In 2014, three anesthesiologists founded a company to bring safe sedation to children who couldn't access it. 

Two of those founders were Tarun Bhalla, MD, MBA, and Ajay Satyapriya, MD. 

The third one was me.

By conventional wisdom, we were operating in the wrong lane. Anesthesiologists belong in hospitals. We manage operating rooms, not startups. The playbook for clinicians with our credentials was clear: practice medicine, leave the business-building to the MBAs, and don't wander too far from the system that trained us.

We could have easily thought, "This isn't what doctors do."

But in our clinical work, we had seen thousands of children - mostly from under-resourced communities - who were being denied dental care because the sedation they needed to tolerate procedures simply wasn't available to them. 

The Opportunity

Most healthcare delivery at the time centered on one model: patients coming to the hospital. 

We asked a different question: What if the care could come to the patient?

We launched SmileMD, an in-office sedation service for pediatric dental patients, and built a model around portability, safety, and access. We started in one geography, proved it worked, then did it again. And again. 

Twelve years later, OFFOR Health operates in 5 states, partners with major insurers, and has built a full-time clinical team caring for thousands of children every year.

We understood that the healthcare system wasn't failing these families out of malice. It was failing them by design - and our small team, willing to operate differently, could fill a gap that had existed for decades.

This month, OFFOR Health was acquired by Havencrest Capital Management. The acquisition proves our thesis: mission-driven healthcare delivery, focused on patients, can scale.

The Lesson

We weren't investors or operators when we started. But we trusted our clinical conviction and knew we could build something the market wasn't expecting from people like us. As the business grew, we also brought in a lot of experienced people who shared our focus on keeping patients at the center. 

And because we kept patients at the center, we built it right.

How much value is being left on the table by people who are close to a real problem, but too obedient to convention to try solving it?

The expertise to build the next great company may already be inside you. Are you willing to step outside the system that shaped you to use it?

I hope our story shows you what’s possible when you’re brave enough to try.

Nineteen years ago, I left the University of Chicago's Department of Anesthesiology & Critical Care as a trainee. Last month, I walked back in as a guest speaker with some of those same teachers sitting in the room.

Giving Grand Rounds was one of the greatest honors of my career. And I spent a portion of it telling the truth about how often I have felt like I had no idea what I was doing.

I spoke about impostor syndrome as a companion that follows high achievers into every new room we earn the right to enter. I felt it as a resident and as Medical Director of a large hospital system. I felt it when I founded OFFOR Health, when I launched a venture capital firm, and again when I started Beyond Physician.

Here is what I have learned about moving forward anyway:

Everyone is equipped. Not everyone is empowered.

Most of us have more training, experience, and instincts than we give ourselves credit for. Even when we’re capable, we often wait for someone to give us permission - permission that we ultimately have to give ourselves.

Formal training doesn't cover most of the path.

Medicine trained me to be a physician, but nothing trained me to be a founder. In entrepreneurship, most of what matters is learned in motion - in the decisions, mistakes, and pivots. Feeling unprepared comes with the territory.

Impostor syndrome is a feeling, not a fact.

Impostor syndrome is persistent precisely because it seems like self-awareness and humility. But there is a difference between pushing yourself and punishing yourself. Don’t let it erode your confidence.

Action allows for preparation.

Waiting until you feel ready will leave you waiting indefinitely. Clarity comes through taking the first step.

The underdog mentality is an asset - if you use it correctly.

Your skills and experience are more transferable than you think. The path forward rarely looks like the one you trained for. Take the risk worth the outcome. And learn to understand yourself well enough to know when impostor syndrome is speaking - so you can hear it, acknowledge it, and lead anyway.

There is a difference between working hard and working well.

I recently returned from a beautiful week off in London with my family. I tried to be present while avoiding thinking about the next plan.

When we step away from the noise, it frees us up to see the bigger picture. It’s counterintuitive, but slowing down lets us see things in a new way.

Thinking bigger is a gift we give ourselves. It fuels ambition, sharpens vision, and reminds us that our ceiling is often higher than we allow ourselves to believe.

Presence is the foundation of ambition.

So whether it’s a trip abroad, a morning meditation before opening our inbox, or simply a walk without our phones, it’s important to build in the pause. Let yourself land somewhere long enough to look up.

Step back to think bigger. Then bring that vision home to the work, the people, and the purpose already in front of you.