205: Finding a Mission and Making the World a Healthier Place, With Munjal Shah of Health IQ

A health crisis that landed Munjal Shah in the ER turned out to be the catalyst for his next mission: making the world a healthier place. On the day Munjal Shah started running a 10K race back in 2010, he was on top of the world. Just the day before, he had sold his company to Google, marking his second successful exit.

Then the chest pains started. Shah wound up in the ER, and while it didn’t end up being a heart attack, the incident was a sobering reminder that his own father had had one while in his 40s. It was a wake-up call for Shah, who was 37 at the time. He started focusing on his health, lost 40 pounds, and decided his next entrepreneurial endeavor would make the world a healthier place.

“People always say, ‘Go find your mission,’” Shah says. He’s now the founder of a new and growing insurance startup called Health IQ, which encourages healthy behavior by taking a data-driven approach to its coverage. “I would say my mission found me.”

Key Takeaways

• The journey that led to two successful exits (one was with Google)
• The unconventional, non-scalable hiring methods that led Shah to build A-player teams
• How Shah discovered his mission and how this fuels his startup’s success
• Shah’s top advice for founders looking to raise a round of financing
• When and how to pivot: the key to Shah’s successful track record
• Shah’s top tips for busy entrepreneurs (it has nothing to do with meetings, investors, or customers)