Building a 9-Figure Healthtech Business with Zero Industry Experience: The DrChrono Origin Story
Before It Clicked
Two founders with zero healthcare experience built the first iPad-native EHR app… and found explosive PMF even though they started DrChrono before the iPad existed.
In this conversation, Daniel Kivatinos (co-founder of DrChrono) walks through how an outsider team broke into one of the most regulated, slow-moving industries and still reached a nine-figure exit. We cover:
1. Why Daniel and Michael Nusimow jumped into healthcare with no healthcare background
2. How they iterated with real doctors and built a product people actually loved
3. The bet on iPads before they existed
4. Lessons on intuition, fast iteration, founder psychology, and surviving years before PMF
If you're a founder navigating uncertainty, doubting your idea maze, or trying to break into a legacy industry—this episode will give you the blueprint for trusting your intuition and building your way to product-market fit.
Chapters:
(00:00) Intro — who Daniel Kivatinos is & what DrChrono became
(02:54) What DrChrono looked like at exit (thousands of doctors, millions of patients)
(07:38) Daniel’s pre-DrChrono startup journey & realizing he wants his own company
(20:20) Choosing healthcare without experience & ignoring strict “founder–market fit” advice
(23:56) Bootstrapping with $50k in the bank and no investors
(26:35) Version 1 — building a scheduling calendar doctors actually use
(39:10) From scheduling to full electronic medical records & first paying customers
(43:53) The empty NYC “incubator” & discovering the iPhone / iPad opportunity
(47:48) One day a week on iPad — taking a controlled but non-obvious bet
(55:31) iPad launch day, surprising battery life & the true product-market fit moment
(57:08) Emailing Y Combinator while almost out of runway
(59:23) Alexis Ohanian visits their four-startup “hub” & invites them to YC
(1:06:23) Filtering customer feedback & trusting founder intuition
(1:12:30) Dealing with heavily funded competitors & why speed matters more
(1:18:02) Starting JustPaid and what he’s building now
(1:24:00) Can outsiders still win today?
(1:27:34) Closing advice: momentum, risk & not over-analyzing
Disclosure: the acquisition price comes from EverCommerce’s public SEC disclosures, not from Daniel, who is under NDA.