Hospitalogy Mid-Year Update

Hospitalogy the Connector: Announcing my First Ever in-person event, the Hospitalogy VBC Retreat

A not-so-subtle trend has been playing out over the past few years. It fulfills a powerful, but simple human principle: People are social want to connect with each other. And post-pandemic, there’s more demand than ever for meaningful in-person connection. They crave intimacy and closed-doors conversations around things that actually matter – not talking heads on a panel in front of thousands of people.

The traditional conference model isn’t it getting it done anymore. That’s why you’re seeing big conferences pivoting to facilitate more connection. Those who attend conferences want (1) to justify their ridiculous marketing spend at in-person events, (2) connect and network with their peers to drive better personal career and business growth, and finally, (3) to have fun.

At the same time, healthcare is the industry of human connection, at its very core. So what’s next?

The best in-person healthcare (and every industry, really) events and communities of 2025 and beyond will succeed in facilitating meaningful connection and intimacy. Where people will leave and say “that was worth every penny and more. We talked about real problems and challenges affecting my day-to-day. The people there were amazing. And I had a blast.”

B2B creators are the best positioned individuals to facilitate these intimate retreat-style settings. In healthcare, the more intimate, the better. And no, I’m not biased whatsoever. Why do you ask?

We’re seeing this trend play out in real time, and it’ll only continue to grow. For example:

• The Acquired podcast is selling out massive venues to do live events and attracting thoughtful, smart people across the tech industry, as is the All-in podcast.
• In healthcare, Nikhil Krishnan launched Operations Knowledgefest specifically catered to those in operations to drill down into best practices and lively debates.
• CareOps launched its CareOps conference on a similar notion and found great success in its first year.

And now Hospitalogy is joining the fold. Content is king, and quality is the name of the game in 2025.

I’m launching my first ever in-person retreat this September 18 in Austin, Texas. While future themes will likely vary, this time around, the retreat focus will be on value-based care and health system transformation. The guest list is limited to 40 folks, invite and application only, whose roles revolve in / around population health – strategy, finance, corporate development. My focus is on getting thoughtful healthcare folks in the room who don’t shy away from candid conversations and who want to learn, with content themes around top-of-mind subjects in 2025 (exact programming TBD – let me know if you’re interested in being a part of the festivities). Limited vendors and sponsors (oh and also let me know if you’re interested in sponsoring this event).

More to come but I’m pumped to put this on, so please support me by being a part of the inaugural Hospitalogy event, sure to be unforgettable. And of course, the one-day event will end with some golf at the Butler Pitch ‘n Putt, an iconic Austin spot (a great time for golfers and non-golfers alike). If you beat me (you won’t) I’ll get you some cool Hospitalogy swag.

You can apply here or respond to this email with questions to get in touch with me directly!

Alright, let’s move over to newsletter growth now that the big news is out of the way.

Hospitalogy the Newsletter: Steady Growth, Compounding Performance

Total Hospitalogy subscribers hit 43,000+ in May.

As you can see in the chart above, confirmed unique opens (the most conservative estimate for opens) varied quite a bit but typically hovers between 47% and 50%. The more important thing is that you guys are still opening and reading my newsletter, but it hasn’t been all sunshine and roses. Unique open rates are down 5%+ from last year mostly attributable to newsletter deliverability changes.

Despite the dip, the steady growth in total unique opens (the gray line) means you guys still like me and I’m doing something right! Still, as we work on other channels and with some Q1 posting struggles, growth stalled a bit. It happens. Newsletter growth isn’t a linear game and it’s hard to be on all the time. Plus quite a bit of the news cycle in Q1 was regulatory and policy in nature (MAHA stuff) which isn’t really my cup of tea and frankly is annoying to write about.

Still, I’ve had some awesome high points content-wise in 2025 – interviewing Mark Cuban and doing my executive interview series with Sean Duffy, Pete McCanna, and James Hereford. From a news perspective, things will hopefully pick up over the summer. And with recent announcements Thursday will be an action-packed news send.

I can’t help but notice some sort of cycle or seasonality in my unique open rate (the rolling 10-send average number – the blue line – is lagging, so look at the orange dots for real-time open rate trend). Opens dipped big-time around Thanksgiving and in early September from some sponsored posts in late 2024. Other than those dips though, things have been consistent within a tight window, which signals continued support for my newsletter. I really appreciate you opening and reading Hospitalogy. I wouldn’t have a job doing this without you guys!

From a revenue perspective, Hospitalogy as a brand is doing well, and it really feels like we have some great momentum in 2025. The brand as a whole is probably slated to hit around $800k to $1M in revenue in 2025. Could be higher, could be lower. Who knows. What’s my multiple, anyway?

Moving to the future, what’s next for Hospitalogy as a brand? In 2025, we’ve gone all-in on membership and networking.

Hospitalogy the Membership Platform: Another Avenue for Building Meaningful Connection

Most of you hopefully know by now that I run a Hospitalogy membership platform. It’s reserved for folks working in / around health systems and transformation – strategy, operations, corporate development, investors, consultants, and the like.

Every month I host a roundtable where we talk about the most pressing issues and trends that happened during those 30 days specifically catered to this audience. I also share external reports, original research, and other resources (slide deck templates, etc.) helpful to those working in these types of roles. If that sounds interesting to you, you can apply to join here.

In 2025 alone we launched the Hospitalogy AI Braintrust (a research tool trained on all of my content for community members), I’ve hosted fireside chats with Omada Health’s Sean Duffy, Longitude Health leadership, shared original analysis on health system financials (including downloadable excel and PPT files), aggregated all of the year’s JP Morgan Healthcare Conference presentations from nonprofit health systems, written about vertical integration in oncology, and more.

Growth has been great and the membership has attracted some amazingly thoughtful individuals I’m thankful for. We’re leaning into a free → paid funnel for community members. Current paid/free split is 9% / 91%:

But in general, man, building a community is hard. And the work to drive engagement is underrated. Facilitating and fostering more connection in the community will be a big point of emphasis for the rest of the year for me. I want this membership to be extremely high value for anyone who chooses to pay for it. It is, but it can also be better. So it will be. Support me by becoming a paid member!

Hospitalogy the Future

To sum it up, Hospitalogy is much more than a newsletter in 2025. I want this space to be a place where folks in healthcare can come together, get better at their jobs, make meaningful connections, and move the needle forward in our industry. If that’s you, then buckle up and stay along for the ride. And if you ever have any constructive feedback for me, I’m all ears.

Thanks so much for being a part of my journey, and I appreciate each and every one of you.