.@alfromnexhealth on how a single customer saved @nexhealthHQ early on when they only had $4k in the bank.
"Failure is just people admitting that they failed. Or giving up. And you don't have to give up."
Video
Turner Novak 🍌🧢 (@TurnerNovak)
New @ThePeelPod with @alfromnexhealth
Today @nexhealthHQ infrastructure serves 89 million patients and 81% of new AI healthcare startups are built on it.
But at one point, the company had $4k in the bank, a maxed-out Amex card, and was on the brink of running out of cash.
I sat down with Al to talk about why 75% of dentists still run a server in their closet, the reason innovation is so hard in healthcare, and why AI value will accrue to chips, models, and the action layer.
Full episode here + links below.
Timestamps:
0:00 Healthcare skipped 3 platform shifts and went straight to AI
4:10 75% of dentists still have on-prem servers
10:05 How data interoperability holds back healthcare innovation
16:02 Why everyone blames Epic
20:15 Building the developer platform for healthcare
24:36 Why everyone fails to fix the problem
29:11 Fragmented markets enabled developer platforms
32:32 Working as a receptionist at a doctor’s office
36:13 Building a prototype on Twilio
39:15 How incumbents went from blocking to partnering
46:05 Canvassing Soho dentists door-to-door
53:47 Reverse-engineering 40-year old databases
56:21 Funding NexHealth with side hustles for two years
57:30 The scheduling wedge no one could match
1:02:20 Raising $391k from professors and customers
1:03:46 Running out of cash, why customers kept churning
1:07:45 $4,000 in the bank and a maxed-out Amex
1:11:12 The $36k pre-pay that saved the company
1:13:24 NexHealth’s three businesses today
1:20:18 Payments and the “admin-day” problem
1:26:15 72% sales win rate
1:28:27 The term sheet signed the week before COVID
1:30:26 Spending half the Series A on an acquisition
1:33:47 Raising $176M they didn't need
1:37:28 Why starting before 2022 is an advantage
1:42:22 Where AI value accrues: chips, models, the action layer
1:44:55 81% of AI products are built on NexHealth
1:48:24 Staying patient for three years after ChatGPT
1:51:25 Competitors building on their API
1:54:02 “We’re a tech company, not healthcare company”
1:56:09 Hiring from outside healthcare
1:58:34 Shoes, email over Slack
2:01:21 What AI changed inside the company
2:04:16 Inspiration from Microsoft in 1977 - 1990
Video
— https://nitter.net/TurnerNovak/status/2082854053516615920#m