“Don’t go into healthtech. There are safer, better fields.” That single sentence was the chorus playing in the background when I first started Elixr Labs. My friends warned me about the risks, mentors said it with caution and nudged me towards proven industries and my family asked me why I was making life harder for myself. They said it with love and none of them were wrong. Healthtech is messy. It is slow when the world expects speed. It deals with broken systems, fragmented data, complex regulations and outcomes that refuse to fit neatly into the quarterly reports. And yet despite all the warnings I walked into this chaos willingly. If you ask me why, it is because sometimes the hardest problems are the ones that matter most. Sometimes the path you choose cannot be the safe one, the predictable one or the one everyone understands but it would be the most necessary one. This is the story of how I chose mine.

Healthtech is not the industry where you build an MVP in a weekend or a space for shortcuts. It is definitely not where you go if your goal is rapid scale at all costs. Healthcare introduces you to a sobering reality that you are not building for consumers, you are actually building for human lives and every wrong step can bring really bad consequences. Every decision demands responsibility and every outcome must be measured beyond revenue. But the more I sat with these warnings, the clearer something became. I found my purpose.

People were not warning me about the industry. They were warning me about the difficulty. And that was exactly why I needed to pursue it.

Purpose Is Not Found in Comfort

The whole journey of being a founder often gets romanticized as a journey of passion, innovation, freedom and impact. But in reality, choosing this path is more about conviction or purpose while passion also has influence on it. For me, the purpose was clear and simple: If everyone keeps avoiding the hard road, who will build the future of healthcare? Who will solve the problems that cannot wait? Who will build tools for patients who do not have time for “safer industries” to catch up? Who will create solutions for clinicians drowning in paperwork, burnout and inefficiencies?

Healthcare does not need more spectators. It needs builders who are willing to enter this complex space not because it seems to be easy, but because it is essential. Once I understood that, the warnings from the people I loved had the opposite effect. Instead of deterring me, they actually clarified my purpose.

Walking Into Uncertainty Without a Roadmap

Starting Elixr Labs was not a conventional leap. The early days were full of questions just like any other founder. Will hospitals adopt our technology? Will regulations slow us down? Will we be able to show outcomes? These questions were intimidating but I learned quickly that leadership particularly in healthtech is not about having answers. Having the resilience to find answers and learning to overcome ambiguity with courage is what is needed in this field. It is about trusting that clarity comes through execution and not through mere contemplation.

A map is drawn only by those willing to walk first. To walk into uncertainty without a roadmap was the challenge but I was determined to take the path as someone has to do it and build a future for health tech.

The Road Less Taken Is Never Glamorous

There is a version of leadership that gets celebrated online like funding, product launches, stages, interviews and so on. But the reality behind building in healthtech is that it would not be that glamorous. Here is what the road actually looks like:

1. Rejections: It will be more than you think. Everyone loves innovation but they also love predictability. So, convincing others that your solution is worth the uncertainty takes time, persistence and the ability to hear “no” without losing momentum.

2. Failed Pilots: Healthcare pilots are really challenging. Integrations break, workflows clash, progress feels incremental. Every pilot teaches you something but some lessons come with painful costs.

3. Questions With No Easy Answers: There would be several questions others will ask you or there will be questions that you ask to yourself. These questions might not have answers or might take time to find the answers.

But It is Also the Only Road That Feels Necessary

Despite the challenges, building in healthtech remains the most meaningful work I have ever done. Because while other industries chase convenience, healthtech chases transformation. While others optimize for speed, healthtech optimizes for humanity. While others scale user engagement, healthtech scales life-changing outcomes.

The same road which never felt glamorous to others, is also filled with moments that make every setback worth it. Imagine a patient telling you that their quality of life improved because of your product or a doctor saying, “This saves us hours a week.” Hearing it makes you realize that all the hard work has paid off.

Some problems do not wait. And healthcare is one of them.

How did you choose your entrepreneurship path?