083: How they Raised $19.9M as a Tech Startup – All the Inside Hacks with Rubicon MD Co-Founders Gil Ado and Carlos Reines
Summary: Gil Ado and Carlos Reines are the co-founders of Rubicon MD, an innovative medical eConsult service that connects primary care doctors to same-day insights from top medical specialists. Their mission is to provide better health care through their online platform that enables primary care doctors to easily and quickly access medical specialists and have online consultations (eConsults) and ultimately provide better direct care to patients. With a fragmented US healthcare system, Gil and Carlos identified a need in the market for access to specialist medical care that didnt require patients to physically be in the same room with their specialist doctor. After a lot of networking and hustle, Rubicon MD was officially birthed in 2013.<br> <br> >> Show notes Link: <a href="https://www.businessgenerals.com/gilandcarlos">https://www.businessgenerals.com/gilandcarlos</a> >><br> <br> Today Rubicon is a strong, growing Venture backed Healthcare startup, which has successfully raised over $19M in funding since 2014. The company is scaling at pace throughout the US now with over 5,000 primary care providers using the platform.<br> <br> The two Harvard Business School graduate co-founders partnered up to launch Rubicon on a mission to facilitate the provision of a higher level of care to patients who may not have access to specialist care due to them not having private healthcare or geographical limitations. The platform allows general practitioner doctors to have direct access to expert specialist help on a case by case basis through e-consult process.<br> <br> Doctor to doctor interaction via the e-consult platform is one of their biggest wins - patients that would have previously been referred to the emergency department for specialist consultation now receive access through the eConsult process through their primary doctors, and as Gil says this is real tangible benefit that clinicians and patients are excited about.<br> <br> The business launch and the first paying customer<br> <br> * In 2013 the business was launched with the first key goal being to prove that there was value in the platform and that patients would be able to access greater healthcare through the platform<br> * They put a basic minimum viable product from a technology platform standpoint, they found a doctor who was willing to trial the platform and it run for a few months with a few hundred eConsults and the feedback was very positive<br> * The founders joined an accelerator program focusing on how to build a business around the idea and how to find the people who could potentially buy into your idea<br> * Talked and networked to as many people in the healthcare eco system - learning, doing the research and also selling the idea at the same time<br> * Discovered that groups that are at risk, ie taking care of primary health care patients will be most interested in this<br> * Pivoted on the fact that there was limited supporting data for the idea so focused on finding the companies that were ready to take some risk in this space as well<br> * Their first paying customer contract was from Boston, Gil and Carlos share with excitement how this client has grown and stayed with Rubicon MD for over 4 years, a testament in their minds to the value RubiconMD brings to the clinician.<br> <br> Cash flow during the start up phase<br> <br> * Carlos was still completing his <a href="https://www.hbs.edu/Pages/default.aspx">Harvard MBA</a> at the beginning but working full time in the business, Gil was also full time in the business but they were scraping by and keeping everything very lean financially<br> * It was a difficult beginning for the business, so they had to run their operations in a very lean way but they were determined to see the vision come to life<br> * The duo managed to live through the first startup phase through their savings,
