This May, the digital search company JustAnswer made an odd pivot: It started selling weight loss drugs. Launching an online pharmacy to peddle GLP-1s wasn’t the obvious next step for a business that offers paid guidance from experts, but chief executive Andy Kurtzig says the decision was partly driven by advice from ChatGPT and partly by avid customer interest. The number of queries related to the drugs more than doubled between 2024 and 2025, he says.
Plus, it was easy to find help: A company called WhiteLabelMD handles customer service, provides software, and connects patients with clinicians who prescribe drugs like semaglutide and tirzepatide. “We wouldn’t have gotten into this if we had to build it all from scratch,” Kurtzig says.
JustAnswer is part of a growing movement of newbie virtual clinic owners who rely on so-called turnkey telehealth services to jump-start their medical brands. These middlemen do the grunt work, from finding rosters of doctors and nurses to ensuring regulatory compliance. Instead of starting a complex health business from the ground up, prospective clients can purchase ready-built software and infrastructure and get started quickly—sometimes shockingly quickly. Fuse Health, a newer turnkey startup specializing in peptides, boasts that it can help brands go live in three hours. “Yes, we timed it,” its website reads.
Like JustAnswer, some of these newbie telehealth offerings come from companies that are already established in other fields. The gay dating app Grindr launched a telehealth arm, Woodwork, in 2025; it uses OpenLoop, a major turnkey business, to supply erectile dysfunction medication, the peptide Sermorelin, and GLP-1 drugs. But the rise of turnkeys also means that pretty much anyone with a website and some money can get in on the game.
“Anybody can now get into telehealth because of infrastructure companies like ours,” says Jiten Chhabra, the chief medical officer of another leading turnkey firm, CareValidate, who describes this as an era of “telehealth for everything.” CareValidate has created topic-specific guides for clients who want to jump into especially popular verticals, including GLP-1s, peptides, prescription skin care, and hormone replacement therapy. Chhabra says the company often works with fitness centers, gyms, and other health-related brands, including Bodybuilding.com. But it also works with nontraditional clients, including a cosmetics brand and a company that rents out chairs to hairdressers.
One client with a digital marketing background decided to operate a virtual clinic for onychomycosis—toe fungus. “They don’t have any clinical experience, but they know that there’s demand online, people searching for prescription medication for toe fungus,” Chhabra says.
The rate at which new brands are launching, he says, is astronomical. “At minimum, we launch one a day.”
“It’s going to change the game,” says Scott Roth, the chief executive of LegitScript, a company that provides certifications for telehealth providers and pharmacies. “Anyone who has an audience could potentially get into this—a gym, an influencer, you name it.” Some influencers have already jumped in. Reality television star and MAGA podcaster Savannah Chrisley started Good Girl RX, focused on GLP-1, in 2025; in its terms of service, it references connecting patients with providers from Beluga Health, another turnkey company.
So, how many of these companies are there? It’s difficult to say: The FDA doesn’t require registration, and the explosive growth is hard to keep up with. Sabina Hemmi, the cofounder and chief executive of the GLP-1 provider comparison startup GLP Winner, says she no longer even attempts to track new startups, because there are simply too many.
“We’re seeing a lot of vibe-coded sites,” she says. “There’s been a rise of what I call ‘marketing bros’ getting into the space.” These operators see an opportunity for profit but have no background or interest in the medicine or customer experience, she says. She calls it the “Temu experience of telehealth,” a reference to the notoriously ersatz Chinese ecommerce giant.
Business,Business / Startups,The Turnkey Economyglp-1,health,weight loss,influencers,marketing,grindr#Sell #GLP1s #Online1782915224
