What is your mindset everyday regarding business/ success? >> As an entrepreneur it's really easy to try to plug holes in a company. I need an email marketing person, or I need an UI/UX expert. But after 15 years of running startups, I've realized it's better to bring in the leader from the beginning. A good Chief Marketing Officer will have their own network (both of contractors and employees), and can make a lot better decisions about their craft. I'm a generalist and have to remember to bring in experts to supplement my abilities. What are your daily habits that make you successful? >> I think it's really important to have both a deliberate and emergent strategy simultaneously. And what I mean by that is that employees need an overall company goal to anchor to. For PathologyWatch the overarching goal is 'get AI cancer diagnostics into as many locations as possible.' But, especially for a startup, that path can take many different forms. Do we grow faster integrating with an EMR, or hiring an additional salesperson? In the beginning you don't know exactly the sequence to get there, and you need to stay opportunistic as potential advances materialize. Yet, not so much so that you drift from the overarching deliberate strategy. So, the day to day for me looks like being the right mix of discovering emergent strategy, while staying in the bounds of the company mission. Favorite sports team ?Hobbies when you were a kid ? >> I played a lot of legos and soccer. My position was center mid-field, which is one of those positions where you have to keep the ball moving to the right people all the time! It feels a lot like running a startup. When you were a kid what did you want to be? >> An orthopedist. I ended up in medicine, just in a pretty different way. What are your thoughts on money & investing? >> I think everyone runs to the stock market, but I make about 20 angel investments a year. It's more rewarding, both personally and financially. I worry a lot about inflation right now. While the government purports that it's only 3% annually, a quick look around the grocery store shows that prices have gone up a lot more than that recently! Investors need to look at assets that can beat these rates, and you can find that in a lot of small but fast growth companies. What’s the best advice you have been given? >> My fifth grade teacher looked at my art project and said 'Dan, you're good at a lot of things, but maybe art doesn't have to be one of them.' And that is really true... focus on what you're good at, it's what the world needs to move forward. How do you go about goal setting ? >> I'm a systemic thinker, and so I will set a large goal and then think about a myriad of different paths to get there. So, I don't make micro goals, because those can change daily. Shoot for a really high target, and if you get into the ballpark, you're good enough! How do you deal with criticism and how do you overcome obstacles? >> Especially in raising this $5M round of funding for the company, you get a few 'nos' for every yes on a funding decision. And that is hard to hear when I've been working on this for several years without salary. and it has become such a passionate project. In my heart, I know this saves lives and will do very well, and so it can be frustrating when someone doesn't see the company the way that you do. But, with dating, sales, and venture capital, the nos don't matter in the long run. It only takes one or two great yes's and you're set. I try to keep that perspective. Message from CEO
>> Pathologywatch is poised to solve two major societal problems: 1) Reduction of healthcare costs that just keep going up and 2) Increasing diagnostic accuracy for people all over the world. These are two really important missions!