E3: Mike Gao - SmarterDx - fixing $1 trillion healthcare problems starting with hospital billing

See the magic of product-market-fit you unlock then a physician turns into a healthcare entrepreneur

SmarterDx, a healthcare startup, has achieved a remarkable 25x growth in just two years. Behind this success is Mike Gao, who’s fixing a problem he saw first hand as a physician and operations leader at New York Presbyterian. He noticed how frequently valid insurance claims from the hospital were denied by the large insurance companies. But they weren’t valid denials. The relatively smaller hospitals were just not equipped to fight back even though they had the justification to do so. It was a complex, messy process to gather the right information to fight the denial.

Equipped with this insight, Mike and team developed the core of SmarterDx — they thought this kind of tool would be useful not just internally at New York Presbyterian, but for all hospital systems.

In our conversation, we covered:

• How does SmarterDx level the playing field for hospitals and insurance companies?

• SmarterDx's momentum: 25X growth, Series A funding, and team expansion

• Why Market Hype matters more than VC hype? (and how to know when you’ve got it)

• How SmarterDX can expand from billing to address holistic patient care and real-time health metrics

• The Team Behind the Tech: With 17 teammates already, they’re now actively seeking top engineering talent to fuel their next growth phase

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Topics:

00:00: Introduction to Smarter DX and Mike Gao's background

01:07: Diverse expertise of the founders: From medicine and data science to entrepreneurship

03:09: Mike's hands-on experience with hospital operations, both frontend and backend

15:28: Data-driven approach to healthcare data: Defining features, enhancing patient data, and offering AI-driven solutions

29:47: Growth Stories: The journey of SmarterDx, achieving 25x growth over two years, and transitioning from data expertise to team success

36:21: Team dynamics at SmarterDx: Growing from a small team to 17 members, a typical day at SmarterDx, and adapting to remote work

50:32: Embracing AI innovations, differentiating genuine AI, securing Series A funding, and plans for team expansion.

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Episode Links:

• SmarterDx

• NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital (NYP)

• Bessemer

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