Why Hundred Health Is Partnering with California's Largest Fire Department — and What We Hope to Prove

I've been sitting with this for a while now, trying to figure out how to tell this story without it sounding like a press release. Because it isn't. It's something much more personal than that — and honestly, more unexpected.

A few months ago, one of the members of the CAL FIRE Local 2881 administration executive team signed up for Hundred Health as one of our very first 100 paid members. We call this group the FM100 — our Founding Members. She went through the platform the same way everyone does: the comprehensive lab testing, the 100-day personalized action plan, the real-time health data that actually means something. And she loved it.

Then she reached out with a question.

"Would this be something you'd want to do with firefighters?"

I remember reading that and feeling something shift. This wasn't a sales call. It wasn't someone pitching us. It was a person who had experienced what we'd built — whose day job was helping protect 10,000 firefighters — asking if we'd be willing to bring this to the people she served.

The answer was obvious. But the journey to get there was something I wasn't fully prepared for.

What We Didn't Fully Know

When Tyler and I started really digging into firefighter health, what we found was sobering.

These aren't just people who run into burning buildings — though that alone should be enough. They're facing some of the most severe occupational health crises in America. Firefighters die, on average, 10 years earlier than the general population. The culprits are largely preventable: cardiovascular disease from repeated exposure to toxic chemicals, smoke inhalation, extreme physiological stress. Cancer rates are significantly elevated. Heart disease is rampant. The very act of doing their job — protecting our communities, our forests, our homes — is quietly taking years off their lives.

I'm not sure why this isn't talked about more. Maybe because firefighters aren't the type to complain about it. They show up. They do the work. And they pay a price that most of us never see.

That conversation changed how we thought about this. It stopped being a partnership opportunity and became something more like a responsibility.

The Board Room

Tyler and I went in to present to the CAL FIRE Local 2881 board.

I'll be honest with you — I was more nervous about this than I'd been about a pitch in a long time.

Because these are not venture capitalists or enterprise buyers. These are first responders. People who have spent their careers dealing with real danger, real sacrifice, real consequences. The last thing they needed was two guys from tech walking in with slides and startup energy.

I could feel it in the room. They were sizing us up. Wondering, rightfully, if we were the real thing or just another wellness company looking for a headline. Whether we actually cared or just saw a PR opportunity.

So we told them the truth. We talked about the platform, yes — but more than that, we told them why we built it. Tyler's personal story. The gap between what elite concierge medicine delivers and what everyone else has access to. The conviction that this gap wasn't inevitable. It was fixable.

And then we told them what we really wanted to do long-term: not just give their members a health platform, but actually study what happens over time when firefighters use it. Anonymize the data. Learn from it. Build preventative protocols that could protect future generations of firefighters before they ever step onto a fire ground.

We didn't know how it was going to land.

The Next Morning

We had it in writing.

CAL FIRE Local 2881 was in. Officially. Enthusiastically. And I'm not going to pretend I didn't just sit with that message for a minute before doing anything else.

Sometimes things work out better than you expected. And when they do, it means more than you could have anticipated.

Since then, we've been to their annual convention. We've met the firefighters. We've seen how they respond to what we've built. And we've watched the rollout begin for more than 10,000 active firefighters and their families — plus alumni — who now have access to Hundred Health through this partnership.

What This Actually Means

I want to be specific about what we're offering, because context matters here.

Hundred Health combines medical history and records, real-time wearable data, and one of the most comprehensive advanced lab testing panels available — over 100 biomarkers — into a single, clinical-grade picture of your health. Every member gets a personalized, evidence-based 100-day action plan with specific guidance across nutrition, exercise, recovery, and supplementation. It's proactive by design. Not reactive.

For firefighters, whose bodies are constantly under physiological assault — heat stress, carcinogens, sleep deprivation, intense exertion — that precision matters enormously. As Dr. Matt Rahn described it when we were building out the program: "This allows us to bridge the gap between the front lines and the lab."

Tim Edwards, President of CAL FIRE Local 2881, said something I keep coming back to: "We have a responsibility to protect those who protect California." That's exactly right. And we feel that same weight.

The Bigger Vision

Here's the part that matters most in the long run.

Beyond giving firefighters access to a platform, our goal is to learn. With proper privacy protections and anonymized data, we want to track outcomes over time. What happens to cardiovascular health markers when firefighters get consistent, personalized guidance? What early warning signs can we catch before they become crises? What interventions actually move the needle at scale?

If we can answer those questions across nearly 10,000 firefighters, we have a chance to build preventative protocols that could change the health trajectory of first responders across America. Not just in California. Nationwide.

That's not a marketing goal. That's a research mission we're committed to.

The Simplest Version of This

A woman who cared about the people she served joined our platform, liked what she found, and asked a question that led to the proudest partnership we've ever announced.

The best things we've built haven't come from strategic outreach or business development plans. They've come from real people who believed in something early — and then quietly opened a door we didn't even know was there.

To the entire CAL FIRE Local 2881 community: thank you for trusting us. We don't take that lightly. We're going to show up for you the way you show up for all of us — every single day.

Sonny Mayugba is the Chief Commercial Officer and Co-Founder of Hundred Health. Learn more at hundred.com and follow @hundredhealth.