A New York Times Profile Helped Sell A Healthcare Illusion

A billion-dollar “solo founder” AI success story sounds inspiring until you look at what was actually scaled. We dig into the Medvi telehealth blowup, the New York Times narrative that amplified it, and the uncomfortable question underneath it all: what happens when AI isn’t just writing marketing copy, but manufacturing medical credibility at scale?

We walk through how a lean telehealth brand can sit on top of outsourced infrastructure for physicians, pharmacies, shipping, and compliance and how that model can either expand access or hide accountability. Then we unpack the specific red flags that surfaced: alleged fake physician personas used in advertising, misleading trust signals that mimic real clinical authority, and the risks of marketing compounded GLP-1 medications in ways that imply FDA approval. We also talk about deepfaked before-and-after images, fabricated outcomes, and why that kind of deception hits harder in healthcare than in almost any other category.

From there, we zoom out to the bigger picture in digital health and AI ethics: what Legitscript certification is supposed to signal, why platforms are pushing AI disclosure rules, and why the “scarcest resource” may soon be the real patient-doctor relationship. We also debate whether a true one-person AI-built billion-dollar company is inevitable and why the future of approved AI doctors could be both powerful and terrifying.

Subscribe for more real talk on AI, telehealth compliance, and building trust the right way and if you found this useful, share it and leave a review. What guardrail do you most want to see for AI in healthcare?

Transcript

Trust As Digital Health Currency

SPEAKER_01 0:00

I do think this Medvi, you know, is really gives the opportunity to for the doctors that are creating their voices out there that want to create that patient trust, right? Because if more if more platforms like this grow, I mean the scarcest resource will be in digital health will be like that real patient doctor, you know, relationship. So I think that just is an even greater opportunity for these physicians to, you know, grow their personal brands and and build trust the right way. Um, you know, with with actual human accountability is going to be at a cute competitive advantage, which is crazy to think about.

SPEAKER_00 0:34

Um we're back, and you're got beautiful sunlight coming through your windows, and I'm getting four or five inches of rain today, so the weather's yeah, we'll take it. The weather's made an appearance again.

The One Person AI Unicorn Claim

SPEAKER_01 0:48

Yep, it's made an appearance again, but we'll go right into it. So uh big news in the AI world, uh first billion dollar company owned by a single person, I think is what graced the headlines for New York Times.

SPEAKER_00 1:03

I saw that, yep. And are you referring to the guy that is as fake as they come, just like all the pictures that he had a little website?

MedV’s Setup And Outsourced Backbone

SPEAKER_01 1:12

Yeah, New York Times is a little bit irresponsible with it, but I'll I'll give a little more background to the listeners so they know. So uh MedV is a telehealth uh startup founded by this gentleman, Matthew Gallagher Gallagher out of Los Angeles. And I, you know, I'm familiar with the telehealth world uh quite a bit. I work in the telehealth world as a vendor in terms of you know most of the medication that they market, they need partners like myself. So I work with people like this all the time. Um but a little bit more background. The company runs with just two full full-time employees, started out as just a single, so but him and his brother, and relies almost entirely on AI tools and outsource infrastructure to operate. And what he told the New York Times is that he used ChatGPT, Claude, Grok, Mid Journey, and Runway to build the company, while Care Validate and Open Loop Loop Health handled the doctors, pharmacies, shipping, and compliance. And the company reportedly did$401 million in revenue in 2025 and is projected$1.8 billion for 2026. And what kind of was kind of crazy was on April 2nd, you know, five days ago, New York Times ran this glowing profile framing Midvi as proof of Sam Altman's prediction that a single entrepreneur could build a billion dollar company within with AI. Um but as we've seen in the last few days, and what I knew about this company is the whole thing just started unraveling completely.

SPEAKER_00 2:40

So what what um what were they doing? They were were they fulfilling scripts or what what what was the complete I just I saw it and I came across and I was reading, I was like, oh boy, this is interesting, and uh I knew you would have the scoop.

The Fraud Unravels In Public

SPEAKER_01 2:56

Yeah. Yeah, so it was a bunch of bunch of issues. And you know, what's the most interesting is Open Loop because they're a big deal in the telehealth world. So I'm wondering how they're kind of backtracking on this because they're a big part of the infrastructure and then the pharmacy relationships. Um, and you know, Open Loop has the doctor network. So I mean the biggest fraud layer that came of it is the fake doc doctor advertising, which is a huge no-no. So review and why this is such a big deal and such a problem is because reviewers searching Meta's ad library found found over 5,000 active ads running under physician personas that appeared completely fake. So Professor Nate, uh, you know, talking names like Professor Albus Dungledore, Richard Horgock, uh, you know. Yeah. One Facebook page advertising MedVee's erectile dysfunction product listed a non-existent address and was categorized as an entertainment website. So it's like very, very interesting stuff. They were also issued an FDA warning letter back in February for misbranding. Found that there that MedVee was marketing falsely suggested the company's semiglutide, and turns up with that had sold, you know, and certain claims implied FDA approval or evaluation, and we you know, we all know compounded um GLP1s, there are is no FDA approval or evaluation, it's only the commercial medication. Um, and that was six weeks before the New York Times ran their puff piece. So I mean I'm wondering, you know, if that writer got fired yet or what.

SPEAKER_00 4:32

Well, or if like the guy's brother or like long-lost cousin or whatever, whoever the writer was. It's so deeper than the New York.

SPEAKER_01 4:42

There's more if you want to wait.

SPEAKER_00 4:43

Oh no, no, go, yeah, please, please. I'd love to hear more.

SPEAKER_01 4:46

There was deep faked before and after photos. So company, you know, obviously featured weight loss photo weight drugs and and photos stolen from around the web with alt AI altered faces, fake names, fabricated health outcomes, and presented them as real customers. Um, you know, other bad claims of like oral terzepitide, which is like no data on it. It's it was really interesting to see that. And um there was a big data breach exposure, um, cyber attack and earlier, you know, not the few months ago. And yeah, so a lot of issues. But yeah, what were you saying?

Fake Doctors And Fake Authority

SPEAKER_00 5:22

I was just saying that it's amazing that the New York Times would print something that was wrong like that. But anyway, I'm I'm being I'm being humorous, right? I'm attempting to be humorous at this point in time. Um but you know, it just goes to show that this is why people are really starting to push back against AI stuff. This this right here. I mean, it's it's you know, all the platforms, their engagement is down. You know, I it's funny, I I just submitted the book to Amazon, and there's a place where you have to check a box saying, was this AI generated? And they're t they're asking because they're like, we're just asking for um for information on this for our trends and research and da da da da. But I don't think that that's what it really is. I think that they're they're really gonna figure out if they gotta they've got a bunch of AI books being submitted once a day, they're going to slow that down. Because people don't people don't like the AI slop or they don't they wanna they don't want to listen, they don't wanna be talked to by someone who's fake. Maybe that will change, I don't know.

FDA Warning And Misbranding Claims

SPEAKER_01 6:34

Yeah, I mean what what MedV did wasn't like just lazy AI slot marketing, it was deliberate engineering of false trust at scale, and that's what I have the biggest problem with, you know, creating thousands of fake physician personas. That's crazy. You know, absurdly fake names, medical credentials, obviously fake, you know, ads positioning these non-existent people as clinical authority behind the product. Um, you know, patient scrolling, Facebook sees this Dr. Amelia Rhodes next to an image of John Hopkins Hospital, um, and think there's a real physician endorsing this. I mean, this is really what happened. So, you know, that's not a shortcut, that's completely ripping it off. I mean, that's you know, one of the most important relationships that we have is our relationship with our physician, right? I mean, it's yeah, I you know, it's it's what holds a compounding pharmacy ecosystem together, and that's why I kind of you know get so angry about it, obviously. And um I don't know. I mean it's it it doesn't help the system and where it's trying to go to make it more convenient and more accessible. It's obviously there's just bad actors that will take advantage of it. Um what to the other thing is which is you know, I won't go too far in the weeds with this, but legit script is a total issue also because they're a certification that's like required for any sort of telehealth, and Medvi is legit script certified, and that certification is supposed to signal to consumers, payment processors, and any advertising platform that the company meets transparency standards and it complies with laws. So when a stamp like that says this is a legitimate operation, but a company like that certifies it and it was running thousands of fabricated physician ident ads, like what is legit script actually certifying? So um I don't know. It's it's clear that Medvi isn't an outlier. I mean, it's really kind of what happens when you remove human accountability from healthcare and replace it with AI generated trust signals, which is why I was so mad about it. I mean, I wrote a really long piece on this. Um I don't know if you saw it, but it was uh it was pretty heated.

SPEAKER_00 8:47

Yeah. Well it's it gives a bad name to the well, bad name to the for them, of course, but then they're you know, they they're just it's amazing. Well well, so what's gonna happen to these guys?

SPEAKER_01 9:04

That's what I'm waiting to hear because it's like I haven't really heard of any kind of like wrist slapping or what's gonna happen.

Deepfakes Data Breach And Trust Collapse

SPEAKER_00 9:13

Interesting. You know, that's I'm sure something is gonna happen. What what did they break any I mean obviously it was fraud, but are there any laws specifically that obviously representation of of medical doctors that didn't exist? I'm sure that that's uh a big no-no.

SPEAKER_01 9:35

Yeah, I mean that would be, you know. That would be the b that's the biggest issue. I'm sure he's dealing with some sort of you know legal accountability on that point of things, but um I guess we'll you know re wait and see. It's only been a few days since the puppy, so Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:53

Well, it's it's if you do any kind of content or you're posting any content on any of these platforms now. YouTube's done it. There's others that are asking, you know, this AI generated, and they're you know, we talked about their demonetizing that stuff, and and now I mean Yes, it's getting better and better. I can still tell it's AI when it comes across, but they're gonna make you declare if it's uh it's it's coming. It's gonna there's gonna be some legislation that makes you do that, so nobody else can say, you know, so that people can not say that oh, I didn't know.

SPEAKER_01 10:28

Yeah, I think one thing that MedV has a has going for them, it it really holds no proprietary technology. I mean, there's no they don't technically have the licensed physician network, even though they faked it. They don't hold the pharmacy infrastructure. I mean, their entire business, just like hims and hers, is a marketing layer on top of contracted infrastructure. So, you know, there'll be repercussions, I'm sure, but I think that's probably why there hasn't been anything immediate yet.

SPEAKER_00 10:55

Do you think there'll be the day that comes that there really will be a single person AI, a company that does a billion dollars because of just one person with AI all around them? I I I'm sure there will be. I mean, I'm not gonna say that there's not gonna be, but I um you know, I've told you all about this. I run these agents and this one that I'm running for lots of different stuff, it works, but I always have to check it. I always have to check its work. I'm gonna make sure that it's right. And maybe this is just we're the early onset of this kind of technology, but I don't know.

Legitscript Certification Under Scrutiny

SPEAKER_01 11:32

Yeah, I mean, I think we're probably close, you know. It's um I don't think it's ironic that it's you know a bad actor kind of is the first one. I mean, it's always cutting corners gets you the fastest, yeah. You know, end of the race or whatever. But um yeah, I mean I think for sure. I think absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 11:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:51

Well I think the scariest part is the AI doc like the future of AI doctors. I think it's game over when those actually get like approved. Um the technology here is here, right? But it's when that happens, it's like, you know, what people are just gonna scale that as much as they can, and before you know it, it's like, what is when that relationship is automated AI, then then what? I mean game over.

SPEAKER_00 12:19

I use my own AI doctor that I've made all the time, you know. I ask it all kinds of questions. Does this medication interfere with this or this supplement interfere with this? And um it's usually correct. But I uh find I think the doctor thing is gotta be I think it's gonna be really tough for somebody to look somebody in the eye and go, you know, I'm gonna talk to this AI person and especially about their health. I mean, I clamored for years and years and years that uh real estate agents would go away. That would be the end of real estate agents because of the internet and all this other stuff. They can s people can search on their own. Well, there's more realtors on every street corner they could shake a stick at, so I was completely wrong about that.

Will Solo AI Billion Dollar Firms Arrive

SPEAKER_01 13:08

Yeah, I mean, you know it you know, this isn't like a five-year problem in terms of you know AI getting to a billion. I think, you know, they obviously did this and you know, got to almost 500 million in one year. You know, the next company that uses better tools, cleaner execution, legal, you know, within the 12 to 18 months, you know, no problem. I really don't see that you know being an issue at all. It's just gonna be like what problem are they what major problem are they solving that scales quickly that they can turn into a business.

SPEAKER_00 13:40

Well, I think I think there is gonna I think the the the world of uh financial information and things like that, that's where it's gonna happen. There's gonna be somebody who figures out a way to utilize AI to scrape info, inform people on how to invest. That'll be the that will be the uh and there'll be one person who does it and with bunches of agents. That's my that's my prediction.

SPEAKER_01 14:10

Yeah, I mean it's just what kind of model of those agents, like you know, it's all who was talking about? Uh was that um Dr. Penhall was talking about, you know, there's those certain types of agents that are kind of like next level that can really run like autonomously. I mean, those are pretty cool when those come out. Um but yeah, like you said, you still have to check your work, you still have to, you know, there's there's different things. You you just can't they can't have them do everything yet.

SPEAKER_00 14:41

Not yet. Um that's for sure. And the one I've the AI agent I've been using, I use it to scan my email to forward things to people, and it it's it's getting it wrong. So will it get it right eventually? Sure, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 14:57

But I do think this Medvi, you know, really gives the opportunity to for the doctors that are creating their voices out there that want to create that patient trust, right? Because if more if more platforms like this grow, I mean the scarcest resource will be in digital health will be like that real patient doctor, you know, relationship. So I think that just is even greater opportunity for these physicians to you know grow their personal brands and and build trust the right way. Yeah. Um you know, with with actual human accountability is gonna be an acute a competitive advantage, which is crazy to think about.

The Fear Of Approved AI Doctors

SPEAKER_00 15:32

Um Yeah, no, you you're right. I mean these people are still gonna yearn, I think, more than ever, one-on-one for sure. And which brings me to Content Crib 7.0. Um October 16th and 17th in Bentonville. The reason I'm saying is if you have been to Content Crib before, you're gonna get a notice to please sign up, and we want to get everybody who has been to Content Crib before and is gonna sign up to please do that in April. Just because we want to get uh the venue nailed down and we want to have, you know, you guys who have come before, you have first invitations that come out the door. So October 16th and 17th back in Bentonville, Arkansas, and you'll be getting a link that if you are a former attendee.

SPEAKER_01 16:27

I'm excited for it. I mean, this one, I mean, I can't believe uh I mean the last one was just insane. Yeah, this one's gonna be even better.

SPEAKER_00 16:35

Yeah, I'm getting lots and lots of messages and emails and uh things like hey, check this out while we're doing those type of emails, which is which is cool, really, really cool. Um there's gonna be a whole new platform that's gonna be released. I won't give up the individuals who are doing it, but it is really cool. It's very, very, uh very new age type of information delivery type system, which is cool.

SPEAKER_01 17:03

Yeah, I mean it'll be October before you know it. So lock down the weekend, make sure you're available, get your ticket, and you know, we'll see you there. It's gonna be it's gonna be it's gonna be insane. I mean, it's where we're headed and that you know, I think we'll have a hundred million dollar room by you know this time next year.

SPEAKER_00 17:22

Oh, I totally agree. And and this one, this one 7.0 is gonna be uh I I it this is gonna be more of a question answer. We're gonna talk about tech, we're gonna talk about productivity. It's gonna be all centered around productivity, what's out there, AI agents, all of the above, software systems, things you want to run your business more efficiently.

SPEAKER_01 17:46

Not illegally.

SPEAKER_00 17:47

Not illegally, you know, no. Don't make up AI pictures of people and proclaim that they're real, that type of stuff.

SPEAKER_01 17:56

We'll count the fingers.

SPEAKER_00 17:57

Yeah. Well, on that note, I think it's another episode in the books.

SPEAKER_01 18:04

All right.