u/Mitchroark33

About two weeks ago, on a Friday afternoon, we saw a recurring problem on reddit and on a whim came up with the Bridge program. I didn't even name it that, oddly enough. The original code was Access because that's what matters to me.

A lot of providers and pharmacies were having transition problems and people were panicking about missing doses, I offered something simple through Crossing because I knew our operations could help out: if your own provider broke down and you were about to miss a dose, we would cover the medicine and you would just pay shipping. One month. A bridge across the gap, then back to your own provider.

I'm posting because I'm pausing it, and I didn't want to just quietly pull it down.

The honest reason: it worked, and then it worked too well. I started by putting a code out there. A code is easy to pass around, which is exactly what makes it useful and also what breaks it. A code can't tell the difference between someone truly about to miss a dose and someone who just wants a cheaper month.

I switched to handling requests one at a time to try to fix that, and that doesn't hold up at this size either. I built it loose. That part is on me.

A bridge that can't sustain itself and can't tell the difference isn't really helping the people I built it for. So I would rather pause, say so out loud, and rebuild it properly than let it quietly turn into something it was never meant to be.

It will come back, simpler to get into if you are genuinely in a bind and built so it can't be gamed.

Mostly I wanted to say thank you to the people who used it the way it was meant and passed it to a friend who actually needed it. That was the whole point.

I would love to hear any suggestions for how we can make it sustainable. We have a team who really values access and is very good at processing orders and ongoing patient support. They truly want to help and stepped up a ton last week to handle the influx of orders.

We welcome any feedback on ideas to build a sustainable program around helping people in need.

Bragging about draining a hardship program to stockpile for yourself is a bold move. Impressive lack of self-awareness, taking from people who actually need it and posting about it like a win.

So, unfortunately, we're tightening it up. We are making this change. because a program built to keep struggling members covered was being used to stack discount vials, and that means fewer resources for the people it's actually for.

If you're someone who genuinely needs help bridging a gap, reach out to me directly at matt@joincrossing.com. It'll be slower and we'll be able to help fewer people at a time, which is exactly the cost of closing a loophole someone decided to brag about.

Arrggghhh

One of the main things I dislike about the glp1 space and reddit is patient support via reddit.

That's not where patient support should be done.

That being said, it was the first weekend of the Bridge program, so I wanted to just let everyone know that all orders were sent to pharmacy and will be shipped either today or tomorrow.

This is behind the scenes info here: the biggest delay at this point is the pharmacy needing to confirm an address, so watch your inbox or messages (we will text you also) if we need to confirm your address.

EDIT--my wife is going to kill me if I spend all friday night responding to DMs, but I will get up early saturday morning to respond!. We won't leave anyone out because my wife wanted to have a friday night date!

EDIT 2--Just to clarify and speed things: our medical team will require a prior prescription confirmation, so if you can upload during the intake or message us via the messenger widget in the process, that would speed things along, so we don't have to reach out to you. --Thank you. I will make sure I respond to all DMs today; I have 5 kids and its a saturday, so....:)

_______________________

I spent most of my life convinced I did everything myself. I didn't.

My brother Mike has had a huge and unacknowledged role in my life.

Tirzepatide has recently changed his life. He started tirzepatide partially because I took a flyer on a job with a GLP-1 telehealth company.

My brother did the hard work for the past 9 months and lost over 90 pounds. The medicine gave him a fair shot.

The older I get, the more I see how he got me through way more than I ever gave him credit for. Nobody gets where they are alone. We get there because someone gave us access at the right moment. A fair shot, not a shortcut. You still do the work, but first the door has to open. We so often forget that those early doors were open to us when they are closed to others. I wrote more about my family story on our homepage.

Took me almost 46 years to learn that.

That is why this next part matters to me.

I have worked in operations and systems in the telehealth space for the past 2 years. It's hard and systems break. Companies are upgrading their systems to better give access, but it never goes as smooth as you want or need it to go.

Messages get lost, orders get delayed, errors in the pharmacy API system, a shipment doesn't show, and you miss a dose. That matters to a lot of people. The progress you have made, you don't want that to slide back. It is scary. I see the panicked messages. Seeing over 2k messages a week is informative and eye-opening.

So if you are stuck and about to miss a dose: if you genuinely can't get it filled, we will bridge you. We cover the medicine. You pay only shipping and processing, about $50. No catch. We are fast, 24 hours turnaround and 2 business days shipping, about 3-4 business days total, if that's in your timeline, reach out to me.

To be clear, this is a one-month bridge to get you across the gap, not a way to stock up.

The moment your own provider is back on track, go back to them. Currently, we only have 2 buttons in our portal, you can't miss the cancel and pause buttons!

We love some of the companies who are struggling with their transitions right now. (We will be that company someday, I promise).

We are not trying to take you from anyone. We just don't want a broken system to cost you your progress.

Reach out directly and I will give you a code to get you access. I trust in the honesty of people.

Why we built Crossing — Mike's story

Mike was in college when his father had a stroke and lost his sight. His dad drove trucks for a living, so in a single year, the family's income and its footing were both gone.

He left school, moved home, and took over. The business, the bills, the work of keeping everyone afloat, at an age when most people are just starting their own lives. His mother had one wish through all of it: keep the house, so her youngest could finish growing up in a good neighborhood, at a good school.

Mike made that happen. He carried it for thirty years. And somewhere in there, the one person nobody was taking care of was him. The weight came on, and it stayed.

I remember that year better than I'd like to. I was fourteen.

Mike is my older brother. The good neighborhood he fought to keep, that was for me. The childhood he gave up years of his own to protect, that was mine.

This year, for the first time since we were kids, I watched my brother get himself back.

Real messages from Mike this spring: down almost 90 pounds in nine months, at 55. "I feel like me again." That's my brother.

That's why Crossing exists.

Everyone hits a stretch where the old version of you stops working: body, energy, the will to keep showing up. Most of us are carrying someone, too. We built Crossing to walk people across that stretch, the way I watched my brother cross it.

Matt
Founder of Crossing. Mike's kid brother, and the one he protected.

Mike was in college when his father had a stroke and lost his sight. His dad drove trucks for a living, so in a single year, the family's income and its footing were both gone.

He left school, moved home, and took over. The business, the bills, the work of keeping everyone afloat, at an age when most people are just starting their own lives. His mother had one wish through all of it: keep the house, so her youngest could finish growing up in a good neighborhood, at a good school.

Mike made that happen. He carried it for thirty years. And somewhere in there, the one person nobody was taking care of was him. The weight came on, and it stayed.

I remember that year better than I'd like to. I was fourteen.

Mike is my older brother. The good neighborhood he fought to keep, that was for me. The childhood he gave up years of his own to protect, that was mine.

This year, for the first time since we were kids, I watched my brother get himself back.

Real messages from Mike this spring: down almost 90 pounds in nine months, at 55. "I feel like me again." That's my brother.

That's why Crossing exists.

Everyone hits a stretch where the old version of you stops working: body, energy, the will to keep showing up. Most of us are carrying someone, too. We built Crossing to walk people across that stretch, the way I watched my brother cross it.

Matt
Founder of Crossing. Mike's kid brother, and the one he protected.

This may be a horrible business strategy. But, who cares, I sleep well at night.

Most companies charge you more after the initial teaser price. A LOT MORE.

or

They charge you more as your dose increases.

We decided to make the price flat at every dose, the same number whether you are at the lowest step or the highest, and it does not go up at renewal.

Why most companies do not:

1. They are luring you in with a teaser rate and are betting you never leave.

2. There is no second reason, Reason 1 is the only reason!

The flat model is less clever and more honest. You know your number on day one and it stays your number. I think predictability is worth more to people than a low teaser rate.

Sweet dreams.

Hey, I'm Matt, one of the people behind Crossing.

Quick version of why we exist: most compounded tirzepatide brands hold a low starter price, then raise it as your dose goes up. Most won't tell you which pharmacy fills your prescription. Most bury the fees. We got tired of watching it, so we built the opposite.

What we do, in plain terms:

• Compounded tirzepatide at $149/mo, every dose, all in. No dose-based upcharge, no membership fee, no surprise add-ons.
• We name our chain: made by BPI Labs, an FDA-registered 503B facility, and dispensed by The Pharmacy Hub, a licensed compounding pharmacy, on your provider's prescription. (When we run out, which won't be for at least a few months, we will let you know the next pharmacy).
• Find it cheaper from a provider who also names their pharmacy and fills through a pharmacy licensed in your state? Show us and we'll match it.

What this community is for:

• Straight answers on dosing, sourcing, side effects, and what things actually cost across the industry
• Real progress and real plateaus, from anyone on this path
• Questions we'd rather answer in public than in a support inbox, including the uncomfortable ones

What it's not for:

• Hype. No miracle framing, no before-and-after spam.
• Medical advice. We'll talk openly about how dosing works, but your protocol comes from your provider.
• Dodging. If we don't know something or got something wrong, we'll say so here.

Ask us anything. The skeptical questions are the ones we built this company to answer.

You might be hearing some scary headlines about compounding pharmacy shutdowns right now. Take a breath — we've got you.

Belle works with multiple trusted pharmacy partners, and access remains available for patients in all 50 states. We built our network this way on purpose: so that one disruption is never your disruption.

​If anything specific changes for your prescription, we'll reach out to you directly — you don't need to do anything right now. And if you have questions, we're here.
​
Your Belle Team

https://news.joinbelle.com/141329-about-the-recent-pharmacy-headlines

One immediate change we are going to make is to remove the 1 month option for Tirzepatide from BPI. This will only apply to the BPI product for now.

We want to offer the best value to patients and the easiest way to do that is send more medicine upfront with lower shipping costs. We will revaluate once we determine how much supply we were able to secure.

Thanks, Matt
513-748-2060

Belle has a referral program. I named it "Refer-A-Friend." That was a mistake.

"Refer-A-Friend" is what you say about a taco place down the street. "Good tacos, you should check it out."

That's not what's happening here.

The vast majority of our patients come from word-of-mouth — friends and family telling someone they love about us.

When you send us someone you love, you're not passing along a recommendation. You're pointing them toward something that might actually change their life. How they feel when they wake up in the morning. How they show up for their kids. How long they stick around.

So I'm sorry. The name was lazy, and it undersold what you actually do when you tell someone about us.

Here's what I want to do about it. Until Wednesday, every new patient you send to Belle gets 10% off their first order on top of your 5% referral discount — 15% total. You get $75 in credit for every person who joins, good toward anything at Belle going forward.

Don't refer a friend.

Change someone's life.

If you haven't done it yet, you can create your own unique link to help someone change their life here: https://referral.joinbelle.com/