An Interview With Jake Frankel
Policymakers often lack a deep understanding of the healthcare system at the local level. This lack of domain expertise results in poorly informed decisions that fail to address the intricacies of the market and its technology. We need policymakers with both hands-on experience in healthcare and an understanding of the technology driving the industry.
As a part of our interview series called “5 Things We Must Do To Improve the US Healthcare System”, I had the pleasure to interview Sufian Chowdhury.
Sufian Chowdhury is a serial entrepreneur whose passion lies in improving the healthcare industry through innovative technology. Through his experience in healthcare consulting and entrepreneurship, Sufian has held multiple leadership positions in both the healthcare and startup industries.
Currently, Sufian is the Co-Founder and CEO of Kinetik, a venture-backed SaaS healthcare startup based out of New York City. Kinetik is developing innovative API & Platform solutions that connect key stakeholders in the non-emergency medical transportation (NEMT) industry. We envision a future in which the coordination and delivery of medical transportation will be so seamless that any patient, anywhere, can request a healthcare ride in real time. To accomplish this, we have built the nation’s largest healthcare transportation infrastructure — one that digitally connects health plans, brokers, and providers. This enhanced level of connectivity significantly improves access to care for patients.
Sufian has over ten years of experience in management, fundraising, consulting, and technology, making him an excellent leader in the health tech industry. He has raised over $32 million for Kinetik to date, with Series B in the pipeline for 2025. Under his leadership, Kinetik has grown from a company that started in the back offices of a local Brooklyn-based transportation company to a nationwide, industry-leading technology powerhouse. Kinetik has been doubling in size over the last couple of years, reaching nearly 100 employees, and has 10x revenue growth over the past year. Sufian leads with empathy and a focus on Kinetik’s core values: Be Collaborative, Be Curious, Be Just.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive into our interview, our readers would like to get to know you a bit. Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
In early 2017, a friend running a local transportation company asked for help managing his Excel-based system for billing health insurers and brokers. As I dug into the industry’s complexities, I realized how broken the system was — rides required three days’ notice, processes were manual, and cash flow delays crippled small businesses. I spent months researching and collaborating, ultimately building the nation’s first digitized revenue cycle management (RCM) platform for non-emergency medical transportation. Our solution cut payment cycles in half, transforming the industry and sparking Kinetik’s journey.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
When consulting, I had no idea how instrumental those experiences would be in building companies. In the moment, you don’t realize how much everything matters.
Kinetik’s journey has been anything but conventional. We raised $32 million without institutional investors, and I structured the funding on common stock without giving out preferred shares — a very unorthodox approach. The idea for Kinetik came from a taxi company, and today, we’re on the verge of fundamentally transforming a healthcare marketplace. When I first walked into that taxi company, I had no idea we’d be where we are now.
Our fundraising process was just as unconventional. I didn’t know where to start and didn’t have access to many investors. I reached out to one of my college professors, whose journey was equally transformative. He had been running a publicly traded company that eventually folded. Struggling with that setback, his older brother encouraged him to pursue his passion for teaching. That’s how he ended up teaching economics, and I became one of his first-year students.
Our families unknowingly set us on a path that would intersect. My professor connected me to his network, including friends who helped me raise $25 million. Those introductions led to more connections, eventually securing the funding that brought Kinetik to life. His brother was instrumental in supporting the process. It’s amazing to think that if my professor’s company hadn’t folded, prompting his brother to encourage him to teach, we might never have met — and Kinetik might not exist.
At the same time, it was my sister who insisted I apply to that college, making my journey there feel truly serendipitous.
These connections laid the foundation for everything Kinetik has become.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
In the beginning, I had a co-founder, and we verbally agreed that I would invest money initially, and he would match that investment later in the year. I burned through all my money quickly, but when it came time for him to invest, he disappeared. He lacked belief in himself and in the startup. That experience taught me the importance of seeing things through and believing in yourself, even when it’s tough.
When I first came up with the idea for the RCM platform, the market only had one other billing platform operating in New York. I had a gut feeling they were using outdated methods like scraping data, even though my co-founders insisted that wasn’t happening. They believed there must be an API integration because we couldn’t access the data we needed otherwise.
To test my theory, we used my friend’s taxi company. One day, one of his friends called us about a glitch in their system. He sent me a screenshot, and I could clearly see that scraping was being applied. I brought this evidence to my co-founders, and that’s how we cracked the initial billing problem.
I started pitching our software to transportation companies. There was a large taxi company in Buffalo, N.Y., where I offered our solution for 25 cents per ride. They rejected it, saying it was too expensive. At the time, I needed a deal to raise funding. A year later, they built their own billing platform to compete with us. It was frustrating — they had more money and resources because they were already a successful taxi company.
But they returned to work with us a year after launching their platform. Their tech didn’t work, and they realized they needed our solution. That experience was a game-changer for my confidence. It taught me that you can’t just throw money at a problem and expect to build a successful product. You need deep domain knowledge and vision, which you can’t replicate by simply copying another company.
Fast-forward to a few years ago — I showed another company, led by someone I’d describe as “sketchy,” how our platform worked. They ended up building a brokerage to compete with us. But I’m confident they will also fail, just like others before them. They lack the market experience and vision we have, and that’s a massive difference.
These setbacks and challenges have helped build my confidence. I’ve learned not to worry about competitors because they aren’t the ones innovating or creating something genuinely new.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”
Many people have big dreams but hesitate to take the first step. For me, the key to building successful companies was taking that first step immediately. I didn’t waste time wondering or overthinking whether I could do it — I just did it.
Over time, those steps began to stack: first company, second, third, and so on. Even when stuck or overwhelmed, I focused on taking the next step. That mindset made all the difference.
How would you define an “excellent healthcare provider”?
Someone who understands both the administrative and healthcare sides of the business, as well as their interconnectivity. Someone who grasps how money flows through the healthcare ecosystem and how that flow impacts the quality of their work — and, in turn, how the quality of their work influences the flow of money back to them.
What are your favorite books, podcasts, or resources that inspire you to be a better healthcare leader? Can you explain why you like them?
The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho is a favorite. Its key messages made me who I am today:
- Everything you’re looking for in the external world is within.
- Your purpose is in your backyard, not out there to be found.
- Don’t seek external validation, don’t chase things — just work hard on yourself to achieve your dreams.
- The Persian proverb “This too shall pass”
- All good moments and bad moments will pass. Stay humble in the good moments, stay strong in the bad moments.
Additional business books that inspired me:
- Zero to One by Peter Thiel
- Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini
- Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari
- How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
- The Peter Principle by Laurence J. Peter
Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the main focus of our interview. According to this study cited by Newsweek, the US healthcare system is ranked as the worst among high-income nations. This seems shocking. Can you share with us a few reasons why you think the US is ranked so poorly?
Comparing America to other countries, especially smaller ones like those in Scandinavia, isn’t entirely fair because of the sheer size and complexity of the U.S. healthcare system. Scandinavian countries are smaller, more homogenous, and often operate within socialist frameworks that align well with healthcare as a social cause.
The U.S.’s status as a capitalistic country inherently conflicts with the principles of a socialist program like universal healthcare. Malpractice lawsuits also play a role, as providers are often cautious about the care they provide to avoid legal repercussions. This creates a system where incentives often drive poor behavior — fraud, waste, and abuse — rather than efficiency or improved outcomes.
In places like Scandinavia, healthcare takes a more conservative approach. For example, they might let a wound heal naturally rather than immediately stitching it. In the U.S., the incentive is to act quickly and apply costly solutions, even if they aren’t always necessary, because there’s financial gain involved.
The incentive structure in America is misaligned, creating a system where immediate, sometimes excessive care is favored over cost-effective, measured solutions. This is compounded by the layering of commercial, government-sponsored (local and national), and private systems, all with different rules, leading to conflicts and inefficiencies.
Countries like Norway, the Netherlands, and Switzerland consistently rank highly in healthcare because their systems align with their social priorities. While change in the U.S. is challenging, it’s possible to realign incentives and improve the system over time.
As a “healthcare insider”, if you had the power to make a change, can you share 5 changes that need to be made to improve the overall US healthcare system?
1 . Misaligned Incentives
Healthcare’s current incentive structures need a fundamental overhaul. Money flows from the government to private companies or nonprofits, then to providers at the local level. However, the way these capitated contracts are structured creates inefficiencies. Until these incentives align with better outcomes, we’ll continue to face systemic issues.
In the non-emergency medical transportation (NEMT) space, health plans operate under capitated per-member-per-month (PMPM) contracts — paying brokers a fixed monthly fee per member to manage transportation services. These brokers act as intermediaries, but their processes often lack transparency, leading to inefficiencies and delays. For example, scheduling a ride can take up to 72 hours, even though nearly every other industry has digitized and operates in real time. Brokers also set payment terms with drivers, often on a per-ride basis. During COVID, many brokers profited as ride volumes dropped, forcing many transportation companies out of business. This exacerbates the problem of network adequacy; when providers shut down, the network weakens, creating a counterintuitive and unsustainable system.
2. Digitization and Interoperability
Digitization in healthcare isn’t just about moving processes online — it’s about achieving interoperability. Systems need to communicate with one another, but currently, there are too many dead ends in communication. Without interoperability, we’re forced to rely on paper and manual processes that are time-consuming and expensive. True digitization means building a marketplace where systems talk to each other seamlessly.
3. Policy and Domain Expertise
Policymakers often lack a deep understanding of the healthcare system at the local level. This lack of domain expertise results in poorly informed decisions that fail to address the intricacies of the market and its technology. We need policymakers with both hands-on experience in healthcare and an understanding of the technology driving the industry.
4. Leadership and Technical Expertise
In a world where technology should be at the forefront of healthcare innovation, many companies are still led by business professionals with little to no technical expertise. This needs to change. We need leaders with technical backgrounds running tech-driven healthcare companies — CEOs who understand the technology at a foundational level, as we often see in other industries where the person who coded the product becomes the leader.
5. Bridging Generations in Healthcare
There’s a gap between young innovators and seasoned professionals in healthcare. Younger people often come in with great ideas but fail to respect institutional knowledge. Conversely, those with deep domain expertise often lack technological proficiency and are reluctant to share their knowledge with the next generation. This culture of withholding information needs to change. Open collaboration and knowledge-sharing are essential for moving the industry forward.
What concrete steps would have to be done to actually manifest these changes? What can a) individuals, b) corporations, c) communities and d) leaders do to help?
1 . Individuals
We need more innovators entering healthcare to focus on specific verticals or niche areas and develop solutions tailored to those challenges.
2. Corporations
Corporations need to advocate for a better incentive structure. While their primary goal is to generate profit, the current system often forces executives to choose between prioritizing people or profits. In a government-influenced healthcare market, if executives prioritize people over profitability, they risk losing their jobs. This creates a fundamental conflict.
The solution lies in designing an incentive structure that rewards companies for putting people first while maintaining profitability. Metrics are being introduced to address this, but it’s unclear if they’re effective. We all need to work together to find a sustainable incentive model that doesn’t force corporations to compromise on quality care. Without this, the system will remain dysfunctional.
3. Community
Communities can play a role by volunteering and contributing to solutions. But more importantly, we all need to try to understand why the healthcare market is such a mess. Many people complain about it, but few take the time to understand or fix it. Your vote has a real impact on healthcare policy. Take the time to learn about the system and identify which politicians and policies align with meaningful healthcare reform. Incremental improvements, while not ideal, are better than stagnation.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sufian-chowdhury/
- Forbes: https://councils.forbes.com/profile/Sufian-Chowdhury-CEO-Co-Founder-Kinetik/92578d01-929f-4e1b-9b80-b9c4c694aa5a
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sufianachowdhury?igsh=Z3E3aHFhdzU1dGhs&utm_source=qr
Thank you so much for these insights! This was very inspirational and we wish you continued success in your great work.
Sufian Chowdhury Of Kinetik On 5 Things We Must Do To Improve the US Healthcare System was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.