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What happens when paying for college becomes a six-figure financial risk, but families have almost no safety net when something goes wrong?  In this episode of Entrepreneur Rx, host John Shufeldt sits down with John Fees, serial entrepreneur and Co-founder and CEO of GradGuard, to talk about entrepreneurship, higher education, insurance, and the financial risks families often do not think about until it is too late.  Fees has spent his career at the intersection of education, financial services, and technology. He previously built and sold companies to Viacom and JPMorgan Chase before co-founding Next Generation Insurance Group and launching GradGuard, a company designed to reduce the financial risks associated with college life.  A major focus of the conversation is tuition insurance. Once a university's refund period ends, a student who has to withdraw for a covered reason may otherwise lose tuition, housing, and other academic costs already paid. GradGuard was built to provide protection against certain unexpected events and now works with more than 700 colleges and universities. Its programs have served more than 2 million students across more than 1,900 institutions.  John and John also step back from the product itself to ask bigger questions about how America pays for education. They discuss student debt, whether the current financing system creates the right incentives, the economics of medical education, and why the cost of becoming a physician or other highly trained professional can influence career decisions long after graduation.  The conversation then moves into entrepreneurship and insurance innovation, including why Fees believes technology and AI will pressure traditional insurance intermediaries, where specialized insurance models can still create real value, and why entrepreneurs should focus on solving problems rather than fitting into an existing industry mold.  They close with a fascinating discussion about pattern recognition. Experience can help founders and investors recognize opportunities, but it can also create blind spots. Fees shares how his own assumptions contributed to passing on Facebook early, sparking a broader conversation about challenging what experience tells you and deliberately looking for the counterargument.  About John Fees: John Fees is a serial entrepreneur who builds technology-enabled ventures at the intersection of financial services and education. He previously sold Y2M and Members Connect to Viacom and JPMorgan Chase, respectively, and later co-founded Next Generation Insurance Group. He holds a BS in History from Arizona State University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.  About GradGuard: GradGuard was created around a simple problem: families can spend tens of thousands of dollars on a semester of college, yet have little protection if an unexpected illness, injury, or other covered event forces a student to withdraw. Since 2009, GradGuard has built insurance programs specifically for the risks of college life, including tuition and renters insurance. Today, the company works with more than 700 colleges and universities and has helped protect more than 2 million students across more than 1,900 institutions.  About Xcellerant Ventures: Xcellerant Ventures is a venture capital firm investing in innovative private companies across healthcare, technology, defense, and other emerging industries. Xcellerant offers multiple investment vehicles, including the Jetstream Venture Fund ($5,000 minimum interval fund) and select SPVs, while partnering with founders through capital, strategic guidance, and its broader network.  About My Custom Wine: My Custom Wine lets you build a wine around your own taste. Tell Augustan, its AI sommelier, what you're craving, and it can blend, taste-test, and refine a custom wine from thousands of options before it is bottled with your own blend and label. Visit mycustomwine.com to build yours.

What if becoming a doctor is only the beginning of what you’re capable of building?  In this episode of Entrepreneur Rx, host John Shufeldt sits down with Dr. Tyler Okland, double board-certified facial plastic and reconstructive surgeon and founder of Okland Facial Plastic Surgery, to talk about medicine, entrepreneurship, failure, and why doctors may be better equipped to build businesses than they realize.  While completing his five-year residency in Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery at Stanford, Tyler co-founded Datadoor, a real estate data company that provided institutional-grade analytics to hedge funds and investors. Rather than trying to compete broadly, Tyler and his co-founder went incredibly deep on a narrow market, eventually becoming a trusted source for some of the largest institutional investors following the company they covered.  That experience ultimately helped Tyler fund his next venture: his own facial plastic surgery practice. John and Tyler discuss why specialization can be such a powerful business strategy, the financial realities facing physicians today, and why developing interests outside of medicine can provide both additional opportunity and a hedge against burnout.  They also get into what Tyler believes aspiring physician-entrepreneurs often miss. You do not necessarily need another degree before starting. You need to understand what you are uniquely good at, find a real audience, build distribution, and be willing to learn as you go. Tyler shares how writing and building an audience helped create the foundation for Datadoor and why even the best product can struggle if no one knows it exists.  The conversation also explores Tyler’s relationship with failure. After struggling to get into college and requiring two attempts to enter medical school, he ultimately trained at Stanford and one of the country’s leading facial plastic surgery fellowships. He credits those early setbacks with teaching him how to ask better questions, focus on what truly mattered, and become far more intentional about how he approached his career.  About Dr. Tyler Okland: Dr. Tyler Okland is a double board-certified facial plastic and reconstructive surgeon and founder of Okland Facial Plastic Surgery in Denver. He earned his medical degree from the University of Colorado, completed residency in Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery at Stanford, and completed fellowship training in Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at Vanderbilt. He has authored more than 30 peer-reviewed publications and is also the co-founder of Datadoor and Tone Medical Aesthetics.  About Okland Facial Plastic Surgery: Okland Facial Plastic Surgery is a Denver-based practice focused on rhinoplasty, deep plane facelift surgery, and comprehensive facial rejuvenation. The practice is built around specialization and direct surgeon access, with Dr. Okland personally involved throughout consultation, surgery, and postoperative care.  Dr. Okland is also the founder of Operation Breathe, through which he donates surgical care to eligible women experiencing nasal deformity, impaired breathing, or both as a result of physical domestic violence.  About Xcellerant Ventures: Xcellerant Ventures is a venture capital firm investing in innovative private companies across healthcare, technology, defense, and other emerging industries. Xcellerant offers multiple investment vehicles, including the Jetstream Venture Fund ($5,000 minimum) and selective SPVs, while partnering with founders through capital, strategic guidance, and its broader network.  About Pitch Deck Analysis: For founders getting ready to raise, Pitch Deck Analysis reviews your deck like an investor would, with scoring, feedback, and recommendations on what to improve before you pitch. Use code EntrepreneurRx for a free Founder Pack with five free runs.

What if voice communication could work anywhere a text message can get through?  In this episode of Entrepreneur Rx, host John Shufeldt sits down with Julie Gerber, Founder & CEO of ShadowGen, and Chad Gerber, Founder & CTO, to talk about a new approach to voice communication built for the places conventional networks struggle most.  ShadowGen is a national security technology company developing resilient voice communications for degraded, congested, and unreliable networks. Its technology reduces the bandwidth required for voice by more than 99%, opening potential applications across defense, public safety, telecommunications, tactical networks, satellite communications, and other mission-critical environments.  The path to ShadowGen was anything but traditional. Julie began her career in global public health and disaster resilience, working with organizations including the World Health Organization before moving into music management, licensing, publishing, and technology. Chad built a career as a Gibson-endorsed artist and technologist, contributing to 10 gold and platinum records while also developing new tools for creative collaboration.  Their worlds converged through Meloscene, a spatial computing platform built for live creative collaboration. When Julie saw how the underlying technology could address a problem she had encountered years earlier in disaster response, she asked a simple question: “Can we do that with voice?”  That question changed the direction of what they were building.  John, Julie, and Chad explore how ShadowGen could keep people connected when traditional communications fail, why ultra-low-bandwidth voice matters in national security and public safety, and how the technology could eventually support areas like translation, secure communications, and data analytics.  They also get into what it is like to build a deep-tech company as a husband-and-wife team, how two radically different careers ended up converging around the same problem, and the moments that made them realize the technology could have applications far beyond music.  About ShadowGen: ShadowGen delivers voice where conventional communications struggle. Its technology cuts the bandwidth required for voice communication by more than 99%, helping keep people connected when networks are degraded, congested, or unreliable. Built for national security and other mission-critical environments, ShadowGen is advancing resilient voice across defense, public safety, and telecommunications.  About Xcellerant Ventures: Xcellerant Ventures is a venture capital firm investing in innovative private companies across healthcare, technology, defense, and other emerging industries. Xcellerant offers multiple investment vehicles, including the Jetstream Venture Fund ($5,000 minimum) and select SPVs, while partnering with founders through capital, strategic guidance, and its broader network.  About Deal Titan: Deal Titan is an AI-powered platform that helps investors evaluate early-stage companies faster by turning pitch decks into structured diligence reports covering the market, team, financials, competition, and key risks. Use code EntrepreneurRx for a free solo membership, including 10 full analysis reports.

What does it take to build a new American luxury car company from the ground up?  In this episode of Entrepreneur Rx, host John Shufeldt sits down with Kristie D'Ambrosio-Correll, Co-Founder and CEO of Dacora, to talk about what it takes to challenge one of the most established industries in the world and create a modern luxury automotive house built around beauty, craftsmanship, technology, and experience.  Kristie's relationship with cars started long before Dacora. She grew up working on cars with her father before studying Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT, where she immersed herself in artificial intelligence at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab. She later became CTO of MIRROR, helping bring the product to market and leading the company through its $500 million acquisition by lululemon. That experience gave her a firsthand look at what can happen when beautiful design and technology are built to work together.  Today, Kristie and her husband are applying those lessons to Dacora, with the ambition of creating America's next great luxury marque. John and Kristie discuss why American ultra-luxury may be ready for a resurgence, what the automotive industry can learn from Tesla's willingness to question everything, and how Dacora's coachbuilt model allows the company to focus on the elements it believes matter most to the customer while reducing complexity, cost, and time to market.  They also explore Kristie's evolution as a founder and leader, from a career driven by achievement and perfectionism to one shaped more by courage, resilience, and a willingness to take risks. Kristie opens up about the difficult pregnancy and birth of her daughter, how that experience changed her relationship with control and success, and why she now believes growth comes from the experiences you accumulate rather than the titles or security you hold.  About Kristie D'Ambrosio-Correll: Kristie D'Ambrosio-Correll is the Co-Founder and CEO of Dacora. Before founding Dacora, she served as CTO of MIRROR, helping lead the company through its $500 million acquisition by lululemon. She holds bachelor's and master's degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT, where she studied AI at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab. Today, Kristie and her husband combine a lifelong passion for cars with deep experience in technology and consumer products to build Dacora, reimagining the automobile around experience, personalization, and human connection.  About Dacora: Dacora is an American luxury automotive house creating a new vision for modern transportation centered on beauty, craftsmanship, personalization, and human connection. Its coachbuilt vehicles are individually commissioned, combining timeless design and exceptional materials with an AI-native architecture designed to quietly adapt to the people it serves. Since emerging from stealth, Dacora has built a reservation pipeline exceeding its planned first year of production and begun commissioning its first Founder Series vehicles.  About Xcellerant Ventures: Xcellerant Ventures is a venture capital firm investing in innovative private companies across healthcare, technology, defense, and other emerging industries. Xcellerant offers multiple investment vehicles, including the Jetstream Venture Fund ($5,000 minimum) and SPVs, while partnering with founders through capital, strategic guidance, and its broader network.  About My Custom Wine: My Custom Wine lets you build a wine around your own taste. Tell Augustan, its AI sommelier, what you're craving, and it can blend, taste-test, and refine a custom wine from thousands of options before it is bottled with your own blend and label. Visit My Custom Wine to build yours.

What happens to breakthrough medical ideas when the science works, but no one knows how to get them out of the lab and into the hands of patients?  In this episode of Entrepreneur Rx, host John Shufeldt sits down with Chris Franks, five-time founder and CEO of Promptus, to explore one of healthcare innovation’s biggest gaps: why so much promising research never becomes a real-world product.  Chris explains that the U.S. invests roughly $245 billion each year in healthcare research, yet only a small fraction of resulting technologies ever reach patients. Promptus was built to tackle that problem by identifying promising intellectual property from universities, hospitals, and physicians, then rapidly developing them toward commercialization.  John and Chris dig into how Promptus evaluates thousands of technologies to find the rare opportunities that combine meaningful clinical need with a realistic regulatory, manufacturing, and commercialization pathway. They also discuss why great science alone is not enough, the challenges of working with technology transfer offices, and how Promptus aims to compress a development process that can traditionally take years into an 18-to-30-month path toward FDA submission.  What makes the model especially compelling is the scale of the opportunity: thousands of technologies are already sitting inside universities and research institutions, and Promptus is building a repeatable system to identify the few with the strongest potential to become real products that can improve patient care.  The conversation also goes into the founder journey. After nearly two decades of building companies, Chris shares why entrepreneurs need to get out of the office and talk to the people they are actually trying to serve, why medtech founders have to understand every stakeholder who can say “no,” and why building something valuable requires far more than having a clever idea.  Chris also opens up about failure, the toll entrepreneurship can take, and one of the hardest lessons he learned along the way: you are not your company. He and John discuss separating identity from business outcomes, surviving difficult chapters, and why failure can ultimately make someone a better founder.  About Chris Franks: Chris Franks is a five-time founder, CEO, and builder who has spent more than 15 years on the founder’s path. After selling his last company in 2023, he began rethinking what sustainable success looks like for founders and leaders. Today, Chris is CEO of Promptus, teaches management and leadership at the University of Colorado Denver, co-hosts the How To Founder podcast, and co-founded Denver Startup Week and the Denver Founders Network. He is also a six-time Ironman finisher.  About Promptus: Promptus is a healthcare innovation platform built to close the gap between medical research and commercialization. Through its proprietary Expedited Innovation Platform, Promptus identifies high-potential IP from universities, hospitals, and physicians; acquires or licenses it directly; and develops each technology rapidly and leanly, with physicians involved from day one and a clear path toward FDA clearance in 18–30 months. Promptus is currently focused on next-generation biosensing technology designed to give people greater awareness and control over their health.  About Xcellerant Ventures: Xcellerant Ventures is a venture capital firm investing in innovative private companies across healthcare, technology, defense, and other emerging industries. Xcellerant offers multiple investment vehicles, including the Jetstream Venture Fund ($5,000 minimum) and SPVs, while partnering with founders through capital, strategic guidance, and its broader network.  About Pitch Deck Analysis: For founders getting ready to raise, Pitch Deck Analysis reviews your deck like an investor would, with scoring, feedback, and recommendations on what to improve before you pitch. Use code EntrepreneurRx for a free Founder Pack with five free runs.

Why do so many founders struggle to raise capital when the basic fundraising playbook is already known?  In this episode of Entrepreneur Rx, host John Shufeldt sits down with Jeffrey Fidelman, Founder and Managing Partner of Fidelman & Company, to break down what actually works when raising capital, where founders go wrong, and why fundraising requires far more consistency and preparation than most entrepreneurs expect.  Jeffrey shares how his experience in banking, venture capital, and working directly with early-stage companies exposed a major gap in the market: institutional fundraising is structured and systematic, while startup fundraising is often chaotic. That realization eventually led to Fidelman & Company’s Fundraise as a Service model, which gives founders and fund managers dedicated investor outreach infrastructure, data, and support without requiring them to build an internal investor relations team.  Now, the firm is taking that methodology a step further with Fundex, a technology-enabled fundraising platform built from the CRM and investor database Fidelman & Company developed internally. Fundex is designed to make the firm’s investor intelligence and fundraising workflows more scalable and accessible to founders and fund managers managing the process themselves. Jeffrey even shares how he built the first version using AI-powered coding tools before bringing in developers to expand the platform.  John and Jeffrey dig into some of the biggest mistakes founders make when pitching investors, from AI-generated decks they have not fully reviewed to unrealistic market assumptions, weak follow-up, and simply failing to ask for the investment. Jeffrey explains why founders should understand every number and claim in their deck, communicate consistently, personalize outreach, and treat fundraising like the full-time job it is.  They also discuss how AI is raising the bar for early-stage companies, along with valuation, runway, how much capital founders should truly raise, and why Jeffrey generally prefers raising less capital more frequently over taking an unnecessarily large round.  About Jeffrey Fidelman: Jeffrey Fidelman is the Founder and Managing Partner of Fidelman & Company, an investment bank founded in 2015 to support the fundraising and growth needs of early- to mid-stage companies and fund managers. His background spans Morgan Stanley, HSBC, early-stage venture investing, and work as an interim CFO and COO. A cum laude graduate of Harvard University, Jeffrey has helped companies navigate capital raises, acquisitions, business sales, and strategic growth initiatives.  About Fidelman & Company: Fidelman & Company is a fully licensed investment bank with a team of approximately 40 people across the U.S. and Canada. Its Fundraise as a Service (FaaS) offering functions as outsourced investor relations, combining investor data, dedicated analysts, strategic support, and direct outreach on behalf of clients. The firm is also developing Fundex, a technology platform designed to bring its fundraising workflows, CRM, and investor intelligence to a broader group of founders and fund managers.  About Xcellerant Ventures: Xcellerant Ventures is a venture capital firm investing in innovative private companies across healthcare, technology, defense, and other emerging industries. Xcellerant offers multiple investment vehicles, including the Jetstream Venture Fund ($5,000 minimum) and SPVs, while partnering with founders through capital, strategic guidance, and its broader network.  About Pitch Deck Analysis: For founders getting ready to raise, Pitch Deck Analysis reviews your deck like an investor would, with scoring, feedback, and recommendations on what to improve before you pitch. Use code EntrepreneurRx for a free Founder Pack with five free runs.

What happens when a college student looks at a decades-old surgical tool and asks a simple question: why hasn’t anyone made this safer?   In this episode of Entrepreneur Rx, host John Shufeldt reconnects with Casey Qadir, Co-founder and CEO of Hubly Surgical, several years after her first appearance to talk about how far the company has come, from an undergraduate idea to FDA-cleared technology being used in hospitals across the country.   Casey started Hubly while studying neuroscience at Northwestern University after learning that emergency cranial access still relied on hand-crank drills without automatic stopping technology. Working with neurosurgeon Dr. Amit Ayer and CTO Tyler Panian, she co-developed the Hubly Auto-Stop Drill, designed to automatically stop after penetrating bone and help protect the brain beneath it.   John and Casey revisit one of their earliest meetings, when John put his hand beneath a demonstration skull and drilled through it to see whether Hubly’s technology would stop. It did, helping turn a pitch meeting into an investment.   Since then, Hubly has moved from early development to commercialization while expanding beyond cranial access. Casey shares how feedback from neurosurgeon customers led the company into spine surgery, resulting in FDA clearance for laminectomy and laminotomy procedures, and why clinician feedback continues to shape what comes next.   The conversation also gets into the realities of building a medical device company: raising the first million dollars during COVID, finding physician champions, selling into hospitals, challenging the status quo, and staying confident when investors insist that if an idea were really that obvious, someone else would have done it already. Casey also shares what she has learned about balancing conviction with humility.   About Casey Qadir: Casey Qadir is the Co-founder, CEO, and co-inventor behind Hubly Surgical. She started Hubly while studying neuroscience at Northwestern University and has since led the company from a classroom concept through two FDA clearances, nationwide commercialization, and use in thousands of patients across the United States. Casey holds a bachelor’s degree in neuroscience from Northwestern University and a master’s degree in computational mathematics from Johns Hopkins University. She was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 Healthcare list for 2026 and serves as an entrepreneur-in-residence and advisory board member at Northwestern’s Farley Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation.   About Hubly Surgical: Hubly Surgical is a medical device company committed to making surgery safe. Its flagship product, the single-use, cordless Hubly Auto-Stop Drill, combines automatic breakthrough detection, mechanical plunge prevention, and real-time force indication to give clinicians greater control during high-stakes procedures. Initially developed for cranial access in the Neuro ICU, the platform now has FDA-cleared applications in both cranial access and spinal decompression procedures, including laminectomy and laminotomy. Since its commercial launch in 2024, Hubly Drills have been used to save thousands of patient lives nationwide.   About Xcellerant Ventures: Xcellerant Ventures is a venture capital firm that invests in innovative companies across healthcare, technology, defense, and other emerging industries.  Xcellerant partners with founders to provide capital, strategic guidance, and support as they build and scale their companies.  Learn about their newest fund, Jetstream Venture Fund, and its $5,000 minimum. About Deal Titan: Deal Titan is an AI-powered platform that helps investors evaluate early-stage companies faster by turning pitch decks into structured diligence reports covering the market, team, financials, competition, and key risks. Use code EntrepreneurRx for a free solo membership, including 10 full analysis reports.

What if we could reverse the damage caused by age-related disease instead of simply managing its symptoms?  In this episode of Entrepreneur Rx, host John Shufeldt sits down with Daniel Oliver, CEO and Co-founder of Rejuvenate Bio, a Jetstream Venture Fund portfolio company, to explore the science behind age-related disease, the potential of gene therapy, and what it takes to turn groundbreaking research into treatments for both animal and human health. This success has lead to one of the leading crowdfunding equity campaigns. Rejuvenate Bio grew out of George Church’s lab at Harvard Medical School, where research into the biology of aging opened the door to a bigger question: instead of treating age-related diseases one at a time, could we target the underlying changes that drive them? Daniel explains the company’s work across heart failure, kidney failure, metabolic dysfunction, and epigenetic reprogramming.  Daniel and John also dig into Rejuvenate Bio’s strategy of developing therapies for both companion animals and humans. Its most advanced program is targeting mitral valve disease in dogs, while its human program moves toward clinical development. Daniel explains why dogs can be a powerful model for age-related disease and how animal health may provide a faster path for translating aging science into real-world therapies.  Beyond the science, Daniel shares his unconventional journey from mechanical engineering and aerospace to Harvard Business School, entrepreneurship, and biotech. He and John discuss why breakthrough ideas often emerge at the intersection of different disciplines, and they get candid about the pressure of startup life and why the “never sleep, always hustle” mentality can make founders worse leaders.  About Daniel Oliver: Daniel Oliver is Co-founder and CEO of Rejuvenate Bio, a spinout of George Church’s Lab at Harvard Medical School focused on targeting the drivers of age-related disease through novel gene therapies. Prior to Rejuvenate Bio, Daniel was awarded a Blavatnik Fellowship, during which he co-founded Voxel8. Voxel8 was named one of the top innovations at CES and one of the 50 most innovative companies by MIT Technology Review. Daniel received his MBA from Harvard Business School and holds degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Business from the California Institute of Technology.  About Rejuvenate Bio: Rejuvenate Bio is a George Church spinout with backing from Merck and leading VCs developing one-time gene therapies that target the root causes of age-related disease, beginning in companion animals and expanding to humans. The company was the first to demonstrate lifespan extension using epigenetic reprogramming and is advancing a breakthrough cardiovascular platform built around a single-dose therapy that restores youthful levels of a critical age-declining soluble protein. Preclinical data show reversal of heart damage and durable metabolic reset, positioning the program as a potential long-term alternative to chronic therapies such as GLP-1s.  About Xcellerant Ventures: Xcellerant is a venture capital firm investing in innovative companies across healthcare, technology, defense, and other emerging industries. About Jetstream Venture Fund: Jetstream is an interval fund that provides investors access to venture opportunities across multiple stages, with a $5,000 minimum and no carried interest.  Disclosure for Jetstream: Investors should carefully consider the investment objectives, risks, charges, and expenses of the Fund before investing. The prospectus contains this and other information about the Fund and can be obtained by emailing [email protected] or by visiting www.jvf.vc. Please read the prospectus carefully before investing.  About Pitch Deck Analysis: Pitch Deck Analysis reviews your deck like an investor would, with scoring, feedback, and recommendations on what to improve before you pitch. Use code EntrepreneurRx for a free Founder Pack with five free runs.

What happens when life-changing therapies cost millions of dollars, but the healthcare system was never built to manage them?  In this episode of Entrepreneur Rx, host John Shufeldt sits down with Annie Collins, Co-founder and Chief Commercial Officer of Aradigm, to discuss her journey from healthcare consulting and venture capital to building a company tackling one of the most complicated challenges in modern medicine.  Annie shares how her early interest in medicine led her from pre-med studies to Bain & Company and eventually to Andreessen Horowitz, where she invested in early-stage healthcare and life science companies. While at a16z, she became increasingly focused on the disconnect between groundbreaking therapies and the healthcare system’s ability to sustainably pay for and deliver them. Eventually, Annie and her co-founders stopped looking for a company solving the problem and decided to build one themselves.  The conversation explores the complex world of cell and gene therapies, where a single treatment can cost hundreds of thousands to more than $4 million. Annie explains how Aradigm works across payers, providers, manufacturers, and patients to create a more predictable and sustainable model while helping patients navigate an incredibly complicated treatment journey.  John and Annie also discuss what it was like to leave one of the world’s leading venture capital firms to become a founder, why entrepreneurship turned out to be even harder than she expected, and what she has learned moving from evaluating companies to actually building one. They also talk about persistence in venture capital, female founders and leadership, and why having other founders and mentors to lean on matters when the startup journey gets lonely.  About Annie Collins: Annie Collins is a Co-founder and Chief Commercial Officer at Aradigm, where she oversees launches of new programs, the success of existing customers, and operational execution of Aradigm's program. She began her career at Bain & Company as a strategy consultant for large healthcare and life science companies before joining Andreessen Horowitz as an investment partner focused on early-stage healthcare and life science companies. While there, she was introduced to the commercial complexities posed by high-cost drugs like cell and gene therapies and the largely unsolved challenge of managing those therapies on the medical benefit. That experience ultimately led her and Will Shrank to leave a16z and start Aradigm alongside Spencer Carrucciu.  About Aradigm: Aradigm is an incentive-aligned, cost-plus platform managing the financial and clinical complexities of cell and gene therapies (CGTs). Our mission is to create sustainable, affordable access to life-saving medicines through a novel financial and delivery model that brings together every stakeholder — payers, providers, manufacturers, and, most importantly, patients.  About Xcellerant Ventures:  Xcellerant Ventures is a venture capital firm that invests in innovative companies across healthcare, technology, defense, and other emerging industries. Through multiple funds and investment vehicles, including the Jetstream Venture Fund, Xcellerant partners with visionary founders, provides strategic guidance, and helps connect investors with opportunities in the private markets.  About Deal Titan:  This week's episode is brought to you by Deal Titan. Deal Titan is an AI-powered platform that helps investors evaluate early-stage companies faster by turning pitch decks into structured diligence reports covering the market, team, financials, competition, and key risks. Use code EntrepreneurRx for a free solo membership, including 10 full analysis reports.

What if vascular disease could be detected years earlier, before patients face the most serious consequences? In this episode of Entrepreneur Rx, host John Shufeldt sits down with Josh Hanson, founder and CEO of ImageAiD, a Jetstream Venture Fund portfolio company, to discuss his path from biomedical engineering student to healthcare entrepreneur. Josh shares how growing up in Rochester, Minnesota, surrounded by Mayo Clinic and a culture of healthcare innovation, shaped his desire to build technology that could help save lives.  The conversation explores the problem ImageAiD is working to solve: diagnosing peripheral artery disease, or PAD, earlier and at scale. Josh explains how ImageAiD combines handheld Doppler ultrasound, cloud-based software, and AI to help clinicians capture and analyze blood flow waveforms in minutes, reduce diagnostic variability, and identify vascular disease risk earlier.  John and Josh also discuss Mayo Clinic mentors, ASU’s Biodesign training, building for all healthcare stakeholders, and turning peer-reviewed research into a platform that can reach patients. Beyond the technology, the episode covers entrepreneurship at a young age, imposter syndrome, humility, mentorship, and the courage to simply start.  About Josh Hanson: Josh Hanson is a biomedical engineer, entrepreneur, and founder focused on advancing cardiovascular diagnostics through medical technology and AI. As founder and CEO of ImageAiD, he is leading the development of an AI ultrasound platform designed to improve early detection of peripheral artery disease and broader cardiovascular risk. His work has been shaped by experience at Mayo Clinic’s Gonda Vascular Center, ASU’s biomedical engineering program, and the Mayo Clinic and ASU Alliance for Health Care’s IMPACT Program, where he trained in the Biodesign process.  About ImageAiD: ImageAiD is a medical technology company developing a handheld Doppler ultrasound platform that combines portable hardware, cloud-based software, and AI to make vascular disease easier to detect before it causes life-altering complications. The platform is designed to capture and analyze blood flow waveforms in minutes, helping clinicians identify signs of peripheral artery disease and better understand a patient’s risk of serious cardiovascular events, including heart attacks, strokes, and amputations. Initially focused on PAD, ImageAiD aims to make vascular diagnostics faster, more consistent, and more accessible in settings where traditional vascular testing may not be available.  About Xcellerant Ventures: Xcellerant Ventures is a venture capital firm that invests in innovative companies across healthcare, technology, defense, and other emerging industries. Through multiple funds and investment vehicles, including the Jetstream Venture Fund, Xcellerant partners with visionary founders, provides strategic guidance, and helps connect investors with opportunities in the private markets.  About Jetstream Venture Fund: Jetstream Venture Fund is an interval fund managed by Xcellerant Ventures, that seeks to provide investors access to early-stage, high-growth companies with flexible terms, lower minimums ($5,000 minimum), and no carried interest. Jetstream is one of the first funds of its kind, bringing venture-style investing opportunities to a wider professional audience.  Disclosure for Jetstream: Investors should carefully consider the investment objectives, risks, charges, and expenses of the Fund before investing. The prospectus contains this and other information about the Fund and can be obtained by emailing [email protected] or by visiting www.jvf.vc. Please read the prospectus carefully before investing.

What if AI could help bring the right drug to the right patient faster?  In this episode of Entrepreneur Rx, host John Shufeldt sits down with Dr. Louise Liu, CEO of Hill Research, to discuss her journey from biostatistics and AI to building technology that can help accelerate the clinical trial process. Louise shares how her PhD work, postdoctoral research at Yale, and experience building her first AI startup shaped the foundation for Hill Research.  The conversation explores the long, expensive, and highly regulated path of drug development, where clinical trials can take years and cost billions of dollars. Louise explains how Hill Research is using AI to automate data processing and biostatistical workflows that have traditionally required large teams and months of manual work. With its TriClick™ platform, Hill Research helps pharmaceutical and biotech companies move faster while supporting human validation, quality control, and regulatory readiness.  John and Louise also discuss Hill Research’s traction with major pharmaceutical companies, the company’s goal to expand from big pharma into mid-sized and smaller biotech companies, and the broader opportunity to reduce clinical trial timelines. As a Jetstream Venture Fund portfolio company, Hill Research represents the kind of AI-driven healthcare innovation Xcellerant looks to support.  Beyond the technology, the episode covers entrepreneurship, resilience, immigration, being a woman founder in a heavily regulated industry, and the importance of focusing on the work rather than the noise. Louise shares advice for founders: do not build imagined barriers in front of yourself, stay focused on creating something valuable, and keep improving based on real customer feedback.  About Dr. Louise Liu: Dr. Louise Liu is CEO of Hill Research, creator of TriClick™, an AI platform transforming clinical trials, and author of 30+ AI publications. She serves as Treasurer of UCACF and has been recognized as a Serica Rising Star Entrepreneur, Boston Business Journal 40 Under 40 honoree, and New Jersey Innovate100 honoree.  About Hill Research: Hill Research is a healthcare AI company developing agentic AI solutions to accelerate clinical development. Its flagship platform, TriClick™, automates clinical trial workflows from protocol design and data management to statistical programming, quality control, and regulatory submissions. Trusted by leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, Hill Research helps teams deliver faster, more efficient, and audit-ready clinical research.  About Xcellerant Ventures: Xcellerant Ventures is a venture capital firm that invests in innovative companies across healthcare, technology, defense, and other emerging industries. Through multiple funds and investment vehicles, including the Jetstream Venture Fund, Xcellerant partners with visionary founders, provides strategic guidance, and helps connect investors with opportunities in the private markets.  About Jetstream Venture Fund: Jetstream Venture Fund is an interval fund managed by Xcellerant Ventures, that seeks to provide investors access to early-stage, high-growth companies with flexible terms, lower minimums ($5,000 minimum), and no carried interest. Jetstream is one of the first funds of its kind, bringing venture-style investing opportunities to a wider professional audience.  Disclosure for Jetstream: Investors should carefully consider the investment objectives, risks, charges, and expenses of the Fund before investing. The prospectus contains this and other information about the Fund and can be obtained by emailing [email protected] or by visiting www.jvf.vc. Please read the prospectus carefully before investing.

What if the light around us could be redesigned to support the nervous system instead of working against it?  In this episode of Entrepreneur Rx, host John Shufeldt sits down with Nina Sharp, PhD, founder of Allevalux, to discuss her journey as a lighting scientist, professor, migraine patient, and entrepreneur. Nina shares how her background in architecture, engineering, human-building interaction, and light-health research led her to study the impact of lighting on sleep, mood, cognitive performance, and neurological comfort.  The conversation explores the problem Allevalux is working to solve: photophobia, or painful light sensitivity, which affects many people with migraine, dry eye, concussion, and neurodivergent conditions. Nina explains why common workarounds, such as sunglasses or colored lamps, do not fully solve the issue, and why she believes the better answer is to fix the light itself.  John and Nina also discuss Allevalux’s clinically validated, patent-pending lighting technology, which transforms everyday white light into a neuro-optimized environment designed to reduce visual discomfort, ease migraine symptoms, and support clearer, calmer experiences within minutes. Allevalux is designed to integrate into healthcare, workplace, and educational settings, creating environments that work in harmony with the nervous system.  Beyond the technology, the episode covers what it takes to create a new category, educate the market, build trust through clinical data, and move from scientific research to real-world commercialization. Nina also shares advice for founders, especially female founders, on understanding customers, staying flexible, learning from failure, and building technology that can make people healthier, happier, and better supported in everyday life.  About Nina Sharp, PhD: Leading Allevalux with visionary passion, Dr. Nina Sharp is dedicated to pushing the boundaries of lighting innovation. As a scientist and entrepreneur, she merges cutting-edge research with real-world applications, turning complex scientific discoveries into transformative solutions. With a deep commitment to human-centric design, she is redefining the role of lighting in health and well-being. At Allevalux, Nina drives innovation, strategy, and impact, ensuring that technology not only advances but also improves lives. Her leadership is fueled by a relentless pursuit of breakthrough solutions, making Allevalux a pioneer in the future of intelligent lighting.  About Allevalux: Allevalux is pioneering a new category of neuro-optimized environments, transforming everyday light into an active layer of neurological comfort. Its clinically validated, patent-pending lighting technology is engineered to reduce photophobia, ease migraine symptoms, and support clearer, calmer human experiences within minutes. Designed to integrate seamlessly into healthcare, workplace, and educational settings, Allevalux brings together neuroscience and precision engineering to create environments that work in harmony with the nervous system, not against it.  About Xcellerant Ventures: Xcellerant Ventures is a venture capital firm that invests in innovative companies across healthcare, technology, defense, and other emerging industries. Through multiple funds and investment vehicles, including the Jetstream Venture Fund, Xcellerant partners with visionary founders, provides strategic guidance, and helps connect investors with opportunities in the private markets.

What does it take to build companies across chemistry, software, diagnostics, and cell therapy, then bring those lessons into regenerative medicine? In this episode of Entrepreneur Rx, host John Shufeldt sits down with Robin Smith, CEO of Wonderlab Bio, a Jetstream Venture Fund portfolio company, to discuss his journey as a multi-exit entrepreneur, scientist, and biotech leader. Robin shares how he began as a chemist, how one unexpected customer order became his first bootstrap chemical business, and how that early work led to innovations in electronic lab notebooks, big data, and applied science. The conversation explores Robin’s path through Synthematix, ArtusLabs, and PerkinElmer, where he helped scale an informatics business and learned how to operate at a much larger level. Robin also reflects on the people, teams, and relationships that shaped his career, and why grit, optimism, and curiosity have been essential throughout his entrepreneurial journey. Robin and John also discuss the origins of Wonderlab Bio and its work in regenerative medicine, cell therapy, and CRISPR-enabled cell engineering. Wonderlab Bio is developing tools that help biotech and pharmaceutical companies use engineered human cell types, including cardiac cells, neurons, and liver cells, for drug screening, efficacy testing, and future personalized medicine applications. Beyond the science, the episode covers building through uncertainty, recovering valuable assets, playing the long game, hiring mistakes, founder resilience, and the difference between startup lifestyle and the hard work of building something that matters. Robin also shares advice for younger entrepreneurs: slow down enough to think, seek outside perspectives, build strong teams, and balance action with patience. About Robin Smith: Robin is a multi-exit entrepreneur with more than 25 years of experience building life science and technology companies. His career spans chemistry, biotechnology, software, diagnostics, informatics, fundraising, M&A, corporate development, and company formation. Robin founded Synthematix, which helped pioneer the electronic laboratory notebook market, and ArtusLabs, which was acquired by PerkinElmer and became part of the foundation for its informatics division. He has led global R&D teams and holds more than 20 foundational patents across life science and technology. About Wonderlab Bio: Wonderlab Bio is a regenerative medicine company focused on allogeneic induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPSCs, and differentiated cell therapies. The company is the custodian of a large allogeneic iPSC cell bank derived from more than 85,000 collected blood samples, with cells consented for commercial use. Wonderlab’s platform supports scalable, off-the-shelf cell therapy applications across cardiac repair, neurological disease, osteoarthritis, longevity, disease modeling, tissue engineering, drug screening, and gene therapy delivery. About Xcellerant Ventures: Xcellerant is a venture capital firm that invests in innovative companies across healthcare, technology, defense, and other emerging industries. Through multiple funds and investment vehicles, the firm partners with visionary founders, provides strategic guidance, and helps connect investors with opportunities in the private markets. About Jetstream Venture Fund: Jetstream is an interval fund managed by Xcellerant Ventures, that seeks to provide investors access to early-stage, high-growth companies with flexible terms, lower minimums ($5,000 minimum), and no carried interest. Disclosure for Jetstream: Investors should carefully consider the investment objectives, risks, charges, and expenses of the Fund before investing. The prospectus contains this and other information about the Fund and can be obtained by emailing [email protected] or by visiting www.jvf.vc. Please read the prospectus carefully before investing.

What if AI could help clinicians move beyond detection and make breast cancer treatment more precise and personalized?  In this episode of Entrepreneur Rx, host John Shufeldt sits down with Stacey Stevens, CEO of SimBioSys, to discuss her career in medical technology, healthcare AI, women’s health, and precision oncology. Stacey shares how her experience at Philips Healthcare, iCAD, and her own women’s health advisory company shaped her path to leading SimBioSys.  The conversation explores Stacey’s early work helping bring some of the first AI tools in breast imaging to market, the long road to healthcare adoption, and why clinical evidence, trust, reimbursement, and enterprise-grade security all matter when selling AI into healthcare.  Stacey also explains how SimBioSys is taking AI beyond breast cancer detection and applying it to treatment planning. The company’s platform uses breast MRI data to create interactive 3D visual models of the breast and tumor, helping surgical oncologists better understand tumor location, volume, and whether a patient may be eligible for breast-conserving surgery.  John and Stacey also discuss SimBioSys’ next frontier: using image-based AI to help assess a patient’s risk of breast cancer recurrence and support more personalized treatment decisions. Beyond the technology, the episode covers startup leadership, fundraising, the realities of building in regulated healthcare, and why trust, transparency, and patient impact must come first.  About Stacey Stevens: Stacey Stevens is the CEO of SimBioSys and a healthcare technology executive with deep experience in medical imaging, AI, women’s health, commercialization, fundraising, and strategic growth. Before joining SimBioSys, she held leadership roles at Philips Healthcare and iCAD, where she helped introduce early AI technologies in breast imaging. She also founded Ellevate, a women’s health strategic advisory company focused on accelerating the adoption of meaningful scientific breakthroughs in women’s health.  About SimBioSys: SimBioSys is developing a precision medicine platform initially focused on breast cancer, with technology designed to support clinicians and patients across the cancer care journey. Its platform uses AI and spatial biophysics to turn breast MRI data into interactive 3D visual models that can support surgical planning, treatment decisions, and more personalized cancer care.  About Xcellerant Ventures: Xcellerant Ventures is a venture capital firm that invests in innovative companies across healthcare, technology, defense, and other emerging industries. Through multiple funds and investment vehicles, including the Jetstream Venture Fund ($5,000 minimum interval fund), the firm partners with visionary founders, provides strategic guidance, and helps connect investors with opportunities in the private markets. Its portfolio includes companies developing solutions that have the potential to transform industries and improve lives.

What does it take to build healthcare technology that can make vital signs easier to capture, track, and use?  In this episode of Entrepreneur Rx, host John Shufeldt sits down with Mitch Foster, founder and CEO of Mindset Medical, to discuss his career in healthcare, medical devices, robotics, and digital health. Mitch shares how his early work ethic and healthcare experience led him from orthopedic sales and executive leadership to building companies at the intersection of medicine and technology.  The conversation explores Mitch’s path through Merck, DeRoyal, Synthes, NuVasive, and Excelsius Surgical, the spine robotics company acquired by Globus Medical. Mitch reflects on lessons learned from mentors, physicians, strategic partners, and the experience of building and exiting a company before applying those lessons to Mindset Medical.  The episode also looks at Mindset Medical’s vision to turn the smartphone into a medical device. Mitch explains how the company evolved from digitizing patient intake to developing video-based vital sign technology, including FDA-cleared pulse rate and respiration rate tools, with a path toward non-contact blood pressure measurement.  Beyond the technology, John and Mitch discuss telemedicine, rural healthcare, chronic disease management, entrepreneurship, resilience, founder traits, leadership under pressure, and building through pivots and setbacks. Mitch also shares advice for aspiring entrepreneurs: go for it, scenario plan, understand the sacrifice, and remember that time is the most valuable asset we have.  About Mitch Foster: Mitch Foster is the founder and CEO of Mindset Medical and an experienced healthcare entrepreneur and medical device executive. His career spans pharmaceutical sales, orthopedics, spine robotics, digital health, and startup leadership. Before founding Mindset Medical, Mitch helped build Excelsius Surgical, a robotic spine surgery company acquired by Globus Medical.  About Mindset Medical: Mindset Medical is developing technology designed to turn the smartphone into a medical device. The company’s platform uses video-based technology to capture vital signs and support more accessible, data-driven care. With FDA clearances for pulse rate and respiration rate, Mindset Medical is working toward non-contact, non-calibrated blood pressure measurement and broader applications across telemedicine, rural healthcare, and chronic disease management.  About Xcellerant Ventures: Xcellerant Ventures is a venture capital firm that invests in innovative companies across healthcare, technology, defense, and other emerging industries. Through multiple funds and investment vehicles, including the Jetstream Venture Fund, the firm partners with visionary founders, provides strategic guidance, and helps connect investors with opportunities in the private markets.  About Jetstream Venture Fund: Jetstream Venture Fund is an interval fund managed by Xcellerant Ventures and Sweater Industries LLC, that seeks to provide investors access to early-stage, high-growth companies with flexible terms, lower minimums ($5,000⁠), and no carried interest. Jetstream is one of the first funds of its kind, bringing venture-style investing opportunities to a wider professional audience. Back-end administration is provided by Sweater Ventures a ground-breaking turnkey fund management company.  Disclosure for Jetstream: Investors should carefully consider the investment objectives, risks, charges, and expenses of the Fund before investing. The prospectus contains this and other information about the Fund and can be obtained by emailing or by visiting the. Please read the prospectus carefully before investing.