Virgin Pulse has partnered with a startup to help employees tackle tobacco and nicotine addiction

As a former Stanford faculty surgeon, David Utley had seen more than his fair share of lungs impacted by smoking and vaping habits. So in 2015, he launched Carrot, a startup dedicated to tackling tobacco and nicotine addiction — and a new partnership with well-being provider Virgin Pulse is giving Carrot’s mission a big boost.

The new partnership will give Virgin Pulse’s 4,000 clients and 14 million members and employees access to Carrot’s premiere product, Pivot, which helps track tobacco use and provides support via coaching and other features. Virgin Pulse has approximately 3 million tobacco users in their total ecosystem — many of which were already using Pivot as a voluntary benefit.

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“We're not Johnson & Johnson, we're not Apple, we're not Google — but we're tackling the largest cause of preventable illness, preventable deaths and preventable healthcare claims on the planet,” Utley says. “But we need some partnerships to achieve our goal, which is to help millions of people quit tobacco.”

Tobacco use remains a significant problem — sales of cigarettes increased in 2020 and vaping continues to gain momentum in the wake of the pandemic. For employers, smoking fuels costly medical conditions like diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer, according to Carrot. And while most tobacco users want to quit, employer-provided cessation offerings are poorly utilized.

“There's so much evidence out there on how to help someone quit smoking,” says Rachel Croft, senior vice president of corporate development at Carrot. “But the vast majority of people who smoke just don't use the techniques, because the ways that they access them are completely unattractive [and have] always been really hard to get access to or invasive or they feel non-private.”

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Pivot uses a combination of digital and behavioral support, enabling Virgin Pulse clients to engage more members in cessation benefits. The program comes in six- and 12-month program lengths and includes an FDA-cleared breath sensor to help users track their levels of carbon monoxide, the Pivot mobile app, personalized coaching and support, nicotine replacement therapy and integrated incentive points, where employers can directly customize a point system to motivate users.

Pivot users achieved a 35% quit rate, according to data provided by Carrot, with high durability and satisfaction. To date, Pivot has helped almost 15,000 tobacco users.

“When we started Carrot six years ago [it was] with the intention to develop a solution that's scalable, digital, evidence-based and aligned with the clinical practice guidelines to help people quit all forms of tobacco,” Utley says. “And the Virgin Pulse partnership is just one way that our product can really grow.”