Habitual co-founder Napala Pratini planned to go to medical school to train as a doctor.
Napala Pratini treats her staff as she would the company’s patients and consumers.
As CEO and co-founder of London-based Habitual, a digital healthcare company championing sustainable weight loss and lasting habit change, the lean start-up had to be savvy when it came to employee benefit costs.
Instead, the company gave its team up to an hour each day that benefited health and happiness outside of work.
“It was a case of what can we do that’s on brand and that we would give to our patients?” says Pratini. “It’s a nice tradition to give to the team.
“It's not mandated and most won’t spend a full hour, it's more a reminder to employees to take some time for yourself, a walk, yoga class, calling your mother. It gives people flexibility.”
Habitual, which is also an NHS partner, provides medication, meal replacements including shakes and soups, and guidance in its weight management approach. Revenue topped £3m last year and Habitual aims for double growth in 2025.
Habitual is a sustainable weight-loss partner of the NHS.
Hailing from California, Pratini planned to go to medical school to train as a doctor and open her own practice, following in the entrepreneurial footsteps of her photographer father and mother who owned a plant nursery.
After a post-grad research placement in Spain, a move to San Francisco, then the UK to do an MBA at University of Oxford, to working at a research organisation, she began to focus on behaviour change in reversing type 2 diabetes.
At the firm she met future Habitual co-founder Ian Braithwaite, the pair believing they could scale low calorie diet plans and face-to-face behavioural coaching digitally without a human and guide a consumer through any type of weight loss.
Her start-up journey began a decade ago in San Francisco where she understood the funding world, a world away from how investment is seen in the UK.
“Raising here is tough,” says Pratini, “especially having spent time in the US, the attitude is 'how big can this get and how much money can you make?' In the UK it’s about ways you could lose my money.”
Patients have ongoing support coordinated through an app. ·Milko via Getty Images
Habitual’s founders incorporated the company in 2019, Braithwaite working in A&E (where he has since returned to today) and Pratini in freelance marketing to earn a living, before launching in 2021.
They raised their first £250,000 through angel investment and some timely product advice from an investor as they sought to roll out an app.
“Spend it all on an app, put it in a patient's hands and they will say that it’s not what they need,” recalls Pratini, as they took time on app functionality, content tracking and building alongside the patient.
Users are urged to use the app at least once per month to check in, while gym membership is offered alongside behavioural content, weight loss graphs and progress reporting.
With global sales in obesity medication expected to surpass $200bn by 2031, Habitual also prescribes Novo Nordisk's (NVO) Wegovy, the higher-concentrated version of Ozempic.
Napala Pratini became fascinated by the power of behaviour change in reversing type 2 diabetes before launching Habitual.
“I believe that there is a role to play for weight loss medications,” admits Pratini. “They are in the news every day because they are very effective and a step change in our approach to thinking about obesity as a condition.
“We know that they need to be delivered alongside behavioural change if you want to improve and not be the only thing that somebody does. Patients need to think not only about the number of calories they are eating but also the macro and micro nutrient content and increasing activity.”
The medications, adds Pratini, can be a powerful trigger when consumers sign up to a plan and start losing weight.
“They prove to themselves that they can be this new version,” she says. “It’s a self-reinforcing cycle and they do the hard work and eat better foods to change habits. I have seen first hand that they have been truly life-changing for patients.
“We have a high clinical bar for the people we are servicing and, in the obesity range, tend to be people who have struggled with weight for decades.”
In most cases this is a last-ditch attempt and Habitual clearly has some powerful case studies. “It’s a great thing to be able to come to work to every day and be inspired from,” says Pratini.
CEO Says: Napala Pratini on…
Leadership
Christina LaMontagne was my first boss in San Francisco at NerdWallet (NRDS). She was my idol at the time, led by example and was very much herself. I wanted to be her, until I realised I had to take her best bits and be me first and not change who I am.
Everyone listened when Christina walked in the room and spoke and that was the main thing I wanted to emulate.
I came from biochemistry and doing clinical research trials and in my mind the way you do good in any job is the harder you work the better you do, the smarter you are the more you will progress.
Sometimes I will get a little bit impatient rather than taking a step back and listen to the team dynamic.
When I had my first performance review Christina sat down with me, said I was driven and smart and told me that even if I had the best idea in the room you still have to listen to other people when they want to share their ideas. It was invaluable advice.
