Taking a real shot

Two weeks ago, my good friend Jeff Wandzura and his company TrueVation announced they were accepted into Blueprint Health, one of the leading Digital Health accelerators in the U.S.

I am very happy for Jeff and it could not happen to a more deserving guy.

I first met Jeff about two and a half years ago through The Next 36, an entrepreneurship program we are both alumni of. Although Jeff and I were from different cohorts, we bonded over our healthcare backgrounds and belief that technology was crucial to improving healthcare.

Jeff is from Saskatchewan, so we couldn’t catch up that often. But when he found himself in Toronto, I always had a great time catching up with him. He’s one of the few individuals I know who shares my perspective, having been healthcare provider on one end and technology entrepreneur on the other. We’ve had some valuable discussions that would be hard for me to have with others.

A year and a half ago, Jeff was helping to organize the first ever Hacking Health event in Saskatoon. Hacking Health is an international community that brings together healthcare professionals, designers and programmers at healthcare-focused hackathons around the world. Jeff invited me to speak at the event and share my experience building SeamlessMD. Of course, I was more than happy to.

Over the course of the weekend, I spent some time walking around, observing the teams’ progress and being helpful if I could. One of the teams in particular caught my eye. They were building an application to streamline the doctor-patient encounter by gathering and processing information from the patient ahead of the visit. And they already had a family physician on board to pilot the prototype.

It grabbed my attention because it was very similar to an idea I was working on about a year before starting SeamlessMD. Two medical school friends and I worked on the idea for about 3 months before giving up. We had spoken to physicians, entrepreneurs and healthcare executives. We had a nice PowerPoint deck. But we never got to a prototype or users. We just could not overcome the static friction of truly getting started.

We quit before taking a real shot at the idea.

When I spoke at the event, I brought this story up. I shared how one of their teams already accomplished more with the idea in 3 days than I had in 3 months. I was vocal that persistence and execution mattered much more than the initial idea. In fact, I was living proof of that, albeit from the less preferred side of the story.

Some time after the event, Jeff became a co-founder and together they have built it into a real company. Today, the company is called TrueVation, the flagship product is called PatientPrep, and they are now used by a number of outpatient clinics.

I am incredibly impressed at what Jeff and his team have accomplished. They took are taking a real shot at an idea – and that’s no easy feat.

I am excited for what they will achieve through Blueprint Health in New York, and beyond. My only regret is not being a practicing physician right now, otherwise I would certainly be using their product!

Jeff and his team’s story will always remind me that ideas are everywhere, but persistence and resilience are what makes a successful entrepreneur.

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Comments

  1. Dear Josh,

    It’s really eye opening reading posts that a longitudinal perspective like this one.
    Please give more ‘dirty’ details, personal examples, and anything that could get the reader closer to actually re-living these experiences from either you or from the people you write about.
    I’ll surely share this with my group of friends who will love this.
    Sincerely, JT

    • Hey Jimmy,

      Thanks for the feedback! Will keep that in mind for future posts. Appreciate you sharing! 🙂

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