Mat Baxter Co-Founds "Punk Healthcare" Startup, Today The Brave Leads Launch

Mat Baxter has co-founded and invested in a "punk healthcare startup", which has launched with an "intentionally provocative campaign" by Today the Brave, designed to grab attention and disrupt the category.

The ex-Initative, Huge, and Mutinex CEO told LBB TMRW, pronounced 'tomorrow', will defy healthcare category tropes -- "we're not going to look like Medibank" -- to ultimately revolutionise patient care. His co-founders are former client and tech leader Mark Britt, and chief creative officer and award-winning photographer and director Karima Asaad.

The startup partnered with indie creative agency Today the Brave on a launch campaign, led by Karima as CCO, using customers instead of models, and featuring a punk-like aesthetic.

It's "an intentionally provocative campaign that doesn't fall into the tropes of the category," Mat said.

"You know, people lying in grass fields, smelling daisies, insert brand name here. Whether it be NAB, Telstra, Commonwealth Bank, Optus, Woolworths, Coles.

"The advertising that sits above the surface is there purposely to grab your attention, to make you stop, to make you go, 'Hold on a second. What the fuck?' That's the intention. Once we've got you in and you end up on the app or in the ecosystem, then some of those more empathetic, more traditional values that you need when you start giving your blood to people [kick in]. You want to feel a certain way when you do that.

"It's that tension we recognise ... We think we're managing that tension optimally. But what you're seeing in the campaign is the net that we're looking to cast to grab the attention in what is an otherwise very boring and traditional and conservative category."

Today the Brave's head of design, Ethan Hsu, said TMRW's brief was, "make us scared."

"Together, we set out to dismantle the soft, pastel-washed world of wellness to design something that actually feels alive," he said.

"No more artificial perfection, no more influencers doing breathwork on beige sofas. We designed a brand and experience that’s bold, layered, and unapologetically human: editorial typography with teeth, vibrant colour, rich textures, and photography that captures real people actually living -- not just floating through some algorithm-approved version of health.

“From visual identity to digital experience, to unboxing moments -- every touchpoint is crafted with intent and edge. This is health that's more runway than waiting room -- and bravery built in at the heart.”

TMRW has launched with a private beta featuring 50 influencers and business leaders across Asia, and will expand access towards the end of the month. Today the Brave said its work stretched well beyond a traditional 'campaign' and into identity and strategy; a wider launch will roll out across all channels in coming months, with a significant focus on social media.

Karima told LBB by centring real people in the campaign, "we are building a brand that truly sees people and invites them to take ownership of their health with clarity and confidence.”

“Health is the most personal part of people’s lives, yet most healthcare branding treats it like a transaction," she said. "We wanted to create a brand that people feel, something raw, honest and visceral."

Mat noted it was important to define and limit TMRW's defiance. The brand is on a mission to shake up the category, including via advertising, to ensure patients have access to scientifically-proven data and care.

"Punk can often be interpreted through the music definition of punk, but really, punk is an attitude ... there needs to be defiance in health, not defiance in the sense of patient care and and responsibility, because you are dealing with life or death."

He knows from experience. In 2020, the Australian-born, US-based media executive was in a life-threatening car accident that led him to re-evaluate his living situation and career.

"Do I want to be an agency guy ... with the frustrations and pressures of working with clients who tend to treat their agencies as if they don't have their own lives and are just at their beck and call?"

He moved home to Australia, and became APAC CEO at another startup, Henry Innis' marketing analytics business Mutinex. He left after a few months.

"[I] took a long time to recover, you know, [it] nearly cost me my life, but also thrust me into the healthcare system, in probably the most dysfunctional healthcare market in the world, being the US," he told LBB of the accident, "and really gave me a firsthand experience of what it feels like to be on the other end of a system that is super hard to navigate."

The AI-driven company's product is a test that analyses over 1,700 biomarkers and integrates wearable data to deliver dynamic care protocols in real-time. The clinical model will augment "the capacity of practitioners while improving the precision of care," TMRW said.

Mark Britt, a former Microsoft, Nine, iflix, and Athletes Voice executive, is a "great operator", according to Mat. Mark, who acts as CEO, has been working on the startup for a year, and teased the venture on his LinkedIn: "Imagine a healthcare system that asked how you really are before telling you what to fix. If your blood results came with context, not confusion.

"Imagine medicine that felt like a conversation, not a command. Tracking your health not out of fear, but out of care. Imagine being seen for more than your symptoms. Knowing what was coming, before it arrived.

"Imagine a body of data that deepened your trust in your own body. Imagine a check-up that felt like coming home.

"TMRW is coming."

When Mark approached Mat, the latter said, "I will get involved. I will be an investor. I will come in as a founder. I will come in and work in the business. At the moment, I go in once a week. They have a full-time CCO, they have an agency, so I'm not in the bowels of the business day to day to make sure we don't fall into the well-trodden path of existing healthcare paradigms, both in operational terms, but also in marketing terms."

Mark told LBB, “It is rare to have the chance to build something this meaningful with a team that excels in both healthcare and creativity. From day one, we knew that reinventing how health feels would take the sharpest minds across clinical care, technology and storytelling.

"This campaign is the first sign of what can happen when that kind of multidisciplinary talent comes together.”