Physician Builder Spotlight: Bryce Piro

We’re shining light on MD-entrepreneurs! Each week, we feature an entrepreneurial doctor who’s building a cool product, company, or working on a big idea that you definitely want to know about. This week, meet Bryce Piro, Founder and CEO of OpenScope Health (more on the company’s mission below!). You can connect further with Bryce on LinkedIn.

1. Bryce, what inspired you to become a physician entrepreneur? When I entered medical school, I had never given much thought to becoming an entrepreneur, but I’ve always had an inherent drive to build and discover innovative solutions to complex problems. My first entrepreneurial itch came from a social media page I built with my medical school roommates, which led me to found both a coffee company and an ed-tech startup while still in school. After graduating, I moved to San Francisco to team up with top AI researchers to build OpenScope Health.

2. Tell us what your company does and what problem you're trying to solve. At OpenScope Health, we’re leveraging AI to build Personalized Health Agents (PHAs): always-on health partners that understand your full health story, think like a physician, and help you cultivate lasting health instead of just treating illness. Our first step is SelfDDx, the on-demand symptom checker that delivers personalized, educational health insights.

3. What's your advice to anyone who's thinking about entrepreneurship or a nontraditional career in medicine? Try it, no matter how small. You don’t have to be the CEO of an AI medicine company to get a taste of entrepreneurship. My first venture was a small e-commerce coffee brand, but I learned more about business in three months building it than I ever could from years of research and hesitation. In the age of AI, there are still countless things waiting to be innovated. I tell everyone to keep one question in the back of their mind during their day-to-day work: What seemingly trivial thing could be made better with AI?

4. How can a physician overcome their biggest fear to start a company or organization? In Plato’s Apology, Socrates famously says, “I know that I know nothing.” Before I became an entrepreneur, I assumed every business leader knew everything about business and that I could never measure up. What I quickly learned is that even the most successful entrepreneurs felt completely lost at the start; they simply worked harder and came up with more creative solutions than the next person.

5. What's the #1 lesson you've learned since building your company that wasn't obvious to you before? If you build a company in a field you’re passionate about, the hours don’t feel like work. It is more like a challenging hobby, whether that’s building a Lego set or fixing up an old car. I “work” 16–18 hours a day right now, and while I’m exhausted at night, I wake up each morning excited to do it all over again.

6. Name the top resources you found most helpful to get going as an entrepreneur that others would benefit from. A lot of classes and organizations feel like reading a textbook on how to play basketball, i.e. useful in theory but the best way to learn is by actually playing the game.

That said, there is one resource I think is a true game-changer for physicians pursuing entrepreneurship, and it has little to do with medicine or business: Alchemy by Rory Sutherland. Medical training tends to beat the creative, non-analytical mindset out of you through years of schooling and residency. Analytical thinking is valuable, but so is the equally important creative pathway, and this book gave me permission to think with it again.

7. How can other physicians support you? We’d greatly appreciate any feedback on our first app, SelfDDx, especially from physicians, on our model’s performance. I’m also happy to connect with current (or future) physician entrepreneurs, investors, and med tech researchers. Feel free to email me at bpiro33@gmail.com or add me on Linkedin.

If you are interested in learning more, you can connect learn more about Bryce's company here.