physical-therapy
(10)
Shawn Shivdat
Shawn Shivdat is the co-founder and CEO of Penciled (YC W24), a San Francisco startup that builds an AI front office assistant for physical therapy clinics. Raised around a mother's private practice and trained in computational neuroscience at Harvard, he went from writing patient-outcome software at Massachusetts General Hospital to launching a company that fills canceled appointments and completes plans of care automatically. Penciled now serves 200+ providers across 50+ clinics and has raised over $2.6M.
Penciled
Penciled is an AI front office assistant for physical therapy clinics. It plugs into the clinic's existing EHR - primarily WebPT - to text and call patients, book and confirm appointments, complete plans of care, send reminders, and fill last-minute cancellations from an automated waitlist. Founded by Shawn Shivdat and Deniz Sert in the Y Combinator W24 batch, the company now serves 200+ providers across 50+ clinics and books thousands of appointments a month.
BetterHealthcare
BetterHealthcare is a New York-based healthcare technology company that modernizes patient access through its BetterAccess platform, a HIPAA-compliant SaaS product for online self-scheduling, telehealth booking, automated reminders and bi-directional integration with practice management and EHR systems. Founded in 2016 as BetterPT - a booking app for physical therapy - the company broadened into a full patient-access platform used across the continuum of care and was acquired by HealthBus (TRCM Fund) in January 2025.
Greg Peters
Greg Peters is the co-founder and CEO of BetterHealthcare, a New York-based healthcare technology company that started as BetterPT in 2016 and grew into an interoperable patient-access and scheduling platform. A former Division I football player and New York fitness professional, he partnered with Hospital for Special Surgery surgeon Dr. Stephen Fealy to remove the friction in booking physical therapy and, later, broader care. BetterHealthcare was acquired by HealthBus in January 2025, where its BetterAccess platform now powers real-time appointment booking and provider matching across a national network.
MyBackHub (NSite Medical)
MyBackHub, built by NSite Medical (legally Nsite, Inc.), is an AI-powered digital health platform for non-operative back and spine care. Spun out of the founders' earlier scoliosis work at the National Scoliosis Clinic, it uses a smartphone-based, radiation-free AI scan (the PostureBackNeck Assessment) to analyze posture and spinal alignment at home, then builds a personalized recovery plan combining adaptive exercises, live Pilates classes, licensed physical therapists, Stanford's Empowered Relief pain program, and a 24/7 AI companion. The company holds FDA 510(k) clearance for its AI-based scoliosis scanning app and delivers care at little to no cost through select Medicare and insurance plans.
Zaya Care
Zaya Care is a New York-based healthcare company building the largest network of in-network maternal and wellness specialists in the United States. It negotiates insurance contracts on behalf of independent practitioners - pelvic floor therapists, lactation consultants, dietitians, mental health therapists and acupuncturists - and handles credentialing, eligibility and billing so those providers can accept insurance without the administrative burden or financial risk of doing it alone. Inspired by the comprehensive European model of maternity care, Zaya gives small practices the leverage and efficiency of a large health system while letting them stay independent, and gives patients affordable, whole-person care beyond the standard OB-GYN visit.
ATDev
ATDev (Assistive Technology Development, Inc.) is a UC Berkeley spinout building an ecosystem of robotic devices that help people stay independent. Its flagship product, Reflex, is a smart, under-5-pound robotic knee brace that delivers personalized, telehealth-enabled physical therapy at home and streams progress data back to clinicians. Founded by engineer Todd Roberts and disability-rights advocate Owen Kent, the company designs 'for users, by users' and is scaling after a $3M seed round while also serving as a subcontractor on a $41M ARPA-H robotic mobility program.
Coral Care
Coral Care is a Cambridge, Massachusetts based pediatric therapy company that brings licensed speech, occupational and physical therapists into children's homes, with services covered by insurance. Founded in 2023 by Jen Wirt after she ran into the system's long waitlists trying to get help for her own daughter, the company now operates a network of more than 600 clinicians across nine states.
Origin
Origin is a women's health company that makes insurance-covered pelvic floor and whole-body physical therapy widely accessible through a hybrid model of nationwide virtual care and in-person clinics. Founded in 2020 by Carine Carmy, Nona Farahnik Yadegar, and David Yadegar, Origin treats conditions across pregnancy, postpartum, menopause, sexual health, and musculoskeletal pain, and has served over 50,000 patients while shifting pelvic care from a $200-300 cash-pay model to in-network visits that cost most patients under $36.
Jen Wirt
Jen Wirt is the founder and CEO of Coral Care, a venture-backed digital health company that sends licensed pediatric speech, occupational, and physical therapists into families' homes and bills their insurance directly. She started the company in 2023 after her own daughter's developmental delays sent her through six months of waitlists and thousands of dollars in out-of-network bills. A former product manager in consumer electronics and digital health, Wirt built Coral Care as a three-sided platform that pairs families needing care with clinicians who want to build sustainable private practices. By early 2026 the company had raised $19.5M, operated across five states, and grown a network of 400+ providers.