Daily Struggles as a Health Tech Founder & How I Turned Things Around

I’ve always believed in healthcare technology’s power to transform clinical care. But when I first set out to build my own solution, it felt like I was shouting into the void. It took a good five years of adapting, tearing up my ideas, and starting over before dozens—then hundreds—of providers began signing on each week. Those early days when everything seemed to end in failure were truly humbling and I now use those foundational lessons to help others navigate the same hurdles. Here’s the story of that evolution.

Mastering the Details: Why I Chose to Self-Fund

In Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell popularizes the idea that it takes roughly 10,000 hours of focused effort to achieve mastery. It took me four years to earn my medical degree, so how could I expect to master technology any faster? Determined to accelerate my learning, I worked seven days a week for several years—until product development felt like second nature.

By self-funding—juggling my locum shifts and pouring my own salary into development—I had the freedom to immerse myself in every layer of product and business strategy. No external funding could have offered that same level of patience, ability to make mistakes and time.

Key Lesson:

“No great thing is created suddenly.” — Epictetus

This ancient insight reminds us that mastery requires patience, persistence, and humility. My relentless push to “earn” my 10,000 hours of tech immersion allowed me to pivot, refine, and ultimately build solutions that resonate with real clinical needs.

The Real Challenge: Earning a Place in Clinicians’ Workflows

Once I had gotten to grips with the entire end-to-end innovation process (i.e taking any idea for a new feature through market validation, design, engineering and QA), convincing healthcare professionals to integrate a new platform into their daily routines turned out to be an even tougher nut to crack. No matter how polished my product was, many clinicians simply couldn’t see how my product fit into their already jam-packed schedules. Some politely declined; others never responded. Each “no” felt like a blow, but over time I realized these rejections weren’t just defeats—they were windows into what I needed to do differently.

The Pivot Point: A Variation of Continuous Innovation Fit For Healthcare

Rather than launching my entire platform at once, I began by working closely with single private practices. This smaller scope let me test new ideas, gather immediate reactions, and refine the process before scaling up. If a pilot worked, I improved upon it further; if not, I pivoted quickly.

Why It Worked

• Lower Risk, Higher Value: Containing early trials to a few targeted clinics helped avoid costly missteps.
• Grassroots Growth: When these small pilots succeeded, clinicians naturally shared their success with peers—a powerful endorsement that no marketing budget could duplicate.

Yet the real turning point came when I realized that clinicians and technologists actually approach problem-solving in similar, systematic ways. By bridging these two worlds—highlighting the common threads of rigorous questioning, logical troubleshooting, and evidence-based thinking—I created a sense of empathy and understanding that broke down traditional silos.

This newfound synergy enabled me to develop a repeatable, predictable methodology for integrating new features, even in the most complex healthcare environments. Starting small with private practices allowed me to hone each step of the process. Over time, I applied those refined methods to larger health facilities, achieving similar results at scale. By aligning the mindsets of both clinicians and technologists, I established a cohesive framework capable of unlocking consistent, sustainable adoption.

Four Early Lessons That Still Ring True

1. Be Humble and Willing to Start Over: In healthcare—where trust is paramount—ego has no place. When feedback revealed a flaw, I learned to ditch outdated assumptions and start fresh.
2. Be Patient and Enjoy the Process: Mastering any field, particularly in healthcare, is a marathon, not a sprint. Patience doesn’t just preserve sanity; it also deepens your understanding of what clinicians genuinely need.
3. Clinical Integration Is Its Own Discipline: Treat adoption like a dedicated standalone department—just like finance or compliance. With proper structure and planning, over time you will reduce friction and make widespread usage far more achievable.
4. Have an Unwavering Vision, But Stay Flexible: While my guiding mission remained constant, I adapted features, pricing models, and workflows to meet clinicians’ and patients’ real-world needs.

A Rare Set of Skills Earned Through Adversity

Looking back, getting through my first few years in health tech were some of the most painful and challenging times I can recall—yet at the same time so rewarding that I wouldn’t trade them for the world. That demanding journey forged a rare set of skills that I’m grateful to share every day, helping others crack the code more efficiently than I ever could on my own. Through those early trials, I learned that bridging medicine and technology isn’t about telling clinicians how they should work—it’s about discovering their realities firsthand, iterating in tandem, and using every complaint as a blueprint for improvement. That shift from instructing to collaborating gave rise to a repeatable, scalable approach for bringing new innovations into even the most complex clinical settings.

To Your Success,

Adam