Zak Holdsworth is a health tech entrepreneur who co-founded Hint Health (www.hint.com), the leading tech company focused on the growth and success of the direct primary care movement, a provider-led movement that is driving transformative improvements in cost, quality, and outcomes in the US healthcare system.
Prior to this Zak was a Vice President at WellnessFX and worked briefly as a VC at Voyager Capital in Silicon Valley, and prior to that was a tech consultant in the UK and a software and automation engineer in Gisborne.
Zak completed his MBA at Stanford University and has an Electrical Engineering undergraduate degree from Canterbury University in New Zealand. Zak loves kite surfing and adventure sports.
Can you tell us about co-founding Hint Health and your role within it?
I'm one of the co-founders and CEO, and we started it around 8 years ago in San Francisco.
What are the goals you hope to achieve with Hint Health?
We had a thesis on how to transform the US healthcare system ($4T system with $1T in waste) by supporting a growing movement of independent primary care physicians called Direct Primary Care (www.hint.com/dpc). We are still doing this today, and our tech now supports thousands of doctors who are chipping away at redesigning the system.
Did you have a career path in mind when you were studying at UC? Can you talk to us about some of the highlights up until where you are now?
I knew I wanted to start off my career working as an engineer, and I had a pretty strong feeling I would like to do something entrepreneurial. Other than that, I didn't have much of an idea about what path I would take
What are you passionate about when it comes to work?
I like fixing broken things. And working on trying to transform a system that is so fundamentally broken is fun and exciting (and hard)
Has your career evolved the way you expected?
In a way yes, however everything has taken much longer than I had anticipated. The stories you read about about overnight successes are the exception not the rule
What is the most important thing you learned from your time at UC?
I think the fundamentals of a deep technical education (I was EE) are invaluable and I think have served me well through my journey.
