Gratitude & The Next Chapter

“I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought; and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.” G.K. Chesterton

In 2014, I was fortunate to be introduced by a close friend to 3 founders (Mudit Garg, Brent Newhouse & Ian Christopher) from Stanford of a startup called analyticsMD (now Qventus) focused on solving complex operational challenges faced by the thousands of hospitals and clinics here in the United States and around the world. At the time, I had already worked for larger healthcare companies such as DaVita and The Advisory Board Company and was increasingly convinced of three things:

1. Perhaps the most obvious point: healthcare was full of solutions at scale with dated technology (e.g. use of MUMPS as a programming language) and a terrible customer experience.
2. Although there was a lot of enthusiasm to help the healthcare sector, a significant number of technologists in the valley at the time (this has changed dramatically over the years) ignored the nuances of implementing their solutions at scale both during the “first” mile (e.g. EMR integration) and “last” mile (e.g. understanding of impact on workflow, change mgmt) to drive outcomes.
3. Healthcare was one of the only sectors in the economy where technological progress couldn’t help add radical leverage to the frontline. It was clear that software, primarily optimized for billing, wasn’t designed to reduce the real administrative burden and that had to change.

The most remarkable aspect of the founding team at Qventus was the rare combination they had between understanding what it takes to build a modern tech stack, while at the same time having a practical set of experiences directly helping frontline hospital teams on the ground floor to improve their performance (e.g. consulting experience). They had the empathy to understand what it took for emergency room managers and Chief Operating Officers of hospitals to deliver great care while understanding the real impact of technologies like machine learning. Blown away by the caliber of the founding team and the opportunity to reduce the administrative burden at hospitals, I decided to join the founding team in 2015 as their second employee. And man am I grateful for that decision.

In his now iconic 2005 Stanford commencement speech, Steve Jobs had some great advice on life and careers including this notion that “You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.” Working at Qventus was not only one of the most valuable and rich learning experiences thus far in my career, but it also introduced me to some of the most talented set of individuals who are re-defining the landscape of AI/software/tech as we speak in healthcare. From recruiting to selling to launching to partnering to building, my experience working with this inspiring team led by @Mudit Garg stretched me in ways I never thought would have been possible.

It’s all about the people. Building a great company is no doubt one of the hardest and most fulfilling adventures one can embark on during their career, and I do think the gymnastics of scaling one in a highly regulated industry such as healthcare make it even more challenging. Many things have to go right in this journey to even survive the initial stages. But to thrive, you need the right founders, the right investors, the right product for the right market at the right time, and not to mention just plain old luck. I think though above everything else is the right team. Like James Carville had the coined the phrase “It’s the economy, stupid” during the 1992 Presidential election, I think the simple and obvious truth for startup success is “it’s all about the people, stupid!” That next engineer, that next salesperson, that next executive all might seem like another task on the ever expanding to-do list, and yet they can’t be overlooked. The game almost always depends on your ability to recruit and retain the right people on the bus. While I could share many other key takeaways inside a high growth healthcare company, more than anything else today, I just want to thank my incredible teammates at Qventus. I owe a great deal of gratitude to every one of them for giving me a journey of a lifetime. From my teammates in sales and marketing to product to customer success to data science and engineering, I am thankful for letting me ride shotgun on so many amazing adventures and opportunities.

Despite all of it’s flaws, as a perpetual optimist, I find that there is no other place quite like Silicon Valley. The energy, the audacity to think big and ask why not, combined with its talent pool make it a very special place for those who constantly want to build towards a better future. Based on my experience working at an AI company and the field of biology becoming an engineering discipline, for those of us who care deeply about healthcare, I think the next two to three decades will be incredibly exciting. This new generation of startups and entrepreneurs are not only interested in making a difference, but actually understand both the intricacies of what it means to build a leading-edge technology company, while thriving in a highly regulated environment like healthcare. This sets us up for what I believe will be a once in a generation disruptive journey in healthcare where the giants of today could well be the “Blockbuster to Netflix” if they don’t radically rethink the status quo. Helping entrepreneurs chart this journey will be my personal life mission. And so when I was lucky enough recently to get the chance to join the bio/healthcare team at the venture firm, Andreessen Horowitz, I couldn’t have been more excited to say yes. About a decade ago, a16z changed the venture capital landscape by building the most comprehensive platform to help technical founders succeed in building and scaling great companies. And since it’s 2015 announcement about their Bio fund, the firm has turned it’s focus to healthcare led by incredible investors such as Vijay Pande and Jorge Conde. From Freenome to Apeel to Patient Ping to Accolade, the firm is already off to a great start in backing what I think will be the defining healthcare companies in the coming decade. I can’t wait to help these next generation of entrepreneurs change the trajectory of this entrenched industry. I can’t wait to get started.

And to the team at Qventus for giving me the opportunity of a lifetime: all I can say is thank you!