Shift+6: Ryan@Folx

The Redox Podcast

We’re thrilled to announce Shift+6, a developer-focused, health-tech podcast from Redox. Here we'll explore the ways amazing technologists are bringing new innovation to market, growing their teams, and dealing with an ever-changing landscape in one of the world's most complex industries.

We believe that technology from diverse and empathetic creators holds the power to improve the lives of patients across the globe. And we hope this podcast helps make your work in healthcare even more impactful.

Our first guest is Ryan Scharer, the CTO of a new (and maybe in stealth mode?) telehealth startup called Folx. You might be wondering, “Does the world really need another telehealth offering?” Short answer: yes, this world does. Folx is aimed at LGBTQ+ communities with representative care providers, “Telehealth that’s pretty queer” as their website states. Check out their purpose statement here, it’s moving.

Ryan’s building on a long history of success in the digital health space, having played this early-stage engineering lead role at Humedica (acquired by Optum) and PatientPing. We dive into those early decisions and tradeoffs we make in building product and eventually taking it to scale. Here are some highlights:

• 2:00 - Ryan pitches Folx
  
• 4:33 - unique features, based on this demographic
  
• 6:07 - contrasting more established digital health with early-stage startups
  
• 8:53 - new technologies Ryan’s excited about
  
• 13:10 - balancing moving fast, or building things for scale
  
• 17:33 - the benefits of experience in getting started
  
• 20:34 - choosing an EHR
  
• 29:45 - resources for getting started in health tech
  

Ryan mentioned to reach out to him on LinkedIn if you have questions or want to start a conversation.

Thanks for tuning into our first episode of Shift+6. We’ll be launching our own podcast show soon so look out for that and be sure to subscribe. And let me know if you have ideas or feedback for the show. We’re excited to bring this to the healthcare developer community.