Moh Noori with ScriptChain Health

Intro: [00:00:04] We’ll come back to the Startup Showdown podcast, where we discuss pitching, funding and scaling startups. Join us as we interview winners, mentors and judges of the monthly $120,000 pitch competition powered by Panoramic Ventures. We also discuss the latest updates in software web3, health care, tech, fintech and more. Now sit tight as we interview this week’s guest and their journey through entrepreneurship.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:38] Lee Kantor here another episode of Startup Showdown, and this is going to be a fun one. But before we get started, it’s important to recognize our sponsor Panoramic Ventures. Without them, we couldn’t be sharing these important stories. Today on Startup Showdown, we have Moh Noori with ScriptChain Health. Welcome Moh.

Moh Noori: [00:00:56] Thank you for having me, Lee.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:57] Well, I’m excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us a little bit about script chain health. How you serving folks?

Moh Noori: [00:01:03] Yeah, definitely. So scripting health is a digital health startup that uses artificial intelligence for cardiovascular disease and readmission prevention by optimizing the point of care for the patient at the time of admission.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:20] So how did you kind of decide to go in this direction? What was the genesis of the idea?

Moh Noori: [00:01:28] Definitely so. Growing up, my mother and my grandmother raised me and everything like that. And as I started to get a little older, I started to notice that my mother, my grandmother’s health started to deteriorate very slowly. Over the years, I saw that she became more and more unhealthy, and it got to a point where she needed assistance to actually walk. I found out that she was suffering from cardiovascular disease, and one morning back in 1999, we all woke up and received the call that nobody in the world wants to receive, which is that my grandmother passed away at that time. I have never experienced my heart drop so fast in my life until that morning, and it was excruciatingly painful, especially with my grandmother who really raised me. I mean, every single day she was there. And I really thought to myself that why wasn’t this illness? Preventable. Why didn’t why we. Why weren’t we able to predict this illness from from occurring? Because I know that we could have alleviated some of the issues to to really intervene at an early stage. And fast forward to when I got to Boston College, while I was pursuing my MBA concentration in data analytics, I started to really look into how large of a problem this actually is. And I found that that the number one cause of death in the United States and the entire world. Us death toll to around 700,000 deaths a year annually. Globally you’re looking at over 18 million.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:24] So how did you. But how did you connect the dots and say, you know what, there’s a ton of data. And this is a major problem. There must be a way to kind of connect some dots here to say this. If we do this here at this point, maybe we can prevent a portion of these. Or if we do this here, after you’ve done this, then maybe that’ll prevent some and then we can kind of lower that number a bit.

Moh Noori: [00:03:48] Definitely. And you know, when I was in the ideation and the market research mode, I started to figure out that artificial intelligence is growing at a 50% compound annual growth rate within health care. And since I was growing so significantly in the health care industry just because of the vast resources of medical data out there, I was thinking that it might be a very, very strong solution to being able to predict these illnesses and to identify all these high risk patients. When I started to to develop on that machine, health was was born. And that’s what we do. We use patient medical data fully secure, obviously, and we are hip and high tech compliant to be able to identify all these high risk patients before the illness actually occurs via outpatient care for cardiologists and primary care physicians.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:45] So there are some breadcrumbs that every individual is leaving that the the machine learning can help kind of identify. And this artificial intelligence can kind of bubble up and say, you know what, because of these six random, seemingly random data points, this person is on the path to being a high risk patient.

Moh Noori: [00:05:04] Exactly. And we use deep learning technologies for that.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:09] So it may not be obvious, like to the physician or to the naked eye, but because of the way that the data is being analyzed, certain patterns kind of bubble up and you’re able to to at least kind of put a marker on something to go, hey, this person, watch out, you know?

Moh Noori: [00:05:27] Exactly. Not only do we identify all these high risk patients through different variable points and data points within their own medical records, but we also have the actionable, which is building a drug and dosage recommendation for the physician to make the ultimate decision on diagnosis.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:47] So not only it kind of bubbles them up and says, okay, pay attention. This person already gives them a path to treat them.

Moh Noori: [00:05:55] Exactly. And we also focus on readmissions. So we’re looking into bettering the patient outcomes and provide more value based care for the for the patient.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:06] And explain why that’s so important in today’s world. Not everybody is aware of, you know, at one point they didn’t care, insurance companies didn’t care if the person was readmitted, but now they care a lot. So can you talk a little bit about that development and how that might have impacted kind of the your solution and how important it is?

Moh Noori: [00:06:27] Correct. Definitely. Well, so, you know, medicine has has been and the health care institutions have been compensated through being like more based off of reactive based medicine versus preventive and payers used to compensate health care institutions based off of how many times a patient were to be admitted into a hospital, for example, or clinic or small practice. We found out that now, since their business model has changed into better, more quality based care, now health care institutions get penalized for patients being readmitted. With that being said, I mean, I looked into the readmission costs and it equated to over $72 million a day in losses and penalties just in the United States health care system. So now providers are losing money and they’re now they’re looking into other solutions on being able to lower that that cost. And that’s what we help out with.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:35] So now once you have the idea and you have that personal experience, that was kind of the that got the fire underneath you to really pursue this and it was really personally important to you. How did you go about building your team?

Moh Noori: [00:07:50] For sure. I mean, while I was in school, I was just a one man show. As we started to kind of gain traction on building out a web application, hosting it online. I was able to kind of gain more, more traction because even though our marketing budget was pretty much at zero, we’re starting to spread. We use social media, we use Angel’s List. I attended a lot of hackathons conferences to kind of spread the word, and we started to kind of build a team from from there. Now we’re a team of still very lean, but we’re a team of 12 that’s consisted of AI engineers, software developers, designer and a busy analyst. And we are under the advisory of world renowned cardiologists that work at the Brigham and Mass General Hospital.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:39] Now, how difficult was it to kind of get the ear of these physicians and people that are in the trenches doing this kind of work? You know, because you’re not a doctor, right? You’re that’s how your background.

Moh Noori: [00:08:53] Exactly. My background is more in tech and sales. But I have worked for biotech companies in the past, and it was extremely difficult in the beginning just because I found out that a lot of physicians and health care institutions are not really open to innovative solutions also.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:12] Is that surprising to you? Like as a as an entrepreneur and somebody who is, you know, probably perpetually trying to solve problems? Did that surprise you that people who are in science are hesitant to try new things and to really kind of go out on a limb and maybe test something that isn’t fully vetted and proven?

Moh Noori: [00:09:33] Very I was very shocked, you know, especially with me speaking to some physicians who have never even heard of artificial intelligence there. Some physicians have been practicing medicine for 30 plus years, and they’re really focused on what they’ve been doing in the past. They think it works and we have no doubt about it. They know medicine more than anybody else, and we 100% agree. But I think the obstacles that we encounter every single day, like physician burnout, such as how much time are you really spending on a per patient appointment basis? Right. And being able to kind of like utilize technology to help them out, you know, to really assist them with every single admission, whether it be outpatient for whatever illness it is. We are starting out with cardiovascular disease as of right now, but we’re looking to grow into other domains, hopefully in the future. But as long as we can get some health care providers and institutions to kind of really work with startups to to get everything up and running, go to market, maybe team up or partner with startups. I believe that we can really plug in a lot of the gaps out there in the health care industry.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:53] So now you have this idea, you build a team, you get some people in medicine that are getting behind it, and so it’s always bootstrapped at the beginning. Or were you like immediately looking to raise funds?

Moh Noori: [00:11:08] No, we were 100% bootstrap and we currently are as well. It’s it hasn’t been an easy road or like pathway, but we are staying focused and and we’re looking to actually raise rounds right now for our seed round.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:25] So you’ve just now started kind of really because that’s a business by itself now fundraising.

Moh Noori: [00:11:32] Fundraising is it’s a it’s a very sweet and sour type of relationship. I am trying to enjoy the the path to it, but it’s not the most easiest thing to overcome.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:46] Right. But it’s like a separate business. Like you have your business of scripting chain health, which has its own fun and games, but then you have now fund raising, which is a different business that has its own fun and games.

Moh Noori: [00:11:58] Very, very true. They’re they’re they’re both full time jobs.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:02] So is this entrepreneurial path? Is it how you imagined? Is it is it kind of how you pictured it in your head when you started?

Moh Noori: [00:12:14] Yes and no. I think growing up, my my father and my uncles are both entrepreneurs as well. And I used to see them hitting the ground, running for their for their own businesses. But I didn’t know it was so much of a war. And I think at an early stage, it really is a war, especially in a highly regulated industry to be in. There are a lot of obstacles to overcome. There are a lot of regulations out there, and getting people up to speed with things isn’t the most easiest thing to do either.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:51] Well, you use the word war, and that’s interesting terminology. Did you think that the people you’d be battling were the people you’re currently battling? Because I would think that a lot of people, before they get into being an entrepreneur, they think maybe it’s competitors and that there’s these other people that are the ones that are holding you back. But in actuality, there’s saboteurs around a lot of different corners.

Moh Noori: [00:13:14] Oh, of course. I mean, and I use the word war because you don’t really know who your friend or foe actually is until you start to compete against other competitors and start to try to gain as much market share as possible. And then you start to see where people try to gather some insights about your own company and then try to use it against you.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:38] And and also the incumbents that want to just keep things the same. They don’t want change. They’re saboteurs as well.

Moh Noori: [00:13:48] Very true.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:49] So now any advice for founders out there that are kind of getting into this health care tech space? What are some of the things that you would you know, maybe that you can smooth out their learning curve? What are some of the areas maybe they should pay attention to?

Moh Noori: [00:14:06] Yeah, definitely. Say, I mean, you have to have a lot of grit to be in this business. It’s not the most difficult. I mean, it is one of the most difficult industries to kind of get in. And I think having the expertize around you is very, very important to try to get as much exposure and expertize at a very early stage just because it will help you in the long run. So you don’t kind of hit the hit the brick wall over and over again.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:37] So finding that medical person with experience that’s maybe seasoned early, if you can get buy in from a person like that, that could help you accelerate your growth.

Moh Noori: [00:14:50] Correct. Both from from a medical perspective as well as technology perspective as well.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:56] So now how did you hear about Startup Showdown and Panoramic Ventures? How did that get on your radar?

Moh Noori: [00:15:02] Yeah, so I actually I competed in one of their pitch competitions and I made it to the top five. So I got exposure through that. And it was it was a really, really good experience.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:15] So what was there any take away from there that was most beneficial that you could share?

Moh Noori: [00:15:22] I would definitely say that your story is a very important aspect to your to your business, as well as being helpful for pitch competitions and also know your numbers.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:35] So kind of articulating your why and what the opportunity is, that’s you’ve got to get really good at talking about that.

Moh Noori: [00:15:44] Exactly. And then also know your ask as well.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:48] Yeah, some people forget that part. And that’s kind of the where the rubber hits the road.

Moh Noori: [00:15:53] Exactly. Exactly.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:55] So now what do you need more of today? How can we help you?

Moh Noori: [00:16:00] I mean, spreading the word about supporting health. We are looking like I said before, we are currently fundraising right now so we can get any investors who would like to come on board as a as a long term partner for us. We would really appreciate that as well as other medical expertize domains. So if you are a physician scientist, if you are head of innovation that you’re at your hospital, please feel free to reach out.

Lee Kantor: [00:16:27] Now, what about ideal client? Who is the kind of purchaser of these scrip chain health software?

Moh Noori: [00:16:35] Yeah. So hospitals, clinics and small practices would be our customers right now.

Lee Kantor: [00:16:42] So like there’s a cardiologist out there with a practice. They it would be good for them to know about you guys.

Moh Noori: [00:16:47] Definitely.

Lee Kantor: [00:16:48] And if somebody wants to learn more, what’s a website.

Moh Noori: [00:16:52] You can go to? Ww Script, Chain, Dot CO. We are also on social media as well. So we have a LinkedIn page, we have an Instagram, so feel free to message us through that and we’ll definitely reach out to you.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:07] Good stuff. Well, thank you so much for sharing your story. You’re doing important work and we appreciate you.

Moh Noori: [00:17:12] Thank you so much, Lee. And thank you all for for listening to me. Hopefully, we’ll be able to continue our conversation later.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:20] All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you next time on Startup Showdown.

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