Alison Curfman, MD MBA is a practicing pediatric emergency physician, co-founder of Imagine Pediatrics, and founder of Startup Physicians, where she helps physicians build careers in healthcare innovation.
You did the hard thing. You built your DPC practice from nothing. You walked away from the insurance-based system everyone told you was the only way. You figured out the business model, signed up patients one by one, learned how to run payroll and negotiate with labs, and actually practice medicine the way you wanted to.
And now? It's working. Maybe even running smoothly.
So why does part of you feel restless?
If you're craving a new challenge—a creative outlet, intellectual stimulation, a way to have impact beyond one patient at a time—you're not alone. And you're not ungrateful. You're just ready for what's next.
Here's what I've learned: the skills that made you successful in DPC are exactly what startups and venture capital firms are willing to pay for. And this isn't about leaving medicine, abandoning your practice, or burning yourself out with another massive commitment. It's about using your expertise in a new way—one that fits alongside the practice you've already built.
Here's what most physicians don't realize: you already think like an entrepreneur. You've already done the thing most doctors are too scared to try.
You walked away from a predictable paycheck because you believed there was a better way. You built something from scratch. You figured out pricing, marketing, operations, and patient experience—all while still being the one who actually delivers the care. You understand business and medicine in a way that hospital-employed physicians simply don't.
And let's be honest: you've spent years watching the healthcare system fail your patients. You see the gaps every single day. The fragmented care. The misaligned incentives. The technology that makes your job harder instead of easier. You've probably thought a hundred times, "Someone should fix this."
That frustration? That's exactly what startups need.
They don't need you to be an investment banker or a tech founder. They need someone who can say, "That will never work in a real clinic, and here's why," or "You're solving the wrong problem—here's what patients actually need."
That's you.
I want to be clear about something: this work fits alongside your practice. It doesn't replace it.
Most advisory engagements require a few hours a month—a call here, a document review there, maybe a quarterly board meeting. You're not signing up for another full-time job. You're not abandoning your patients. You're adding a revenue stream that uses a different part of your brain and gives you impact at a different scale.
For a lot of DPC docs, this is actually the perfect complement to practice. You've already built something that gives you autonomy over your schedule. You've already rejected the idea that medicine has to consume every hour of your life. Advisory work slots into the margins—and pays well for the time it takes.
This isn't about replacing the practice you fought so hard to build. It's about expanding what's possible now that you have the foundation.
Healthcare is about to change faster in the next five years than it has in the last fifty. AI, policy shifts, new care delivery models—it's all accelerating. And here's the uncomfortable truth: if physicians aren't at the table guiding these changes, they'll be done to us, not with us.
Startups are building the tools and systems that will shape how we practice. Venture firms are deciding which companies get funded. They need clinical insight to get it right—to build products that actually work for patients and providers, not just look good in a pitch deck.
Your expertise isn't just valuable. It's essential.
When I tell physicians they can get paid to advise startups, the first question is usually: "But what would I actually do?"
Fair question. Here's what it looks like in practice:
Clinical validation — A company needs to prove its solution actually works. You help design real-world studies, define meaningful outcomes, and build the evidence base that demonstrates clinical impact. This is the difference between a product that sounds good and one that can actually earn trust from payers, health systems, and other physicians.
Product feedback — Before a health tech company launches a feature, they want to know: Will clinicians use this? Does the workflow make sense? You give them the frontline perspective their engineering team doesn't have.
Advisory boards — You join a small group of experts who meet quarterly (or monthly) to provide strategic guidance. This is often compensated with equity, cash, or both.
Market insight — Venture firms evaluating a potential investment want to understand the clinical landscape. They'll pay for your time to help them make better decisions.
KOL (Key Opinion Leader) work — Companies launching new products need credible physician voices to help with education, content, and market positioning.
None of this requires you to quit your practice, get an MBA, or pretend to be something you're not. It requires you to show up as a physician with hard-won clinical knowledge and a point of view.
Everything I've done in the startup world came directly out of my patient care experience.
I'm a practicing pediatric emergency physician. I've spent years taking care of kids in the ER—including the ones who kept coming back because the system failed them between visits. The kids with complex medical needs who fell through every crack. That frustration, that front-row seat to what wasn't working, became the foundation for everything that followed.
It led me to co-found Imagine Pediatrics, a healthcare company serving children with complex medical needs on Medicaid. We scaled it to hundreds of employees, raised significant venture funding, and built something that's now caring for over a hundred thousand kids. That didn't happen because I went to business school. It happened because I understood the problem from the inside.
Now I run a venture advisory firm, working with multiple funds and companies on innovative healthcare concepts. And I've built Startup Physicians specifically to create pathways for other doctors to do this work—because I know how hard it is to figure out on your own, and I know how much the industry needs more physician voices at the table.
The throughline from bedside to boardroom isn't as far as you think. It starts with the problems you already see.
The physicians who succeed in this space share two traits: they're confident in their value, and they're humble enough to learn.
The biggest mistakes I see:
Lack of confidence — Not realizing your expertise has value beyond clinical settings. It does. The years you've spent understanding how healthcare actually works? That's worth real money.
Hubris — Assuming your clinical authority automatically translates to business leadership. It doesn't. You have to be willing to learn a new language and listen more than you talk, especially at first.
Giving up too soon — Expecting overnight results and getting discouraged by the learning curve. Building a portfolio of advisory work takes time. The physicians who stick with it are the ones who succeed.
The sweet spot is being confident enough to charge what you're worth, and curious enough to keep learning.
If this sounds interesting, here's where to begin:
1. Get clear on your unique expertise. What clinical problems do you understand deeply? What patient populations? What operational challenges have you solved in your own practice? Your value proposition starts with specificity—and as a DPC doc, you have operational insight that most physicians don't.
2. Learn the landscape. Understand how startups work, how they're funded, and what problems they're trying to solve. You don't need to become an expert overnight, but you do need to speak the language well enough to have a real conversation.
3. Start building relationships. This work comes through networks. Attend health tech events. Connect with founders on LinkedIn. Join communities where these conversations are happening. Look for ways to add value before you ask for anything.
4. Know your worth. Don't undervalue yourself—but also be realistic about where you're starting. Your rates will grow as your track record does.
5. Be patient and persistent. Your first engagement might come from a random conversation. Your fifth might come from a referral from your first. This compounds over time.
You didn't build your DPC practice because you wanted to do the same thing forever. You built it because you wanted autonomy, impact, and the freedom to practice medicine on your own terms. You already proved you're willing to take the road less traveled.
Advisory work is an extension of that same instinct. It's a way to use your expertise to shape the future of healthcare—and get paid well to do it—without abandoning the practice you've built or overloading your schedule.
The opportunities are real. The work is meaningful. And it's more creatively fulfilling than most things you'll do in a clinic.
If you're curious to learn more, I've built a community and resources specifically for physicians exploring this path. Visit Startup Physicians to connect with other docs doing this work and find the frameworks to get started.
The next chapter of your career is waiting. You just have to decide you're ready for it.