Dr. David Lortscher is a dermatologist turned founder of Curology, one of the first companies to combine telehealth, prescription skincare, and a subscription model into something patients would actually use. He's also the author of a new book making a data backed case that should unsettle every hospital administrator who's ever doubted a physician founder: Why Doctors Win.
In this episode of How I Doctor, Dr. Graham Walker sits down with David to trace his path from a dermatopathology fellowship waiting for him at UCLA to starting Curology, and then a decade later stepping back from the CEO seat. That gave him time to go looking for proof that his own success wasn't a fluke.
What he found is that 51 of the top 100 healthcare companies founded in the last 40 years had a physician founder!
Graham and David get into why the doctor plus engineer pairing keeps showing up in the biggest healthcare success stories, the blind spot that trips up even smart physician founders, and David's blunt rule for anyone gathering advice before making the leap: take the inputs, not the conclusions.
What You'll Learn
- Why physician founded healthcare companies outperform at roughly 3x the rate you'd expect from their overall representation among founders
- The doctor plus engineer combination that shows up in 7 of the 10 companies profiled in Why Doctors Win, and why it works
- How an MD behind your name changes the way you sell into a hospital, from the CMO's office up to the CEO and CFO
- The most common blind spot physician founders hit: falling for the technology itself instead of the harder question of who will actually pay for it
- David's rule for gathering advice from as many people as possible while still keeping the final decision your own
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