Today I want to talk about a $ 1.8
billion company that's mostly built on
lies. But you wouldn't know it from the
New York Times article which went viral.
And honestly, I was as deceived by it as
many people were. I'm not a total AI
skeptic. I have my criticisms, but when
I saw the New York Times say that AI
helped one man and his brother build a
1.8 billion company, I was interested. I
wanted to know how they did it. And to
be honest, based on how the article is
written, I was really impressed. You
know, this guy has Medv. It's a
tellahalth provider of GLP-1 weight loss
drugs and the business just takes off
right away because this guy has figured
out the power of automating tasks with
AI. And by 2025, Medvy's first full year
in business, the company generated $400
million in sales. This year, they're on
track to do $1.8 billion. Now, that is
just mindblowing. And in a big way, this
article credits AI. It says AI
turbocharged it. It's not an AI company,
but I did it with AI, a $ 1.8 billion
company with just two employees. In the
age of AI, it's increasingly possible.
And it really pres on this kind of big
prophetic idea from the AI bros,
specifically Sam Alman, that this is
sort of destined to happen because of
how powerful AI is.
So, it's kind of the first version of a
oneperson billiondoll firm. And this
article mentions that explicitly. In an
email, Mr. Alman said it appeared he had
won a bet over whether such a company
would appear and he would like to meet
the guy who had done it. So, on the
surface, right, it seems like the
American dream. A guy goes from not
being very successful to all of a sudden
out of nowhere he has this
billion-dollar company all because he
prompted you know Chad GBT or whatever.
But this is what they don't tell you
behind the scenes right behind all the
gloss. They don't tell you about the
shady billing fake doctors warning
letter from the FDA snake oil class
action lawsuit fake before and after
pictures and fake ads that this whole
thing is basically built on. I'm not
going to argue that in this story.
You're also going to see a lot of
allegations from actual customers of the
company, which the New York Times
doesn't spend a lot of time on. In fact,
they mention very briefly that like, oh,
they did fake before and after photos
with AI. But when some of these
practices are discussed, it's mostly
done under the guise of, oh, they were
just faking it till they made it, and
now they're going to, you know, stop
taking those shortcuts. Specifically,
they say they were going to fix some of
the shortcuts he had originally taken,
like swapping out some of the before and
after weight loss photos for ones with
real customers. And really, the question
for me is, is this a legitimate company?
Are they scamming people? Did they do it
the right way? Is this just AI applied?
And that's that's kind of the conflict
at the heart of this. So, I'm going to
walk you through a lot of the evidence
that the New York Times either glossed
over or just explicitly didn't mention.
And I want to credit an amazing
investigation by Futurism which
basically investigated all of this in
2025 and specifically calls out things
like their website featuring AI
generated photos, things like their
product photos having AI generated text
solution faux injection and futurism
also are the people that actually found
that this website was using fake photos.
Well, specifically they were changing
the photos. Here's a weight loss photo
that had been circulating around the
world. It was hosted by the Daily Mail.
This was apparently a Redditor who in
2016 engaged in a weight loss challenge
and over a period of time lost 35 lbs in
one year. Now, over on Medv's website,
they used the same guy. They added
glasses to his face and a beard and said
it's Michael P and he lost 48 pounds in
5 months. So, they increased the amount
of weight he had supposedly lost. He was
not their customer and they shortened
the amount of time he took to do it. But
I actually wanted to add on to
Futurism's investigation here because I
found they then later in the archive
changed the picture entirely. Okay,
you'll see though that even though it's
a completely different picture, totally
different guy, totally different thing,
it's still definitely a lie because they
kept the guy's name, the amount he lost,
and the amount of time he lost it in.
They just changed the guy. They took
their fake testimonial and just swapped
out the photos. So, this whole thing is
built on lies. By the way, if you dig
into this, you're going to hear a lot
that they blame affiliates for a lot of
the shady marketing, but I just want to
be clear that these before and after
photos were hosted on their website.
Like, this wasn't someone else who did
this. They had this on their website.
And although the New York Times goes
through lengths to say, "Oh, they're
fixing they're taking those shortcuts
away. They're going to fix all of this
stuff." I just want to point out that as
recently as last month, this photo was
on here. Okay? As recently as March. So,
the idea that, oh, they're fixing it up.
To me, it seems like they're fixing it
up for a New York Times profile, because
this is where we need to get to the ads
that are still running right now to this
day for these GLP1 drugs that they're
selling online. Because in addition to
fake testimonials from customers, they
also have a bunch of fake doctors
promoting this stuff. This is the meta
ads library where you can see a series
of Dr. Dr. Sarah Martin, Dr. Monica
Ashford, Dr. Lena Fischer, all promoting
guess who? Medvie, and specifically, I
want to show you that some of these ads
are once again lying about before and
after photos. Here's one about Medvy.
>> I got this Tzepide pen to try so you
don't have to. Been reading on it for
months. Finally made the move. Ready to
start. Feeling pumped. A bit nervous,
but mostly excited. 60 days in and
feeling great. Look how much weight I've
lost. All right. So, these are
supposedly the before and after videos,
and it's obvious that this is AI
generated. This is not a real doctor.
It's also not a real patient. This is
just lies. And again, it's hard to
distinguish. Is this an affiliate? Is it
not? But I just want you to understand
this is still happening to this day.
It's just a bunch of scammy Facebook ads
of fake doctor accounts showing you AI
slop, fake patient testimonials. And
this is supposedly the great
breakthrough in AI, right? This is
supposedly the power of AI. I also want
to show you this is an allegation from a
class action lawsuit filed specifically
against Open Health, Inc., which is one
of the partners of Medvy. And you'll see
that a lot of the doctors that are on
some of these websites, because you have
to understand, Medv is just one of the
most successful versions. There's a
bunch of kind of copycats and they all
kind of site this Dr. Anna Lisa Carr and
Dr. Kelly Tinbrick, Dr. David Mansour.
But here's what these same doctors look
like on Medvy's website. Dr. Analisa
Carr, Dr. David Mansour, Dr. Kelly
Tinbreak. It's the same name, but
different photos of these supposed
doctors. Now, unlike the Facebook fake
doctors that are in all of these ads,
these actually appear to be real people
that exist, although their exact
involvement is unclear. This is the
Futurism article who actually contacted
each doctor to ask if they could confirm
their involvement with Medv. And one of
them insisted he had nothing to do with
either company and they need to remove
him from their sites. There's also a
massive allegation in this class action
lawsuit which is that one of the key
compounds that they're selling they
claim is snake oil actually and just
doesn't work explicitly. This is the
tzepatide tablets. I don't know if I'm
pronouncing that right, but that is a
real compound that exists in some of the
injectables, but they're saying that
this is an oral formulation. But the
classaction complaint alleges that the
oral turzepatide is a product that's
never been approved, has no demonstrated
mechanism of absorption or efficacy, and
functions as modern-day snake oil, a
pharmacologically inert compound when
delivered via a pill. The idea is that
as an injection, it would actually work,
but because they're selling it as
something you take like a pill, which is
obviously more appealing to a lot of
consumers, it is inert. And look, this
is where I'll have to say I'm not a
doctor, but Eli Liy, the people who
actually manufacture this stuff, says
there are no human studies, let alone
clinical trials involving any oral
terspatite product. Meaning anyone
selling it is making unproven claims and
is experimenting on unsuspecting
Americans. Now, that's a little bit
different than, you know, the New York
Times glowing article. Sounds a little
bit different than the way this has all
been framed as some like American dream
story. I mean, I I think that should
have been included. Now, I also want to
mention that Medby has gotten an FDA
warning letter. Specifically, the
warning includes quote, "Your website's
false and misleading claims concerning
compounded semiglutide and tzepide
products." So really, when you dig into
this stuff, this is a really shady
website that took advantage of a loose
regulatory regime to shove down a bunch
of AI slop down people's throats in
order to get them to buy products that
in some cases, according to the people
who actually make the product, allegedly
don't work in that form, or at least
there's no evidence that it works. This
is further borne out by some of the
reviews where April, for example, who
reviewed this product, says, "Almost
$2,000 spent, and not only did I not
lose weight, but I gained. Finally,
someone said that the oral doesn't work
and I should do the injection." That was
when I knew I was done. This person
says, "I took the oral tursepide. Then
at the appointment, they said orals
don't work and switch me to injections."
This review gives one star and they say,
"I'm beyond frustrated with this
company. I chose the oral medication for
ease of use of the product. It was
delivered very wet and immediately
started melting and was finally told on
the third week that I should not be
taking a defective product. Wendy gave
it one star and said medication was
deemed ineffective. Trina says, "Do not
buy oral tursite. It doesn't work. They
don't tell you this during the
appointment. They accept your money and
let you find out for yourself." And
maybe just as bad, some of the billing
practices of course are shady, which is
what you'd expect from a company like
this. Horrible buyer beware. They
doubled the price and charged my credit
card without sending any medication.
Like many people in these reviews, I did
not receive the product, but was charged
$3.99 and then told I would get a
refund, then later was told they don't
refund. So, I hope by now you can see
why I'm a bit annoyed and feel like I
have to give the other side of the story
when I see an article like this that
uncritically lifts up a company for
getting a massive amount of sales, for
sure, but how they got those sales is
just as important, if not more
important. I mean, this is the exact
opposite of a success story other than
their dollars. And that's what's so
worrying is if anything, this is a
warning sign about where we're going
with AI, where all the doctors, all the
lawyers you see online are fake. All the
reviews you see are totally fake. The
person who's telling you this product
saved their life. They're completely AI
generated. It's just not a great
outcome. And this story, if anything, is
a sign of that. So yeah, I've taken
pains to avoid mentioning the author of
this article's name, as well as the
person who ran Medv. Instead, I
specifically want to shout out Maggie
Dup Prey, who did a great job
investigating this back in 2025. Her
work, unfortunately, got a lot less
attention, but uh it's a great piece of
journalism. So, anyways, that's
basically it. Tap.