I help organizations scale with less chaos
Founder of 3 businesses (sold 2)
Operating at the intersection of systems engineering and human behavior
UVa System Engineering, UCLA MBA
My Area of Focus
I thrive when working with scaling or at scale organizations, in partnership with a visionary CEO and leadership team.
I bring together cross functional teams to solve problems at the root cause, leveraging my skills in systems engineering, behavioral science, organizational design and software.
Experience
Co-Founder, COO of Sleep Medicine Clinics 2005-2010 (Acquired)
Enable people to live a happier, healthier, life starting with a better nights sleep.
- 79%Adherence rate to sleep apnea treatment plans (highest in the nation compared with 3,000 facilities)
- 99%Percentile in customer satisfaction (Press Ganey)
- Custom built a patient experience platform to manage 140,000 patients and 300 employees at our 25 sleep medicine clinics
- Aligned teams by cascading the company’s purpose into OKRs, then down to daily tasks and objectives for each employee.
- Applied behavioral science principles to drive patient and physician adherence to treatment plans.
- Embedded these principles into our CX software, making them the default behavior—e.g., routing scheduling calls based on patient name and demographics.
Founder, CEO of Health IT Startup 2012-2017
Reduce healthcare spend and improve outcomes for high risk patients (~80% of healthcare spend in the US is driven by ~10% of patients).
- 12-20%Reduction in total health care spend
- 40%Reduction in hospitalizations
- Developed a high performance primary care model for organizations like Boeing, UAW, Ford, Davita, and GM, in collaboration with one of the originators of the Hot Spotter Model (Pranav Kothari)
- Studies, including those by Harvard and Johns Hopkins, showed our work led to a 40% reduction in hospitalizations and a 12–20% decrease in total healthcare spending.
- Our approach empowered patients to rely on their primary care team for healthcare decisions, replacing the fragmented care model
- We built an analytics platform that integrated data from dozens of sources and ran 7,000+ quality checks, helping care teams track if, when, and how patients deviated from their care plans.
Co-Founder, CEO of Outsourced Back Office Services. 2018-2024 (Acquired)
Re-think bookkeeping. Do for bookkeeping what WordPress did for website development.
- 91%Reduced number of unique tasks per month per bookkeeper from 3,000 to 260
- 2xDoubled bookkeeper productivity, as measured by MRR / person
- Developed frameworks to standardize decision-making, including change management, fostering a culture where the team embraced and celebrated process improvements.
- Used exercises like Energy Gains/Drains to help individuals operate in their Genius Zones (GZ)—guiding promotions, managing low performers, and aligning the team with our purpose.
- Built software to configure bookkeeping functions (e.g., AP, AR) rather than relying on templates customized for each client—adopting a configure, not code approach.
- Built a data warehouse that consolidated data across all clients, enabling:
- Over 50 daily quality measures to near real time identify accounting issues.
- Work efficiency tracking to identify training opportunities.
- Process optimization by pinpointing error-prone steps.
- Automated accrual accounting, such as prepaid expenses.
Core Skills I've Developed
The common theme across my work is the application of my systems engineering mindset to solve problems at the root cause. As an endurance athlete, I thrive on Type II fun - challenging in the moment & rewarding in retrospect
I dive deep and get specific. I have the most success and fun when I'm building process that impacts, and gets impacted by, human behavior.
I have built custom software throughout my career; most recently I have developed GenAI prototypes to help organizations do things like develop OKRs and collect team feedback.
The scaffolding for systems innovation is good organizational design. I start by ensuring there is energetic alignment between individuals, departments, and the company.
Some Personal Projects
2016
I wanted to give my wife a marriage proposal that matches the unique and amazing person that she is.
- Built a handmade wooden storybook that tells the story of our romance.
- Each chapter contained a wooden puzzle that unlocked the next page.
- The last page of the book exposed the ring, which I also made.
2015
My now wife couldn’t bring our dog to work. I wanted to help her feel more connected to Pickles during the day.
- Shirin was able to deliver treats to our dog and get a video response of Pickles enjoying those treats.
- A bunch of our friends (and friends of friends, etc.) also gave Pickles treats.
- Pickles gained about 5 pounds that first month!
Built a remote treat dispensing machine using a Raspberry Pi.
- Programmed it primarily in Python.
- Built various interfaces e.g. Amazon Alexa to trigger the treat delivery mechanism.
2017-2023
We wanted highly nutritious vegetables reliably, on demand, and year round.
- Concurrently grew 66 lettuces, herbs, peppers and more.
- Harvested enough to feed us and our neighbors consistently and reliably.
- Built many iterations of various hydroponics systems, including a deep water culture, a vertical tower, and an ebb and flow system.
- Experimented with different configurations of grow lights, light cycles, plant density and nutrient concentrations to optimize output (defined by volume, aesthetics and taste of food produced).
- Optimized everything around the principle of “Maximum output for minimum effort”.
2022-2024
Learn how to build and optimize a system with many unique constraints
- Fully equipped off road capable van with AC, bathroom, shower, kitchen and queen sized bed.
- Enough water, diesel and power to last for 2 weeks off grid.
- Converted a stock Sprinter cargo van.
- Extended range to 700 miles via 47 gallon diesel tank.
- Power the electrical system via a 900aH LiFePo battery bank.
- Re-charge batteries via 3 sources: 720 watts of rooftop solar, a DC-DC charger and shore power.
- On demand Internet via a converted Starlink (from 120v rotating dish mount to a 12v flat mount).
- On demand hot water and heat via 46 gallons of fresh water, a diesel furnace that heats 4.5 gallons of glycol, and a heat exchanger.
- Custom built walnut countertops and ceiling from milled lumber.
Ready to Connect?
Feel free to get in touch via email or LinkedIn.