No Operating Manual
A podcast about building healthcare companies when there’s no clear path and no one tells you what comes next.
Each episode features candid conversations with founders and operators working at the earliest stages, where decisions are made with incomplete information and roles are undefined. The focus is on the real work: what you learn, what you have to unlearn, and what it actually takes to make healthcare companies function in the real world.
No Operating Manual is a podcast about building healthcare companies when there’s no clear path and no one tells you what comes next. Each episode features candid conversations with founders and operators working at the earliest stages, where decisions are made with incomplete information and roles are undefined. The focus is on the real work: what you learn, what you have to unlearn, and what it actually takes to make healthcare companies function in the real world. What do Domino’s, Uber, and Great Clips have in common? They all offer something hospitals don’t: knowing when to expect what you’re waiting for. In this episode, Erin O’Brien sits down with Dr. Michael Pitt, a pediatric hospitalist, professor at the University of Minnesota Medical School, and co-founder and CEO of Q-rounds, to hear how a text message while waiting for a haircut sparked the first virtual rounding queue in healthcare. Mike shares how Q-rounds grew from a $5,000 university grant and a PowerPoint mockup into an EHR-integrated platform used by more than 60,000 families, tripling nurse attendance at rounds and cutting harmful medical errors by nearly 40%. He shares how he had to navigate grief while fundraising, the long 20-meeting hospital sales cycle, learning “entrepreneur speak” as a career academic, and why he once called founding Q-rounds the worst decision he ever made, and now calls it his best. Whether you’re a clinician sitting on an idea or a founder deep in the grind, Mike’s advice lands: be married to the problem, not your solution, and celebrate the “fully vested” moments along the way.
