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Dr Sam Donegan: From Saving Lives to Startups, Cofounder Breakups, Burnout, and Building Again
Manage episode 517588742 series 3647537
Dr Sam Donegan is a medical doctor turned AI founder and the creator of SupportSorted, one of Australia’s fastest-growing digital health startups.
In this candid episode, Sam opens up about his leap from medicine to healthtech, co-founder breakups, VC pressure, burnout and rebuilding. He shares what he got wrong at his first startup, Fora (validate before you build, GTM > perfect UI), what most NDIS and health-tech founders overlook (workforce design, churn, compliance), and why ego and perfectionism quietly sink teams.
We also talk openly about his Bipolar II diagnosis, how getting help changed his operating system as a founder, and the practical mental-health playbook guiding his second act at SupportSorted -https://www.supportsorted.com/.
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Chapters
1. The reality of startups & perfectionism (00:00:00)
2. From medicine to startups (00:00:41)
3. The birth of Fora (00:03:58)
4. Validate first: why no one used the app (00:07:00)
5. Finding product-market fit via one parent (00:10:58)
6. Co-founder breakups & hard lessons (00:17:34)
7. VC money, growth… and new problems (00:23:55)
8. Churn, HR gaps & culture cracks (00:30:35)
9. Burnout and Bipolar II diagnosis (00:38:00)
10. Rebuilding with purpose: SupportSorted (00:47:19)
11 episodes
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