Heath Ahrens Profile picture
Jul 29 13 tweets 5 min read Read on X
430,000 doctors were drowning in 30-second research updates.

Burnout was rising. No one could keep up.

One founder built AI that fixed the problem, then gave it away FREE.

That “bad business model”? It’s now a $2.3B revolution in medicine: ⬇️ Image
Daniel Nadler saw what others missed.

Medical research publishes a new paper every 30 seconds. Literature doubles every 5 years.

Doctors seeing 20 patients daily can't possibly keep up.

But that overwhelming problem was actually the opportunity...
While competitors built complex enterprise software, Nadler went the opposite direction.

He didn't sell to hospitals. No procurement hell.

He ignored every "best practice" in healthcare tech.

His counterintuitive approach changed everything:
Make it free for doctors.

Just like Google, Open Evidence gave away the product to professionals who needed it most.

No sales team. No demos.

2 years later: 430,000 US doctors.

40% market penetration without a single cold call.
The genius wasn't just the free model.

It was understanding that in professional markets, trust beats everything.

Every AI answer includes full citations to peer-reviewed papers. Doctors verify sources instantly.

This transparency created something competitors couldn't buy:
Network effects at scale.

More doctors meant more data on what clinicians need.

Better data meant better AI responses. Better responses brought more doctors.

8.5 million monthly consultations created a feedback loop that led to something bigger:
But here's where Nadler's playbook gets really interesting.

He put in the first $10 million himself.

Not because he had to. Because he wanted to maintain control.

Quote: "I wanted to bet on myself."

This decision changed everything:
That decision let him keep 60% ownership through multiple funding rounds.

When Google's venture arm and Kleiner Perkins came calling, he had leverage.

$210 million raised at a $3.5B valuation. His stake: worth $2.3B.

Second-time founders play different games.
The advertising model was the final piece.

Doctors get value for free. Pharma companies reach engaged physicians at the moment of decision.

$50 million annualized revenue and growing.

Everyone wins in this ecosystem.
The blueprint is shockingly simple:

- Find where professionals drown in information.
- Build AI that saves time while maintaining trust.
- Give it away free to bypass gatekeepers.
- Monetize attention, not software.
- Maintain control by betting on yourself.
The Open Evidence blueprint works because Nadler had already built and sold a company for $550M.

Second-time founders see patterns first-timers miss.

After building the first cloud text-to-speech platform and multiple exits, I've seen these patterns repeatedly.
About me:

Built voice tech before Alexa or Siri.

Now I’m at , powering real-time voice agents and cutting-edge TTS for over 1 million users every month.

Follow me, @heathahrens for insights on what's next in AI.Voice.ai
Video & photo credits :
· Deirdre Bosa - CNBC: youtu.be/77aRdktengQ?si…
· GV (Google Ventures): youtu.be/UaDChdL1zzE?si…
· Sequoia Capital: youtu.be/huR0Oa2odxA?si…

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More from @heathahrens

Jul 24
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang just made the boldest prediction of his career:

“AI will create more millionaires in 5 years than the internet did in 20.”

But he didn’t stop there.

He revealed exactly HOW it’ll happen

Here’s his framework for capitalizing before it’s too late: ⬇️ Image
Jensen runs NVIDIA, the trillion-dollar company powering the entire AI revolution.

He's seen every major AI player's roadmap.

He knows what Zuck, Elon, and Sam Altman are building before we do.

His perspective isn't speculation - it's insider intelligence:
"We're a couple hundred billion dollars into a multi-trillion dollar infrastructure buildout."

Think about that. We're not even 10% through this transformation.

The internet boom was measured in billions. This one's measured in trillions.

But here's what shocked me most:
Read 16 tweets
Jul 22
Nikola Tesla discovered something so dangerous,

He begged ONE man to hide it for 1,000 years.

That man quietly changed how we understand reality.

Now his suppressed work is resurfacing and it’s terrifying: ⬇️ Image
In 1921, Russell experienced something extraordinary.

For 39 days, he entered what he called "cosmic illumination."

When he emerged, he claimed to understand the true nature of matter, light, and the universe itself.

His insights would challenge science for decades:
Russell created a periodic table in 1926 that looked nothing like what we learn in school.

Instead of rows and columns, he arranged elements in 9 musical octaves.

Like notes on a cosmic piano.

He used this to predict elements that "didn't exist" yet:
Read 16 tweets
Jul 15
A 25-year-old just built military tech in 6 months.

Boeing says it takes 10 years.

Now, he’s taking contracts from the biggest defense firms in the world.

Here’s the execution playbook they never saw coming: Image
Defense contractors move at glacial pace.

A simple software update can take years.

New capabilities take even longer.

This creates a massive vulnerability that fast-moving startups can exploit:
Traditional contractors operate on timelines from another era.

Committee meetings just to schedule meetings. Approval chains with dozens of stakeholders.

Development cycles measured in half-decades.

But Palmer Luckey saw opportunity in this dysfunction:
Read 15 tweets
Jun 26
OpenAI pays 20% of every dollar to Microsoft.

Last year alone, that was $700 million.

Microsoft profits while OpenAI loses billions.

Here's why this lopsided deal is imploding: Image
The partnership started in 2019 when Microsoft invested $1 billion in OpenAI.

It seemed like the perfect win-win deal.

Microsoft got early access to breakthrough AI technology.

OpenAI got the computing power and cash to build the future.

But something went terribly wrong...
The breaking point came with OpenAI's $3 billion acquisition of Windsurf.

Windsurf is an AI code generation company.

Microsoft's contract gives them access to ALL of OpenAI's IP.

Including Windsurf's.

The problem? Microsoft's Copilot directly competes with Windsurf:
Read 15 tweets
Jun 24
1 waterway controls $2 trillion in oil trade annually.

Iran just threatened to shut it down completely.

6 nations would lose access to global markets overnight.

Here's how the Strait of Hormuz became humanity's economic kill switch: Image
Picture a narrow waterway just 21 miles wide at its narrowest point.

It sits between Iran and Oman at the entrance to the Persian Gulf.

This tiny chokepoint handles 20% of the world's oil supply every single day.

But here's what makes it truly dangerous:
6 of the world's largest oil and gas producers depend entirely on this passage.

Saudi ships 5 to 8 million barrels daily through the strait.

The UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, Iraq, and Iran all rely on it for their exports.

Without it, these nations become economically landlocked:
Read 16 tweets
Jun 20
Amazon, Google, Meta and Microsoft all made the same bet on nuclear AI.

But there's a massive problem they didn't see coming.

America doesn't control the uranium needed to power it.

Here's why Big Tech just handed our enemies total leverage: Image
First, let's talk about the energy problem.

AI data centers need massive, reliable power 24/7.

Solar and wind can't deliver that consistency.

Nuclear energy can.

That's why Big Tech is going nuclear:
Nuclear energy runs continuously without depending on weather conditions like solar or wind.

It can generate massive amounts of power from a single facility.

But here's what most people don't realize about nuclear power: Image
Read 18 tweets

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