About the Book
As a follow-up to the author’s first book, The Startup Protocol: A Guide for Digital Health Startups to Bypass Pitfalls and Adopt Strategies That Work, this book is a series of case studies about digital health Unicorns. The ultimate goal is to further educate digital health startup founders and their teams about what it takes to be successful and have a lasting, positive effect on our healthcare delivery system. Through a series of interviews with Unicorn founders and leaders, the book will synthesize the information and highlight the elements that led to the growth and success of the companies.
Building on the template of Ideate, Build, Launch, and Grow outlined in The Startup Protocol, this book documents the origin story of each Unicorn and then follows it through the process of building their solution, launching the solution, and growing their company to Unicorn status.
Table of Contents:
Chapter 1: Aidoc Chapter 2: Amwell Chapter 3: athenahealth Chapter 4: ConcertAI Chapter 5: DispatchHealth Chapter 6: Element Biosciences Chapter 7: Innovaccer Chapter 8: Lunit Chapter 9: Omada Health Chapter 10: Redox Chapter 11: Recurring Themes and Wisdom
About the Author :
Sally Ann Frank, WW Lead – Health & Life Sciences | Microsoft for Startups
Sally Ann Frank leads the global healthcare and life sciences program for Microsoft for Startups, an organization dedicated to accelerating the development of innovative companies. Through business strategy, planning, go-to-market development, and technical excellence, she enables startups to achieve their revenue and long-term goals.
Additionally, Sally directly mentors healthcare and life sciences founders at all stages of their company’s development to help them thrive and positively impact the global healthcare delivery system. She also works directly with enterprise companies, VCs, accelerators, and other ecosystem players to facilitate connections, learning, and collaboration across the various stakeholders.
Previously, she was part of Microsoft’s IoT Solutions team, helping healthcare and life sciences companies use IoT to improve patient outcomes and operational efficiencies. With more than 25 years in the technology industry, she is focused on business outcomes, helping providers, payers, medical device, pharmaceutical, and life sciences companies use, AI, machine learning, IoT, and other Microsoft technologies to meet the changing demands of the healthcare industry.
She earned an MBA from The George Washington University (Washington, DC), an MS in Systems Management from the University of Southern California, and a BS in Marketing with a minor in Computer Science from Virginia Tech. She is the author of The Startup Protocol: A Guide for Digital Health Startups to Bypass Pitfalls and Adopt Strategies That Work, published by Routledge.
She lives in the Charlotte, NC, metro area with her husband and her seven-pound Chihuahua.
Review :
“The Unicorn Protocol offers a welcome departure from the typical startup narrative. Rather than glorifying disruption or relying on post-hoc success stories, it brings forward the operational, emotional, and structural realities of building a company in one of the most unforgiving sectors: healthcare.
This collection of founder stories helps reframe how we evaluate early-stage digital health ventures. It puts founders rather than technologies at the center of the story. In doing so, it surfaces key patterns that matter most, such as how conviction is tested by reimbursement cycles, how clinical validation collides with commercial runway, and how teams evolve under regulatory and cultural pressure.
What makes this book valuable isn’t just the access to high-profile founders or the sector-specific anecdotes. It’s the cumulative picture it paints of what’s required to create momentum in a system that rarely rewards speed or novelty. For the investors, health system partners, and even incumbents in the system, the book offers a more informed lens on what early-stage success actually looks like before scale.
The Unicorn Protocol isn’t a hero’s journey but rather a map of the terrain, drawn by those who’ve crossed it.”
Ali Tafreshi
CEO & President, Topcon Health, Inc.
“The Unicorn Protocol is a refreshingly candid and deeply human exploration of what it takes to build a successful digital health startup. Far from a conventional how-to manual, this founder-centric anthology offers an unfiltered look into the personal journeys of entrepreneurs who have dared to challenge the healthcare status quo. Through rich storytelling, detailed company profiles, and insightful interviews, the book reveals the grit, strategy, and soul behind some of the most impactful healthcare innovations of our time. It doesn’t romanticize the startup path—it respects it, honoring the complexity and purpose that drive mission-led founders. For healthcare professionals contemplating entrepreneurship, startup teams navigating early growth, or investors seeking to understand what makes a digital health venture thrive, The Unicorn Protocol serves as a compass, a mirror, and a call to action.”
Kathleen McGrow DNP, MS, RN, PMP, FHIMSS, FAANGlobal Chief Nursing Innovation Officer, Microsoft
Author, Empowering Nurses with Technology: A Practical Guide to Nurse Informatics
“After reading The Unicorn Protocol and have to say—I love it. The case study format and founder interviews are just what the 'doctor' ordered. The diversity of experiences and voices brings a richness that makes this a compelling read and a powerful guide for anyone navigating the digital health space.
Many moments stuck with me, and this kind of real-world learning (and listening) sets this book apart. Sally has captured more than the ambition of these founders, but the messy, essential work of earning trust, evolving strategy, and delivering measurable impact. I’ve watched and met many of these leaders, but reading their retrospective insights—how decisions played out over time—was addictive. The Unicorn Protocol has the potential to join the key guides for serial entrepreneurs, first-time founders, and even VCs looking to better understand what makes or breaks a company in the health sector. It should be a required B-school text.
In short, Sally Ann Frank delivers a refreshingly candid guide for digital health founders committed to leading with innovation and heart. Through real-world stories of startup successes and setbacks, she reveals what it truly takes to build scalable, mission-driven companies in a fragmented and high-stakes industry. This isn’t a book about hi-tech hype; it’s a roadmap for meaningful progress, reminding us that fundamental health transformation starts with purpose and must be driven by impact.”
Gil Bashe
Managing Partner, Chair Global Health and Purpose, FINN Partners
“This is a terrific book, yet again!!
I found the anecdotes super informative and insightful. To hear directly from some of the most successful healthcare technology entrepreneurs is powerful. Every entrepreneur and investor innovating in healthcare will be better learning what these leaders did right and wrong.”
Michael A. Greeley
General Partner, Flare Capital Partners
“The Unicorn Protocol is an extraordinary guide for anyone serious about building the future of healthcare. Sally Ann Frank brings to life the origin stories of digital health founders who dared to dream big and deliver bigger, often motivated by personal experiences that exposed the system’s failures. Unlike other books filled with buzzwords or bravado, this book is about real founders solving real problems.”
Tom Lawry
Author of Hacking Healthcare and Health Care Nation
“The Unicorn Protocol is a compelling roadmap for digital health entrepreneurs, offering firsthand insights from founders who’ve achieved what many only dream of—Unicorn status. Through deeply personal stories, tactical lessons, and candid reflections, Sally Ann Frank captures the grit, missteps, and vision that drive meaningful innovation in healthcare from ten different Unicorn founders. Whether you’re building your first MVP or navigating scale, this book delivers invaluable wisdom straight from those who’ve been there—and made it. I would strongly recommend reading Sally’s first book, The Startup Protocol ahead of embarking on this one for a completely immersive experience in the world of healthcare startups.”
Aly H. Abayazeed, MD, MS, CIIP
Neuroradiologist and Founder of QRadAI
“There’s immense opportunity in disrupting healthcare with AI – but building and scaling companies in digital health comes with unique, often underestimated challenges.
Even as AI tools evolve rapidly, the principles shared by these founders are invaluable. These interviews are so honest, thorough, and helpful for others wanting to follow this journey. The Unicorn Protocol is a concise, practical guidebook that’s both inspiring and actionable for anyone building in this space. A must-read for digital health entrepreneurs.”
Heena Purohit
Director of AI Startups, Microsoft for Startups, Microsoft
“This book is a must read for anyone building in health tech. Sally does a masterful job of compiling and communicating the stories of the unicorn companies we've all heard of in a truly enjoyable fashion.
The biggest take away from me was how many different paths to success were taken across the various companies. I also found it fascinating to learn about how each company's journey evolved, often ending with a completely different product they thought they had when starting out.
If you are a health tech founder, you will not find another book written with this level of advice and inspiration.
This is truly a niche book that feels like it was written just for me; we all owe Sally a debt of gratitude for putting this together.
(True to Sally's style, no AI was used in the writing of this review or the reading of the book □□)”
Mendel Erlenwein
Founder & CEO, CareCo
“This is a masterful tapestry of founders’ journeys, capturing their raw realities and hard-won breakthroughs. But it’s much more than a collection of unicorn success stories. What sets it apart is the author’s rare ability to distill patterns, lessons, and defining moments in each founder’s path. Her reflections, rooted in deep personal experience with startups, lend a clarity and credibility which complement the book’s inspiration. A must-read for anyone serious about understanding what it really takes to create a successful company.”
Ranya Habash, MD
Bascom Palmer/University of Miami & Founder, Sweet Medical
“Great founders look to the past to help shape the future. Sally shares compelling, real-world stories from the people behind some of today’s top healthcare and life science companies, providing a blueprint for the next generation of entrepreneurs.”
Elliott Parker
CEO, Alloy Partners
