First Builders
The First Builders Podcast from The Council dives into the stories of those who go first—founders, funders, and early operators who helped build category-defining companies before they were household names. Hosted by General Partner Amber Illig and Partner Rachel Tsui, each episode brings a candid, practical conversation with someone who has helped shape companies before there was a playbook.
First Builders
Go Slow to Go Fast: Eliana Berger on Building Joyful Health
What does it really take to build in healthcare from the ground up?
In this episode of First Builders, Amber Illig and Rachel Tsui sit down with Eliana Berger, co-founder and CEO of Joyful Health—a financial operating system for independent healthcare providers. Eliana has been a “first” more than most: first PM on Attentitve’s conversational messaging team, first PM at Charlie Health, founding PM at Moonbeam, and co-founder of Envision Accelerator, the first equity free accelerator for underrepresented founders.
In this episode, Eliana shares more about:
– Embedding herself inside practices as a fractional CFO
– Become biller-certified to understand the messy realities of revenue cycle management (RCM)
– How to build trust with clinicians in the era of AI skepticism
– How community building, workshops, and radical transparency became Joyful Health’s GTM edge
– Why going slow to go fast has been her core principle as a founder
It’s a conversation about tackling the messy problems in healthcare, diving in deep to understand the root problems, and creating a company that lasts.
Follow Eliana Berger
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elianaberger/
Joyful Health: https://www.joyfulhealth.io/
Careers at Joyful Health: https://www.joyfulhealth.io/careers#section-careers
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