Entrepreneurial Cleveland Clinic wellness guru Dr. Michael Roizen is aiming to further cash in on the wellness wave by starting another company, an online wellness coaching startup called Enforcer eCoaching.
Information on the company is limited and COO Marty Butler declined to answer questions about the venture, noting that Enforcer eCoaching is still in its very early stages. Roizen also declined comment through a spokeswoman.
But a few things are known about the company. Wellness coaching, as the name would imply, is the Cleveland-area company’s focus. Enforcer eCoaching aims to help customers adopt healthier behaviors through guidance, support and wellness advice that the company provides through digital channels — presumably such as emails, texts and social media — hence the “e” in “eCoaching.”
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Here’s how Butler describes Enforcer on his LinkedIn page: “A Health & Wellness company with a proven track record of driving enduring behavior change through daily health coaching interactions.” Butler’s been with the company for two months, according to the page.
Enforcer’s principals include Roizen, Cleveland Clinic’s first-ever chief wellness officer, a best-selling author, and a burgeoning multimedia celebrity within the wellness business, as well as TV star Dr. Mehmet Oz. The two are known by the moniker the “You Docs” and are also collaborating on another startup, YouBeauty, a website that offers advice and tips to women on the premise that the best way to achieve beauty is to live a healthy lifestyle.
On Dr. Oz’s blog, Roizen has referred to himself as “The Enforcer” and described the role. “So just like I coach on the The Dr. Oz Show, I am acting as ‘the Enforcer’ to 3 Lafarge employees. We do daily emailing together, which I call ‘Enforcer e-coaching.'” Lafarge is a Paris-based concrete and building materials company with 76,000 employees in 78 countries. (With employee numbers like Lafarge’s, Enforcer will be off to a strong start if it can land that company as an early customer — or if it already has.)
Enforcer has received an investment of $500,000 in equity from eight investors, according to a regulatory document. The document lists three executives or directors associated with the company: Roizen (president), Steven Lindseth (secretary and treasurer) and Oz. Lindseth also works as CEO of YouBeauty.
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The regulatory filing noted the first date of sale for the equity as Dec. 31, 2010, so the company’s been around that long, on paper, at least.
Few in the U.S. have better capitalized on the wellness trend of recent years than Roizen, who’s transformed himself into a commercial force within the wellness industry. In addition to his companies, Roizen has along with Oz ridden their Real Age franchise to several best-selling books, even surpassing a Harry Potter book for the top spot on Amazon.com along the way, according to Roizen’s Cleveland Clinic bio. Dr. Oz, of course has his own TV show, but Roizen’s taken plenty of turns on TV in his own right, with multiple appearances on Oprah, Today, 20/20, as well as at least one appearance on the Montel Williams show. Plus, Roizen’s also hosted his own PBS specials and has a radio show.
According to Roizen’s bio on the Clinic’s site, he holds equity in the following companies: Food for CTRAWFFYE, HET, Martek Pharma, Omnifrio, RealAge Inc., Yet2 and You Docs — several of which don’t have websites but do have odd names.
Clinic spokeswoman Eileen Sheil declined to provide any further information on the companies. Sheil did say that the Clinic had reviewed Roizen’s investments and that he’s in compliance with the hospital’s conflict-of-interest policy.
Roizen receives royalties from publishers Harper Collins and Simon & Schuster, plus Progenics Pharmaceuticals. He’s a consultant or speaker with his own RealAge Inc. and Oprah’s Harpo Radio, which does have a website but from the looks of it probably shouldn’t.
