Purya Sarmadi, co-founder and CEO of MedMe Health, built a platform serving over 4,500 pharmacies across North America that transforms drug dispensaries into community healthcare hubs, driven by his childhood experience watching his mother survive heart valve surgery and his conviction that pharmacies are underutilized healthcare resources.
Personal origin and mission
Sarmadi’s mother had heart valve failure when he was 6 or 7, requiring risky surgery by Dr. Tyrone David, who became a pivotal influence showing him healthcare’s ripple effects on families and communities.
This experience created a core mission to systemically change healthcare access for over 100 million people by leveraging technology to make healthcare more scalable and accessible.
His mother’s ongoing need for INR monitoring (blood viscosity tests) highlighted how pharmacies could provide diagnostic services closer to patients than emergency rooms or outpatient centers.
Four pivots to find the right wedge
The first iteration in 2018 aimed to scan prescriptions for automatic data entry, but pre-LLM technology limitations made it unviable despite solving a real business problem.
Pivot two involved a physical hardware product for drug adherence, which failed due to high capital costs and the inherent difficulty of hardware development.
Pivot three emerged from conversations with pharmacists who needed tools for clinical care but lacked time, leading to software that enables consultative patient care.
The key insight: being in the wrong wedge doesn’t mean being in the wrong market - each pivot provided more information about pharmacies, pharmacists, and patients while narrowing focus to the most important opportunity.
Breakthrough during the pandemic
When COVID hit, the thesis proved correct as pharmacies suddenly needed to provide vaccines and point-of-care testing across the continent.
In just 2.5 months, MedMe grew from nearly 100 to almost 1,200 pharmacies, validating the conviction around the right wedge.
This growth demonstrated that pharmacies investing in clinical services (flu shots, A1C checks, blood pressure monitoring) would thrive due to enduring patient relationships and lifetime value.
Co-founder partnership and the candle principle
Sarmadi met co-founder Nick through Canada’s Next 36 startup accelerator in 2019, recognizing complementary skills and shared interest in the healthcare problem space.
During a critical 72-hour period building an enterprise prototype, Sarmadi realized Nick was the right business partner who could tackle any constraint head-on.
A moment of frustration where Sarmadi questioned Nick’s capability nearly broke their partnership, teaching that defeating your co-founder works against both the organization and yourself.
The candle principle: co-founders must keep each other’s motivation and spirit alive through startup ups and downs, as they’re each other’s primary source of understanding during difficult periods.
Pharmacies as the future of accessible healthcare
With 95% of North Americans living within 5 miles of a pharmacy, these locations represent an untapped network for community healthcare services.
Online pharmacies with better unit economics and logistics are disrupting traditional drug dispensaries, but the human element of patient care remains irreplaceable.
Patients increasingly seek proactive, personalized, consumer-driven healthcare, making pharmacies that offer clinical services indispensable for chronic illness management and routine care.
Today, patients in Nova Scotia and growing jurisdictions use MedMe at pharmacies for INR monitoring instead of emergency rooms or diagnostic centers, bringing the mission full circle.
