This Founder Is Solving a Pain Point He Identified as an EMT

Troy Bannister and Dan Horbatt founded Particle Health in 2018 to solve a recurring problem they saw in the industry. 

Troy spent 15 years in healthcare, working as a clinical researcher, EMT, medical student, and early-stage investor. He discovered a disturbing gap between patient rights and the paper processes that digital solutions could fill and began thinking of ways he could bridge the gap and come up with a solution. 

Dan’s expertise in building large distributed systems, big data platforms, and cloud architecture was the perfect technical complement to what Troy needed to build his solution. Like Troy, Dan also felt the negative impact that resulted from the inability to access and share medical records frictionlessly and had the vision to revolutionize healthcare. 

Together, Troy and Dan set out to solve the problem of healthcare data interoperability, and Particle Health was born.

Once Troy and Dan came up with the idea for Particle Health, they began building out their solution and coming up with ways to make healthcare data more accessible to everyone. 

This took the form of an API platform that was simple to use, elegant, and easy to implement by developers and companies. As they were building their platform, they understood that it needed to be fast and allow users easy access to healthcare data. 

They acquired their first customers through a mix of great press, word of mouth, and referrals. They also implemented a paid media strategy and wrote thought-leadership content on the Particle Health blog. 

Once they began gaining traction and acquiring customers, they realized that their consistency to keep going allowed them to stay in the game and begin to transform the healthcare industry based on their past experiences.

Particle Health has recently adapted its strategy to focus on sustainability and ensuring its business is healthy in the long term, rather than focusing on “growth at all costs.” Gradually and carefully, they’re going to focus on boosting their key performance indicators and primary business metrics and continue to innovate within the healthcare space. 

Due to the strong leadership team they have in place, there’s no doubt that Particle Health will be able to endure the storm, grow at a confident pace, and come out even stronger than ever on the other side. The founders have laid their foundation in place — all that’s left is to execute their growth plan and continue to do the best work they can to serve their customers. 

Next Steps: 

• Check out Particle Health’s company profile, ways to get involved, and their insights for aspiring entrepreneurs!
• Hear startup stories from real founders on the Startup Savants podcast.
• Keep up with more startup companies by visiting our list of the top startups to watch.
• Form your own startup by reading our review of the best online incorporation services.