Choosing the Course of Passion: Brooke Boyarsky Pratt at knownwell

Brooke Boyarsky Pratt (HBS '13) enjoyed considerable success in her early career, quickly climbing the ranks to associate partner at McKinsey, and later becoming an executive vice president at Berkadia, a Berkshire Hathaway portfolio company. Throughout these years, she had also felt a strong desire to follow her passion and make a difference but had never been able to determine what that meant for her. However, as someone who had struggled with her weight since she was young, a routine visit to the doctor in 2020 where she experienced weight stigma yet again turned into a clarion call, and led Boyarsky Pratt to consider finding some way to address the problem of obesity care. After wrestling with the idea for nearly two years, Boyarsky Pratt quit her job at Berkadia to start knownwell, an integrated weight and primary care provider that had made business model and service design choices to specifically support people with obesity. In December 2022, knownwell raised a $4.5m seed round, and in the spring of 2023, opened its first weight-inclusive clinic in the Boston area to glowing and touching patient reviews. Looking to the future, Boyarsky Pratt had to make a fundamental decision on how she wanted to grow knownwell. Should she grow slowly and build a small footprint of clinics in the area over the next few years? Or should she scale fast to potentially help millions of people across the U.S. struggling with their weight feel better served by their doctor? This decision had both professional and personal implications. Which path should she take?

• Career planning
• Health and wellness
• Entrepreneurship
• Personal purpose and values
• Exit
• Careers
• Market entry
• Organizational behavior
• Start-ups
• Healthcare and treatment
• Growth strategy
• Mission statements