An Interview With Jake Frankel
You have to prioritize and focus; running in multiple directions is a recipe for failure — Although I enjoy being involved with multiple businesses and truly value the breadth of everything I have learned along the way, I sometimes wonder what would have happened if I had just focused on one business. Would Revive have over 100 locations by now?
As part of my series about healthcare leaders, I had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Vishal Verma.
Dr. Vishal Verma is the Co-Founder and Medical Director of Revive Med Spa, one of the top nationally recognized aesthetic medical spas. He is a serial entrepreneur at heart and has cultivated several successful businesses, including SkinSolutionsMD, StatRad, iThriveMD and Reachify, in addition to investing in numerous others.
Originally from Minnesota, Dr. Verma earned both his Bachelor of Science and Doctorate of Medicine in the prestigious accelerated 6-year Honors Program in Medicine (HPME) at the University of Miami. He continued his medical training with a residency at the University of Chicago and a fellowship at the University of California San Diego.
For Dr. Verma, Revive is so much more than a medical spa, it is a chance to help clients look and feel their best.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! What is your “backstory”?
My wife, Vinita, and I met in Chicago after we both completed our doctorate degrees. When we settled in San Diego, our goal was to create a truly unique spa concept incorporating both medical and non-medical beauty services. Over time, the need for our aesthetics treatments grew and we opened more locations to meet the growing demand. For us, Revive is so much more than a medical spa, it is our vision, life and passion. It has been an opportunity to work closely together as a couple and a chance to help people feel their best. Now, we have ten locations throughout California with national recognition as one of the top providers in the US.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career? Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that? Are you working on any new or exciting projects now?
What is most important to us at Revive is providing solutions that produce real results. In addition to our core offerings, we have really been excited about emerging regenerative treatments which stimulate the body to naturally produce collagen, elastin, and fat in treated areas to help correct the degradation that commonly occurs with aging. Specifically, we offer Sculptura and dilute Radiesse to help stimulate collagen and elastin, and Renuva to restore fat cells. The other area we have been focusing on is using advanced protocols combining Morpheus8 with BBL Hero and non-ablative laser resurfacing to bring skin rejuvenation to a new level. The results, when we combine all of the latest tools, techniques and technologies are truly at the forefront of what can be accomplished non-surgically.
Outside of Revive, we have other entrepreneurial endeavors and have been expanding our portfolio to include a breadth of overall wellness and technology offerings. At iThriveMD, we provide health solutions to combat critical drivers of the aging process, increasing longevity. We also have a telemedicine practice focused on diabetes management, MDWatch, that is leveraging the latest tech and therapies like CGMs (continuous glucose monitoring) and GLP-1s. Our Preachify business which started in healthcare pivoted a few years back and now focuses on automation to manage calls and texts in the restaurant space. We recently launched an AI offering to streamline menu ordering through SMS which will revolutionize the industry and help ease the burden on short-staffed businesses.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
For Revive, our team is what makes us so successful. One particular colleague who has been especially instrumental is our Senior Director of Brand Experience, Christina Contizano. When Vinita and I purchased the hair salon which would be the first Revive location, Christina was already a hairstylist there. She was a single mother of two and through brute force, helped define Revive as it is today. Christina managed customer service, employee issues, work culture and rose the ranks to eventually become the general manager. Since then, she also helped us open two more San Diego locations and continues to be a leading voice in our continued expansion. It is because of team members like Christina that has allowed Vinita and me to work on other endeavors; they are an integral part of why Revive has flourished to become a leader in the med spa industry. When you can work with people as passionate about your business as you are, they are part of your success story; we don’t do it alone.
Is there a particular book that made an impact on you? Can you share a story?
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
What I appreciated is its profound yet humorous perspective on life, reminding us of our smallness in the vast universe. By highlighting the absurdity and unpredictability of the existence of life, it encourages us not to take ourselves too seriously and to approach our day-to-day challenges with humor and a sense of adventure. It reminds me that amidst life’s daunting moments, a lighthearted attitude can be a powerful tool.
How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?
There are two levels at which I approach this. First, I focus on being a positive influence in everyday interactions, believing that even small, positive gestures can accumulate to create a better overall experience for those directly around us. Second, I strive to engage in initiatives and projects that have a broader impact, aiming to contribute meaningfully to the community and beyond. My family and I are very active in the US chapter for the Magic Bus which helps poverty-stricken children in India elevate out of their circumstances and gain employment. We have not only raised funds but also spent time seeing the organization in action, and understanding how donations directly impact the communities.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share a story about how that was relevant to you in your own life?
“Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.” — Winston Churchill
Being an entrepreneur is not easy; you must be able to endure many failures and persevere. We’ve had many business ideas that have not gone well. One of our first business attempts was an MRI business but we ran into so many issues with real estate, financing and partners. While we were not able to get it off the ground, we learned a lot and didn’t give up on trying to launch a business which ultimately led to the creation of Revive. Even then, as new business owners, we ran into the challenges of running a retail establishment including staff turnover, theft, and even flooding but we were able to get through each hurdle and gain strength and resilience. There are times that the world will feel like it is falling apart, but you keep on and endure.
Can you share your top three “lifestyle tweaks” that will help people feel great?
You can incorporate small things daily to improve your overall lifestyle. For me, I recommend:
- Hormone balancing, NAD+ shots and peptide therapy
- Regular cardiovascular activity and fresh air
- Intermittent fasting
What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why. (Please share a story or example for each.)
- No matter how challenging the situation, the strong survive — During the 2007 financial crisis, we were concerned about consumers pulling back, but we were able to weather the situation well by leveraging our scale and vendor relationships to continue offering affordable services. Similarly, we emerged stronger than ever after the Covid pandemic, even after having to close for two months. Even when people leave or things seem dire, continuing to push forward allows you to survive and ultimately succeed. Never let one piece of bad news or a few bad months cause you to give up.
- Investing in people is as important if not more important than investing in the growth of the business — At Revive, we focus on providing education, growth opportunities, and training for our team. This investment not only enhances their satisfaction but also enables them to deliver superior service to our clients.
- A strong company culture is the foundation of the client experience, particularly in a service-oriented business — At Revive, our supportive, fun, and exciting work environment fosters a culture where people genuinely enjoy being part of the team. This commitment to culture enriches our interactions with clients and enhances their overall experience. Our positive culture is evident in the exceptional service we provide, making Revive a standout in the industry.
- Even the right ideas can fail if the timing is wrong — When blockchain technology really started becoming mainstream around 2016–2017 with a lot of focus on the impact on the financial system, we saw an obvious use case in healthcare to improve access to patient medical records, so we launched a company called MintHealth. However, we quickly learned that the healthcare ecosystem wasn’t ready to adopt something so radical and the limitations of the early technology around transaction processing speed and costs made it less appealing. The idea was ahead of its time but I’m sure blockchain will one day help control easy access to medical records.
- You have to prioritize and focus; running in multiple directions is a recipe for failure — Although I enjoy being involved with multiple businesses and truly value the breadth of everything I have learned along the way, I sometimes wonder what would have happened if I had just focused on one business. Would Revive have over 100 locations by now?
If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of wellness to the most amount of people, what would that be?
On the mental health front, there is promising data emerging on the use of psychedelics, including psilocybin, LSD and MDMA, as potential treatments for depression, anxiety and PTSD. With the explosion of mental health issues, especially amongst our youth, these novel approaches need to be closely monitored and properly funded to explore their full potential as alternative treatment options that may be quite effective without the need for lifelong psychiatric medications.
For overall physical health, GLP-1 medications such as Ozempic and Mounjaro have been revolutionary. They effectively address chronic conditions such as diabetes, obesity, and heart disease, as well as reducing cravings for alcohol. These medications have the potential to reverse the damage caused by decades of increasing sedentary lifestyle and the rise in consumption of high-calorie, processed foods. Beyond weight loss, we are seeing a reduction in cholesterol, blood pressure and hemoglobin A1c which really gets to the core of addressing multiple chronic conditions at once and impacting population health in a meaningful way.
We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them 🙂
I’m sure I am not the first one to mention him, but I think a lunch with Elon Musk would be fascinating given his unique perspective and influence on the future. With the world at a pivotal intersection of AI integration, declining birth rates, and the climate crisis, Musk has very interesting insights on navigating these challenges.
What is the best way our readers can follow you online?
You can follow Revive Med Spa at www.revive.md, as well as on Instagram and TikTok at @revive.md.
Thank you so much for these wonderful insights!
Dr Vishal Verma Of Revive Med Spa: 5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Became A Doctor was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.