Episode 219: Florian Otto - Co-Founder & CEO, Cedar

The world of medical billing is incredibly complex and let’s face it, most times it’s a mystery from the consumer’s point of view. The descriptions of service provided are in codes and how to make payment is not simple. It was through a challenging medical billing experience with his wife where Florian saw firsthand how the process was broken. As a serial entrepreneur and former physician, the light bulbs went off where he saw an opportunity to radically transform this industry. Not only was it a situation where you could digitize the process and make it more consumer friendly, but it was an opportunity to fundamentally redefine the patient experience. Thus, Cedar was born. Cedar has been scaling aggressively and has tremendous momentum. The company recently announced a $200M Series D round of funding at a $3.2B valuation and they also announced a definitive agreement to acquire OODA Health, where the combined companies will offer the only complete financial technology platform in the healthcare industry. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * How ideas are easy to come by, but his advice on the hard part, how to execute. * Florian’s background story in terms of his early career in medicine to his transition to McKinsey's healthcare practice and what this experience taught him. * Launching a daily deals site in Brazil, which was acquired by Groupon. * The full story behind Cedar and all the details on the company’s platform and growth ahead. * Why building a diverse workforce is such a competitive advantage. * And so much more. If you like the show, please remember to subscribe and review us on iTunes, Soundcloud, Spotify, Stitcher, or Google Play.