The Fund Founder Spotlight Interview: Viral Patel of Radish Health
The Fund is a founder community and early stage fund, by founders for founders.
Welcome to The Founder Spotlight where we highlight the incredible people behind the companies we’ve backed at The Fund. This week the spotlight is on Viral Patel, founder and CEO of Radish Health, a HealthTech bringing quality primary care to the workplace through convenience, technology, and thoughtful patient-physician experiences.
Navigating the United States healthcare system is often complicated, frustrating, and EXPENSIVE. The common question emerges, “Is it in-network?” Researching, calling, waiting, paying - each step of the process more burdensome than the last. Wouldn’t it be nice to have an old school family doctor you could just call and ask, “what do I do?” No more self-diagnosing, freaking yourself out by reading WebMD, or calling a friend of a friend who’s a nurse practitioner (and probably doesn’t even work in the field you need help with). Well there is a modern day solution and it’s in Radish Health. It’s a B2B HealthTech that brings quality primary care to the workplace through convenience and a focus on the doctor-patient relationship. They work with companies to save on healthcare by providing employees with a dedicated team including doctors, therapists, and dietitians to offer all-around care. It saves time and makes a huge difference if your doctor knows you and doesn’t have to wade through your paperwork each time you have a medical visit. Benefits, in particular healthcare, are extremely important when employees are considering who they want to work for and Radish Health can be a way to attract talent!
Radish Health founder and CEO Viral Patel is a physician and spent many years in the Emergency Room (ER). Over time, he witnessed many instances where people would go to the ER for the wrong issues. They could have easily seen a primary care physician or talked to a healthcare professional for 2 minutes and saved many hours sitting in the ER in the middle of the night. He saw how awful the experience was from the patient's perspective, and even worse it costs a lot more money. He’s also the doctor for many of his friends and family, who often call him to help resolve their various health concerns. He started thinking about how he could recreate the relationship his friends and family experience with him, and use technology to make it something scalable. The result is Radish Health connecting employees with a better overall healthcare experience. Pretty Rad(ish)!
Why is Radish Health going to win?
We focus on providing the best care possible by arming our dedicated care teams with tools to be able to perform at a really high level and at the same time, giving accessibility to our patients to be able to see their doctor and/or therapist in a timely manner and in a way that works for them. They can call us, they can text us, they can book an appointment around their schedule, which is why they're more likely to see us than someone else. Our initial driver of care is convenience and accessibility and we deliver sustained value through continued thoughtful patient experiences.
What sets Radish Health apart from other HealthTechs out there?
The biggest thing for us is we really value that doctor-patient relationship and keeping that core relationship intact and building the technology around that. Nearly 90% of people in the U.S. don't have a regular relationship with a trusted physician. There are a lot of competitors out there that are trying to essentially replace the doctor because, well, they can't find doctors. So they make you answer a bunch of questions and give you the answer. That works for a lot of health issues that are really simple, but then they start to run out of the services they can provide. They are really good businesses, whether it’s offering solutions for erectile dysfunction, for hair loss, or for birth control, etc. There's only a few questions you need to ask and it's a massive market, but that is not what gets me up in the morning. For us, we're excited about going after the overall primary care market, as that relationship is the cornerstone of decreasing cost while improving outcomes.
Where do you see Radish Health expanding over the next few years?
Our first goal is to have coverage in all 50 states, because we're a primary care practice. One of our big advantages is that we're fully virtual and able to access this anytime from anywhere. It's helpful for hybrid and remote workforces. Think of a primary care doctor's office down the street, but we're all over the place. And unlike our competitors, we build that relationship. We're able to order lab work. We're able to order imaging, some of it in your own home. And if we can do that nationally, we can start serving companies that have gone fully remote in a way that we provide their benefits in an equivalent way whether you live in Montana or New York.
What makes you a unique founder?
Everyone keeps telling me the same thing, and I’ve bought into it, that I’m one of the few founders in HealthTech who is actually a doctor. I practice medicine, I’m board certified and I can still see patients.
What’s something interesting about you that people may not know?
I was a cheerleader in college.
Any favorite podcasts that you would like to share with other founders?
It’s not a startup podcast, but every morning I listen to Up First from NPR. I would say it's important to stay relevant and knowledgeable about the world in general, and not so into startup lingo. Whether that's good or bad, I've tried to keep it that way for myself.