purpose in Noom’s team.”
HC: Where do you hope to see Noom go in the future and what can users expect to see this year?
EF: Noom is on a mission to help people everywhere lead healthier lives through behavior change. Weight loss is Noom’s flagship program, but it is just the beginning. In fact, we have been working on a new offering that is dedicated to helping people manage their stress and anxiety because we know this is a big need and we know Noom’s behavior science platform can be applied to help so many people manage this. It’s in very early stages but you can expect to hear more about it soon.
HC: This space is for anything you want to share—advice, information about Noom I didn’t ask questions on, etc.
EF: Noom has helped millions of people live healthier lives, been downloaded in 100+ countries, published more than 20 studies and has multiple grants from the National Institutes of Health. We believe the quality of our lives hinges on better choices…so let’s embark on this journey, together!
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