Noom is also expanding its offerings, including the launch of Noom GLP-1Rx, which aims to make weight loss drugs more accessible and affordable for consumers.
Noom, a digital health platform that blends personalized psychology with medicine, is trading New York City's hustle and bustle for the charming and cozy surroundings of downtown Princeton.
In September, the company officially relocated its headquarters from a 114,000-square-foot space in Hudson Yards to a 9,000-square-foot office at One Palmer Square. Noom isn't leaving Manhattan entirely though - it will maintain a presence at 5 Penn Plaza.
For Noom, the move to Mercer County came about a year after New Jersey native Geoff Cook took the helm as chief executive officer.
Cook, a veteran technology executive who succeeded Noom co-founder and longtime CEO Saeju Jeong, arrived in July 2023 as the company set its sights on surging consumer interest in weight-loss treatments and wellness.
Since coming on board, Cook has helped build upon Noom's medically assisted weight loss program, as well as its B2B offerings, and launched several new products. He's also increased the global headcount by nearly 100 workers and secured a new home base for the company.
"We were right sizing our office space needs ... the growth of the company that happened during COVID created a very remote workforce and that size was no longer needed. So, we were able to find a subtenant for that space and then found about 9,000 square feet in New York and 9,000 square feet in Princeton. This is much more an appropriate size for the company," Cook explained.
The company opted to keep an office in New York because "a good-sized team" works there and "it was just a much more convenient location" for them instead of commuting to Princeton, he said.
For Cook - who lives in Princeton - the change of pace is welcome. "Princeton has a real walkability to it. Instead of having one-on-one meetings on Zoom, I'll often have them just be a phone call so that I can take a walk. I find it a great way to get some steps in while also staying productive," Cook said. "In New York, of course it's much harder because you have blaring horns, road noise and people overhearing a conversation because it's more dense."
It's also similar to the vibe in New Hope, Pa., which is the home of The Meet Group, a NASDAQ-listed social dating and live-streaming company that Cook co-founded and led.
"I was there for 18 years, so I saw firsthand how in a small town having multiple coffee shop options, multiple bars and restaurants can lead to a feeling of camaraderie for the folks who are coming in because it's so easy to hang out afterwards and conducive to those kind of happy hours or impromptu coffee walks," he said.
"And that's how a lot of times relationships are made and ideas are had - in those in between moments. So, it was important for me to locate somewhere where we could have that vibe. Princeton is of course a much larger version of New Hope, but I would say the walkability is probably second to none," Cook said.
Besides offering views of Princeton University and prestigious Palmer Square, the property's office tenants include edge tech companies, venture capital firms, hedge fund companies and money management firms.
Noom is already making itself known locally. Princeton Tech Meetup, a monthly gathering of creatives, entrepreneurs and investors in the tech space, invited Cook to speak about GLP-1 weight loss drugs, psychology and the future of weight health during a Nov. 14 program at Princeton Public Library.
"I was excited that they reached out ... I think that's exactly the sort of things we want to do more of now that we're here in Princeton," Cook said. "There's a lot of research opportunities. Noom has quite a large set of users and big data sets ... We're certainly a collaborative partner and we look forward to taking full advantage of the location we have."
While companies such as Amazon, Starbucks and JPMorgan Chase have mandated that employees return to the office five days a week, Noom will stick with a hybrid or remote schedule because it has given the company "the ability to hire talent in an expanded location," Cook said.
"There's certain positions where we would really appreciate someone who is available in either New York or Princeton office," he said. "But there's many positions where we might not have that viewpoint ... Because we're so remote today, we're kind of set up to be able to accept folks who are accustomed to being remote."
He also noted that "a good portion" of workers were hired during the pandemic "when the company was in a hyper growth mode" and that "it feels like hybrid is the place where we will likely end up."
"At the same time, there's undoubtedly clear benefits to having face-to-face interactions and water cooler conversations. With the hybrid, we're trying to have both," said Cook.
Of the company's 600-plus employees, about one-third are in the New Jersey-New York area. Each week, roughly 20 to 30 hybrid workers spend between two to three days either in Princeton or Manhattan, Cook said.
"There's only a small handful of people who are five days a week - I happen to be one of them," said Cook, who splits his time between the two offices, spending each Tuesday in New York. Additionally, several members from the New York team head down to Princeton on Thursdays, he said.
Founded in 2008, Noom is platform that aims to empower individuals to live longer, healthier lives by connecting them to content, coaching, community and clinicians to improve whole-person health. The subscription-based app service includes programs for weight management, obesity care and diabetes prevention.
Noom also has partnerships with employers, their consultants and health plans in the commercial sector. Cook described it as a small - but growing - part of the company's business.
"We're seeing demand from enterprises, whether they be employers or health plans, for solutions that can drive return on investment for the client. And losing weight of course is a foundational sort of health benefit that has downstream benefits where people will get healthier and they'll experience fewer chronic conditions," he said.
Over the years, Noom has received funding from several investors, including Silver Lake, Sequoia Capital, Serena Ventures and Samsung Ventures. As of 2024, the company is valued at about $3.7 billion, according to PitchBook.
It's also received numerous grants from the National Institutes of Health and was the first mobile app to be recognized by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as a certified diabetes prevention program.
Additionally, Noom has been named as one of Inc.'s Best Places to Work, Quartz's Best Workplaces for Remote Workers and Fortune's Best Workplaces in Technology.
Cook decided to join the team at Noom because he believes it is "a brand that is really meaningful and a lot of people think positively of."
"I also saw this clearly as a space being disrupted by GLP-1s and weight loss medications," he explained, adding, "I wanted my third act to really be one where I could make a difference ... Noom's mission to empower everyone everywhere to live better longer resonated with me. I'm certainly interested in broadening new and various dimensions of wellness - not just nutrition, but also fitness, mental health and so forth."
Cook was born in Bayonne and grew up in South Plainfield. After attending public school in South Plainfield, he went on to earn a bachelor's degree in economics from Harvard University.
In 1997, he started his first venture - an admissions and resume consulting company - while still an Ivy League undergrad. A few years later, he sold the business to Thomson Peterson's in Lawrenceville.
From there, he went on to co-found The Meet Group and serve as CEO from 2013 to 2023. During his tenure he presided over eight consecutive years of revenue growth, while also acquiring and successfully integrating four social dating companies and building an enterprise creator economy platform.
Cook also took the company public and led it through a $500 million sale four years ago. After the acquisition by ParshipMeet Group - whose portfolio includes dating apps like eHarmony and ElitePartner - Cook was named as the parent company's co-CEO.
Since Noom's early days, the health and wellness space has undergone several changes, including the growing popularity of weight loss drugs and the increasing awareness of mental health.
Like most companies, Noom is increasingly turning its attention to artificial intelligence. The platform now leverages AI to power photo, text and voice food logging features, making it easier than ever to track meals and nutrition accurately with the Noom app.
It also has an AI-enabled chatbot named Welli, which complements the human coaching experience with immediate answers and 24/7 assistance on a variety of wellness topics.
With another recently introduced function, an AI-powered body scan feature lets users track body composition changes using their smartphone camera.
"I come from a very product minded viewpoint, and so I'm always trying to uplevel just product quality and the narrative behind the company," Cook said. "I would say AI is infusing a good portion of our product, and that's pretty new. It's only really in the last 12 months."
Cook went on to say, "The main thing I've been spending my time on is really navigating Noom into the weight loss medication space."
The September move-in day at Noom's new headquarters in Princeton coincided with the rollout of a program designed to make weight loss drugs more accessible and affordable for consumers.
The new service - Noom GLP-1Rx - offers a compounded GLP-1 at a starting price of $149 for the first month and $279 for subsequent months.
Through the program, members will be evaluated by board-certified physicians with expertise in obesity and weight loss to determine if they qualify for weight loss medication. If approved, the drugs will be delivered to a patient's door within seven days, according to Noom.
The offering is also paired with Noom's nutrition and exercise program and includes a "taper-off guarantee" that users will be able to gradually reduce reliance on the medications while maintaining weight loss.
As part of that guarantee, the program will provide a year of free Noom or "substantial medication discounts" to anyone who regains weight within 18 months following a 12-month course of Noom GLP-1Rx.
Noom already offers access to branded GLP-1 meds, like Ozempic and Wegovy from Novo Nordisk or Mounjaro from Eli Lilly. The price tag on those drugs can total more than $1,000 a month for a person without insurance.
The off-label versions contain the same active ingredient - semaglutide - as the major brand name drugs, making it a more affordable option, according to Noom.
Cook said, "I think we really want to play across all the dimensions of health and wellness. I think Noom has always taken a holistic view that that whole person care is really important. And what we've been building over the last year and culminating in this launch of the Noom GLP-1 Rx product is the pharmacy relationships, clinical care and supply chain needed to get medication to the door in seven days with an ice pack and with all the right materials inside the box that you might need."
For Cook, the most interesting aspect of Noom's offering is the "taper-off guarantee."
"We're one of the few companies that is talking about that," he said. "We have a behavior change program that allows a member who wishes to get off the medication to taper down off the med and just rely on habit change. We've looked at the data for this - combining behavior change with the medication can lead to long-term weight loss outcomes for the vast majority of people."
Cook believes the pharmaceutical industry's goal is to keep people "on the highest dose of the medication" for the rest of their lives. But, he said, two-thirds stop taking the medication within 12 months and 85% no longer use GLP-1s within 24 months.
"There's this massive gap between the guidance and what people are actually doing," Cook explained. "And, if there was no habit change that comes along with the use, of course the weight will come back on. That can actually have health consequences because if a lot of weight was lost and a lot of muscle was lost as part of that, it can come back as fat. So, the person could be left worse off than before they started as far as their body composition.
"Noom has always been about helping folks maintain weight outcomes for the long-term ... If you can do the healthy habits at the same time as you begin the medicated weight loss journey, you're actually reinforcing both behaviors because the medication is helping, but the healthy habits you're attributing some success to as well. And then that habit has a chance to become entrenched and then potentially help you for the long term," he said. "This combination of the change with the medication - we think that's the magic of our program."
The company also unveiled new solutions to help employers offer, manage and effectively control GLP-1 expenses.
Research from health care company Accolade found that the cost of such medications has emerged as a "major challenge" for employers and health plans. More than 80% of employers acknowledge the interest of employees in GLP-1 coverage, but only 25% actually offer it, leading to a significant disparity between employee demand and employer offerings, the report said.
In a bid to tackle the issues of weight loss drug availability, accessibility and costs, Noom developed two programs that reduce obesity management costs while providing access to medications. Both options support different budgets and organizational priorities to reduce GLP-1 costs and lower overall health care expenditures, according to Noom.
With each of these programs, the individual patient receives care and monitoring from Noom clinicians, access to one-on-one dedicated coaches and support from the platform's behavior change program.
It will also include outcomes-based pricing - an approach that Noom said will ensure "employers and health plans only pay for measurable success."
Cody Fair, Noom's chief commercial officer, said, "In a world where health care costs are rising, we believe businesses should pay for results, not promises. This model guarantees that our financial incentives are tied to meaningful, measurable improvements in people's health, giving our clients confidence that their investment in Noom is directly linked to real, transformative outcomes. We only succeed when employers and their employees do, too."