How Sahil Chopra Went from Doctor to Founder

Hey y’all — I’ll admit it, I don’t get enough sleep.

Most founders I know don’t.

We think it’s par for the course, but it’s not good for us in the long run.

Sahil Chopra, MD knows this better most.

While doing his sleep medicine fellowship at Harvard, he learned how critical sleep truly is. After seeing how sleep wasn’t given the focus it deserved in medicine, he left his practice and founded Empower Sleep to help people sleep better.

During our chat, he even quickly diagnosed me and now I’m using the product. I’ll report back my findings in a few weeks but I’m enjoying it so far.

His story is relatable for anyone who has become a founder after a career in another industry — he shared his candid takes, and also what it’s been like co-founding a startup with his brother.

Listen now on Spotify, Apple, YouTube or your podcast platform of choice.

A big thanks to our partner for this episode, BiOptimizers.

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As a reminder, each Thursday I interview a world-class founder about their unique paths to uncover tactical insights they've learned about how to fundraise, grow, validate, hire, scale, and lead teams.

Also, after each conversation I write up my candid takeaways. Become a member and grab them ✨ here ✨ along with lifetime access to my private founder community and more.

In our chat we discuss:

Founder Mode

• (00:00) — Intro

• (01:12) — Becoming a doctor before a founder

• (02:46) — Convincing his brother to start a company with him

• (05:08) — Starting a company with your brother

• (06:52) — Working alongside a complementary co-founder

• (08:20) — Transitioning to his brother becoming CEO

• (10:57) — The fundraising process

• (13:15) — Transitioning from fundraising to building

• (14:36) — Hiring good people early on

• (37:37) — Having the right founder mindset

• (39:03) — Staying even-keeled as a founder

• (41:17) — Solving your own problems

• (42:27) — Why sleep is a venture-scale opportunity

• (43:31) — Importance of a frictionless user experience

Health & Sleep

• (16:46) — Why sleep is so important

• (18:33) — How much sleep people should get

• (19:10) — Why people don't prioritize sleep

• (20:59) — How many people are sleep deficient

• (23:51) — Sahil diagnoses Michael Houck

• (32:55) — Defining sleep opportunity vs. sleep

• (30:48) — The Empower Sleep vision

• (33:44) — Drive to conquer sleep

• (35:41) — How broken the healthcare system is

Rapid Fire

• (46:01) — Who is one investor you’d recommend?

• (47:21) — One thing you'd change about startups?

• (48:30) — Advice for first-time founders?

• (48:45) — Something you believe that most disagree with?

Listen now on Spotify, Apple, YouTube or your podcast platform of choice.

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