Founder Spotlight — Sahil Chopra, CEO & Co-Founder of Empower Sleep

This month, we’re putting the spotlight on Sahil Chopra, CEO & Co-Founder of Empower Sleep.

How did you come up with the idea for Empower Sleep?

When I was completing my medical training as a pulmonary & critical care fellow, I was frustrated with how broken our current sleep healthcare system was. It would take months for patients to be seen, months to get a sleep test, and months to get started on some form of treatment, resulting in millions of people suffering. I myself was sleep deprived, so this problem resonated with me. My curiosity led me to doing a Sleep Medicine Fellowship at Harvard — a program that completely changed my perspective on the intersection of sleep, health, and longevity. After my fellowship, I started preaching the importance of healthy sleep and selling sleep tests to co-workers and family. I was able to provide precision sleep care, virtually. This was the foundation for the idea of Empower Sleep. Our mission is to enrich lives through the power of better sleep.

How did you meet your Co-Founders?

He’s my brother! We met 30 years ago. It was Oct 30, 1992, I was 8. We’ve obviously known each other for a long time, but working on Empower Sleep has really strengthened our relationship. I spent 8 years of my life in India for medical school, but we got much closer in 2015 when I finished residency and my brother finished college. We traveled together to Europe and it was a wonderful trip, even though we were terrible at planning. 7 years later, we started to discuss what would become the early version of Empower Sleep.

Where did you find your first five customers?

I found them at work. I was working as an ICU doctor and encountered a lot of people suffering from a chronic sleep issue. I would offer to help and they were so happy with the results that they started referring family members and friends.

What’s something you wish you had known earlier in your startup journey?

I wish we had known the importance of hiring early in the journey, especially clinical staff, when we saw the early signals of demand. We wanted to stay lean, but hiring wonderful people is what has allowed us to scale — it’s a key part of the founder’s job.

Learn more about Empower Sleep at empowersleep.com

Thanks again to Sahil for sharing his journey.

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