From Risk-Averse to Risk-Ready: Katie Davis, MS, RN, AGACNP-BC on Learning to Say Yes in Healthcare Startups

Just because you are doing everything right clinically does not mean the organization will survive.

In this episode, Helen sits down with Katie Davis, a nurse practitioner and clinician executive who has spent more than two decades building care models across hospital systems and early-stage healthcare startups. Katie has served as a founding and early clinical leader in multiple venture-backed companies, helping design and operationalize care for high-risk populations in fast-moving environments.

Katie shares her path from taking a 50 percent pay cut to join her first telehealth startup to spending five years building a clinically successful company that ultimately shut down. She reflects on the hard lessons that came with that experience and how it reshaped the way she leads.

Together, Helen and Katie unpack the shift many clinicians struggle with in startups, moving from being the person who flags every risk to the leader who says yes and figures out how to make it work. They explore the tension between mission and margin, why a growth mindset matters more than perfection, and how failure becomes a necessary teacher when building something new.

Now running her own fractional leadership practice, Health Shift Leaders, Katie is focused on helping clinicians learn the business of healthcare faster and with fewer painful lessons. This conversation is full of honest insight for any clinician navigating startup leadership, uncertainty, and growth.

Must-Hear Insights and Key Moments

• Her first startup built telehealth for skilled nursing facilities before it was commonly done.
• Katie shifted from pointing out obstacles to saying yes and figuring out how to make things work
• Board relationships from her first startup created opportunities years later

Mentioned in the episode:

• HealthShift Leaders
• Y Combinator
• The Heart of Healthcare Podcast

About Katie

Katie Davis is a board-certified adult gerontology acute care nurse practitioner and advanced forensic nurse with over 20 years of experience across hospital systems, health tech, telemedicine, and post-acute care. She has served as a founding and early clinical leader in multiple healthcare startups, building and scaling clinical operations for high-risk populations.

Katie spent five years at her first telehealth startup serving skilled nursing facilities and four years at her second startup, where she was the first nurse practitioner hired and helped scale operations to 15,000 patients per month. She is the founder of HealthShift Leaders, a fractional leadership practice, and is building a new company focused on teaching clinicians the business of healthcare.

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