Episode 388 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Andy Ellner, Founder & CEO of Quilt Health.

Yes, there are endless possibilities in terms of the platform shift to AI and how it will disrupt industries, but the one that I’m most excited about is the healthcare industry.  Could there be a great moment to hopefully improve lives and maybe even eradicate diseases or even cure cancer someday?  The future is unknown but these advanced in technology certain give a lot of hope.

To tackle these big problems, we need people who are not only the top brilliant minds on this planet, but they also need to be risk takers in terms of building these companies.

Andy fits the bill.  Not only is he an MD with top academic credentials, but he’s also a serial entrepreneur. And probably the most important quality of Andy is that he comes from a medical family that’s passionate about making a difference across the world and that quality is deeply rooted into his mindset as well.

His latest company is Quilt Health, a digital health company dedicated to bridging gaps in treatment access for complex diseases. They are focused on sickle cell disease and plan to expand to address other complex conditions.  Quilt Health just announced a $6M seed round of funding led by MaC Venture Capital and Underscore Ventures, with participation from Meridian Street Capital, BoxGroup, Watershed VC, and Coalition Operators.

In this episode of our podcast, we cover lots of great topics like:

* Some key lessons learned while building healthcare startups, including the importance of finding the right business model.

* Andy’s background story including his connection to the Baseball Hall of Fame and his work helping to solve the global HIV pandemic where his learnings from this timeframe have carried over to Quilt Health.

* Co-Founding the Harvard Medical School Center for Primary Care.

* Starting Firefly Health to address the inefficiencies of primary care with a virtual-first care model.

* What led him down the path of starting Quilt Health and their plans for disrupting the industry.

* His Minimum Viable Team philosophy and advice around hiring.

* What excites him about the potential AI use cases in the healthcare industry.

* And so much more.