$38M Raised to Bring Capitalism into Healthcare

In this episode of the Miami Tech Pod, Maria sits down with Elan Adler, founder of OneImaging, a fast-growing Miami startup on a mission to bring transparency, choice, and cost efficiency to one of the most opaque parts of healthcare: medical imaging.

Elan breaks down how the current system works (and why most people don’t realize they can choose where to get imaging done), how employers—not insurance companies—often bear the real cost, and why introducing marketplace dynamics could dramatically reduce healthcare spending.

They also cover:

•  Why 35% of people delay or skip care due to cost 
•  How faster access to imaging can directly impact health outcomes 
•  The surprising way insurance works (and who actually pays) 
•  OneImaging’s rapid growth to millions of covered lives 
•  Lessons from raising $31M in 6 weeks and why fundraising is just sales 
•  Why Miami is becoming a serious hub for healthcare innovation 

If you’ve ever wondered why healthcare feels so confusing—or how startups are reshaping it—this episode is for you.

Transcript

Welcome Elan

Maria 0:08

Welcome, Elan, to the Miami Tech Pod.

Elan 0:10

Thank you. Thanks for having me.

Maria 0:12

I think congrats are in order. Did you just get married?

Elan 0:15

I did, yeah.

Maria 0:16

I think I emailed you while you were on your honeymoon.

Elan 0:18

Yeah.

Maria 0:18

Uh where were you in your honeymoon?

Elan 0:20

Uh Thailand.

Maria 0:21

Oh, amazing. What part of Thailand?

Elan 0:23

Um, all over. Flew into Bangkok, went up to like the mountainous areas in like Chiang Mai, and then like the island. We did, yeah. It was super cool. Um we went like ATVing and like alongside elephants and stuff. It was super cool. And then um went to like the islands in the south of the country, uh, like Krabi and uh Kosamui.

Maria 0:44

Yep.

Elan 0:44

Um, which is where they shot um White Lotus.

Maria 0:48

Oh.

Elan 0:48

Also the beach, though, too. That was amazing. Um and it was like as stunning as it would look in in movies, it was like pretty surreal. So if you can like bear the flight, yeah.

Maria 0:58

It's worth it.

Elan 0:59

Yeah, yeah, definitely.

Maria 1:00

Okay, it's not overhyped.

Elan 1:01

It's really cool.

Bringing Market Choice To Imaging

Maria 1:02

Well, I'm excited to chat. You are the founder of One Imaging, and I believe you've said your mission is to bring capitalism into healthcare.

Elan 1:10

Yes.

Maria 1:11

Can you tell us what you mean by that?

Elan 1:13

Yeah, I mean, the best way to do that is to just give a pretty easy example. Uh, you go to the doctor, and uh I'll make it applicable for what we do. You need to get imaging done. Um uh you are having some pain, you're trying to figure out what's going on. Uh, your doctor just like writes an order and you have no real perception uh where you can go, how much it costs. So with any marketplace or with capitalism, you have choice. Um, and quality, uh quality and price and value are a big driver in that. And so for me and One Imaging, it's about introducing choice to people and letting them decide for themselves because radiology is uh heavily, heavily commoditized. I mean, there's still some nuance to that, but it's pretty commoditized. So do you care uh where you get your prescription drugs from? Like you just go to Walgreens or CBS or and there's a ton of options.

Maria 2:13

Yeah.

Elan 2:13

And it doesn't really make a difference. And the same thing with or you uh capitalism at um working, you can order it online from mail order or something of that nature. Um, and the same thing with labs, you can get it done really anywhere you want, uh, but it goes to like a quest or lab core or something usually, and you could choose wherever you, whatever location is convenient, or you could try to go somewhere else, uh, but you know you can, but it doesn't feel that way with a lot of healthcare. So our goal is to let people know that they can go where they want to go, um, have ownership over their images and data. 97% of healthcare data is actually imaging data. Oh, okay. And over 70% of clinical decisions depend on imaging. And it's the second most used service. So the goal is for a service that's purchased and used that much, just make it uh make it so that people can have choice and and dictate what what have what creates value.

Maria 3:09

Okay, so as it works now, usually you'll get a prescription from your doctor and they'll it'll be a specific location that you're meant to go to.

Elan 3:17

The the interesting thing is like a lot of times when you think about um a pr it is a prescription, but it will be called a referral. Oh would you call a prescription for prescription drugs a referral?

Maria 3:29

No.

Elan 3:29

So they've been almost it's so embedded at this point and entrenched that the two terms have become synonymous, but it's a prescription for radiology. And you could take a prescription to get filled wherever you want it to get filled, right?

Maria 3:41

Yeah.

Elan 3:42

So it's the same, it's the same thing. But people don't realize that. So yes, your doctor writes you a prescription for radiology services at, you know, which is radiation, sometimes not, but uh they usually send it to the same place that they're employed by, the hospital, wherever it may be. Um, and you could go to a different hospital if you want, or you could go to an outpatient imaging center if you want. And our uh belief is that you should be able to go where you want.

Maria 4:09

And is it now they just do that because of just sufficient? Like they just think, you know, might as well do it right here, or is the financial incentive obviously?

Elan 4:17

No, there's of course financial incentives. Those services are going to be very expensive. And so uh they want to make sure that that service is performed inside the same place that their employee, the physician, works.

Quality Screens Plus Speed And Cost

Maria 4:31

Yeah, makes sense. So as if someone is trying to, they're using one imaging, they're trying to decide where to get their imaging done, what are the things that they should be considering other than just proximity to their home? Is there anything are there ratings like this is a nice experience?

Elan 4:48

Yeah, uh well, one imaging like levels the playing field from the quality perspective. We don't work with providers that are low quality. And if we start to see continuous um below average uh survey satisfaction scores on providers, we remove them from our platform. Um and um, or like at the very least, warn them to start and then remove them. Um but that's so that's leveled out, and that's what starts to make it commoditized, especially when we say, okay, the equipment is above par. It's accredited by the American College of Radiology, and they have we've done our checks and we see that they have board-certified radiologists that are subspecialized or whatever the case is, and they have accredited technologists who are doing the scan. Uh, once you have all that stuff and it's a level playing field, then it's about value. How soon can you get in for an appointment? What's the cost? What's the proximity to your work or your home? I mean, what else, what else could you want? I mean, if you if your doctor thinks you might have cancer, and this happened to some people in my own family, um, and they're like, yeah, we're booked up. We can't get you in for six weeks. You shouldn't just wait six weeks. You should look for all the other places that can get you in that same week because that's the amount of time it takes from something to spread from one part of your body to another or go from stage one to stage three.

Maria 6:10

I I believe I heard you say in another interview that the sooner you get it, the sooner someone's able to get an appointment, the more likely that they are going to proceed with the imaging. Is that correct? Do people just like put it off otherwise?

Elan 6:23

Yeah, I I do we, I mean, I think that's with any service, you can see like a a correlation between how soon they go and and and get the exam and and actually how soon it's booked and and the follow-up to completion. Uh it's kind of like if you're to uh what's what's the word I'm looking for?

Maria 6:42

Instant gratification.

Elan 6:43

No, no, if you like put something off to like if you procrastinate, a lot of the times you'll procrastinate and you might just drop it off and say I have other priorities and things I need to do right now. It wasn't that serious. Yeah. And then you just don't do it.

Maria 6:56

Yeah. Especially with I'm sure something as like scary as that. You might just even subconsciously like not want to use any excuse to try to like not find out things, maybe.

Elan 7:07

Exactly.

Who Really Pays For Imaging

Maria 7:08

So is this why hasn't this type of marketplace existed before? Is now there is there something specific that now allows this to occur?

Elan 7:18

Um, I think there's a lot of market market dynamics. So right now, corporations that offer insurance plans, they take the risk on. So they're actually paying the cost of care. Um and you they like hire your like the insurance plan that you see on your insurance card, they actually hire those insurance plans to provide essentially a marketplace of providers and handle all the financial transactions. That's what they do. But they're um when your core when a corporation gets larger, uh, they don't actually pay for the risk. So the reality is your employer is actually the one behind the payments. Okay. A lot of people don't know that. And so that starts to get really interesting.

Maria 7:57

I mean, that's a huge insurance company isn't paying for this imaging. Your employer is directly paying for it.

Elan 8:01

Your your employer pays your insurance comp the insurance company, which is often called a third-party administrator, to provide a network of providers that your employees can go to for medical care and handle the financial transactions. And when the financial transactions are settled, based on whatever the plan of your insurance is, co-pays, co-insurance deductibles, the remaining balances that are owed by the insurance plan is not actually the insurance carrier, like a Blue Cross Blue Shield or United Healthcare. It's actually your employer. They on the hook. They pay that. So I had no idea. I know a lot of people don't know. I didn't know that when I started this. And so there's it's a big deal. If medical, if you look at all these charts right now, every chart that you see of like the largest expenses in healthcare, healthcare or not in healthcare, in all services, healthcare services in the United States is the highest by far. It's also like, you know, it's our largest sector of our GDP and it's the highest by far. So the medical expenses that exist have gotten so high disproportionately to what people can afford that the people who are on the hook, the patient and the employer who are paying for that, they're trying to figure out a way to lower their costs for both the their employee and themselves. So if you have a $1,000 exam and it's a $20, $200 copay because you've hit your deductible, the $800 actually gets subsidized by your employer. A lot of people don't know that. That's a ton of money. Could you imagine?

Maria 9:30

Yeah.

Elan 9:30

So corporations, it's their second largest line item after salaries and payroll and all that is healthcare benefits.

Maria 9:36

And is is the kind of part of the pitch to the employer because you're you're selling one imaging to the insurance providers or the other thing?

Elan 9:44

We offer it to um corporations that typically have more than um 2,000 employees who are in this uh self, it's called self-insured employer. We also do sell it now to um independent insurance companies. We also sell it to large insurance companies too. And even in the case when they're taking on the risk, the insurance companies and um and providing that that risk management for employers and their and their members, they actually also are dealing with the same thing where the medical expenses are higher than the premium. The premium is really just, if you think about insurance, it's just subscription as a service, B2B SaaS. They're offering a marketplace, they're dealing with the financial transactions, and they're basically making the bet based on data and um based on data and population health that the subscription fees that they take in are slightly just high enough that they're higher than the total medical expenses that you'll receive. So isn't that kind of interesting to think about it that way? No one realizes that insurance companies to some degree, although large financial institutions, are some version of B2B SaaS. Yeah.

Maria 10:49

The original. That's a great way of looking at it. Yeah.

Elan 10:51

And so, you know, also for them, and again, it's so interesting because a lot of, you know, a lot of people don't understand that in many cases, not all, there's nuance, but in many cases, it's an unpopular opinion that I'm gonna say this. But it's a opinion that I have that in many cases, the insurance company's incentive and the your employer's incentive and the patient or benefit members' incentive actually all align really well for a lower cost of healthcare. And so you have all of these people and they look at one imaging, this second largest line item in or second most use service, um, third or fourth highest expense category in healthcare. And if we can lower the cost of it a lot, especially for something that's critical at the point of the continuation of the rest of their healthcare journey, you know, what happens? You if if your knee is in really bad condition, how do you know if you should get physical therapy or surgery if you can't look inside your knee? People really underestimate how significant of an invention seeing inside your body is and the power that unlocks. And no one really cares about it until they need it, unfortunately, but the power that unlocks is pretty substantial. And the unit economics behind our business align really well with everybody. Except except for providers that are charging way too much money.

Maria 12:09

Okay, that's what I was wondering. Like who who loses here? And it's the people overcharging.

Elan 12:13

But that's correct.

Savings Model And Access Effects

Maria 12:14

Can you speak to kind of the revenue model?

Elan 12:16

Yeah, we have a really great uh model um where we can look at your radiology spending. And if we will say, hey, we can reduce your spending from, you know, 10 million to 4 million or something. I'm just using arbitrary numbers here. And so that $6 million in savings will take a piece of your savings. Um it's dollars found, uh, dollars lost now found. Alternatively, we'll charge a subscription fee. And um we'll you know, say, hey, this is gonna create a three to one ROI for you if you put this in. Um and that it's very much similar.

Maria 12:53

And the real savings is you're kind of ideally helping redirect some of these folks to cheaper places to get it done.

Elan 13:02

Um I would say less expensive, yes. Um redirection is up to the the individual. So we don't tell people where they can and cannot go. What we do, however, do is we enforce that people know what their options are. They can then choose where they want to go. They can choose if they want to go to the same place their doctor originally wrote the order to. Um, that's completely up to them. I'm not, we're not here to tell people where they cannot can and cannot go. We're here to give them information. Um, imagine if you needed a prescription to get a Uber, to get to get transportation. And you could choose, do you want to use taxis? Do you want to use Uber? Do you want to use Lyft? Think about one imaging that way.

Maria 13:43

Yeah.

Elan 13:44

If you needed a prescription to get transportation, instead of that uh prescription only going to, I guess you could say the taxi system, we're saying that prescription is going to go to Uber and you can order whatever type of car you want, even. It's a good way to think about it, I suppose.

Maria 14:01

Yeah, that's a really good way.

Elan 14:03

I think I I try to put um the complexity of healthcare into understandable terms. Or Airbnb, let's say you needed a prescription uh and it was you could only go to a hotel versus, hey, now I can go to a hotel, or I can go to any of these different types of homes and I can choose how much I want to pay or how close it is to where I want to be. That's the value, right? And that's what we're doing. That's why I say that we're introducing free market capitalism into healthcare or and specifically into radiology.

Maria 14:30

And is part of the pitch like the second order effects of like if we help them get an appointment sooner, we can potentially get them diagnosed sooner. Ideally, it's before anything progresses.

Elan 14:41

There's a lot of really amazing second order uh effects. That is the first and foremost. Um the numbers are obviously crazy. Like people who have a healthcare background that are listening like will know like 35% of people will delay or forego imaging or healthcare due to cost. So that's even the first barrier. It's access. And people don't realize cost is a big part of access. Medical debt is, I think, the largest source of debt or whatever of bankruptcies in the country. It's like 75% of bankruptcies. So when I talk about the most expensive service that exists today, the most expensive services in the US, it is literally healthcare. And so the second-order effects are by making it less expensive, people who wouldn't get imaging before are now getting imaging. So when you think about people in traditional industries, especially, um think about the person who's bagging your groceries or whatever it might be, uh, or the person, whatever, you know, that might be making less money than they could be or would want to be making, and they're in a tough spot. This gives them a way of being healthy and knowing because they wouldn't have been able to afford the exam without it. So a lot of it is that. But yes, you can be healthier, and then there's a lot of things you can you can do when 97% of healthcare data is imaging data, being able to create predictive outcomes. I mean, you could just get your images and you could plug them into Chat GPT or XAI or Grok or sorry, Grok or Claude, whatever one you you want to use, uh pick pick your model for the day. And you can get a whole bunch of extra stuff from that too. And people are doing that. And that's what we're trying to give people more access to.

Maria 16:23

Yeah, I'm I'm a kind of a freak when it comes to this kind of thing. I love tracking. I love now this movement where we are getting more control of our data. I'm also one of the ones who like opted and paid for a full body MRI just electively to make sure everything looked good.

Elan 16:39

Yeah.

Maria 16:40

Uh how are you feeling about kind of that movement of more folks kind of taking control of their healthcare, doing these like elective uh imaging, like the Ezra's and the Pernovos?

Elan 16:49

Aaron Powell Yeah, I'm a huge believer in that. I helped write the first whole body imaging protocols for Ezra when I was working at Siemens. Um and um I mean I try to get them done whenever I can as well. Uh they're just super expensive.

Maria 17:03

Aaron Powell Well, I know one of the concerns they say is like, oh, you something might come out that would never amount to anything, and you might then like drive yourself insane. How do you feel about that?

Elan 17:13

I mean it's whatever people want to do. I'm I'm just about maximum freedom.

Maria 17:18

Yes.

Elan 17:18

I so like if you're gonna go do that, you're a person who wants to know. Um I I don't believe in like uh telling people like people know that. Like they know the like there's this like disclaimers are obvious. Like they're it's clear that they there can be incidental findings and things of that nature that can cause unnecessary biopsies, we can c which can cause issues, whatever it might be. Uh as someone who has a lot of cancer in their family, like I opt for it. I think everyone uh I think people are smart enough to like all the LLMs are free. You can pop it open and make the assessment for yourself. My biggest uh issue is just it's super expensive. And I can't afford to, I can't afford personally to get it done often. And I think a lot of people can't. I think if we could get a if it was affordable, um, like I'm sure you even you, you're like probably like, well, this is really expensive. Like, I don't want to do this often.

Maria 18:14

Yeah.

Elan 18:14

Um, and it's also like a huge time commitment. It that's the biggest barrier. So how do you say to the rest of like everybody else, there's another way to do it? If you have previous images, do you even need to do that? Uh, think about this for an example. Let's say your shoulder is bothering you.

Maria 18:31

It is actually. Oh gosh.

Elan 18:33

And you go get a shoulder MRI. That will address not only your shoulder conditions, what you might be experiencing, but when you get an MRI of your shoulder, you're getting like dozens, if not more, of what you call slices, pictures um through multiple planes or views of your shoulder. And you can see um ligaments and tendons and the characterization of that. And that has a lot of leading health indicators. You can see your blood vessels and your cardiovascular system. You can see an artery going through here. You have a huge artery in your shoulder. You can see you also have a, you know, a ton of lymph nodes in your shoulder on in your axillary area under your armpit. And so you can see a ton more than just you can you get a lot of bang for your buck.

Maria 19:15

Is that right? Yeah.

Elan 19:15

So when you get a shoulder MRI, the the prescription will be a prescription that tells the radiologist to read for the suspected diagnosis that they think you might have. So if your shoulder condition is like a potential, like potentially a torn uh labral, like labral tear, labral tear, labrum, that's what the radiologist will read for. There might be like an incidental finding in that too. But what's not being done is actually combing through all the other data in there. Um, your muscle characterization, your bone density, your your the vessels, you know, blood vessels, your uh lymphatic system. So imagine the MR, let's say you had that MRI done last year that already exists. So if you go to get a whole body scan, do you need to do it if someone could take that previous image and upgrade it for you, if you will?

Maria 20:05

Oh, good point. And and and on the topic of like how costly they are, yeah, I got it done like about a year and a half ago, and I'm like, okay, how often do I need to do it where like it it is pricey? So like how long should I go between scans in order to make it? But I I feel like I've read a lot about I don't know if it was Switzerland or Sweden or someone who is doing this in a lot more like cost-effective way. Have you read any of that?

Elan 20:28

I think I was like, should I fly to Sweden? You might be referring to like uh Nico scans?

Maria 20:33

Maybe.

Elan 20:34

From I think the s founder of Spotify created something. Okay. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. Um I didn't I don't know much about what they're doing. Uh, but yes, you can get whole body scans outside the country for a lot less money. I have heard of people flying to like South Korea to get whole body scans for like 300 bucks.

Maria 20:54

Oh wow. My friends want to go for like skincare. I'll be like, now while you're at it, we should get a full body scan.

Elan 20:59

Yeah, or you know, people do medical tourism all the time. Um nothing on here is medical advice, by the way.

Maria 21:05

I was gonna say that.

Elan 21:07

Um but you lose the val like you lose it on the flight costs.

Building One Imaging From Experience

Maria 21:12

Yeah, yeah. Well, if you happen to be going for another reason. But uh you alluded to your time at Siemens. Can you kind of talk a little bit about what led you to starting one imaging? What was your background in?

Elan 21:22

Yeah. I have an academic background in radiologic sciences and MRI physics, um, originally from Cleveland, went to the Ohio State University, um, moved down here, managing outpatient radiology centers for the Cleveland Clinic down here. I always wanted to move to South Florida though.

Maria 21:37

Oh, good.

Elan 21:38

Um I don't like the cold. Um, or taxes, or you're in the right place. Or yeah. That was a joke. But um after doing that, I left to work at Siemens and I lived, I traveled all over the U.S. working with tons of different providers. I worked with a ton of different outpatient providers, health systems, and I think that the I saw how experiences different or differ between hospital-based settings and outpatient settings, wait times, cost differences, quality differences, different things like that. Um, outpatient centers, for instance, because they're a standalone building, usually, it's really easy to replace the equipment compared to knocking down like 10 walls in a hospital. You just can knock out one wall and it's usually meant to be torn down. So you can replace equipment and put in newer equipment faster, different things like that, or their business models are more aligned with patients where they're optimizing uh a lot for efficiency and speed because they have outcomes of having to drive profitability. And people think that's a that that's a bad thing. And I actually think that there's a reason, a ton of reasons why I disagree. I mean, anytime you're creating value for people, value like it's not always that people are cutting corners. There's just ways where you can introduce technology or better scheduling systems, different things like that, that allow you to have the same quality uh and do it more efficiently and have higher throughput, which is able to allow you to lower your costs. So people think that just because a private equity firm owns something that they're going to lose quality. And there's a lot of instances where it's the reverse, where it's the opposite. It's just like a bad publicity, it's just bad PR, honestly. Um, and oftentimes it aligns better with the customer and like the value it's creating. So I saw these different models and different things going on, and I always wanted to start my own business. Um, so I I mean I quit my job after um after like taking over an awesome role after a year and a half, I quit it and basically said I want to start, you know, a company that brings you know more access to care based on my own experiences, makes it less expensive. It really just comes from like something simple, which is like if we were to ask anyone here today who's listening, um, do you know how much it costs for an MRI? Do you know how much it costs for a CT, an ultrasound, a mammogram, an x-ray? Do you know what the prices are of different places, what your out-of-pocket cost is going to be? Can you get an appointment quickly? Um, I mean, like basic questions that any service provider should be able to give you. And there is not a no one ever says, yeah, I have a good experience today with that whole system. So I was like, well, there's clearly an opportunity to fix that and make it way better.

Maria 24:22

And so do you handle the bookings?

Elan 24:23

Yeah, we do.

Maria 24:24

So do you is this like eventually, if not already, going to be like a resi? Like, hey, somebody canceled today. Do you want to get it?

Elan 24:31

I mean, as a B to as a B2B to C marketplace, to some degree it is a resi.

Maria 24:34

Yeah.

Elan 24:34

Yeah, 100%. I mean, the only difference is like it's as if Resi was offered by your employer or insurance plan. If it's offered by your employer or insurance plan, it is Resi for imaging to a degree.

Maria 24:45

Yeah. Oh, that's awesome.

Elan 24:46

I mean, there's obviously like nuance and other things we help with, but like uh the only the like the thing with Resi is you don't need to um the prices on menus are available.

Maria 24:55

That's true.

Elan 24:56

So you know, like, okay, I want to get, you know, I want to go to this top-tier, you know, new place that just opened up in Miami. It's one thing versus, you know, going to not that you would need it, but like going to McDonald's, right? I mean, different, different analogy here, but yeah.

Maria 25:12

And so you started the company when?

Elan 25:15

Uh like the start of 2023.

Maria 25:17

Okay. Yeah. So in the last three years, if I'm not mistaken, you 50xed the company's growth and you now service over two million people?

Elan 25:26

That's correct. We'll have two million this year. Aaron Powell, Jr.

Maria 25:28

How did you grow so fast? What's the secret?

Elan 25:30

Uh I mean, I'd say relentless, uh a lot of like relentless effort. Um talking to like ruthlessly, just you know, having no ego, talking to everyone and talking to anyone about anything and understanding where like the value is. But there's like the market dynamic of it just being the most expensive thing that exists and people wanting to lower the cost of it. It's just a problem. It's a just a solution to a problem that is really prevalent and exists that people, corporations, and people have that they don't want to have. I mean, I wish there was like a better answer or more to it, but that's really the case. It's a solution for a problem that people have, and we were just relentless about putting it in front of as many people as possible.

Maria 26:18

I actually like hardcore hustle.

Elan 26:20

Yeah, my chief commercial officer like honestly like hates me and we because like I don't think like we really don't even have marketing still. It's literally just all ruthless B2B selling.

Maria 26:30

Well, that's incredible. I think that's probably what helped you uh in October close what was it, $31 million Series A?

Elan 26:37

Yeah, that's correct.

Fundraising With A Sales Mindset

Maria 26:37

And you had some pretty notable investors involved. Uh so total fund funding to date, $38 million, correct? Um can you tell I and did I hear that it only took six weeks to close this round? Yeah. I mean, that's a dream for founders. Can you talk to the fundraising experience?

Elan 26:55

Um it's a sales process. So I have a sales background, so I guess that probably helps with commercialization. Um, but if I think the biggest mistake I made early on with raising money is not treating uh raising capital similarly to having a a sales mindset. You have an asset and you're selling an asset. You're selling equity of that asset like because people believe it has value. And if you treat it that way, the outcomes are gonna be a little bit different. And no one should feel entitled to funding. I think that's a big thing too. I think people get really passionate and say, like, I have the best idea. I should, I should have this. Like, people should give me money. Like, you're people are parting ways with millions, tens of millions, hundreds of millions, and obviously in many cases, billions of dollars. Like, no one's entitled to funding. The second I change, like I was probably one of those people. And I think it's a mindset of understanding that you're not entitled to it and that you have to really be buttoned up and understand your business, understand the financials of your business, what like the risks are, the upside and like the value of your asset, and also just understanding who you're talking to, the types of funds you're talking to, why you want to talk to them, and trading it in like a very detail-oriented, thoughtful process, not just going out and saying, like, I have this amazing idea and I want your you to give me money, like that's just not gonna work. Um, I can tell you from first hand experience. So when I shifted and really like was able to speak to my business, and I mean it helps that we're growing fast, obviously. But when you're able to really speak to your business and understand it and align well with the investors you're bringing on philosophically as well as financially, that's a huge thing too. Then things will go well.

Maria 28:41

And so it was led by Vi Capital, right? Yeah. Did you already have a sorry, BY, do you already have a relationship with them?

Elan 28:48

Um no, they knew one of our the investors on our cap table, but they had found us, uh, reached out to the investor they knew and um kind of went from there.

Maria 28:59

And so also on the cap table, I know Dylan Field from Figma, John Oranger from Shutterstock. How did you get these big names on there?

Elan 29:07

Relationships from people on the cap table.

Maria 29:09

Yeah.

Elan 29:09

Yeah.

Maria 29:10

Any okay, any advice for folks who are actively fundraising right now? Other than treating it as a sales process and not feeling entitled?

Elan 29:18

I would say um, I mean, you gotta focus on your core competency and make make sure everything's like buttoned up. Um your business is also a story. You know, Steve Jobs was really good at that, uh being a narrator, uh, being a narrator of of of the business. And like the mission and vision behind the business is super important. So they take like a storytelling class or I mean, I don't know about a storytelling class, but you have to spend some time. I think it takes a lot of practice and repetition. Uh, I think that fundraising is also a natural feedback loop too, because an investor could also be a buyer of your product. Like it could be a venture arm of a corporation who's an employer, as an example. Um, that's not the case today for me personally, but it's a feedback loop too. And you need to create that feed feedback loop and understand what resonates with buyers, customers. You know, for me, there's multiple stakeholders, patients, employers, payers, providers. And you have to really know that. And if you can get to the bottom of that and really uh understand it deeply, then I think that's the best thing that you can narrate your story a lot better.

Maria 30:32

Yeah. Okay. And how when did you move to Miami?

Elan 30:36

I actually originally moved to Miami when I worked for the Cleveland Clinic in 2017. And then I left and moved to New York City and uh then Denver, and then had a choice to decide where I was gonna start one imaging. And I opted to come here. And uh it helps that I have family and you know parents that live here, but I opted to come here and I moved back in 2022.

Maria 30:59

Okay. Well what was the second contender?

Elan 31:02

New York City.

Maria 31:03

Okay. We know you like the warmth, so I'm sure that helped. But what has it been like building here the last few years?

Elan 31:10

I mean, you're we're coming off the heels of a lot of crazy news with like Palantir, Mark Zuckerberg, like the Google founders. It feels super exciting. Um, I really believe that this would happen. I believed it would happen since I wanted to move to South Florida the first time as a kid. Um you have a big city that's on the beach, that's really business friendly, that's warm, that doesn't really exist anywhere in the United States. Um, it's very dense. So even if you compare it to like an LA, it's not as dense as LA. It's really hard to drive from one place, one part of town to another, versus like, I just walked here from the office as an example, and it took me 12 minutes. That density, I think, is really important when you're building too. The furthest south people live is Coconut Grove, which is like a 20-minute drive. So I think the density is really important. Um, and so the momentum here is just crazy. Uh, you have a lot of like awesome people, the community is really starting to form. Uh, I feel like every other day I have someone from our cap table or someone who's uh from the venture capital industry asking me about moving here, or they just moved here. I've met with um that happened twice this week alone, for instance. So there's just crazy momentum, and it just feels like every other city feels super jealous and is like Miami's never going to be the next San Francisco. It's never gonna be the next New York City. It's very much clearly the Dubai or Singapore of the Western Hemisphere. I do not even think that there's there's a new, there's like 50 skyscrapers going on. I think the skyline already passed up Chicago for the second largest skyline after New York City. Um, people are just haters, to be honest. And it's like super lame. Um, I saw someone tweet about this. I think it was Michael Morgan's turn who said, like, being anti-Miami is like being anti-American dynamism. Like, this is the really strong, you know, business-friendly place where a lot of capital is moving. Why would you not just get behind the wave rather than fight it? This is this is where it's all coming now. And I'm hiring people in Miami specifically now. And even from two or three years ago, there's a huge shift where like there's great talent. And that is not what a lot of people think. There's good engineering talent, there's great product people. I'm finding great folks here. And then I have like a lot of people who want to move here who work at One Imaging. We're gonna be opening up an office here next year. And a lot of people at who work at my company now have asked and have opted or been asking a ton of questions. We're having our offsite here next week. Um, so I have the whole company coming in town. Uh, people want to be here. So it feels like just a crazy momentum swing, and I love it. And I'm here for it because this was a long bet since I was a kid, honestly.

Maria 34:00

Yeah, you you're playing the long game. I love that. Um, so I'm glad you brought up hiring because that was gonna be one of my questions. What roles are you hiring for in case anyone listening is interested in joining the team?

Elan 34:11

Uh it's not just one thing. It's operators who have uh you know experience in you know operations, um product engineering, contract management, customer success. It's like everything. Uh we're just we're going really fast.

Maria 34:29

And is there for folks who may have feel like they're struggling to find talent, are any secret tips that you could give? Like how have you do you just put up a job description or have folk do you have a more hands-on approach?

Elan 34:44

I'm pretty active here with um hosting like dinners for with other healthcare founders. Um and although I'm not technical, uh that's opened me up to the world of operators because uh I think founders aren't as close with engineers. They're closer to like product folks and operators. So I've been able to like get introduced to a lot of product folks, um, a lot of operators, um, a lot of senior talent. And then from like an engineering perspective, like that I just don't have a good pulse on because I'm not as close to it. But um we've accidentally hired a lot of people in the South Florida area from like Fort Lauderdale down, some people in Boca, even, which I'm sure like not a big deal for them to come to the office, not a big deal for like you're you're still getting them in South Florida. Uh, you know what I actually do think though? I think that if you're hiring, especially in the 28 to 44 range, I think that other founders need to be super cognizant that you should not just take people to your office in Wynwood or your or whatever the case may be from that perspective. Like take them to the suburbs. Like they they may be, you put yourself in their shoes. They might be wanting to have a family soon or have a family. Take them uh to Pembroke, Pines, Derrail, uh, Kendall, Pinecrest, Aventura. Uh Miami Shores is super close and beautiful and affordable. Uh, take them to those areas and make it real for them. Don't just take them to Edgewater, Winwood, Brickle. It's not super easy for someone to raise a family in the Manhattan of Miami. That's a huge piece of advice. Make it feel real for them. Pembroke Pines, even is like what, 30 minutes into Winwood? That's not bad at all. Most people, if you're in New York City coming from Long Island, are driving 45 minutes, an hour, sorry, an hour and a half.

Maria 36:37

Yeah.

Elan 36:38

Um and people are delaying having families because they can't do that. Yeah. And they'll want to move to Miami because they don't want to drive an hour and a half. Driving 30 minutes is very normal and very feasible. So that's also a piece of advice I have. That's an easy way to bring people here who want to be here anyways.

Maria 37:00

Yeah. Good advice. Okay. Last question. What are you working on personally as a founder to get better at?

Elan 37:09

I think for me it's a continuous um assessment of like my leadership styles and and notice how I use styles plural.

Maria 37:21

And because it differs in the it differs.

Elan 37:26

It differs by company stage.

Maria 37:28

Ah, okay, okay.

Elan 37:29

And one thing that I really try to do is just be like really like hungry to learn more. I didn't when other founders will tell another founder, like, hey, your series A stage is also hard, really hard. It might even be harder, just in a different way. It's different being told that than feeling it. And so I'm really, I really try to be cognizant and be very adaptable. And also, the more you grow, your leadership style has to change too when you have more people. So, how do you manage your time? Time management's probably my biggest thing. Right now, when I leave this, I'm gonna be on my AirPods on a call on the way back to the office. I literally work from 8 a.m. right now to oftentimes 11, 11:30 with dinners and other things like that included. I oftentimes don't have time for lunch. I barely have time to go to the bathroom. And so I'm being like completely serious. And so time management is probably the biggest thing and knowing how to prior be like a ruthless prioritizer of things and looking for the biggest areas and maximum leverage or looking for the biggest bottlenecks and constraints. That's like I think especially one big thing. Leadership style change has has to shift to being way more accountable to people being more accountable in the series A versus like more, you know, like let's send it. You're more like, hey, like metrics are more important and you have to like be a lot more serious and be more hardcore, I think. Uh, cause you just have less time and there's more stakes on the line. Um so I think it's a lot of things. And it's just like being cognizant of all that and continue uh trying to continue to always get better, be more mature, surround yourself with uh people who have been there and done that, listen to what they say, be ready for the moment that there's application to apply what they're saying and react with with that advice you've been given. It's it's a lot of stuff. I can't, I could probably rant. It's just it's yeah, adapta adaptation though is like my biggest focus and continuing to like evolve and change as a person and as a leader and as a prioritizer.

Maria 39:36

But that's a great point about how yeah, how it can change throughout your growth journey. So thank you.

Elan 39:44

Yeah, of course.

Maria 39:44

Uh thank you for coming on the pod and for building in Miami.

Elan 39:48

Of course. I'm happy to. Thank you.