Path to a successful healthcare startup: Joshua Liu - SeamlessMD

Josh is the CEO and cofounder of SeamlessMD, a patient engagement platform which improves patient satisfaction while reducing hospital length of stay, readmissions, and costs.. They have raised over $7.5 million and are used by various health systems including Stanford Health. He is intelligent, humble and posses incredible grit. We talk about his childhood, his journey from an interest in coding to medical school and then being a founder. We discuss ChatGPT, AI in healthcare, the future of private healthcare in Canada, raising money for his startup, 90% of the VC he met said no initially and his end goal in life.

He was previously the Chair of the Canadian Medical Association’s Joule Innovation Council and on the Advisory Group to the Office of the Chief Health Innovation Strategist for the Ontario Ministry of Health. Joshua has also served on the Shad Valley Board of Directors and as a Startup Advisor to Northeastern University.

Joshua has received numerous honours, including being named Digital Health Executive of the Year by Digital Health Canada, Forbes 30 Under 30 in Science and Healthcare, Canadian Top 20 Under 20, TD Canada Trust Scholar, Creative Destruction Lab Alumn and NEXT Canada Alumn.

From eye surgeon to venture capital at 53: Sam Goldberger from Ambit Health Ventures

I had an incredibly educational and fun time talking to Sam Goldberger, MD, MBA. He has an intelligent, humble and mindful soul which is focused on bringing value to others.

Sam is a managing partner and co founder of Ambit Health Ventures (an early stage digital health venture firm), he is on the board of multiple startups. We are co-investors in SOAP Health (early disease detection and diagnosis at the point of care). 

At the age of 53 he decided to pursue an MBA and transitioned to the private equity world before launching his fund with his cofounder. We talk about his childhood, launching a venture fund, decision making, life, what he looks for in founders and startups.

I hope you guys enjoy this conversation as much as I did. Links in comments.

What is the future of AI in Surgery? Jawad Ali - Vality Partners

I always have a fun time speaking with Jawad Ali and it’s always a pleasure.

Jawad is a practicing general surgeon, founder of Vality (a physician led consulting firm specializing in digital surgery, patient engagement and surgical devices) and founder of Austin MedTech Connect (a private community connecting founders, clinicians, investors and healthcare stakeholders).

We talk about success, surgical innovation, physician burnout, medtech in Austin and goal setting. I hope you all enjoy this conversation as much as I did.

How to go form idea to execution? Joshua Landy - Figure 1

Josh is the chief medical officer and cofounder of Figure 1, a social network and medical education platform for physicians. Figure 1 has raised $23.5 million and serves over 3 million users worldwide. Josh is also a practicing intensive care physician and the medical lead for medical assistance in dying at Scarborough General Hospital.

We had a frank and honest discussion on the path from idea to execution, the future of Canadian healthcare and medical assistance in dying.

Story of my startup (ClinicUp)

ClinicUp was my previous startup which closed down in early 2022. It was a telemedicine company which served 1100 patients, we hired 10 physicians, we got a 6 million acquisition offer then got sued and lost it all.

Advice for founders on how to sell into health systems: Amit Mehta - BuildersVC

This one is packed with wisdom shared by Amit Mehta from Builders VC. Amit is an interventional radiologist and general partner at BuildersVC, which is a $450 million venture capital firm that invest across various verticals from seed to series B. He was humble, honest and transparent. His breadth and depth of knowledge and experience shine through his thoughtful answers.

We talked about his path from a physician to venture capital, tailwinds, artificial intelligence, how to incentivize prevention, lessons on hiring and more!

What is a good death? Raihan Faroqui - Gauranteed

I always learn from Raihan Faroqui, MD, he has a deep insight into the inner workings of the US healthcare system and how to grow a startup within it. It was a pleasure speaking with him and I think this is part 1 of many!

Raihan is a seasoned physician-entrepreneur. He is currently the Head of Medical Affairs at Gauranteed, a hospice startup. We talked about his journey from physician to entrepreneur, how to sell into health systems, the biggest problem in healthcare, death and identity.

How are we from general AI in healthcare? Amit Garg - Tau Ventures

Amit is a founding partner at Tau Ventures. He completed his Bachelors in Computer Science and his Masters in Bio-informatics from Stanford, after which he went on to complete his MBA from Harvard. He was an early Product Manager at Google and co-founded HealthIQ which raised $120 million at a $450 million valuation. Tau Ventures is a $85 million fund investing in AI based healthcare and enterprise early stage startups.

Amit is a rare individual who sits at the intersection of humility, intelligence and competence. He has truly found his “Ikigai”. We talk about artificial intelligence, risk allocation, investment tailwinds and resilience.

Should you do an MBA as a physician? Saumitra Thakur - Med Mountain Ventures

Saumitra is a physician and venture capitalist. After finishing medical school from NYU (New York University) he completed his MBA from Stanford and internal medicine residency from UCLA. He is a founding partner at Med Mountain Ventures, a venture capital firm with $10 million assets under management investing in healthcare startups. I had a lot of fun talking to Saumitra about investing, life, healthcare and politics. I hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I did.