The Koda co-founding team – Tatiana Fofanova, PhD (CEO, clinical scientist), Desh Mohan, MD (CMO, internal medicine physician), and Katelin Cherry, MBE (CTO, software engineer) — was specifically recruited by the Texas Medical Center Biodesign Fellowship in 2019 to identify and solve critical problems in healthcare. The Biodesign program identifies and matches team members based on complementary skill sets, personalities, and values to pre-select for co-founder compatibility, and provides fellows with the resources to complete six months of dedicated customer discovery in the world’s largest medical center in Houston, TX. While our individual clinical, technical, and scientific expertise, combined with our commercialization-focused mentorship and program, provided an excellent foundation for success, it was actually our individual interests in serving an underserved population that has made us so passionate to address this need.

We saw firsthand how most seniors did not have the opportunity to define what care mattered to them prior to serious illness, also called advance care planning (ACP).

This was disproportionately affecting vulnerable populations – underserved minorities, the underinsured, and the uninsured.

After launching Koda Health out of Biodesign, we received support and investment from the world’s largest payor through the Techstars UnitedHealthcare accelerator. Since then, we’ve attracted an advisory board of C-suite health care executives from leading payor and provider systems who are passionate about our mission. Ultimately, we hope that all patients can receive the care and quality of life that matters to them, always.