On the Underdog Physician podcast, serial entrepreneur and investor David Norris—co-founder and CEO of Affinion Health (AI-powered inbox and workflow automation) and an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year winner—shares his entrepreneurial journey, emphasizing passion, perseverance, and team alignment over perfect planning or chasing money. He describes early lessons from building fraud-prevention checkout keypad systems, argues “engineered luck” comes from raising opportunity through great teams, and discusses the emotional realities of exits, including a near-IPO lost to a market crash. Norris explains Affinion’s AI agent triages EHR inbox work (labs, prescription renewals, and upcoming patient messaging), cutting inbox volume 40–50% and freeing about five hours weekly, while avoiding regulatory risk by following provider-defined protocols rather than making clinical decisions. He covers fundraising (a $5M round), competitive strategy (embedding into EHRs, low pricing), investor red flags, mentorship value, intense time-boxed work habits, and a legacy goal of improving patient care by better equipping providers.

On the Underdog Physician podcast, host Anish interviews Dr. Rashika Bansal about her path from India to U.S. training in internal medicine and an NIH endocrinology fellowship that shaped her focus on obesity and metabolism, followed by work at Cleveland Clinic and a move back to the Northeast. She explains why she launched HALT Clinic to deliver more streamlined, closely monitored weight management and metabolic care amid growth of telehealth weight-loss companies, compounded drugs, and social-media misinformation. Dr. Bansal discusses the value of ABOM certification, HALT’s protocols including body composition tracking, CGM-guided nutrition personalization, and lab monitoring, and potential expansion into longevity, stress management, yoga, and peptides. She shares startup lessons on bureaucracy, marketing, delegation, team-building, bootstrapping, and balancing business ethics with medicine, plus work-life integration, exercise habits, supplements, and a legacy goal of improving women’s health and empowering female physician entrepreneurs.

00:00 Welcome and Guest Intro

01:02 Origin Story and Training

02:50 Mentors and Finding Endocrinology

05:30 Exploring Career Options

07:46 Why Start Halt Clinic

10:11 ABOM and Obesity Expertise

12:10 Halt Protocols and KPIs

14:57 Startup Lessons and Team

17:45 Co-Founder and Early Mistakes

21:12 Scaling Without Losing Quality

22:48 Bootstrapping and Knowing Numbers

25:09 Work Life Integration and Wellness

29:35 Advice Legacy and Closing

On the Underdog Physician podcast, hospitalist and host interviews Dr. Minal Shah, medical director of virtual care at CommonSpirit Health’s Mountain region and an informaticist on the CommonSpirit national team. Shah shares how early exposure to medicine led her to Baylor College of Medicine for residency and chief residency, why she chose hospital medicine for its acuity, variety, and shift flexibility, and how a 2021 Stanford AI in Healthcare conference sparked her transition into digital health. She discusses ways to build informatics skills, the importance of physician involvement in tool development, and how AI such as ambient scribes can reduce EHR burden while raising concerns about over-reliance. She outlines virtual hospitalist care models, emphasizes change management and clinician adoption challenges, highlights mentorship, recommends Designing Your Life, and describes her work on large-scale EHR implementation and an ideal interoperable, insight-driven EHR.

00:00 Meet Dr Minal Shah

00:54 Early Path to Medicine

02:38 Why Hospital Medicine

03:57 AI Conference Turning Point

04:53 Building Informatics Skills

07:38 AI and Patient Connection

11:31 Virtual Care Leadership

13:53 What Clinical Informatics Is

18:04 Virtual Hospitalist Models

20:53 Lessons Across Health Systems

23:00 Mentors and Career Design

29:14 Weekly Workflow and Travel

30:24 Legacy and Ideal EHR

33:23 Closing Thanks

On the Underdog Physician Podcast, Anish interviews Julio G. Martinez-Clark, CEO of BioAccess, about his path from electrical engineering in Colombia and an MBA in Boston to building a contract research organization focused on medtech first-in-human and early-phase OUS trials. He explains how his brother Pedro’s work revealed major U.S. barriers—IRB delays, FDA uncertainty, investigator access, patient recruitment, and high costs—driving startups overseas, and how BioAccess professionalized trials in Latin America, growing to ~40 employees and expanding to Australia, Eastern Europe, and biopharma. Julio shares how the pandemic forced remote proctoring with OR cameras and iPads, enabling 33 procedures and Zoom-based consent. He discusses why independent hospitals and patient access dynamics speed trials in Latin America, early regulatory confusion in Colombia that led BioAccess to push legal changes, team-building lessons, bootstrapping vs fundraising, launching and rebranding his podcast to Global Trial Accelerators, and his legacy goal of maximizing human impact, including updating Colombia’s clinical research law.

00:00 Welcome and Guest Intro

00:41 Julio’s Origin Story

02:59 BioAccess Is Born

05:02 Scaling Across Regions

05:43 Pandemic Trial Reinvention

08:42 Why LatAm Moves Faster

12:12 Regulatory Roadblocks

14:26 Building a Winning Team

17:13 Bootstrapping and Funding

19:14 Launching the Podcast

22:37 LinkedIn as Growth Engine

25:17 Life, Travel, Balance

27:29 Legacy and Law Reform

29:53 Closing Thanks

In this episode, we interview Dolores Hirschmann, a fractional CMO, TEDx organizer, and founder of Masters in Clarity, about her unconventional path from Buenos Aires to building and scaling businesses in the U.S. She recounts early ventures, directing an early online learning platform for a nonprofit, launching a clothing company with low-income women in Argentina, and running an afterschool language program partnered with Rosetta Stone. Dolores shares lessons from rapid growth while working with Grant Cardone’s 10X community, emphasizing sustainable scaling, strong teams, SOPs, and executing consistent marketing rather than chasing trends. She explains Masters in Clarity’s approach to building marketing systems, back-office processes, and signature talks to drive leads and conversions, and defines clarity as prioritizing and taking action to reveal next steps. She discusses TEDx events, finding mentors, strategic partnerships for funding, her four-day workweek, and her legacy goal of helping small businesses grow and become transferable or sellable.

00:00 Welcome and Guest Intro

00:53 Dolores Origin Story

01:36 Early Digital Marketing

02:12 First Online Learning

03:35 Manifesting the Future

05:26 First Ventures and Lessons

08:27 Scaling with Grant Cardone

10:25 Masters in Clarity Explained

12:33 What Clarity Means

15:16 Fractional CMO Framework

16:39 Building a Loyal Team

17:55 Underrated Growth Levers

18:48 Funding and Partnerships

20:25 Inside TEDx Organizing

21:58 Setbacks and Reinvention

23:46 Mentors and Top Events

25:28 Work Life Balance

26:28 Advice Legacy and Wrap

In this Underdog Physician podcast episode, PharmD and healthcare executive Dr. Tarul Kode shares her career path from an accelerated pharmacy doctorate at the University of the Pacific to over 20 years in managed care and PBMs, including 15 years at MedImpact in clinical executive and account leadership roles. After completing a Harvard global healthcare leadership program, she pivoted into startups as chief of staff to a virtual primary care CEO, then navigated layoffs when the company failed to raise a Series A amid personal challenges. She built a consulting practice and expanded advisory work with Techstars and Remedy. Tarul describes her venture capital education, joining Loud Collective as a venture partner raising a $175M healthcare fund with partners including Persephoni Bio, while discussing funding fit, scalable growth, responsible AI, inclusion barriers, mentorship, parenting, and a service-driven legacy.

00:00 Welcome and Guest Intro

01:02 Origin Story and Pharmacy Path

02:20 Managed Care and PBM Career

03:49 Leadership Coaching and Harvard

04:58 Leap Into Startups

05:51 Startup Culture Fit

06:56 Advising Clinicians in Startups

08:24 Setbacks and Resilience

09:36 Consulting and Advisory Launchpad

10:57 Calibrate Lessons and Integrity

11:47 Entering Venture Capital

12:34 Loud Collective Thesis

13:45 Board Work and Co-Founder Role

14:59 How VCs Evaluate Startups

17:22 Funding Fit and Diligence

18:22 AI and Responsible Scaling

19:14 Barriers as Woman of Color

22:51 2025 BLOC BLOC100 Most Impactful Women of Color and Allies in biopharma, healthcare, and life sciences.

24:29 Mentorship and Executive Presence

27:37 Mindset for Uncertainty

30:01 Work Life Balance as Single Parent

31:31 Legacy and Closing

On the Underdog Physician Podcast, Clint Harris describes moving from 16 years in cardiac device medical sales—implanting pacemakers and defibrillators with heavy call, travel, and burnout—to building a real estate career focused on time, location, and financial independence. After starting with single-family and small multifamily, he scaled beach short-term rentals to 14 units, then realized the model still left him “on call,” leading him to build a property management company and pivot to passive strategies. He explains how syndication lets busy professionals contribute capital while operators provide time and experience, and details Nomad Capital’s approach of converting vacant big-box retail (e.g., a Kmart bought for $1.5M with $2.5M rehab, later appraising at $9M) into climate-controlled self-storage across the Southeast, now totaling $150M AUM with goals of $500M in five years and $1B in ten. Clint outlines why he prefers storage (sticky tenants, month-to-month pricing, fewer operational headaches), the long lease-up timeline risk, industry consolidation, the importance of location and feasibility studies, team-building principles, and his personal focus on family time and building a legacy centered on character and purpose rather than money.

00:00 Welcome and Guest Intro

00:55 From Pre Med to Cardiac Sales

01:57 Why Real Estate Became Plan B

03:18 Airbnb Success and Burnout

05:17 Buying Back Time with Partners

06:16 First Kmart Storage Conversion

06:50 Syndication Explained for Docs

08:27 Leaving Medical Sales for Nomad

10:59 Why Self Storage Wins for Him

14:53 Value Add Model and Tax Benefits

16:23 Demand Drivers and Customer Trends

18:15 Risks and Economic Headwinds

19:46 Where Storage Is Heading Next

20:50 Long Term Investing Mindset

23:17 Building the Right Team

25:54 Raising Capital and Track Record

28:19 Setbacks and Key Lessons Learned

30:15 Day to Day Schedule and Family

33:04 Legacy and Closing Thoughts

On the Underdog Physician Podcast, host Anish interviews Dr. Chiagozie Fawole, a Johns Hopkins–trained pediatric anesthesiologist, real estate investor, and founder of Savvy Docs, about building wealth outside medicine through real estate and business acquisitions. Born and raised in Nigeria, she moved to the U.S. at 16, studied at Howard, attended Johns Hopkins for medical school, initially pursued neurosurgery but did not match, and chose anesthesia for a better lifestyle. She shares her first entrepreneurial experience—a long-distance house flip during residency that lost $10,000 due largely to not staging—then explains moving into multifamily syndication, BRRRR duplexes in Syracuse, and a 2021 pivot to short-term rentals. She discusses shifting focus to acquiring “boring” cash-flowing businesses using SBA financing, her acquisition buy box (≥$1M revenue, ≥10 employees, 5–10+ years old, strong leadership bench), and using AI to improve operations, plus how family support, delegation, and automation help her manage time.

00:00 Meet Dr. Chiagozie Fawole

00:51 From Nigeria to Hopkins

01:32 Finding Anesthesia

02:42 Lifestyle by Design

03:52 First Real Estate Flip

06:12 Losing 10K Lessons

07:35 Scaling to Multifamily

08:37 Syndication Mindset

10:51 BRRRR to Short Term

11:34 Why Real Estate Focus

13:31 Pivot to Acquisitions

15:58 Buy Box Criteria

18:26 AI and Future Proofing

19:58 Team and Automation

22:04 Savvy Docs Mission

23:42 Work Life Counterbalance

25:54 Books and Mindset

26:13 Wealthier Doctors Better Care

26:57 Closing Thoughts

On the Underdog Physician podcast, Dr. Amna Shabbir— board-certified internal medicine and geriatrics physician, speaker, coach, and host of Success Reimagined—shares how pandemic stress, added family responsibilities, and severe postpartum depression led her to reframe her career, pursue a geriatrics fellowship as a healing reset, and step away from core academia to part-time post-acute/long-term care. She distinguishes moral injury from burnout as cumulative distress. She discusses perfectionism versus healthy striving, emphasizing intrinsic motivation, learning to fail, and risk tolerance for entrepreneurship. Amna describes the Early Career Physician Institute’s coaching, advocacy, and organizational cohorts focused on boundaries, communication, confidence, negotiation, and retention, and notes AI is a tool whose impact depends on intent and physician empowerment. She is also writing a book on perfectionism and emphasizes seasonality over “balance,” rest, non-negotiables, and rejecting narratives that people are broken.

00:00 Meet Dr. Amna Shabbir

00:46 Burnout After Residency

02:17 Geriatrics And Reframing

03:37 Coaching Roots And Support

05:41 Moral Injury Explained

07:09 Perfectionism And Failure

10:30 Early Career Institute Mission

13:43 Coaching Formats And Results

16:44 Identity Beyond The White Coat

20:44 AI And Physician Empowerment

22:41 Writing A Book On Perfectionism

23:58 Ditching Balance For Seasons

26:36 Legacy And How To Connect

27:55 Final Thanks And Resources

On the Underdog Physician Podcast, ER physician, chief medical officer, and FI Cap Fund general partner Dr. Vipul Kella shares how watching “ER” and rotating in inner-city Detroit drew him to emergency medicine, and how frustration with being downstream of innovation, corporatization, and loss of autonomy pushed him toward startups and venture capital. He explains that clinical experience—not an MBA—is the primary differentiator for physicians in VC and advises entrepreneurs to start before conditions are perfect, think beyond patient care to all stakeholders, and build networks with a non-transactional mindset. Vipul describes a GP’s work as mainly fundraising, sourcing and diligence on early-stage health tech deals, and building a clinician-driven LP network to accelerate adoption. He discusses AI opportunities in admin workflows, clinical decision support, wearables, digital biomarkers, and precision medicine, outlines startup evaluation and timing for VC funding, warns about equity-only advisory roles, and shares time-management and health priorities.

00:00 Welcome and Guest Intro

00:25 Origin Story to ER

01:26 Why Pivot to VC

02:59 MBA and Real Value

06:16 Startup Lessons Learned

07:31 Networking and Reciprocity

10:52 Life as a VC Partner

13:03 Physician LP Model

14:51 AI and Future Healthcare

17:21 Longevity Hype Reality

19:02 How VCs Evaluate Startups

22:07 When to Raise VC

24:41 Mentors and Career Paths

27:23 Advisory Equity Risks

30:24 Time Management Balance

32:19 Mission and Closing