Nathanael Ren

Co-Founder of Buoy Health

(Forbes 30 Under 30)

4 August 2019 9 Min Read

Nathanael Ren on Innovating Healthcare for the Bright Future

Meet Nathanael Ren, Chief Growth Officer and one of the co-founders of Buoy Health, a company that uses artificial intelligence to help people by pre-determining their symptoms before they seek medical guidance. His achievement in creating this company got Nathanael a place on Forbes’ 30 Under 30 US & Canada 2019: Healthcare list.

Ren graduated Cum Laude with his Bachelor’s Degree from Harvard University. While working as a research analyst at Harvard Business School, Nathanael went undercover as a mobile phone engineer in a Chinese factory to observe the factory work culture. He then worked at Sears as a Business Analyst and Business Manager before co-founding Buoy Health.

His journey is unique, his views are extraordinary, and his end goal is even more exciting. So, join me in learning about his company mission, the good and bad of his industry, and get his advice on success!

The Logician

Hi Nathanael, and welcome to this interview! Before anything else, I would like to thank you for being part of this mission! Now, can you tell us more about yourself? Who is Nathanael Ren? How and why did you choose your current career?

Nathanael Ren

Hi, great to be here. It’s an awesome thing what you’re trying to accomplish.

I’m the Chief Growth Officer and Co-Founder at Buoy, working on user acquisitions.

I grew up in Boston after coming to the States as a kid.

My parents were in the medical and academic fields and so were all their friends.

So from a young age, I assumed that I’d follow their steps and become a doctor or professor.

But somewhere in my early 20’s, I was strangely attracted to business and startup life because of the potential, though at rare odds, to impact millions of lives.

So it was this somewhat naive pursuit of “leaving a mark” that ultimately drew me to break from the familiar and choose to start Buoy at 24 with my three co-founders.

Ironically, I ended up still doing something very related to my parents’ wishes, albeit via machines and engineering.

The Logician

Do you mind telling us about Buoy Health? What is the mission of your company? How did you come up with the business idea? Why is it important?

Nathanael Ren

At Buoy, we want to advance A.I. and create a Netflix of healthcare where people had better ways of knowing how to respond to symptoms they are concerned about.

Using a chat-based interface, Buoy A.I. asks questions like a doctor and provides users with matches and next steps in terms of programs, self-treatments, doctors nearby recommendations, etc.

I didn’t come up with the idea but heard about it from one of the smartest friends I had in college, who’s now the co-founder and CEO.

When I was evaluating whether or not to co-start the company, I thought there were no versions of the future where technology like Buoy did not exist.

The thought that people will forever search their symptoms in a few phrases and then read a bunch of articles to decipher for themselves what’s going on seemed awfully scary and backward.

An AI machine that could ask questions like a doctor to give you better suggestions could do a better job. So, to me, this field was bound to be disrupted. It was just a matter of when and by whom.

Beyond the improvement in accuracy for self-diagnosis, I think the significance of Buoy ultimately lies in its scalability. We have a severe shortage of doctors in the world and their time is getting ever more scarce.

In an ideal world, we can duplicate the smartest doctor overnight and send them all across the world so every sick person can spend an hour receiving great medical care advice. But obviously, that’s science fiction.

The next best thing is to train a machine because it can be duplicated and sent to everyone, especially in areas where folklore medicine is still very much a reality.

The Logician

I would also like to take this opportunity to congratulate you for being among Forbes 30 under 30! Was it a dream come true? What do you believe most contributed to this success?

Nathanael Ren

Thank you. It certainly was a dream come true. I remember as a young entrepreneur really looking up to the people that made it every year. I didn’t think I could make it but was pleasantly surprised.

I don’t know if being a “success” is how I would describe myself right now, but I would say several factors helped me to get to this point, the most important one being what supported me through hard times (see the answer for question 6).

The Logician

What are the best and worst parts of the industry you are in? Why?

Nathanael Ren

I think at a macro level people don’t have the right resources to guide them to make the right decisions when faced with certain symptoms. On top of that, we have a rising patients-to-doctors ratio.

The two combined are presenting significant health risks to those who are sick and to physicians who are overworked. I hear this over and over again via user tests and conversations with my doctor friends.

Hospitals have become like factories where the sheer volume of patients mean that a doctor can spend ever decreasing amount of time per person.

A large percentage of ER visits can be treated at lower acuity settings, which means patients waste money and time while doctors cannot spend as much time as they want on for those who are really sick.

That’s just in the U.S., where at least the medicine is sound. Many parts of the world have it a lot worse.

That being said, I see a tremendous amount of support from executives in the field for innovation. They’re open-minded and willing to dream with us entrepreneurs to bring the next generation of healthcare technology.

The Logician

As a young co-founder of a successful business, how well do you manage your time? What are the best time-management practices that you use?

Nathanael Ren

I don’t have a magic formula.

I think 25% of the equation is being more efficient at doing what you have to do. Practically, I have lots of to-do lists, divided into “backlog, doing, and done.” Extensive documentation on Airtable, Confluence, and Jira also help.

I also like to ask everyone to do the homework in advance (I.e. spec docs, studies, etc) so that meetings are kept short and have a specific ask for consensus by the end.
Another 75% of time-management lies in the person’s ability to toss out things that don’t matter or require rework in the future.

I try to think structurally at the components that solve a problem and avoid off-the-cuff remarks or pop-corn decisions like a plague. A strategic plan needs the proper amount of vetting and thinking ahead.

Like in chess where you need to make moves not just for the next round but for the next several rounds where you can see how A gets to B and then to C but prevents D from happening, same in business.

The Logician

What was the hardship you had to face working in your position? How did you overcome it? What are the best ways to cope with stress?

Nathanael Ren

I think starting a company is so hard that you have to have ways of dealing with stress and setbacks. In the first year, almost every month a founder will likely face a near-death experience in their business, where their pride and hard-work are held in jeopardy.

By the third year, every quarter and by the fifth year, every year. So I’m convinced that almost every successful entrepreneur has found a way to deal with the stress.

For Buoy, our technology was hard to develop and we could not generate $ as a consumer brand from the start.

So it was not a straight forward optimization funnel. Lots of people have different ways of dealing with rejection and failures. For me, I received a tremendous amount of support from my faith and community, though I know it’s not particularly sexy to talk about or common in this field.

The community really encouraged me when times got tough and I drew inspiration from a number of stories like David and Goliath, Joseph the dreamer where weaker players overcome incredible odds to fend off danger.

My cofounders have also been awesome. One of the things you quickly realize is that it’s not about having the best idea, it’s about having the best people.

Hard problems will arise and throw you off course and it’s vital that you have cofounders with whom you can trust and rely on to solve those issues together.

The Logician

What are the five most important habits for achieving success? Please explain.

Nathanael Ren

Self-learn new skills: Opportunities present themselves to people who are prepared. I learned full-stack development for 3 years, without which I would not have joined Buoy. So I encourage people to keep learning new skillsets that interest them because one day, it will lead them to a job or promotion that require those skills.
Read a ton: Books are the best shortcuts to expertise. The best condense their life learnings into short chapters that others can essentially take from.
Learn to communicate: A lot of the times, it’s not about who has the best ideas, it’s about who can communicate an idea that other people can immediately understand and support. Communication is an art and takes years of practice to be able to paint a picture that gets others to nod their heads and agree to do what you want to do. So be very mindful of how to present an idea’s context, trigger words, truths, etc to be a persuasive leader.
Listen & be flexible: I find that the best executives are those who weigh a variety of opinions and are able to change positions when they hear sound ideas. Command-and-control leadership styles can be very efficient if the leader is right but disastrous if wrong and no one is right all the time.
Have a vision: Set a vision and work backward. For example, if you want to be the next Steve Jobs and change the world in a certain area, what paths will position you for something like that? What skills would you need to learn now?

The Logician

How do you motivate yourself to get work done? Apart from work, what do you enjoy doing?

Nathanael Ren

I think once you start managing a group of people, the responsibility associated with it will naturally motivate you to get work done.

Apart from work, I like watching movies, trading stocks, hiking, and learning a language.

The Logician

Where do you see yourself and your company in the next ten years? Do you have any milestones you want to reach by then?

Nathanael Ren

Company-wise, I hope Buoy becomes a house-hold brand in the next 10 years and become the first step in people’s journey in healthcare if they have to engage in it.

I wish it disrupts the healthcare industry the way Netflix did in entertainment and IPO.

Professionally, I wish to get Buoy some street cred in the growth marketing and growth product worlds.

Personally, I hope to raise a beautiful family.

The Logician

Finally, what is the best advice you can give to anyone who fears they will not be successful?

Nathanael Ren

Because careers are 30–40 years long, I think it’s often hard to grasp the various twists and turns even if the overall direction is up and to the right, so don’t give up and keep dreaming.

I recommend drawing inspirations from people like Steve Jobs and Jack Ma.

The other thing to ask is what does it mean to be successful? “Success” changes as goals change. Being a multi-millionaire doesn’t mean one is successful if that wasn’t the goal of the person.

Raising a great family, adopting orphans, defending the oppressed, those are all successes depending on the person’s goals.

The Logician

Thank you, Nathanael, for explaining the ins and outs of your company and what it’s like working in the field of AI and healthcare. You gave a great reminder that building a company isn’t about having the best idea; it’s really about having the best people surrounding you. To hear your goals for Buoy to become a household brand and to disrupt the healthcare industry is inspiring. It would be exciting to witness such a shift in our lifetime. I wish you luck in achieving all of your great goals!

The Logician

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