Why I Joined Q Bio: Robbie Ostrow, Head of Platform

Robbie out in the great wide open when not leading the charge on building the next-generation preventive health platform

I’ll admit that I was dubious when Q Bio first contacted me. Healthcare companies promising to change the world are ubiquitous, but rarely do I find one with a convincing story about how they will. 

On the other hand, I was intrigued. I like to direct my energy toward hard problems and big bets that might fundamentally improve an entire industry. It was clear from our first conversation that Q Bio is building a product that has the potential to be a step change in preventive healthcare – but only if we execute successfully.

I came to Q Bio from a cybersecurity company called Vanta, where I ran the platform engineering team. Vanta’s mission is to move the software industry from point-in-time compliance to continuous security monitoring. While cybersecurity and healthcare may seem dissimilar, the missions are more alike than you might guess. Where Vanta provides constant visibility into your SaaS tools, Q Bio provides constant visibility into your body. Making decisions with all relevant information at your fingertips makes those decisions so much more likely to be the right ones. 

I joined Q Bio in October 2022 because I was convinced by the story but also excited by how hard it’s going to be to get to a world where no one has to treat their body as a black box. We know what we have to do and the general shape of how to get there, but defeating myriad challenges along the way – technical, logistical, and historical – is what gets me out of bed in the morning.

Before joining, I spoke to Jeff and a few investors who convinced me that if anyone can make this step change and overcome these challenges, it’s this team. My first few months have borne this out; every day when I come in, someone on the Radiomics team enthusiastically explains a revolutionary new technique that they got to work or someone on my team shares a tool that they built that happens to make everyone’s lives 10% easier.

I’m only three months in but I’ve already seen substantial progress toward our goal. If you’re interested in contributing, check out our jobs page!