Entrepreneurship

Transforming The Health Of Billions, A Founder’s Story with Christian Seale

Published

7 months ago

August 25, 2022

I am Christian Seale, the Co-Founder of Vitruvia, a clinic at the helm of helping people get back into their optimal selves. With tension, pain, and lack of mobility a part of everyday life, we strive to bring the human body back into perfect alignment to relieve these common burdens. My background as a serial health care investor of over 35+ companies (4 exits) plus my work as a co-founder of a medical holding company is what has informed my constant fascination with the interstitium. Prior to diving into the health sector, I worked with a consumer-only VC firm Maveron, Goldman Sachs, and Teach for America, and then became a Founding Member of NextGen Venture Partners and Equitable Origin, the world’s first certification for responsible energy production. I earned my MBA from Harvard Business School and graduated magna cum laude from Brown University.

Tell us about your childhood and where you grew up?

I grew up in the second largest town in New England, my dad owned a lumber company and my mom was a fitness guru. They both inspired a love of fitness, a strong work ethic, and an entrepreneurial spirit in me. I then went to Brown for my undergrad and later on got an MBA from Harvard. It wasn’t until I worked at Goldman Sachs that I realized I have to give one hundred percent every single day. You can skip class at Brown and Harvard and still get an ‘A’ but at Goldman, you have to do your best every single day. I had multiple life-changing events regarding health care that drove me to be truly passionate about investing and innovating in the healthcare space and led me to start working with Dr. Gautam on Vitruvia and on the RELIEF® treatment.

How did you get started as an entrepreneur?

I truly stumbled upon my mission to help transform the health and lives of a billion people. After three distinct and avoidable events, I made it my life’s work to create a more efficient, accessible, and prevention-focused healthcare system. First, I lost my grandmother to stage 4 ovarian cancer despite her repeated pleas for early-detection exams. Second, my dad went blind in his left eye after an avoidable transcription error that wrongly sent him home without addressing an infection from routine cataract surgery. Third, I received a $17,300 bill to splint a dislocated pinky in an NYC ER after paying $53 for a 24-hour stay in a Colombian hospital to bring me back from a 103°F fever from two parasites.

What is one business lesson you would tell a startup founder?

You must always listen to your own instincts and there have been times when I’ve gone against that. I’ve always regretted when I’ve overextended myself and gone against my instinct when I’ve worked so hard to make instinct an iterative process that just keeps building on what feels right.

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