On this Episode of The At The Corner Podcast, Matthew Schmidt is joined by Drew Schiller, CEO of Validic, the leading digital health platform for personal health data. Schiller gives us an insight into his business and why he and his co-founder decided to create it. Schiller explains how he is highly interested in the future of healthcare and how it can be improved. Schmidt and Schiller discuss how the healthcare model today is reactive sick care whereas the future of healthcare is looking to be designed in a way that’s proactive by identifying what needs to happen before people need to seek medical help. 

Schiller states that Validic launched with the idea of using the data that is stored on our phones about the things we do in our everyday lives that impact our health and sharing it with our healthcare providers. Schmidt and Schiller also speak about the beauty behind the hood spot and the power in not knowing what you don’t know before starting a new business venture. Schiller states that if he knew then what he knows now about the industry, he probably wouldn’t have started it in the first place so he is grateful for the blind spots he and his co-founder had at the beginning of their business. 

Schiller shares his best advice to those starting a new business with regards to co-founders and encourages focusing on the business and start with people who have experience in the field and could be potential board members or investors. Schiller explains how when you sell these people on the vision they might share the same passions and want to join in. Schiller also states that, over time, you will start meeting the right people to be your partners. Schmidt and Schiller discuss healthy work environments and the importance of encouraging opinions from all employees and demonstrating positive reactions to criticism. Amongst other topics Schmidt and Schiller talk about include working remotely and Schiller shares how he took a survey of how many days his employees wanted to work in the office and remote during the week post COVID-19 which resulted in 96% of staff expressing how they wanted to be fully remote. Schmidt and Schiller converse about the challenges faced by businesses with working remote and also the benefits of listening to your staff and allowing freedom in the way they work.