#391 Scott Hickle: What Your Poop Says About Your Health
Scott Hickle is the founder and CEO of Throne, a health tech startup building the world’s first smart toilet to help people monitor their gut health, hydration, and urological function through passive, real-time data collection. With a background in engineering and product management, Scott blends deep technical knowledge with a mission-driven approach to preventative health. A Texas native and Austin-based builder, he’s turning one of the last untapped frontiers of health data—the toilet—into a life-saving diagnostic tool.
In this episode, Brett sits down with Scott Hickle, founder of Throne, to unpack one of the most ambitious healthtech missions in the game: building a toilet that could help prevent colon cancer, manage IBD, and transform gut health awareness. Scott shares how Throne evolved from a running joke to a startup with the potential to save lives. They dive deep into gut health, the cultural stigma around poop, and how stress, sleep, and food inputs impact digestion. Scott also shares takeaways from his ultra-processed food experiment and lessons from startup life—touching on energy, mission, and building in public.
What we cover:
- The Origin of Throne
- The Gut as a Diagnostic Goldmine
- Ultra-Processed Food Experiment
- Building a Mission-Driven Startup
Timestamps:
(00:33) – How Throne was born
(05:45) – From math failure to engineer
(10:00) – Pain tolerance and entrepreneurship
(27:55) – The smart toilet idea emerges
(30:40) – Gut health starts in the toilet
(36:00) – Why people ignore symptoms
(44:50) – Tracking your gut in real time
(52:00) – Preventing colon cancer early
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