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.

What does it take to turn decades of healthcare experience into technology that could help improve cancer detection and patient care?

In this episode of Entrepreneur Rx, host John Shufeldt sits down with Marissa Fayer, CEO of DeepLook Medical, to discuss her journey from corporate medtech executive to entrepreneur, investor, nonprofit founder, and women’s health advocate.

Marissa shares how her background in engineering, manufacturing, medical devices, and global healthcare shaped her approach to innovation. The conversation explores her corporate healthcare career, her work developing 3D mammography systems, global disparities in women’s health, and the path that led her to DeepLook Medical.

The episode also looks, at DeepLook’s AI-powered imaging technology, designed to help radiologists and oncologists better visualize dense tissue, track tumors over time, and support clinical decisions. Marissa explains why dense breast tissue can make cancer harder to see, how visual intelligence can serve as a second pair of eyes for clinicians, and why better imaging tools may help improve follow-up.

Beyond the technology, John and Marissa discuss leading a startup, building partnerships, fundraising, working toward standard of care, and balancing innovation with the rigor required in medicine. Marissa shares advice for founders, especially women and engineers, on asking more questions, taking the leap, shedding perfectionism, and creating something meaningful.

About Marissa Fayer: Marissa Fayer is a medtech executive and investor with more than 25 years at the intersection of technology and women’s health. She’s CEO of DeepLook Medical, an FDA-cleared AI diagnostics company, and CEO and founder of HERhealthEQ, a nonprofit that’s improved the health outcomes of 135,000+ women in 12 different countries by expanding access to medical devices and equipment. She’s a founding member of Milken Institute’s Women's Health Committee, represents DeepLook Medical as a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer fellow, and has published the book "Undervalued to Unavoidable: Women's Health as Infrastructure".

About DeepLook Medical: DeepLook Medical focuses on visual enhancement technology to advance medical imaging. DL Precise™ is the first in a series of innovative products using the company’s unique shape-recognition software to delineate the details of tumor morphology – a key to better diagnosis and treatment across the field of oncology. The company is leveraging other complementary AI advances to further the reach and impact of its patented technology. To learn more, please visit: https://www.deeplookmedical.com/

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, including the , 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.

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 minimum investment), 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.

Jetstream Disclosure: 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.

How do you prove that the person speaking to you is actually human? 

In this episode of Entrepreneur Rx, host John Shufeldt sits down with Visar Berisha, founder and CEO of OriginStory, to explore one of the most urgent problems emerging in the age of artificial intelligence: how to verify reality when voice, video, and identity can be convincingly replicated. 

Visar shares how today’s AI tools can clone a person’s voice in seconds, why deepfakes are becoming a serious threat in financial transactions, hiring, healthcare, and everyday communication, and how OriginStory is working to create a new layer of “proof of personhood” for digital interactions. Rather than trying to detect fake content after the fact, OriginStory’s technology verifies human speech at the source by pairing audio with radar-detected biomechanical signals from the body.  

The conversation also explores Visar’s journey from Kosovo to Arizona, his academic path through ASU and MIT, his earlier work using speech and AI to track neurological disease progression, and the lessons he learned building and exiting his first company.  

From synthetic identities to AI-driven scams, enterprise security, entrepreneurship, and the future value of human connection, this episode looks at what it may take to build trust in a world where seeing and hearing are no longer enough. 

About Visar Berisha: Visar Berisha is a Professor at Arizona State University, with a joint appointment in the College of Engineering and the College of Health Solutions; and founder and CEO of OriginStory. Berisha's main research interests reside at the intersection of AI and the human voice. He has developed and commercialized new speech AI models for healthcare and cybersecurity. This work is primarily funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Defense, and the National Science Foundation. This work has led to many academic publications, several patents, and two VC-backed companies.  Berisha's work has been featured in the New York Times, on ESPN, National Public Radio, the Wall Street Journal, and a number of other international media outlets. He was the 2023-2024 ISCA Distinguished Lecturer. 

About OriginStory: OriginStory is a proof-of-personhood company building the trust layer for human communication in the age of AI. OriginStory verifies that a real, live human is behind any conversation or recording. Its edge technology captures speech alongside human biosignals in real time, confirming the two align in a way only a genuine person can produce, and delivers continuous proof of personhood through a hardware-software platform. The approach is privacy-first (no biosignal data leaves the user's device) and validated to authenticate human-generated content, restoring trust in high-stakes moments like financial approvals, medical sessions, and executive communications where deepfakes and AI impersonation pose real risk. 

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. 

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 the ⁠⁠Fund's website⁠⁠. Please read the prospectus carefully before investing. 

What if autoimmune disease could be treated without another injection, infusion, or daily pill? 

In this episode of Entrepreneur Rx, host John Shufeldt sits down with Nishant Doctor, founder and CEO of Surf Therapeutics, to discuss his journey from medtech engineer to healthcare entrepreneur. Nishant shares how nearly two decades in neuromodulation, R&D, clinical development, and commercialization led him to build Surf Therapeutics, a Stanford spin-out developing a breakthrough ultrasound neuromodulation platform for autoimmune disease. 

The conversation explores the science behind Surf’s at-home, non-invasive ultrasound therapy device for rheumatoid arthritis, the role of the spleen and inflammatory pathways, what it takes to build and test medical technology in a startup environment, and why speed, data, accountability, and solution-oriented thinking matter so much in early-stage innovation. 

John and Nishant also discuss leadership, technical founders, the future of AI, and what it means to build something that may feel non-consensus today but could change how patients are treated tomorrow. 

About Nishant Doctor: Nishant Doctor is the founder and CEO of Surf Therapeutics. He has more than 18 years of experience leading R&D and commercial efforts at medtech and neurotechnology companies, including Medtronic, Abbott, and LivaNova. Trained as an engineer, Nishant has helped build multiple implantable Class III medical devices and has also been closely involved in the sales and commercialization of those technologies. His career has focused on neuromodulation, medical device innovation, and translating complex science into technologies that can improve patient care. 

About Surf Therapeutics: Surf Therapeutics, a Stanford spin-out, is building a breakthrough ultrasound neuromodulation platform to treat autoimmune disorders, like Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) —conditions that leave over 2 million Americans without effective or tolerable treatment options, even with blockbuster drugs like Humira and Rinvoq. After years of foundational research at Stanford, they've developed the first of its kind, at-home non-invasive ultrasound therapy device that is used just for a few minutes a day and validated to be clinically safe and effective for treatment of RA.   

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. Its portfolio includes companies developing solutions that have the potential to transform industries and improve lives. 

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 minimum investment⁠), 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. 

Note: The Jetstream Venture Fund has invested in Surf Therapeutics.

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 the ⁠⁠Fund's website⁠⁠. Please read the prospectus carefully before investing. 

What does it take to challenge decades of conventional medical practice? 

In this episode of Entrepreneur Rx, host John Shufeldt sits down with Dom Messerli, founder and CEO of Lenoss Medical, to discuss his journey from medical device executive to entrepreneur. Dom shares how listening to surgeons led him to develop a biological alternative to traditional bone cement used in spinal fracture procedures, the challenges of building a medical device company, and the lessons learned scaling a healthcare innovation from concept to commercialization. 

The conversation explores entrepreneurship, risk-taking, leadership, company culture, fundraising, and what it takes to bring meaningful innovation to patients and physicians alike.  

About Dom Messerli: Dom Messerli is the founder and CEO of Lenoss Medical. With decades of experience in the medical device industry, including leadership roles at Synthes, Dom has dedicated his career to developing innovative solutions that improve patient outcomes. Drawing on years of collaboration with spine surgeons, he founded Lenoss Medical to address longstanding challenges in the treatment of vertebral compression fractures through biologic, patient-focused technologies. 

About Lenoss Medical: Lenoss Medical is a medical technology company focused on advancing the treatment of vertebral compression fractures. Its flagship product, OsteoPearl®, is a biologic implant designed to provide an alternative to traditional bone cement used in spinal procedures. By leveraging natural bone-derived materials, Lenoss aims to improve patient outcomes while reducing risks associated with conventional treatment approaches. 

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. Its portfolio includes companies developing solutions that have the potential to transform industries and improve lives.

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 minimum investment), 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 [email protected] or by visiting the Fund's website. Please read the prospectus carefully before investing.

In this episode of Entrepreneur Rx, John sits down with Allisa Song, Co-Founder and CEO of MU Medical. Allisa shares the story behind developing NanoDropper, a device designed to reduce medication waste and improve patient adherence, as well as her entrepreneurial journey. They discuss the realities of building healthcare companies, navigating the challenges of entrepreneurship, and bringing innovative solutions to patients and providers. Whether you're a founder, healthcare professional, or aspiring entrepreneur, this conversation offers valuable insights on innovation, leadership, and creating meaningful impact in healthcare. 

About Allisa: Allisa Song, MD, is the co-founder and CEO of Mu Medical, the company behind NanoDropper®, an innovative adapter that reduces the size of eye drops to help patients improve medication adherence, reduce waste, and lower treatment costs. She founded the company while attending the Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine after identifying a widespread challenge facing glaucoma patients. Today, she leads Mu Medical's mission to improve ophthalmic drug delivery through innovative technologies that enhance patient outcomes and advance eye care. 

About Mu Medical: Mu Medical is an ophthalmic medical technology company dedicated to improving how eye medications are delivered. Its flagship product, NanoDropper®, helps patients reduce medication waste, extend the life of prescription eye drops, and improve adherence to treatment. Today, the company is expanding beyond NanoDropper to develop innovative drug delivery and packaging solutions aimed at transforming the future of ophthalmology. 

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. Its portfolio includes companies developing solutions that have the potential to transform industries and improve lives.

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 minimum investment), 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 ⁠[email protected]⁠ or by visiting the ⁠Fund's website⁠. Please read the prospectus carefully before investing.

For episode 85 of Entrepreneur Rx, John welcomes Courtney Williams, co-founder and CEO of Emagine Solutions Technology. Emagine is tackling the U.S. maternal health crisis with remote patient monitoring. The podcast starts off with Courtney touching on her diverse background and then she moves to how her sister’s high-risk pregnancy inspired her to get into healthcare entrepreneurship. This experience opened her eyes to the dangers of pregnancy and the lack of access to safe healthcare for pregnant women. 

Inspired to make a change, Courtney and her team developed a handheld ultrasound device called VistaScan that is FDA cleared and aimed at low-resource settings. However, they soon realized that the lack of access to healthcare is not just a problem in developing countries but also in their own community. This led them to where Emagine Solutions Technology is today - a maternal health focus. Shortly after, Courtney and her team developed The Journey Platform which is geared towards better connecting providers and patients.

Courtney then moves on to discussing challenges in the femtech industry and funding for female entrepreneurs. She wraps up the podcast by sharing her biggest challenge she has faced as an entrepreneur, Emagine’s potential exit in the future and her hopes for the future of Emagine. Courtney's unwavering commitment to leveraging technology to enhance maternal health outcomes is a testament to her visionary leadership and dedication to making a meaningful impact.

For this episode of Entrepreneur Rx, John sits down with Dom Messerli, the President and CEO of Lenoss Medical. Lenoss Medical is disrupting the treatment of spinal fractures with their OsteoPearl Vertebral Body Augmentation (VBA) System. This minimally invasive and epoxy-free technology delivers a fully biological solution to stabilize spinal fractures and utilizes the natural healing properties of healthy bone.   

The episode starts off with Dom explaining his background in mechanical engineering and his rise within Synthes, a company specializing in spine technology that was later acquired by Johnson & Johnson. He discusses the inspiration behind Lenoss Medical's innovative implant, the OsteoPearl, which treats spinal fracture and allows for bone healing as opposed to the current stand of care. 

Dom goes on to speak about the shortcomings of traditional kyphoplasty using epoxy (such as complications like intravenous embolism) and points out the advantages of Lenoss Medical’s OsteoPearl implants. He emphasizes that bone materials do not carry the risk of rejection like organ transplants because they contain no living cells.  

John and Dom then move to talk about the business side of Lenoss Medical, including raising funds, startup valuation, and the importance of networking in entrepreneurship. They conclude the podcast discussing Dom’s tips for people who want to become an entrepreneur where Dom touches on the importance of partnership. 

For episode 83 of Entrepreneur Rx, John welcomes Ross Bundy, CEO of CRISPR QC. CRISPR QC is a biotechnology company aimed to equip scientists and researchers with data to improve their CRISPR assay design by using its sensor technology to analyze gene editing processes.  

Ross starts off the episode by discussing his background in gene therapy and his experience founding Cardea Bio. He also talks about the challenges of introducing new ideas in a field dominated by experts and the importance of regulatory guidance. He goes on to explain more about how Cardea Bio and CRISPR QC are related, ethical issues in the field, challenges gene editing faces and his excitement of where CRISPR QC is headed. 

He concludes the podcast by emphasizing the importance of building a strong team and finding people's strengths to create a successful startup. He also shares his advice for those considering starting their own startup: build a support network, learn how to translate their expertise into value, and take responsibility for supporting and leading others. 

Internal medicine physician Hillary Lin is the co-founder and CEO of Curio, a VC-backed healthcare startup that is reshaping the landscape of cancer care with hands-on, personalized solutions driven by the power of AI.  

As a Taiwanese immigrant, she experienced firsthand the stark contrast between the complicated healthcare system in the United States and the simplicity of a universal healthcare system.  Seeing the subtle cultural nuances and how they impacted the patient experience was the driving force for her AI solution. Tune in to hear how this experience fueled her mission to create personalized healthcare navigation while providing emotional support to patients.   

In addition to discussing Curio’s evolution of how they have shifted to a SaaS model, Hillary touches on Curio’s future plans to integrate with EHRs and CRMs, her hopes for Curio as it continues to grow, and her stance on transparency in AI. She concludes the episode with the biggest lesson she has learned in entrepreneurship- tackle the hard things and face obstacles head-on in order to succeed. 

Hillary's story is a testament to the power of curiosity, resilience, and the desire to make a lasting impact on the healthcare industry.