AJonStartups

About AJonStartups

Conversations with innovative early-stage founders.

Publisher

AJonStartups

Category

business

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

5 Nov 2024

Latest episode

11 Jun 2025

Latest episodes

16 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   11 Jun 2025

   Denise Bronner, PhD, CEO of Empactful Ventures: Clinical Trial Best Practices and The Importance of Patient Representation

   Denise Bronner, PhD, CEO of Empactful Ventures, shares clinical trial best practices and emphasizes the importance of diverse patient representation to improve trial design and outcomes in this interview.

2. 

   4 Jun 2025

   Kwame Ulmer, Managing Partner at MedTech Impact Partners: Perspectives on The FDA and The Importance of Regulatory Experts and Strategy

   Kwame Ulmer, Managing Partner at MedTech Impact Partners, discusses the FDA's current state, recent changes, and impact on medical device companies, offering insights for founders navigating regulatory uncertainty in this interview.

3. 

   28 May 2025

   Matthew West, Founder and CEO of Boom AI: An AI-powered Mental Health App for College Students

   Matthew West, Founder and CEO of Boom AI, shares his personal struggles with anxiety and how it inspired him to create an AI-powered mental health app for college students, offering tools for mood tracking and community support in this interview.

4. 

   21 May 2025

   Chelcie Taylor, Investor at Notable Capital: Investing in AI and Vertical Voice Agents

   Investor Chelcie Taylor at Notable Capital discusses investing in AI and vertical voice agents, highlighting the rapid growth of AI companies and their evolving capital strategies in this interview.

5. 

   14 May 2025

   Eldrick Millares, Co-Founder and CEO of Illuminant Surgical: The First Real-time Anatomical Projection System for Spine Surgery and Interventional Access

   Illuminant Surgical (YC S22) is building the world’s first real-time anatomical projection system for spine surgery and interventional access-displaying imaging directly onto the patient to give surgeons a view of what’s beneath the skin. It uses artificial intelligence, computer vision, and dynamic projection mapping to make image-guided procedures seamless and accessible for all care settings and specialties. Led by Co-Founder and CEO Eldrick Millares, the company is safely and swiftly developing the system to improve patient outcomes in spinal fusion procedures, its initial beachhead indication. Spinal fusion has a relatively elevated revision rate, meaning patients often require additional surgeries due to misplacement or other consequences of imprecision. By projecting real-time imaging, instrument tracking, and anatomical mapping directly onto the patient with sub-two millimeter accuracy, surgeons gain enhanced visibility during procedures, improving precision and reducing the likelihood of revision surgeries. Eldrick was incredibly gracious in providing us with an in-person demo after our conversation at their office in Culver City, and I was absolutely blown away by their transformational technology. 00:00:00 - Eldrick's Background 17:18:11 - Founding Illuminant Surgical 27:25:14 - The World's First Anatomical Projection System 37:27:17 - Potential Applications Beyond Spine Surgery 42:42:27 - Near-Term Roadmap 46:03:21 - Conclusion

6. 

   30 Apr 2025

   Ariel Ganz, GP at Arben Ventures: Early-stage Investing, Precision Medicine, & The Future of Health

   Arben Ventures is one of the most active pre-seed investors in deep tech health. Led by General Partner Ariel Ganz, the firm has invested in 63 startups over the last 14 months. In this conversation, Ariel and I discuss the following topics: 00:00:06 Ariel's Journey 00:09:25 Arben Ventures 00:20:37 Insights from Starting a Venture Fund 00:23:54 Personalized and Precision Medicine 00:28:12 AI, and Patient Empowerment 00:43:37 Conclusion

7. 

   23 Apr 2025

   Collin Wallace, Partner at Lobby Capital: Perishable Knowledge & The Implications of AI

   For the first time in human history, the brain’s monopoly on intelligence is being challenged, with LLMs emerging as a disruptive force and quickly gaining computational share. Intelligence is a function of acquisition and application. It’s the ability to acquire knowledge (input data) and to apply it to produce a particular result (output data). LLMs, trained on input data from a meaningful set of humanity’s collective knowledge, provoke the idea that our intelligence is computational, and expected outputs reinforce our emotional resonance with intelligence. As many types of human intelligence are rapidly depreciating in value, Collin Wallace believes there are particular types of knowledge that are inversely appreciating in value. These areas of knowledge can be categorically referred to as Perishable Knowledge, undocumented and empirical insights based on real-world connections, experiences, and observations. If AI accelerates society towards a world in which the role of human intelligence is eliminated or reduced severely, then the ability to acquire, apply, and protect Perishable Knowledge will be the essential skill of the future to create and sustain value for individuals and families. 00:00:00 - Attention 00:05:18 - Building in the 2010’s v. Today 00:14:24 - Collin’s Background 00:16:43 - Diversity 00:20:17 - Services-as-a-Software 00:29:42 - Static & Perishable Knowledge 00:36:17 - Societal Implications of AI 01:19:10 - Malleable Software & Comparative Advantage 01:36:20- Utopian Perspective on AI-enabled Prosperity 01:42:10 - Conclusion

8. 

   4 Feb 2025

   Alexander Cooper, Founder and CEO of Relief Cardiovascular: Reimagining Heart Failure Treatment

   More than 6 million Americans have had their life expectancy reduced by 10 years due to congestive heart failure. For many of these patients, heart failure management is incredibly burdensome and minimally effective, and, in some cases, surgical treatments are necessary to extend their life and to make modest gains in quality of life. While at Edwards Life Sciences and CardiAQ, Alexander Cooper spent his time leading development teams to aiming to treat heart failure in the valves. During his tenure, he and his teams contributed to the development of the world’s first transcatheter mitral valve replacement system and the world’s first transcatheter tricuspid valve replacement system. After a few years of traveling domestically and internationally to help clinicians implant devices in patients, Alex observed that many of these patients were returning to the hospital with significant congestion (fluid buildup) and difficulty breathing, indicating additional causes of congestion beyond the heart valves. Emotionally rocked by this revelation, Alex began intense research and he discovered medical literature that pointed to pressure in the renal veins as significant factor in the fluid buildup. Armed with this insight, Alex founded Relief Cardiovascular in 2022 with a mission to reimagine the way we treat congestive heart failure. Relief Cardiovascular’s smart transcatheter implant is designed to modulate and to monitor renal vein pressure, providing a new approach to heart failure fluid management. Recently, I visited Alex and his team at their offices in Orange County, and 30 mins prior to our conversation, he successfully closed their $12M Series A round co-led by Broadview Ventures and Advent Life Sciences! It’s my honor and privilege to share my conversation with Alexander Cooper, Founder and CEO of Relief Cardiovascular. During our full conversation, Alex and I discussed: 00:00:00 - Alex’s Background 00:09:08 - Heart Failure and Fluid Buildup 00:12:22 - The Gap in Current Solutions 00:19:35 - Relief Cardiovascular’s Smart Transcatheter Implant 00:24:56 - Why Cardiologists Are Excited About Relief Cardiovascular 00:27:10 - Data and Artificial Intelligence 00:31:55 - Relief Cardiovascular’s Team 00:36:48 - Near-Term Roadmap 00:38:07 - Alex’s Vision for Relief Cardiovascular 00:41:40 - Conclusion

9. 

   28 Jan 2025

   Michael J. Gardner, MD, Founder and CEO of National Scoliosis Clinic: Eliminating Pain for Scoliosis Patients

   At least once per year, I remember coming to school and learning we would spend the morning in the auditorium going through tests for scoliosis. The nurses never found a curve in my spine, but I have always associated both of this condition with adolescence because of this experience. However, I was surprised to learn that over 51 million Americans have developed scoliosis as adults, and half of these individuals (26M) experience pain. The typical approaches to treat this pain: physical therapy, injections, chiropractic sessions, and pain medications, provide temporary and minimal relief, and only 6% of patients are candidates for surgery. The remaining 94% of scoliosis patients dealing with pain continue to suffer with their symptoms unresolved. As the Chief of the Orthopedic Trauma Service and Vice Chair of Clinical Operations at Stanford Medicine, Michael J. Gardner, MD became aware of the millions of scoliosis patients dealing with ongoing pain and he decided to find a better way to treat this pain. In 2020, Michael and a colleague founded Nsite Medical (National Scoliosis Clinic) to provide personalized, scoliosis specific physical therapy, digitally. By leveraging a 90 year old niche type of therapy developed in Germany and artificial intelligence, they have been successful eliminating pain for scoliosis patients and improving their overall quality of life. National Scoliosis Clinic is on a mission to make non-surgical scoliosis care accessible to the world. It’s my honor and privilege to share my conversation with Michael J. Gardner, MD, Founder and CEO of Nsite Medical. During our full conversation, Michael and I discussed: 00:00:00 - Michael’s Background 00:02:51 - Michael’s Founder Journey 00:05:10 - The Current State of Scoliosis Care 00:14:10 - Potential Solutions to Improve Treatments 00:17:10 - NSC’s Solution to Treat Scoliosis Pain 00:24:37 - Product Traction, Customer Feedback, and Measuring Impact 00:30:14 - Michael’s Vision for NSC 00:32:41 - Conclusion

10. 

    20 Jan 2025

    Rahul Mahadevan, Founder and CEO of WiTT: Support Registry for Patients with Chronic Disease

    For many Americans, the diagnosis of a chronic and/or fatal disease is an emotionally heavy revelation. It can come suddenly and unexpectedly, or it can provide long awaited clarity to punctuate a period of uncertainty. Even with the enemy identified and a plan to treat and/or manage the threat, many patients will fail in their execution because the challenges of life outside of the clinic will demand their attention and resources. The cost of medication will compete for an allocation of the grocery money, time for treatment will compete with time allocated for childcare, and patients will need to choose between long-term wellness and short-term survival. In 2021, Rahul Mahadevan was working for an oncology company when he was diagnosed with stage 4 prostate cancer. During treatment, he witnessed the challenges that fellow patients experienced and he learned their non-clinical challenges were very different from his own. Many of the patients would miss treatments, fail to purchase medications, and struggle to manage the demands of life outside of the clinic. For Rahul, his needs were much more manageable and simple, but they were also going unfulfilled. The common theme was Fear. Rahul and the other patients were discouraged to ask for help because they feared being a burden on their family and friends, so they sacrificed their immediate needs to preserve the integrity of their relationships. Rahul successfully completed his treatment, but he left the experience knowing something needed to be done to reduce the burden on patients, improve health outcomes, and provide hospitals and health systems with data to better support their patients. With encouragement from his daughter, Rahul decided to found WiTT with the aim to ease the burden of requesting and receiving support for patients with chronic disease and illness. WiTT combines the simplicity of a wedding registry with the personalized needs of the patient, making it easy for patients to Ask and to Receive help. It’s my honor and privilege to share my conversation with Rahul Mahadevan, Founder and CEO of WiTT. During our full conversation, Rahul and I discussed: 00:00:00 - Rahul’s Background 00:03:29 - Rahul’s Founder Story 00:11:14 - The Meaning of WiTT 00:14:28 - WiTT’s Solution 00:24:32 - Patient’s Financial vs. Non-Financial Needs 00:29:00 - Recurring Asks; Platform Features 00:34:31 - Incentives To Give 00:42:13 - Data and Insights for Hospitals and Health Systems 00:48:11 - Value for Stakeholders 00:51:47 - Rahul’s Vision for WiTT 00:55:12 - Conclusion

11. 

    7 Jan 2025

    Ahmed Qureshi, Founder and CEO of Rainfall Health: Expanding Health Access For All

    If you drive two hours outside of any US urban center, and you walk the streets of rural America, the residents of these towns will live a meaningfully shorter life than their urban counterparts. Approximately 67 million Americans (1 in 5) live in rural areas and achieve materially worse health outcomes due to poor access to specialized healthcare services. In many areas, the local hospital has been shut down, which creates a medical desert for residents and forces patients to travel up to 4 hours one-way to receive medical treatment. For those who can receive primary care locally, months-long backlogs dramatically increase the likelihood that a patient ends up in the ER and fails to show up to their scheduled appointment, which increases healthcare costs and produces poor health outcomes for these individuals. Recently, I sat down for a conversation with a Founder who immigrated with his family to the US as a young man, settling in rural Arkansas. His mother, a pulmonary critical care physician, set up a clinic to serve the 9000 person town, and he was able to directly observe the barriers and challenges in rural care. In 2019, he founded a company that leverages technology to improve the health infrastructure in rural America and he has since facilitated care for over 100,000 patients. It’s my privilege to share my conversation with Ahmed Qureshi, Founder and CEO of Rainfall Health. Rainfall Health is on a mission to help bridge the gap in providing access to quality healthcare in medical deserts. Expanding Rural Health Access For All. 00:00:00 - Realizations from Building A Startup 00:03:46 - Ahmed’s Background and Motivation 00:08:27 - The Problems in Rural Healthcare 00:15:49 - How Data Will Increase Patient Outcomes 00:19:11 - Technological Barriers in Rural Health 00:22:48 - Characteristics of the Rural Healthcare Market 00:27:51 - Rainfall Health’s Business Model 00:30:42 - Industry Challenges and Misaligned Incentives 00:34:36 - Rainfall Health’s Traction To-Date 00:37:32 - Near-Term Roadmap 00:40:25 - Rainfall Health’s Core Technology 00:43:53 - Ahmed’s Vision for Rainfall Health 00:46:10 - Conclusion

12. 

    17 Dec 2024

    Tom Stevens, Founder & CEO of Tombot: Realistic Robotic Animals For People With Health Adversities

    Tom Stevens, Founder & CEO of Tombot, shares how his company's realistic robotic animals are transforming the lives of individuals with health adversities, improving their quality of life and reducing care burdens.

13. 

    10 Dec 2024

    Anuj Khandelwal - Co-Founder & CEO, Empo Health: Easy Remote Patient Monitoring for Diabetic Foot Ulcers

    Anuj Khandelwal, Co-Founder and CEO of Empo Health, shares how his company's in-home health monitoring device makes early detection of diabetic foot ulcers as easy as stepping on a scale, preventing amputations and saving lives.

14. 

    19 Nov 2024

    Rachel Kuperman, MD, Founder and CEO of Eysz: Democratizing Diagnosis and Monitoring of Brain Disorders

    I am pleased to share a conversation that I had with Rachel Kuperman, MD,  Founder and CEO of Eysz. Eysz is on a mission to democratize diagnosis and monitoring of brain disorders. During her career as a pediatric neurologist at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital, Rachel experienced the effects of inadequate and scarce diagnostic tools for primary care physicians. Children were referred to Rachel for neurological disorders when the child was likely to be experiencing a psychiatric disorder, causing bottlenecks in delivering care and adding time to waitlists for patients. The most difficult neurological disorder to identify was Childhood Absence Epilepsy (CAE), the most common childhood epilepsy and a condition with which a child can experience non-convulsive seizures a minimum of 30 times per day. The challenge to accurately identify and diagnose this disorder is that non-convulsive seizures look like the child has ADHD because they are staring off into space during the seizure, and 60% of children who are experiencing CAE are experiencing ADHD at the same time. As a result, children experiencing CAE are often mistakenly referred to psychiatry, and children experiencing ADHD are often mistakenly referred to neurology. Based on this experience and her expertise, Rachel founded Eysz to create a digital health tool to allow primary care physicians to quickly identify children experiencing an epileptic disorder, to accurately recommend the appropriate care pathway, and to reduce waitlist times for patients. 00:00:00 - Rachel’s Background 02:03:15 - Physician Shortage and The Potential Causes 04:11:00 - The Traditional Path and Generational Differences 06:28:03 - Rachel Finding Purpose As A Founder 08:16:02 - The Challenges Triaging Neurological and Psychiatric Patients 16:46:09 - The Separation of Neurological and Psychiatric Disorders 19:08:08 - Common Misperceptions About Epilepsy 21:31:04 - Childhood Absence Epilepsy (CAE) 26:21:18 - Current Methods To Diagnose and To Treat  CAE 28:07:12 - Eysz’s Product/Solution 30:02:05 - Rachel’s Approach and Strategy To Improve Screening and Diagnosis of CAE 31:28:20 - Early Traction 33:25:16 - Market Feedback and Current Challenges 36:28:03 - The Impact of Early Diagnosis on The Patient 38:42:15 - The Impact of Social Stigma and Misdiagnosis on The Patient 40:18:20 - Rachel’s Vision For Improved Neurological and Psychiatric Care 45:06:18 - The Relationship Between Hyperventilation and Seizures 46:19:08 - Rachel’s Roadmap 48:08:07 - Conclusion

15. 

    12 Nov 2024

    Kristen Ellefson, Founder and CEO of Nurtur: Empowering Moms To Predict and Prevent Postpartum Depression Before Symptoms Appear

    I am pleased to share a conversation that I had with Kristen Ellefson, Founder and CEO of Nurtur (TechStars ’24). Nurtur is on a mission to empower moms to predict and prevent postpartum depression before symptoms ever appear. After spending several years in the healthcare industry leading sales teams, Kristen enrolled in MIT Sloan’s Executive MBA program. While there, she was devastated to learn her best friend was suffering from postpartum depression. Motivated by the fear of losing her child, Kristen’s friend withheld information from her doctors, family, and friends that could have led to her receiving timely treatment. A fellow classmate at MIT, Bindu Chanagala, experienced postpartum depression while leading engineering teams at Intermountain Healthcare, and together, Kristen and Bindu began research to identify a better way to support women experiencing postpartum depression. According to their research, Kristen and Bindu learned one million new moms will experience postpartum depression every year, with 85% going undiagnosed and untreated. Additionally, they learned the prevalence of postpartum depression has increased by 30% over the last decade. Based on these insights, Kristen and Bindu saw an opportunity for proactive and innovative approaches in maternal mental health. By leveraging AI to predict and prevent postpartum depression, they decided to build a platform enabling healthcare leaders to ensure that mothers receive the necessary support before the struggle begins, leading to healthier outcomes for both mother and child. During our conversation, Kristen and I discussed: 00:00:00 - Welcome 00:24:07 - Kristen’s Founder Story 03:12:04 - What’s Postpartum Depression? 04:25:01- Why Does 85% of Postpartum Depression Experiences Go Undiagnosed? 07:24:06 - Are There Any Differences Between Clinical Depression and Postpartum Depression? 08:33:06 - Opportunity For Predictive Analytics 12:44:16 - Current Screening Methods 19:33:12- Fathers and Postpartum Depression 22:05:02 - Nurtur’s Market Opportunity 24:36:11- Nurtur’s Algorithm and Product Strategy 28:24:11- Are There Concerns About Preemptive Diagnosis? 31:46:18 - Gen Z’s Relationship with AI and Postpartum Depression 34:33:17 - Early Traction 36:01:21- Nurtur’s Product and Collaborative Care Model 40:47:15 - Kristen’s Vision For Nurtur 43:37:21 - Kristen’s Motivation and Her Message To Mothers 46:09:11 - Conclusion

16. 

    5 Nov 2024

    Derek Banyard, MD, MS, MBA: Unlocking A New Universe of Medical Applications by Harnessing The Power of Fat

    Recently, I had a conversation with Derek Banyard, MD, MS, MBA, Founder & CEO of Sayenza Biosciences, who is on a mission to unlock a new universe of medical applications by harnessing the power of body fat to produce stem cell therapeutics for regenerative medicine applications. As a plastic surgeon, Derek observed how inefficiencies in the operating room during plastic surgery procedures contributed to increased costs for surgeons and increased risk of complications for patients. Now, he’s targeting the source of the inefficiency by building a medical device which aims to automate fat processing, reducing processing time from 45 mins to 15 mins. Based on current practices, however, body fat processed during plastic surgery procedures is grossly underutilized and is often discarded post-processing, despite being the largest source of adult stem cells in the body. But Derek saw an opportunity to add an additional function to his device: creating stem cell therapeutics. By creating these stem cell therapeutics, plastic surgeons and physicians will be able to utilize the same body fat, most popularly used for Brazilian Butt Lifts (BBLs) and Breast Augmentations, for regenerative medicine applications in wound healing, hair restoration, skin rejuvenation, and myocardium restoration (heart tissue). 00:00:00 - Derek’s Startup World Cup Experience 00:01:35 - Sayenza Biosciences Team and Near Term Plan 00:04:03 - Why Its So Hard To Sell To Surgeons 00:07:32 - The Genesis of Sayenza Biosciences 00:12:35 - What Are Stem Cells, and How Can Fat Be Used For Regenerative Medicine? 00:19:13 - Current Methods for Fat Processing 00:21:08 - Sayenza Biosciences’s Device 00:27:01 - Common Applications of Stem Cell Therapeutics 00:30:37 - Emerging Medical Specialties Adopting Stem Cell Therapies 00:35:16 - Derek’s Source of Motivation 00:40:26 - Derek’s Founder-Market Fit 00:44:15 - Conclusion

Who has been a guest on AJonStartups

Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.

• Denise Bronner
• Kwame Ulmer
• Matthew West
• Chelcie Taylor
• Tom Stevens

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

YouTube views

821

Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

1 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 26 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

25

Social presence

0

YouTube

66

Engagement

0

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Guest appearances

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