Fifteen years ago, when the iPhone was still a novelty and apps had yet to dominate our daily lives, digital health existed only as a concept. Wearables were rare, and the idea of measuring wellbeing in real time was largely untested. It was in this early landscape that Peter Ohnemus, founder and CEO of dacadoo, saw a unique opportunity.
He imagined health not as something to react to, but as a measurable, improvable state. That vision gave birth to the dacadoo Health Score, a pioneering system designed to quantify wellbeing and inspire change.
What began as an experiment has grown into a global digital health ecosystem, supporting millions of users and enabling insurers, retailers, and healthcare providers to make prevention actionable and measurable.
Over the last two decades, digital health has expanded from niche interest to mainstream focus. App stores are now flooded with solutions promising better sleep, enhanced cognition, or improved stress management. Some have delivered, many have vanished, often due to shallow engagement or solutions designed for technology’s sake rather than human needs.
Success, as dacadoo has learned, rarely stems from code alone. In B2B2C markets, it hinges on connection—the ability to create trust, relevance, and value.
Lesson 1. Every spark needs air
Early funding for startups is crucial, and for dacadoo, capital was scarce. When Ohnemus developed the first Health Score, investors struggled to envision a profitable market for prevention. Few were willing to back an idea ahead of its time, so Ohnemus self-financed the company’s initial iteration.
Initial interactions with external investors were challenging. Deals nearly closed twice, only to fall apart at the last moment. Eventually, funding arrived through a handshake with a believer who recognised potential before the market did
. Over time, global events—from the pandemic to rising interest rates—reshaped venture capital, prompting dacadoo to restructure for profitability. The company learned to keep capital structures simple, avoid unnecessary debt, and accept dilution without compromising its mission. Longevity, it discovered, comes from breathing through change rather than racing ahead.
Lesson 2. Base marketing on proof
Digital transformation reshaped marketing, and dacadoo evolved with it. Awareness alone was no longer enough; credibility became the currency of engagement. Platforms like LinkedIn emerged as hubs for building trust, while employees, clients, and experts served as living proof of brand integrity.
Technology enabled precision. Tools such as HubSpot, Salesforce, and advanced analytics made global yet personalised engagement possible. Content became evidence—webinars, whitepapers, and videos demonstrated measurable impact.
Compliance with GDPR, HIPAA, and ethical standards strengthened credibility, while AI enhanced reach without replacing authenticity. dacadoo’s platform now leverages 400m person-years of scientific data to deliver measurable results worldwide, proving that in digital health, proof is more persuasive than promotion.
Lesson 3. Selling change requires credibility
Convincing industries that thrive on managing risk to embrace prevention required patience. Sales cycles were long, pilot projects slow to scale, and global deals complicated by regulations, languages, and cultural nuances. Many insurers preferred to build in-house solutions rather than partner with an external provider.
dacadoo shifted strategy, prioritising depth over volume: selecting partners ready to act, demonstrating measurable outcomes, and building repeatable success stories. Strategic partnerships, not sheer speed, drove growth. Evidence shows insurers embracing digital health platforms with proven outcomes achieve superior results, highlighting the importance of strategy over rapid expansion.
Lesson 4. Engagement is a mission
Creating a digital health product is one thing; ensuring it is actively used is another. dacadoo prioritised engagement in every design choice, from interfaces to notifications.
A unified API, a single data model, and one language for health allowed the platform to remain device-agnostic in a fragmented market. This open ecosystem seamlessly integrates new devices and services, with roughly half of active users logging activity directly in the app. Social features, rewards, and gamification became modular, letting clients tailor engagement strategies while fostering long-term adherence.
Lesson 5. Scalability starts with stability
dacadoo’s early engineering relied on late-night fixes and improvisation. Moving to the cloud transformed operations: automation, Infrastructure-as-Code, and consistent testing replaced chaos with reliability. Security became an enabler rather than a barrier. AI now supports development, predicting bugs and writing documentation, but stability remains the cornerstone of innovation.
Read the full blog from dacadoo here.
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