Episode #31 - Clarity Pediatrics - Upping the Care for Childhood Disorders - Christina LaMontagne

Christina LaMontagne on Scaling Healthcare with Conviction

Scaling in healthcare is never just about growth—it’s about trust, discipline, and conviction. In this 31st episode of ScaleApp Podcasts, I sat down with Christina to unpack what it really takes to build and scale a healthcare business that works for patients, parents, providers, and payers alike.

Christina’s journey is grounded in first principles. Before chasing growth, her team doubled down on unit economics, playbooks, and proof points. As she puts it, you have to “understand exactly how your model works before you deploy your Series A capital to scale it.” That discipline shaped every expansion decision that followed.

Rather than spreading thin, Christina embraced a land-and-expand strategy. The focus was narrow and intentional: one condition, one state, executed exceptionally well. Only once the model was proven did the company raise capital to scale further. This approach reduced risk, built credibility, and created a repeatable engine for growth.

A central theme of the conversation is the flywheel of trust. Expansion wasn’t just geographic—it was relational. By delivering consistently for pediatricians, the company earned trust that translated into referrals, relevance, and long-term value for families. Growth, in this model, compounds not through marketing spend, but through reliability.

Christina also challenges conventional thinking around Total Addressable Market in healthcare. With nearly half of U.S. children enrolled in Medicaid, she argues that true scale is impossible without serving the full population. Big outcomes require inclusive models—anything less leaves both impact and opportunity on the table.

Underlying it all is founder conviction. Christina doesn’t frame success around exits, but around inevitability—the belief that a solution must exist and therefore will exist. That mindset deepens over time, turning ambition into responsibility.

Her advice to her younger self captures the spirit of the episode: the audacity to build a completely different life is a founder’s superpower. Healthcare, she reminds us, offers no shortage of meaningful problems—and a lifetime of opportunity for those willing to solve them.

🔑 Key Themes

1. Scaling with Unit Economics First
2. Land-and-Expand as a Risk-Reduction Strategy
3. Trust as a Growth Flywheel
4. Rethinking TAM in Healthcare
5. Founder Conviction Over Exit Thinking
6. Healthcare as a Career-Long Opportunity Space