Two Near-Death Medical Emergencies Inspired This Entrepreneur to Tackle an Overlooked Problem With America’s Health
How finance expert Alex Bussenger built Heal Together, a platform that connects people living through the aftermath of medical trauma.
Heal Together
Alex Bussenger is a former senior vice president at Bank of America Private Bank whose entrepreneurial journey took an unexpected and terrifying turn when he experienced not one, but two near-death medical emergencies. His long recovery inspired him to create Heal Together, an AI-powered platform that connects people who survived major health events with others who’ve walked the same path.
Alex, who is also the founder of One Eight Capital, was recently a guest on our show, How Success Happens, and discussed the genesis and evolution of his idea. Listen to the full episode here and read on for powerful insights to help your own personal success take off in three, two, one!
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Three Key Insights
- The Philosophy Behind Real Entrepreneurship
Alex challenges the typical “I want to be an entrepreneur” mentality. He believes genuine founders don’t manufacture problems to fit their ambitions—instead, they experience the problem firsthand and develop a burning desire to solve it. As Alex told me, “I don’t think anyone should say they want to be an entrepreneur. Then kind of back test and manufacture a problem, a solution, an idea, rather. I think that someone should experience the problem firsthand, realize they have a burning desire to solve it for themselves and for other people.” For Alex, that moment came the day he experienced an aortic dissection — a tear in the heart’s main artery.
Takeaway: Stop looking for business ideas and start looking for real problems in your own life—authenticity in entrepreneurship comes from solving challenges you’ve personally endured.
2. Why Connection Matters More Than Medicine
After surviving a grueling 12-hour open-heart surgery and complications that required a 10-hour follow-up procedure, Alex discovered something unexpected: the emotional toll of recovery was as brutal as the physical one. He explains, “The recovery journey is extremely isolating and lonely, even when you’re surrounded by family and friends.” When Alex conducted informal research with other patients, he found near-universal agreement on three things: patients desperately crave connection during recovery, they experience profound loneliness, and there was no personalized way to connect them with others who had been through similar experiences. This realization became the seed for Heal Together.
Takeaway: The business opportunity isn’t always about the product—it’s about the human need hiding beneath the surface of every customer’s pain.
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3. Reduce Stress Through Simplification
For Alex, stress management isn’t a wellness trend—it’s a matter of life and death. His approach is counterintuitive: don’t add new routines and habits, but rather add focus to the ones that matter. He visualizes this like a lighthouse: instead of casting light far and wide, reduce it to a laser beam. “A lot of stress comes from not doing too many things, but doing the wrong things,” Alex says. By ruthlessly eliminating activities that don’t contribute to his ultimate mission and focusing only on what truly matters, he’s found that stress naturally decreases.
Takeaway: Audit your daily commitments and eliminate anything that doesn’t serve your core mission—you’ll be surprised how much stress simply vanishes.
Two Great Ways to Learn More
- Connect with Alex Bussenger and discover more about Heal Together on LinkedIn.
- Read how another entrepreneur went about turning a personal crisis into a meaningful business.
One Question to Ponder
Alex turned his darkest moment into his greatest mission. Here’s my question for you: What problem in your own life have you been ignoring that could actually become your biggest business opportunity? Send your answer to howsuccesshappens@entrepreneur.com, and we might read your response on a future episode!
About How Success Happens
Each episode of How Success Happens shares the inspiring, entertaining, and unexpected journeys that influential leaders in business, the arts, and sports traveled on their way to becoming household names. It’s a reminder that behind every big-time career, there is a person who persisted in the face of self-doubt, failure, and anything else that got thrown in their way.
Alex Bussenger is a former senior vice president at Bank of America Private Bank whose entrepreneurial journey took an unexpected and terrifying turn when he experienced not one, but two near-death medical emergencies. His long recovery inspired him to create Heal Together, an AI-powered platform that connects people who survived major health events with others who’ve walked the same path.
Alex, who is also the founder of One Eight Capital, was recently a guest on our show, How Success Happens, and discussed the genesis and evolution of his idea. Listen to the full episode here and read on for powerful insights to help your own personal success take off in three, two, one!
