Phil Southerland: Supersapiens Founder and CEO, how SS came to exist and the future of CGM

The Supersapiens Podcast

Today, we’re talking to Phil Southerland, CEO and Founder of Supersapiens. As founder of the all-diabetes cycling team starting with the Team Type 1 Foundation and then Team Novo Nordis. Phil has leveraged CGM to help to deliver hope and inspiration for people with diabetes. Through that experience, he pioneered getting CGM to the bike computer, which enabled a new class of speed for the Team Novo Nordisk athletes. The value of real-time glucose data right there on their bikes was off the charts, and Phil knew there was a need for this in the market. It guided their nutrition strategies, their in-competition fueling, and helped them manage their overall energy and performance output. In 2019, a partnership was formed with Abbott to bring the world’s first minute-by-minute glucose biosensor to the sports world. That’s how Supersapiens was born.

02:28 – Community Shoutouts
04:57 – Fanni Szalai is the athlete David forgets the name of
12:30 – Interview starts
13:53 – What made Phil want to bring CGM to people without diabetes?
16:07 – What made Phil think that CGM would be valuable in people without diabetes?
19:12 – Is Phil uniquely position to bring CGM to the masses?
22:20 – Is CGM use in people without diabetes removing resources from people with diabetes?
26:23 – Learnings that people with diabetes can take from people without diabetes from a glucose perspective
30:26 – Athletes using CGMs normalizing their use for people with diabetes
32:24 – How is Phil’s marathon training for London marathon going?
36:40 – Phil’s roll in Xylon doing Kona
38:05 – What does a day in Phil’s life look like?
44:20 – Does Phil want his children to go into cycling?
48:34 – What has Phil learned about glucose since starting Supersapiens?
55:33 – Where does Phil see glucose monitoring going in the next few years?
65:57 – The impact of feedback on behavior change and CGM’s role in this
66:48 – Discussion of marathon training.
75:44 – Phil’s history of marathon running
78:11 – Phil’s history of broken bones
79:31 – Who is the coolest athlete Phil has talked to during his time at Supersapiens?
82:00 – Where did Phil think Supersapiens would be at this point versus where it is?
87:29 – Rush Round
98:10 – Outro