The Hospital Couldn’t Heal People. So I Left to Build Something That Could.

I’m Dr. Shiv Goel—a board-certified internal medicine and functional medicine physician in San Antonio, Texas. By day, I run Prime Vitality, a holistic wellness clinic blending functional medicine, aesthetics, and telemedicine. By night (and weekends, and stolen moments between patients), I’m building TimeVitality.ai—an AI platform designed to find root causes of health issues using temporal biomarkers and circadian data. I also write, host a podcast called “Vitality Matrix with Dr. Goel,” and I’m working on a book. Oh, and I competed in bodybuilding and won NPC Men’s Physique in 2022. Sleep is optional, apparently.

I spent years in critical care and hospital medicine—watching patients get treated for symptoms while the root causes went ignored. It broke something in me. I realized that the system I trained in wasn’t designed to heal people; it was designed to manage disease. So I left the hospital track, started my own clinic focused on functional medicine, and began asking: what if we could use AI to predict and prevent instead of just react? That question became TimeVitality.ai. I had zero startup experience—just clinical expertise and a stubborn belief that medicine could be better.

That because I’m a doctor, I have it all figured out. People assume physicians are wealthy, stable, and certain. The truth? I left a safe hospital salary to bootstrap a clinic, I’m learning to code-switch between medicine and tech, and most days I feel like I’m making it up as I go. Another misconception: that functional medicine is “woo-woo.” It’s actually rigorous, root-cause science—just not what insurance companies want to pay for.

The loneliness. In medicine, you’re part of a team—nurses, residents, specialists. As a solo founder, it’s just you and your decisions. I wasn’t prepared for how isolating it feels to build something no one around you fully understands. Also, the tech world moves fast and doesn’t care about your credentials. My MD means nothing to a developer or investor if I can’t speak their language. That learning curve hit hard.

Making the leap—and not going back. Leaving a secure position to bet on myself took everything. I’m proud that Prime Vitality exists and serves patients who were failed by conventional medicine. I’m proud of getting published in KevinMD and peer-reviewed journals while building a business. And honestly? Competing in bodybuilding at 50+ and winning—that showed me I could reinvent myself physically, not just professionally. If I can do that, I can build a startup.

Start before you’re ready, but don’t start alone. I waited too long thinking I needed everything perfect—the perfect website, the perfect pitch, the perfect product. I didn’t. What I needed was momentum and people who believed in the mission. Find your community early. And if you’re a physician thinking about entrepreneurship: your clinical skills are an asset, not a limitation. The world needs doctors who build, not just doctors who treat.

I’m actively looking for a technical co-founder or CTO who’s passionate about AI and preventive health. If that’s you—or you know someone—reach out. Also, I’m always down to connect with other founders in health, wellness, or longevity. The journey is messy, but it doesn’t have to be lonely. Let’s build together.