Care Shift

Care Shift, hosted by Sathvik Bilakanti, takes you inside the real world of healthtech innovation, venture capital, and company-building. Each episode features unfiltered conversations with the founders and investors shaping the future of care—breaking down how they raised capital, found product-market fit, navigated failure, and built companies that endure. Listeners learn exactly what top VCs are looking for in healthtech startups, along with tactical, step-by-step insight that early builders can immediately apply. The Care Shift also opens the doors to the venture ecosystem itself, with lea

Care Shift is a business podcast hosted by vik.bilakanti, with 37 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80.

vik.bilakanti hosts Care Shift, a business show with 37 episodes published.

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  Episode #37

  Adam Besvinick of Looking Glass Capital: Why Raising Too Much, Too Early Is a Mistake

  Sep 30, 202653 minS1

  Adam Besvinick, founder and managing partner of Looking Glass Capital, joins Care Shift to talk about being the first yes at pre-seed, and why raising too much, too early is a mistake. Looking Glass is a solo GP pre-seed fund investing across health, climate, and economic drivers. Before starting the firm in 2019, Adam invested from pre-seed through Series C at Deep Fork Capital and Anchorage Capital Group, backing companies like Transfix, BigID, One Concern, and Carrot. In this episode, we cover the moats that still matter in the AI era, the risks of selling healthcare data to frontier labs, whether Epic is really a threat to healthcare startups, how Adam built a solo GP fund starting right before COVID, and why capital constraints often produce better companies. 00:00 Intro 02:25 Building conviction when others pass 07:01 The moats that still matter in 2026 09:59 Selling healthcare data to AI labs 13:48 Can Epic replicate your startup? 17:37 Starting Looking Glass Capital 24:08 Earning LP trust as a solo GP 30:12 Why health, climate, and economic drivers 41:01 Oversized rounds and bloated financial models 46:22 The biggest fundraising mistake founders make 49:07 Rapid fire Looking Glass Capital: https://lookingglass.vc Adam on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/besvinick Care Shift newsletter: https://careshift.substack.com/ Vik's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sathvik-bilakanti-8b5344169/

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  Episode #36

  From Burger King to MDLIVE: The Playbook for Scaling Healthcare

  Sep 23, 20261h 23mS1

  Mahmud Samad has spent 20 years scaling companies across Johnson & Johnson, Burger King through its Bain Capital and TPG years, Wellpath, and MDLIVE. Today he is Founder and Principal of Interconnext Consulting, working with founders, boards, and private equity teams as a strategic CFO and operator. We cover why healthcare startups stall after their first three pilots, what a repeatable process actually means, and why he calls domain expertise the most overrated thing in business. Mahmud also explains the difference between growth and scale, what he looks at first on a P&L, who to hire before your Series A, when a company should not raise VC money, and what franchising can teach healthcare about removing friction for patients. A conversation for early-stage founders, operators, and anyone trying to build something that holds up past the first few customers. Connect with Mahmud & Learn More About Interconnext Consulting LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mahmudsamad/ Interconnext Consulting: https://interconnextconsulting.com Interconnext on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/interconnext-consulting/ More on Vik & Care Shift LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sathvik-bilakanti-8b5344169/ Care Shift on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/care-shift/?viewAsMember=true Care Shift Website: https://careshift.vc/

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  Episode #34

  Inside Morgan Health with Dan Mendelson: Double Bottom Line Investing at JPMorgan

  Sep 9, 202631 minS1

  JPMorgan Chase reviews about 400 healthcare companies a year and invests in three. Dan Mendelson, CEO of Morgan Health, explains what gets a company into that group. We cover the $330M deployed off JPMorgan's balance sheet, why a company that only cuts cost gets a pass, and the misconception Dan corrects with nearly every founder: Morgan Health's check does not come with a contract from JPMorgan's benefits team. Dan also gets into $27,000 family premiums, small employers dropping coverage, ICHRA, the coding practices driving six figure claims, and where AI is genuinely working. Dan founded and sold Avalere Health and ran health policy at OMB under the Clinton administration. (00:24) The mission and the $330M mandate (01:48) Why founders pick Morgan Health (03:35) The myth: funding is not a JPMorgan contract (05:29) 400 companies, 3 investments, what earns a yes (06:40) Savings only count if quality goes up (08:19) $27K premiums and why the market hasn't broken (09:36) Employers dropping coverage, ICHRA, narrow networks (12:17) Affordability, access, and social determinants (13:50) Why Medicare Advantage is ahead of commercial (15:39) The fee for service trap (17:23) The Lantern thesis and surgical spend (18:16) Cancer as a top cost driver (19:39) Six figure claims and coding (22:35) Where AI is actually working (25:44) What ICHRA needs to go mainstream (27:16) Lessons from OMB, CHIP, and Avalere (28:40) Rapid fire More about Morgan Health & Dan MendelsonMorgan Health Website: https://www.morganhealth.com/ About Dan Mendelson: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Mendelson Dan Mendelson's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dnmendelson/ Morgan Health LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/jpmorganchase/home/ About Vik & Care Shift Vik's LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/sathvik-bilakanti-8b5344169 Care Shift Website:https://careshift.vc/ Care Shift LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/care-shift/posts/?viewAsMember=true

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  Episode #33

  Jimini Health CEO on Selling AI to Health Systems, Medicaid, and the Clinician Trust Problem

  Sep 2, 202640 minS1

  Luis Voloch, CEO of Jimini Health and co-founder of Immune.ai, joins Care Shift to talk about why he traded oncology AI for behavioral health, and why he believes clinicians, not chatbots, are the key to doing AI in mental health right. We cover the ChatGPT suicidal ideation numbers that shaped Jimini's thesis, why Sage was built as an extension of the clinician rather than a replacement, and how that choice became the company's biggest moat. Luis also breaks down selling AI into large health systems, pricing a product with no existing benchmarks, and how Medicaid and underserved populations fit into Jimini's long-term roadmap. We also get into the radiology analogy for why AI might make clinicians more in-demand rather than less, what happened to the wave of mental health chatbots that disappeared over the last two years, and where Luis sees behavioral health heading over the next 6 to 12 months. Timestamps: 0:00 Intro 0:15 Why Luis pivoted from oncology AI to behavioral health 1:16 Why language is both the therapy and the diagnosis in mental health 2:19 Responding to the "it's all vibes" critique 3:28 What happens to patients between therapy sessions 4:26 How clinicians and patients are responding to Sage 5:30 Differentiating from Spring Health, Headspace, and other players 7:14 The ChatGPT suicidal ideation numbers 8:51 What Sage is and how Jimini sells it 9:30 The administrative burden problem 10:19 Why clinicians are the moat, not the cost center 11:11 What happens when AI in behavioral health goes wrong 12:04 Where FDA regulation stands 13:23 Going from CTO at Immune.ai to CEO at Jimini 14:28 Teaching at Stanford and common AI health founder mistakes 16:02 Technologist vs. clinician as founder 17:41 Moving upmarket to large behavioral health organizations 18:46 Pricing AI with no existing benchmarks 20:34 The FDA's Tempo and ACCESS programs 22:26 Where AI has (and hasn't) moved the needle 23:23 How Jiminy uses AI internally to build faster 25:02 Retention and outcomes data 26:35 Building a team from Immune.ai, Cedar, and Palantir 28:46 Where behavioral health is headed in 6-12 months 30:45 Does AI take clinicians' jobs? The radiology analogy 32:15 Common misconceptions about behavioral health 33:14 The two-tiered access problem in behavioral health 34:09 Consolidation risk and Jimini's defensibility 35:35 Medicaid, underserved patients, and reimbursement 37:13 What happened to the wave of mental health chatbots 38:28 Will one company dominate behavioral health AI? More on Jimini Health & Luis Voloch Luis's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/luisvoloch/ Jimini Health Website: https://jiminihealth.com/ Jimini Health LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/jiminihealth/ More about Vik & Care Shift Vik's LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/sathvik-bilakanti-8b5344169/ Vik on X: https://x.com/vikbilakanti1 Care Shift LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/company/110446420/admin/dashboard/ Care Shift Website: https://careshift.vc/

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  Care Shift

  Why 60% of People With a Mental Health Diagnosis Never Get Treated: NeuroFlow's CEO Explains

  Aug 26, 202654 min

  Chris Molaro left the Army after leading a platoon in combat to build NeuroFlow, a behavioral health infrastructure company now working with the VA, national health plans, and health systems across the country. We talk about the 60% of people with a mental health diagnosis who never get treated, how AI helps flag suicide risk before it's too late, and the eighteen months NeuroFlow spent stuck behind a legal barrier before finding a way through. Chris also shares the story of a father NeuroFlow's system helped get into an appointment within 24 hours after he'd been told he'd have to wait over a month. Chapters: 00:00 Intro 00:30 Lessons from West Point and leading soldiers in combat 03:21 Why NeuroFlow built infrastructure instead of another therapy app 05:52 Finding the patients who fall through the gaps 07:58 Winning trust with the first provider groups 11:45 How NeuroFlow flags suicide risk with AI and LLMs 17:50 The 18-month legal barrier, and how response services solved it 20:10 Selling into the VA, national payers, and health systems 22:58 What a Blue Cross study revealed about cost and outcomes 30:25 Build versus buy: the VA, Quartet, and Owl Health acquisitions 40:48 The morning NeuroFlow's algorithm helped save a father's life 43:03 The next five to ten years for NeuroFlow 47:24 Rapid fire About 8 to 9% of NeuroFlow's team are military veterans, and several of the company's investors are too. More about NeuroFlow & Chris Molaro NeuroFlow Website: https://www.neuroflow.com/ NeuroFlow's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrismolaro/ Chris Molaro's LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/chrismolaro/ More about Vik & Care Shift Vik's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sathvik-bilakanti-8b5344169/ Care Shift LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/care-shift/?viewAsMember=trueCare Shift Website: https://careshift.vc/ Care Shift on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6JghxsuNbQ7hWIHuLjaoJz?si=9b761459412846ddCare Shift on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/care-shift/id1858302821

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