I have an insatiable appetite for research and innovation, especially as it relates to a continued pursuit of fixing a broken health care system.
I, Ryan Smith of Lexington KY, am a proud “nerd” and leader in the biomedical and digital marketing spaces, with an established pedigree as founder of several companies within integrative medicine.
Family is at the core of my being. I was raised, along with my older brother, in a small, liberal town in Berea, Kentucky – atypical from the rest of the state – by working-class parents who came from large households and humble backgrounds. This upbringing helped mold me to become open minded, inquisitive, and hard working.
The sciences have always attracted me and growing up witnessing illnesses in my family – particularly my grandparents – inspired me to pursue a career that could make an impact on optimizing both mental acuity and physical health. I crave being intellectually stimulated and doing things that are relatively unique.
It’s extremely important to continually set high standards for myself, as well as those who work for me. I have an obsessive personality about anything I set as a goal, dating back to successfully becoming valedictorian of my high school class, where I also played basketball and was named all state in soccer. My passion for sports has also played a big part in molding my competitive nature. Simply enough, if I’m engaged, I’m committed.
This work ethic continued into college. I decided to go to Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky, where I continued playing soccer while having a double major in biochemistry and philosophy. I was also a bioethics research intern at the University of Pennsylvania during my undergraduate tenure at Transylvania. It was there where I designed and recorded 19 podcasts which are now used as teaching tools for its medical and nursing programs. Upon graduation, I was the student most recommended for medical school in my graduating class.
Since I didn’t have any other ideas on what to do with my education from there, I decided to take that route and completed two years of medical school at the University of Kentucky. Although I’ve always prided myself on being more pragmatic than emotional, after my third year of clinicals, I realized I hated it. I discovered that I was only spending a small fraction of my time with patients, and I wanted to help out more than that and pivoted to the research side.
It was then when I decided to immerse myself into the biomedical startup space. In 2015, I co-founded Tailor Made Compounding, a pharmacy that focuses on peptide synthesis and formulations for pharmaceutical preparations. Since that time, Tailor Made has become the leader in the compounding of peptides and proteins for pharmaceutical use, licensed in over 45 states and territories and named one of the 25 fastest growing private companies in the United States. There is now an additional location based in Dubai.
Due to this success, along with sweat equity and vast knowledge, I have built a strong reputation for myself within the industry. I have been added to the faculty board of many non-profit physician education societies, such as the American Academy of Anti-Aging, the International Peptide Society, the American College of the Advancement of Medicine, and the Age Management Medical Group. Tailor Made Compounding has worked with the Kentucky Cabinet of Business Development due to our growth and the positive effect of adding over 85 high-paying jobs to the industry. Our company has been named the official healthcare provider of groups like the NFL Hall of Fame and we work with several national governments, such as the British Virgin Islands, the United Arab Emirates, and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
I have invested my time and money into several other companies. These include a digital marketing company (Deal Media) focused on health marketing brands and products which I have formulated. It also included a physician marketing company (Plattr) which connects physicians to patients interested in integrative healthcare. I am also frequently on the speaker circuit on topics such as medical and pharmacologic aspects of new medicine and therapies pioneered in the world of compounding pharmacy and medical practice optimization.
However, regardless of all the honors and accolades I’ve received, no person can succeed alone. Early on in my career, Jeremy Delk, a private equity broker, took a chance on me, and helped get me established in the startup space. Since then, I’ve looked for ways to pay it forward, continually adding partners that I can take that same chance on. None of what I accomplished was done without a collaborative team effort and a “we” mentality. Growing and building remain motivating forces.
For me, Ryan Smith , Lexington KY, being an effective leader is not necessarily tied to being inspirational. I seek out others with similar values, and hold them to the same high standards I expect from myself and lead by example. What I’ve seen is that hardworking and committed people with an optimistic outlook respond accordingly. Fairness and reliance on facts is always important, as is a desire to never stop learning, or accepting no for an answer. Instead, it boils down to framing all our thoughts in how we can get things done collectively.
There is always fear and trepidation on where this industry can go. I would like to help pivot to a more sustainable business model of promoting health as opposed to treating sickness, and make essential medical services a lot more accessible to a lot more people. One goal to achieve this is to get rid of the current paid insurance model and instead shift to a more involved and integrated approach that emphasizes a preventative care lifestyle. In other words, help fix a system that’s currently broken.
I currently live with my brother – who is a clinical psychologist – and sister-in-law. I enjoy spending time with my colleagues and a core group of friends I’ve remained close with since school, playing intramural sports, and cooking out. – Ryan Smith, Lexington KY