Ethan Bechtel

@chrissyfarr not sure it's the "thorny" you're looking for - but fully re-architecting a software and big-bang migrating 1,000 physician practices in an 18 hour overnight Zoom call is about as thorny as it gets

Are there any operators out there willing to talk in depth, and not in bland generalities, about how they got a really thorny thing done in health-tech? If so, I’d love to talk to you!

@chrissyfarr @SavageLucia @_DiMeSociety For sure. Today it’s primarily about the telephone not scaling well for practices as phone volume has almost doubled since 2020. Patients hate calling and there aren’t enough staff to answer/return calls.

@SavageLucia @_DiMeSociety Yep it’s why it’s only a thing with D2C subscription models

SMS-based care should be a first line of defense. Here’s a reason why: Often the treatment is no treatment. But going to a clinic, patients feel they should walk out with something (a script). SMS care allows us to feel we got checked in on, without needing that something extra.

@SavageLucia @chrissyfarr I’ve seen great data from our customers around the combination of pure SMS and encrypted chat links delivered over SMS for more sensitive messages with proper patient consent

@chrissyfarr People have this wild misconception that doctors and patients cannot sms. They can, but the doctor has to have the patient sign up and tell the patient the sms is less secure than portal messages. And like all sms "stop" has to, you know, stop the sms string. 1/2

@chrissyfarr love to see SMS-first offerings like @joinsummer and @poppyseedhealth The team at @OhMDapp enables this functionality for dozens of tech-first care companies and thousands of brick-and-mortar practices

@chrissyfarr It doesn’t check all the boxes but our office in Vermont (HulaLakeside.com) has a gym, restaurant, massage, sauna, cold plunge, surf club and coffee bar. It’s fantastic.

Ok hot take... Somone buys unused commercial office space. Brings in all health & wellness vendors - gyms, salons, dermatology, etc., some restaurants AND a drop in daycare. This would be a mega hit. x.com/ellenjdasilva/…

@chrissyfarr Great take. This is important for founders to be aware of. For every 20 VCs pitched, there is <1 sector-focused fund that understands the space well enough to bet on a bunch of great companies that will likely never be unicorns.

A lot of people have been thinking about the future of VC in health-tech. So I wrote the post that I know a lot of people are thinking, but most won't say out loud. 👇👇👇 ovsecondopinion.substack.com/p/resetting-ex…

@SteveLohr With literally $1 TRILLION of annual healthcare costs being spent on administrative tasks, there's SO much opportunity for GenAI to create efficiencies outside of clinical diagnoses (and associated hallucinations). Exciting times! Great article.

Generative artificial intelligence is coming to health care, but likely in measured steps. At first, more tireless scribe than genius partner. nytimes.com/2023/06/26/tec…

@chrissyfarr OpenAI BAA requires that you talk to a sales person - which seems impossible at this point

Which of the LLM companies are signing BAAs?

@robgo Seems like it

is Zoom down?

@chrissyfarr @MSchlueterMoore Even Silicon Valley on HBO was anxiety inducing for me in our early days.

If @MSchlueterMoore and I started a podcast called "The Struggle" where we only featured founders talking about the hardest & lowest points in their companies' trajectories & how they got through it, would anyone listen? And who would be on it?

@dnathe4th I’m here for this

Superpumped Episode 1: low on accuracy if you're looking for the true story of Uber, but as far as fictionalization story arcs go I'm enjoying it

@ceonyc @fredwilson

@hunterwalk And the fit was so snug in cargo pockets.

@sarahbuhr It was a startup pitch competition and then bam - psychic

@ethanbechtel I want to be in that clubhouse

Clubhouse is really taking off but it has a moderator problem. Unlike talk radio (which I used to work in), there’s no one screening the callers before they chat with the host on any given topic. Not fixing this will lead to huge issues.

@jennydoforno @chrissyfarr So lonely! And COVID has only exacerbated that feeling. I’m looking forward to hashing it all out together with my founder friends over a beer again someday soon.

@ethanbechtel @chrissyfarr It's not just hard, it's also lonely. So glad you found a group of other founders who you can share with and find support from. Community is so important to our mental health!

A smart founder once told me “there are easier ways to make money.” We need to be honest about how hard it is to build a company and the high toll entrepreneurship can have on a founders mental health. Thank you for sharing this heartbreaking, but important story @mattroberts

@jennydoforno @chrissyfarr It isn’t easy to talk about the entrepreneurial struggle and the mental toll it can take. But when you find a group of founders you can be candid and vulnerable with, there’s nothing more powerful.

And after we are done being honest about the psychological price of entrepreneurship - we need to get to the work of being there and supporting the amazing founders we work with every day! To any #founders reading this, my DM’s are open. #BellLetsTalk #mentalhealth

@megan_janas @chasedave Well that’s depressing! I would feel a little better about if we delivered better outcomes but...

In my inbox today: What Millennials will pay into the American Healthcare system over their lifetimes by @chasedave $1.9 to $2.5 Million That's your retirement savings. A House College & Higher Education Investment Having Kids It's not because you bought avocado toast.

@TechCrunch @sarahbuhr I love that asynchronous communication is getting the attention it deserves.

8 VCs agree: behavioral support and remote visits make digital health a strong bet for 2021 tcrn.ch/396ptm0 by @sarahbuhr

@maryamataheri The 6-foot spacing at the grocery store checkout line puts me squarely in front of the Ben and Jerry’s freezer for minutes. I’ve tried them all.