Full Transcript Introduction to Dr. Payel Gupta 0:01 Welcome to the Startup [music] Physicians Podcast, where we explore how 0:05 doctors lead healthcare innovation. Please like and follow our show to join 0:10 our community [music] of physicians contributing to meaningful change. 0:17 Hi everyone, welcome back to the Startup [music] Physicians Podcast. This is your 0:20 host, Dr. Allison Kerfman, and I am joined today by Dr. Payal Gupta, who is 0:26 a practicing allergy and immunology doctor who has also had an incredible 0:31 journey as a founder, and I'm just excited to have you here today. Thank 0:35 you for joining me, Payal. Thank you so much for having me today, Allison. I'm 0:39 really excited to be able to talk about my journey and share a little bit and 0:44 hopefully inspire others to think outside the box. 0:47 >> So, for starters, I think I'll highlight the way we connected, which is something 0:52 that I'm always telling people in this audience that you stand out by reaching 0:56 out, and it's really important to be surrounded by other people thinking and 1:02 working in the same areas as you, and there's countless communities that you 1:06 can join, and one of the ones that Payal and I are both on is um a it's a 1:12 WhatsApp group called Docs in Tech. So, feel free to join that if you are 1:16 interested. We just had a lot of synergy in the in the WhatsApp conversation, and 1:22 she reached out to me, and I think that that really indicates something that I'm 1:27 always encouraging this audience to do is to never be worried about reaching
Global Health Sabbatical & Meeting Paul Farmer 1:30 out, that networking is probably the number one thing you can do to grow your 1:35 career. So, I was thrilled to make the connection, and um loved hearing her 1:41 startup story. So, Payal, can you walk us through kind of your early medical 1:46 career and when things started pivoting for you? Absolutely. So, I am an 1:50 allergist immunologist, and I started my training by, you know, doing a residency 1:55 in internal medicine pediatrics, and then did my fellowship in allergy, and 1:58 then after fellowship, I started to kind of think outside the box right away. I 2:04 had always thought about global health, and I actually did a sabbatical right 2:09 after my fellowship, and I went to Liberia in Africa for 4 months. I was in 2:14 Nepal for 7 months, and then I was in India for about 5 months. I also took an 2:20 opportunity to travel through Southeast Asia for another 2:24 3 months, I do believe. So, I was gone for a little bit over 18 2:30 months, and it was probably the Yeah, it was a great experience, and I was 2:35 volunteering at different organizations, and through that experience, I was able 2:40 to meet Paul Farmer, who is the 2:44 I know, who's the founder of Partners in Health, and I just wanted to just give 2:49 Partners in Health a quick moment, too. Partners in Health was started by a 2:53 physician, Dr. Paul Farmer, and several other people, and it is an organization 2:58 that really partners with other countries in order to create better 3:02 healthcare systems. So, I was fortunate enough to be working in an organization 3:08 in Nepal that was kind of being christened by Paul. So, we were 3:12 literally in the middle of nowhere in Nepal preparing for a visit for Paul 3:17 Farmer to come, and to be honest, I didn't really know too much about him, 3:20 but I quickly learned. >> right? Mountains Beyond Mountains? 3:25 Yeah, he It was about him. So, he didn't technically write it. He wrote many 3:28 other books about the uh healthcare system and about how much more needs to 3:32 be done for the world and how much more we need to think about everyone around 3:37 the world and their healthcare, but he essentially, you know, just being around 3:42 him was inspiring, and I learned very quickly why he was able to do everything 3:48 that he did during his life, and unfortunately, he passed away several 3:51 years ago suddenly, which was very traumatic, I think, for the entire 3:55 not-for-profit community and definitely for Partners in Health, but, you know, I 4:00 just wanted to highlight that experience because it was kind of me taking a 4:03 pivot, right? Like taking a chance at doing something different. So, after my 4:08 fellowship, I could have done the normal thing, which is gone into practice and 4:13 started making money, but instead, and I think a lot of my friends in medicine 4:18 were just kind of like, "What are you doing? Like, this is our first 4:20 opportunity to start making money, and you're going to go and volunteer." 4:25 Um and it was the best experience of my life. Like, I will never look back and 4:30 regret that experience, and I don't feel like I am in a worse place financially 4:36 because I took that time off. So, I wanted to highlight that. 4:40 >> it sounds like such an adventure and such a This is such an example of a 4:45 life-defining experience that opens your mind so far beyond the walls of a single 4:52 organization. People following a traditional pathway tend to get a little 4:57 boxed in, even if we are not intending to. So, it sounds like you just kicked
Taking Early Career Risks 5:01 off your career with this like massive expansive mindset world experience, and 5:07 that probably, you know, colored a lot of your choices later. Yeah, absolutely. 5:14 I feel like that experience just taught me that taking a risk can pay off, and 5:20 that you don't have to follow kind of the traditional path to have an 5:24 experience that will be meaningful. Or, actually, I think the opposite. Like, 5:29 you will have more meaningful experiences maybe if you take that risk, 5:32 right? And so, um so, yeah, so when I came back from that experience, and 5:37 actually, my first interview for my first job was done through Zoom uh back 5:43 in 2011, and uh or no, 2012, and I had a Zoom 5:49 interview while I was in India with an allergy practice in New York City that I 5:55 started working for when I got back. So, that was my first job in New York City 6:01 was working for a large allergy practice. Then, I shifted to another 6:06 large ENT and allergy practice, where I was working as an associate, working on 6:11 my partnership track, and then the pandemic hit. 6:15 And I was pregnant with my first child, and it was really, you know, it was 6:19 terrifying for everyone, but definitely as a pregnant physician, it felt more 6:23 terrifying, to be honest with you, you know, and they sent us home. Probably 6:28 was March 31st, and um 6:32 was I think my first day working in telemedicine at home, and that I would 6:36 just remember taking a huge sigh of relief because I was so nervous going 6:41 into the office for the last 2 weeks of March, to be honest with you, as a 6:45 pregnant person. I had a newborn at that point, too. I 6:49 mean, it's just like we didn't know anything, right? We didn't know what it 6:53 does to pregnant people. We didn't know what I mean, my baby had been in the 6:55 NICU, and um yeah, it's just like a whole 'nother 6:59 level of like work stress that I didn't even know existed.
COVID, Pregnancy & A Career Pivot 7:04 >> Yeah, absolutely. You're trying to keep your infant safe, and I was trying to 7:07 keep my unborn infant safe, right? And so, it was It was a really scary 7:11 experience, and the first day, literally, one of my friends who was 7:16 just 2 weeks ahead of me in her pregnancy, I was kind of talking to her 7:20 and managing uh or helping her just kind of 7:24 uh manage COVID. So, she was actually she got diagnosed with COVID about 8 7:28 days before, and then right around the 8th day is when she started feeling 7:33 short of breath. And she called me, and I sent her to the ER. She ended up 7:37 getting intubated that night. She ended up get having an emergency C-section 7:41 just at 24 weeks the next day, and that was really the start of my experience 7:47 working from home was really also managing this scary situation that was 7:53 happening to one of my really, really good friends, and, you know, and I was 7:58 trying to be an advocate because her family is not in medicine, and so I was 8:02 being that physician advocate that I think many of us have had an experience 8:05 being in that situation, and so I was trying to talk to the ICU doctors, and, 8:11 you know, and magically and thankfully, she was one of those people that ended 8:16 up getting extubated, and her baby also did really well, so they're both really 8:21 survivors. We're doing great, are doing great, but that experience in itself was 8:26 just so traumatic, and then right around that time was when my company, right 8:32 right when she was getting extubated, was when my company was like, "You need 8:35 to come back in to work." And I was like, "There is no way I am going back 8:39 in to work. Like, I'm doing a great job seeing my patients through telemedicine. 8:44 I want to continue to do this." And at that point, I was given kind of zero 8:48 options besides you can come to the office to make money, or you can stay at 8:53 home and have job-protected unpaid time off. And [snorts] that's the route that 8:58 I ended up taking, especially with my experience with my friend, I decided 9:02 that that was going to be 9:05 the best thing for me. I was an older I'm an older mom. 9:09 I had to go through IVF to have my son, and so it was a very special pregnancy, 9:13 like every pregnancy, but this one I was not willing to risk my life or my 9:18 child's life. >> of course. During that time, so in 2019, 9:22 I'd actually started to consult with a startup, and in early 2020, I was 9:28 actually asked to be a co-founder of that startup, and it was a startup in
Becoming a Health Tech Co-Founder 9:33 the allergy space. These two people that both have allergies and asthma, 9:38 they wanted to start something in the allergy space, but neither one of them 9:42 are allergists. One is Rockefeller, like an actual Rockefeller, and the other is 9:49 somebody that has worked with big pharma companies in helping them put together 9:54 their patient support programs. So, Ryan Rockefeller, he had done his business 10:00 school at Columbia. And so, he reached out to his Columbia network and said, "I 10:03 want to do something in the allergy space. Does anyone know an allergist?" 10:07 And one of the people from Columbia MBA said, "Yeah, I know. My friend Weiwei is 10:12 an allergist." So, he connected Ryan to Weiwei. Weiwei was my co-fellow during 10:19 fellowship. So, just me and her where we had a two-person fellowship. And so, we 10:24 are best friends, you know. She's one of my really, really good friends. And so, 10:28 Weiwei got that phone call and she's like, "You know what? I don't think this 10:30 is for me, but I I think I have the right person for you." So, she gave them 10:33 my name and that's how everything started, right? And so, I started to 10:37 consult with them, became the co-founder. And I'll tell my co-founder 10:41 story, too, because I literally set that up, too, and I have the text message to 10:47 show that, but I sent a text to Ryan and Jimmy and I said, "You know what? You 10:51 guys are not doctors and you're trying to do something in the health tech 10:54 space. I think if you want to get more funding, having a doctor as a co-founder 10:58 might help you." And I was like, "And you guys are both men, so maybe a woman 11:02 doctor co-founder would be a great look, you know?" And they were like, "Haha." 11:06 And then, a week later, they're like, "We'd like to take you out to dinner." 11:10 And at that dinner conversation, they asked me to be a co-founder. So, you 11:14 know, again, if you don't ask, you shall not receive me. 11:16 >> [laughter] >> That's a Yeah. But, that was really how 11:20 I became the co-founder of this health startup. And so, what we were doing was 11:25 um starting a telemedicine company in the allergy space. And it was actually
Telemedicine + Pharma Direct-to-Consumer Model 11:31 the perfect time to do that during the pandemic. 11:35 Yeah, and right before the pandemic, we were starting to get, you know, started 11:39 on this idea, but everyone was kind of looking at me like I had two heads. 11:42 They're like, "What do you want to do? Telemedicine for allergy? Like, what 11:46 does that even look like, right?" But, then after the pandemic set in, everyone 11:50 was like, "Telemedicine. We totally understand it, right?" And so, but our 11:53 claim to fame really was working with a medium-sized pharmaceutical company to 11:58 bring direct-to-consumer their product. So, now we see that a lot with Lilly 12:03 Direct. I think everyone knows what that is. It's a direct connection to getting 12:08 a prescription for an obesity medication. Well, we were doing that for 12:12 a sublingual immunotherapy tablet that is FDA-approved. So, we had a link to 12:17 our company on the website. So, like, if the company is advertising, "Oh, you 12:23 know, this is our sublingual immunotherapy tablet, go to our website, 12:27 understand more about the product." And then, we had a link to, "If you want to 12:31 see if you're a good candidate for this, click here." And then, we were the 12:34 telemedicine option in order to get access to the medication. And so, that 12:39 was our claim to fame. We were early adopters of that kind of 12:42 direct-to-consumer access to a medication with a pharmaceutical 12:47 company. And so, one thing led to another and we actually got acquired in 12:51 2022 and by a larger telemedicine company called LifeMD. And it was a 12:56 really cool experience, right? From It was really fun
Startup Acquisition in 2022 13:00 >> whole life cycle. Yeah. The whole life cycle. I had that entire 13:05 experience. And, you know, I was We were talking a little bit before this all 13:09 started about, you know, marketing and do you know, like, do you know 13:13 marketing? Do you know what a CTO is? Do you know what it means to work with, you 13:20 know, a company to even start the process, right? And we even had actually 13:25 a supplement that we were creating on the side because that was kind of Ryan's 13:28 dream. And so, we were doing many things. We were creating a product plus 13:32 creating a tech product. And so, we I really got a lot of hands-on experience. 13:36 And so, people talk about getting an MBA, I feel like I got a real-world MBA 13:41 through that experience and I feel very lucky for that experience and it really 13:47 changed the course of my entire career. And so, 13:51 I did take that job-protected untimed off and I went through my 13:56 maternity leave, but when I was asked to come back, the startup was actually in a 14:00 really good space where I was able to get hired on full-time and I had decided 14:06 pretty early on after that entire situation happened that I that this 14:10 wasn't the right company for me to kind of work until retirement anyways. Like, 14:14 I didn't really want to be a partner there. And so, I I gave my resignation 14:19 right after my maternity leave. So, I never went back to that practice. No 14:23 hard feelings, but it just wasn't the right fit for me. It was, you know, 14:27 taking that step was really hard. I remember sitting there on my couch like
Why Physicians Struggle with Risk 14:32 hitting the send button and having to pause for a little bit, right? Like, it 14:37 was very scary to do that, but it was definitely the best decision. And so, 14:43 yeah, so that's kind of a little bit about my journey. Yeah, so it sounds 14:47 like one of the themes that I hear come out is just 14:51 getting comfortable with taking risk. I think it's one of the things that 14:55 physicians sometimes struggle with because we honestly have a very 14:59 well-defined and safe development path. Like, you have no 15:03 doubt that after you go to college, if you want to be a doctor, you got to go 15:07 to medical school. And if you do medical school, then the 15:10 next step is residency. So, it it it's just like it's very sequential and then, 15:15 you know, we're also all raised in academics where there's like these very 15:19 clear, you know, hierarchical pathways and um and it feels just like a very 15:25 stepwise and linear career path. And I think that a lot of people get 15:30 to the practicing part of that and then they think, 15:34 "Is this it? Like, what Am I always going to work on, 15:37 you know, weekends and am I making the impact I want to make and what else can 15:41 I do? Like, maybe I've kind of mastered my normal bread and butter day-to-day 15:46 and I'm interested in just something interesting." And 15:50 to get off that linear pathway, even if it's as a side gig, like, you have to 15:54 take risks. You have to, put yourself out there. You have to, you know, send 15:58 an email saying, "Hey, you need a doctor co-founder. You need to
The Two Beliefs That Change Everything 16:02 quit a job to to go to the next opportunity. Um and sometimes it's that 16:06 untethering of of of the old safety nets that leads to your, you know, your next 16:13 evolution. >> Yeah, absolutely. I think pivoting, 16:16 risk-taking, all of that stuff doesn't come naturally to us in general. I think 16:21 as physicians, we are maybe more traditional and and less of that 16:25 risk-taking behavior, which I think it's totally great and fine, too, right? And 16:29 so, it's not for everyone and at times it was a little bit scary, you know, to 16:35 take that leap of faith, but if you do, sometimes it works out and sometimes it 16:40 doesn't. But, I think that the key thing to remember is as physicians, there are 16:45 just so many opportunities that we can take. So, even if that particular 16:50 opportunity doesn't pan out, it doesn't mean that you're going to be out of a 16:53 job, right? And so, there's always the next career opportunity waiting for you. 16:59 And I think that's kind of what I lean into. And since the acquisition, since 17:04 2022, so many things have happened with my career even from that point, right? 17:09 And so, it's all about understanding that this one thing might not have 17:14 worked out, but there are a million other opportunities that are out I think 17:19 about one of my biggest leaps, which is when I my husband and I both quit our 17:23 jobs as physicians in one city and uprooted from Again, I I said I was, 17:28 "Oh, we're never going to move." Like, my mom lived close by. We like bought 17:33 the house next door to us for my grandma. We were really connected in the 17:37 community. My husband had a practice. We were very rooted. And then, this insane 17:41 opportunity came up and we were like, "Oh my god, even if even if this 17:45 concept, this company that I was building never launches, just the 17:50 experience of having worked in this venture capital like venture studio 17:55 private equity firm will have set my career on a completely 17:59 different trajectory." So, it's about calculated risk. It's not like, "Oh, I'm 18:03 just going to blow everything up and hope it all works out." But, actually 18:07 being willing to see the potential benefits down the road if you are to 18:12 take a leap. And of course, I always encourage people to to be very clear 18:17 about what your outcome is that you want and what what sort of options there are 18:21 on different pathways. I think there's two fundamental beliefs that 18:26 we need to adopt to get really good at this. One is that I as a physician am 18:32 really good at solving problems. So, we may want a map of every problem that we 18:38 might face. And if you're going into like allergy private practice, you 18:42 probably can brainstorm most of the problems that 18:45 you're going to face in that sort of a role. With a startup, it's just like, 18:49 "God, who knows?" No idea what sort of problems we're going to face. 18:52 Um but, if you develop a fundamental belief that like, "I am a good 18:56 problem-solver. I can I can figure out a lot of things." I think that for me as 19:02 an ER doctor, it's like, I definitely know how to call a consult. So, I 19:07 certainly know how to know what I don't know and find someone that knows it. So, 19:13 this unshakable belief that you can figure a lot of things out. And two, 19:18 as a doctor, you can always make money somehow. There's there's many, many ways 19:22 for me to make money. If if you were to adopt those two beliefs and really 19:27 believe it and not think like, "Oh, I have to have this W-2 job." Or, "If I if 19:32 I moved on, like, my financial security will blow up." Just 19:37 realizing and starting to explore all the different ways you can make money as 19:40 a physician and realizing that you can carve your own pathway and solve the 19:45 problems along the way. Um I think those two beliefs would fundamentally change 19:50 most people's risk profiles. Yeah, absolutely. I I couldn't agree more. I 19:54 think that understanding that we provide so much value add to any space 20:00 really, and definitely in the health tech space, is something that I think a 20:04 lot of physicians are starting to understand, and I think there is a 20:07 moment right now that we're in where a lot of physicians, and definitely 20:11 younger physicians that are looking to serve as consultants and things like 20:16 that. And so, I think that those two points that you just made are are super 20:21 high yield and important. So, what sorts of things did you feel like as a 20:25 physician you were able to add incredible value to the venture you were
The Physician Value in Health Tech 20:30 starting, and that it it came from your physician skill set that to just kind of 20:36 highlight to people how valuable our skill set is? It would 20:40 I mean, it's a telemedicine offering, and we were doing asynchronous consults 20:45 actually, not synchronous consults. So, when you're doing asynchronous 20:48 telemedicine, you really have to put together an intake form that makes 20:53 sense, right? You have to understand what are the critical things that you 20:57 need to know for a patient in order to make sure that you're getting all the 21:02 information that you need in order to prescribe a medication for that patient. 21:06 And so, just I mean, those are the things that we are doing every single 21:11 day, right? We Once you get, I think in year 2, 3, 4 of your training, and 21:18 definitely once you're in practice, you become so vast at knowing your 21:23 conditions and what questions you need to ask in order to get to the, you know, 21:28 the answer that you need. And so, that was a big, obviously, value add for the 21:34 company and understanding just even the life cycle of a patient, right? And how 21:40 that works for, you know, Ryan and Jimmy, they are patients themselves, but 21:45 they don't they still didn't understand like, what do we need to think about for 21:50 a patient and their treatment during this entire kind of 21:55 process. Like, we still need them to be on therapy, are going to transition them 21:59 to this medication once they're and once they're transitioned, what does that 22:02 look like? We're not going to take them off of this therapy, we're going to 22:05 continue them on their regular therapy, and then check in with them to see how 22:09 they're doing, and then gradually help them adjust their medications. So, it's 22:12 just, you know, it's just understanding patients, what they need, and what kind 22:16 of questions we even need to start with, and how that entire process 22:21 of getting that patient, and even that, 22:25 even the marketing aspect of what are patients coming in with, right? What are 22:29 the questions? What are the things that they're most worried about, right? 22:34 Concerning their allergies. That was a big thing that the marketers were 22:38 sitting with me as the doctor. >> that backwards and forwards cuz you've 22:43 seen thousands of these people, and you know exactly what they need and what 22:46 they are concerned about. Like, it's just directly from your experience, but 22:52 you're inserting it into a new part of a business. So, the marketing part of a 22:56 business, or the sales side of a business, or 23:00 the product development side of a business. Like, it's just a key 23:04 position that needs to be in any health tech company, and you can then lend 23:09 those skills and that expertise to all the different, you know, divisions 23:13 within a developing company. I think that's such a great example of I mean, I 23:19 joke about how one of the teams that I worked with early on at the firm, we 23:23 were building a selection algorithm with ICD-10 codes to 23:27 decide which kids to take risk on, and it was like 10,000 ICD-10 codes, and and 23:31 they were all grouped by, you know, these people that were investment 23:34 bankers and health care economists, and I was able to basically identify that 23:39 like, okay, cardiac transplant and corneal transplant do not belong in the 23:44 same group. Those are very, very different trajectories. And things like 23:48 that that it's like, it's like clinical insight that you understand like, who's 23:53 pathway is going to be affected by anti-rejection meds and and more 23:57 hospitalizations. Or, like you said, what are the concerns of these patients 24:01 coming in? For for me, I had like a unshakable belief that this model was 24:06 going to work out because I knew how bad the current system was. I was like, 24:10 there there's the bar is so low. We're definitely going to succeed because the 24:15 bar is so low right now, and nobody's focusing on this. And so, you can 24:19 contribute all of this really unique value that 24:24 sometimes there's things that we kind of think everyone knows, but they they 24:27 don't all know it. We know it because it's like inherent knowledge deep inside
Overcoming Imposter Syndrome 24:32 of us from years of experience and thousands of patient encounters. 24:36 Absolutely. And I think that is where, you know, a lot of physicians, a lot of 24:40 people have imposter syndrome, no matter what profession you're in, and I think 24:44 that that holds true even as a physician consulting. Sometimes you're like, wait, 24:49 am I like, you know, they're going to pay me X amount. I have to make sure I 24:52 really know what I'm talking about. And it's like, you do know what you're 24:55 talking about. You really do. You've had years and 24:59 years of training and years and years of experience. So, the value that you bring 25:04 to the table is huge. It's humongous, and I think that all these startups and 25:09 are starting to realize how important it is to have us at the table, and to make 25:14 sure that they're consulting with us before they're putting a product out to 25:17 market because it's not going to work unless they can't get through health 25:21 care providers. Well, first off, they don't want to have 25:24 quality and safety issues like any health care company. If you harm a 25:27 patient, that's like, of course, like, not aligned with the mission and really 25:31 bad for the company. Two, they There's a lot of compliance reasons why you might 25:36 need a physician. Like, especially if you're starting some sort of a medical 25:38 group. Three, when you're trying to do business development and outreach, guess 25:43 what? A lot of times if you're selling to practices or hospitals, 25:46 they will not get the time of day. Whereas, if they have a physician on 25:49 their team who's helping them do outreach, we can make a lot of 25:52 connections for them. Four, payers will not partner with companies that don't 25:57 have the right clinical people involved. They just won't. So, if a lot of 26:02 companies, their big strategy is like, oh, we started as direct-to-consumer, 26:05 and now we're going to go to the payers. Like, or even to employers, those bigger 26:09 contracts, you absolutely have to have a clinical voice at the table. Um, and 26:14 then I would say five, the the validation. Like, they may have like all 26:18 the belief that their product is going to be amazing, and it's going to cause 26:21 all these savings, and wonderful for patients. Well, you got to 26:25 prove it. And I have yet to meet a startup who knows how to run a like 26:29 IRB-approved validation study. So, I mean, that's like a lot of what I do for 26:33 startups sometimes is help them with their validation studies. 26:36 And if you come from academic research, guess what? You are already like super 26:40 well prepared to bring that skill set into a startup and be like, okay, how 26:44 can we prove that your model is is valuable in a way that will speak to 26:49 payers. So, I just think this has been such an amazing conversation to really 26:53 highlight all these different areas of value that physicians can bring. The 26:58 whole concept of taking risks, having beliefs that you can figure things out,
How to Use LinkedIn for Consulting Opportunities 27:03 and that you can make money doing a lot of things, and just realizing what sort 27:08 of world is available once you start looking in places that you weren't 27:12 looking before. And so, as we wrap up, I'd love to just give you a chance to 27:16 see if there's any like last bit of advice you would give to people that are 27:20 listening that they know they want something more, and they just don't even 27:24 know where to start. >> Yeah, I think that for me at this point, 27:27 I think LinkedIn is a great resource. I think developing your profile, making 27:33 sure your profile is up to date. I think that's really helpful. I get a lot of 27:37 opportunities now through LinkedIn where people are looking for physicians that 27:41 have certain types of skill sets. And so, that's one area that I think every 27:46 physician, so you may not be a social media person, but technically LinkedIn 27:50 is social media, and it's for professionals, and a lot of C-suite 27:55 executives are on there, and the CTOs are on there. There's just every part of 28:03 a startup, all of those people are on LinkedIn. And so, if you want to start 28:08 kind of venturing into this area, I would say start there. And that means 28:13 your profile should be up to date, but then you should start looking on there 28:17 for opportunities and for people that you want to work with potentially, and 28:23 then start interacting with them, maybe even send them a direct message and say, 28:27 you know, I have this skill set, and I think it would be really fun to work on 28:31 this project, and then see if they have an opportunity for you to do that 28:34 because not all jobs are listed on the website, right? And so, 28:39 reaching out shows a lot of initiative. It shows that you're interested. And so, 28:43 I would say starting off there. And if you never get a response, don't feel bad 28:47 because people are busy, right? And so, and it might not be the right time, 28:51 right? But your your message in that inbox may get clicked on later on, and 28:56 you may get an opportunity through that message later, and it might not be right 29:00 away. Or it could just lead to a connection 29:04 and a conversation, and maybe you meet them at a conference later, and then, 29:07 you know, relationships build over time. So, it's not like the first time you 29:11 send a message, somebody's going to be like, yeah, sure, here's a 5K a month 29:14 retainer. But if you put one feeler out, you'll have one opportunity in the 29:19 pipeline. If you put 100 feelers out, you're going to have 100 opportunities 29:22 in the pipeline. For people who are interested in doing this in more of a 29:27 structure with accountability and a lot of guidance, we do have a course called
Launchpad & Incubator Opportunities 29:32 the Startup Physicians Launchpad for people who are interested in developing 29:36 a career as an advisor and a consultant. Sometimes we need a community around us 29:41 to take action, and maybe even a step-by-step framework. So, we have a 29:44 ton of tools, and we've had 50 or 60 doctors go through this program and 29:48 launch their advisory career. For those of you who are interested in becoming an 29:52 advisor, I'd encourage you to check out the launchpad. And then for those of you 29:56 who are like, "Wow, I love the story about being a co-founder and I have an 30:00 idea that I want to build." We also have an incubator program and applications 30:05 will be opening soon. So, if you are interested in learning more about what 30:10 it takes to build a healthcare startup, check out our incubator program on the 30:13 website. Priyale, thank you so much for your time. For people who are interested 30:18 in hearing more from Priyale, she has a podcast. It's called It's called the 30:22 itch, right? >> Yes, it's it's called the itch and it's 30:25 all about allergies and asthma. Awesome. And we will also include her 30:29 social media and her LinkedIn in the show notes. I hope that this was 30:33 inspiring and and something that will prompt you to take action 30:38 um and you can always feel free to reach out to me or any of our guests to talk 30:43 about next stages in your career. So, thank you all for joining and we'll see 30:47 you next time. >> [music] 30:47 >> Thanks for listening to the Startup Physicians Podcast. This community was 30:51 built for doctors who want to contribute [music] to the future of healthcare. 30:55 We offer support for physicians who are ready to make the next step towards 30:59 building the career they've dreamed of. Visit startupphysicians.com 31:04 [music] to learn more. And if this episode resonated with you, 31:08 share it with another friend who needs to hear it. Let's change the future 31:12 [music] of healthcare together.
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