Innovative Health Tech Leader | Co-founder at Cara
As the Co-founder of Cara, I spearhead technology innovation and product development, crafting a unified platform that enhances practice management and care delivery. My expertise lies in leveraging AI, interoperability, and cloud-native design to build scalable, secure systems that streamline provider operations and improve patient experiences. I am passionate about the transformative potential of digital health companies in the coming decade, aiming to help people live healthier, more fulfilling lives. My career is dedicated to overcoming compliance challenges and technological fragmentation to ensure health tech success. Previously, I founded and scaled Widal Technologies and Vertrical, global digital health engineering firms that enabled healthcare organizations to deploy compliant, patient-centric solutions across telehealth, pharmacy fulfillment, diagnostics, and EHR systems. I have collaborated with major technology and healthcare organizations like IBM, E.on, Trivago, and Joyn to modernize legacy systems and develop secure, cloud-based platforms. My mission is to empower healthcare organizations with technology that is powerful, safe, and patient-focused, driving a future where care is more connected, accessible, and effective.
Nils efficiently built out our entire tech stack from scratch, seamlessly balancing rapid development with the rigorous demands of HIPAA compliance. His deep expertise in AI integration allowed us to implement cutting-edge features that were both scalable and secure. Nils is a rare technical leader who can navigate complex regulatory environments while maintaining the velocity a startup needs. I couldn’t recommend him more highly for any healthcare + AI project.
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Harry SaagCEO, Signal Health
Nils is a fantastic engineering leader AND doer. He executes at a level of quality and speed that is exceedingly rare, especially in the health tech sphere. He has strong domain knowledge in healthcare, broad experience from other industries, and has led enterprise scale deployments and developed 0-1 products at startups. I met him while at a large company and attempted to bring his product team into support my projects, and he was so good I left to build a company with him.
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Seth StatonCEO & Co-Founder, Cara
Work
Undisclosed
Pharmacogenomics, build on self-hosted N8N (ran the DevOps infra), Canvas Medical, Zoho, Custom Systems.
Unified Platform for Practice Management & Care Delivery
Co-founder and technology lead at Cara. Building a unified platform that pulls practice management and patient-facing care delivery into one product, with agentic AI and interoperability as first-class primitives rather than bolted-on features. Focused on making AI components clinically safe - which, in my view, is fundamentally a software-engineering discipline problem (repos, tests, CI, auditability) more than a "prompting" problem. Ongoing; live deployments with partner practices.
My agent harness got a shoutout from the MLOps community and Stanford's No1 AI lecturer.
Founded and scaled a US-focused healthcare D2C engineering consultancy Vertrical from zero to 150 people - starting in Europe and relocating the work to San Francisco to be closer to clients. Built the hiring engine, delivery model, leadership layer, and compliance posture that let us ship production-grade products for scale-ups like Truepill and SteadyMD while they ran engagements with Fortune 500s. This is the operational playbook I bring to fractional engagements today.
Built and scaled the engineering team behind store.optum.com, the consumer health storefront inside one of America's largest healthcare companies. Delivered the commerce experience connecting consumers to at-home testing, medications, and care bundles - supporting enterprise procurement, HIPAA controls, and F500 release gates while holding a startup shipping pace. Proof that a fractional/consultancy team can operate inside the tightest regulated environments without slowing down.
Led engineering delivery for Mark Cuban's Cost Plus Drugs (with / under Truepill, Inc.) - the consumer pharmacy that broke open prescription pricing. Shipped the storefront and the integrations connecting patients to compounded and generic medications at cost-plus pricing - at real consumer scale, under HIPAA, and with pharmacy-fulfillment partners in the loop. A high-stakes, high-traffic product built with a small, senior team that had to move like a startup while operating like a regulated healthcare company.
Cara helps practices in Primary Care, Women’s Health, Orthopedics, Cardiology, and Dermatology grow their patient panels by reducing Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) and increasing Lifetime Value (LTV). They integrate tools that automate tasks, enable patient self-service, and streamline care delivery, resulting in better growth, lower costs, and happier patients.
Co-founded Cara to revolutionize patient engagement through innovative technology solutions.
Implemented strategies that significantly reduced Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) while increasing Lifetime Value (LTV).
Led the development of AI-powered platforms to enhance patient journey and streamline healthcare delivery.
Established partnerships with healthcare providers to drive growth and improve patient outcomes.
Promoted a culture of innovation and rapid execution to build scalable, physician-led models.
Jul 2020 — Present
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Widal Technologies
CEO & Co-Founder
Widal Technologies is an AI-first software development agency focusing on patient-centric DTC/DTP platforms for virtual and hybrid healthcare. They specialize in pharmacy fulfillment, telehealth, diagnostics, EHR, interoperability, and AI-driven clinical data insights.
Co-founded Widal Technologies to build AI-driven healthcare solutions.
Focused on creating patient-centric platforms for virtual and hybrid healthcare models.
Led initiatives in pharmacy fulfillment, telehealth, and diagnostics to enhance healthcare delivery.
Developed AI-driven clinical data insights to improve patient outcomes and operational efficiency.
Fostered a culture of innovation and excellence in software development.
Jul 2020 — Aug 2024
Vertrical
CEO & Co-Founder
Vertrical is a globally distributed digital health software services company supporting digital healthcare companies to deploy and scale compliant health solutions. They leverage technical expertise to help companies avoid compliance risks, address technical debt, and open new markets.
Founded Vertrical to support digital health companies in deploying scalable and compliant solutions.
Built a global team of technical experts across Europe, Asia, and America.
Onboarded leading digital health companies and expanded into new global markets.
Focused on compliance with regulations like GDPR and HIPAA to ensure secure health tech solutions.
Promoted a professional and fun company culture with a focus on people-first values.
Jan 2010 — Jul 2020
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Freelancer.com
Senior Software Consultant
Freelancer.com is a platform connecting freelancers with global companies to address legacy systems and modernize technology with a focus on security and compliance.
Worked as a freelance software consultant for global companies, focusing on security and compliance.
Led modernization projects for IBM, E.on, Immowelt, Joyn, and Trivago.
Specialized in DevOps, software engineering, and system modernization.
Gained experience in diverse company cultures and technology landscapes.
Decided to found Vertrical to create a company culture that aligns with personal values.
Jan 1994 — Jul 2015
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Nils Widal
Software Developer
Nils Widal is a personal brand/company specializing in software development across various platforms, from mobile apps to complex cloud infrastructures.
Developed software solutions across multiple platforms, including Android, iOS, and Windows.
Built backend applications and APIs to support diverse business needs.
Designed and implemented complex cloud infrastructures for scalable solutions.
Focused on delivering high-quality software with a user-centric approach.
Continuously explored new technologies to enhance software capabilities.
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