DGTL Voices with Ed Marx - Facing Healthcare Realities: A Call to Action (ft. Pranam Ben)

Episode Date: December 11, 2025

On this episode of DGTL Voices, Ed interviews Pranam Ben, Founder and CEO of The Garage. The discussion covers Pranam's humble beginnings in India, his passion for cricket, and the pivotal moments that led him to pursue a career in healthcare and become a CEO. Pranam shares insights into his entrepreneurial journey, emphasizing the importance of incremental progress in healthcare and the role of technology in driving change. The episode also delves into leadership lessons, the significance of passion and hard work, and the collective effort needed to transform healthcare delivery. Garage :: Where Innovation happens Pranam Ben | LinkedIn

Thanks for tuning to Digital Voices podcast, where we chat digital transformation challenges and opportunities across healthcare and life sciences. And now, your host, Ed Marks. Hey, everyone. Welcome to another edition of Digital Voices. Thank you so much for being with us. Thank you for making us number five as of yesterday. As because great guests like Pranam, Ben. Pranam, welcome to Digital Voices.

Thank you, Ed. Congratulations on being number five and related. docious to you. Thank you so much. Yeah, it's, it's really a joy that so many people have found it interesting. I think one of the reasons, first of all, is great guests like yourself with great, stories and great things that you're doing to really transform health care. And then we have no commercials, no ads, no sponsors.

So it's just content. So people love that because I hate that like when I'm running and there's a commercial. And even though as much as I might like the podcast or the YouTube video, I fast forward, you know, through that. But we don't have to do that today. So we first met really virtually online because I know about the garage and some of the awards that you all have produced.

I think winners were announced today for your annual award. So I definitely want to get down into that. But the most important question that we have from is what songs are on your playlist? What kind of music do you like to listen to? You know, I'll tell you, Mike, the songs I typically listen to the songs I grew up in South India in the 90s, Ed,

so none of them would be recognized. But I do tell you, my teenage daughter has ordered my playlist with her own, which is filled with Tate McCray and Taylor Swift. So I listen to a lot of Taylor Swift and Tate McRae during our car tracks. Yeah, that's cool. Yeah, afterwards, just on email, we'll have to get some of your South Indian favorites because we do have a playlist on Spotify. And we love to mix it up because we have guests around the world.

Yeah, absolutely. What about life message or mantra? Are there sort of words that guide you or words that you live by? No, one of the things that, you know, I said, it's a slogan is the thing that I live by, which is this is just the beginning. You know, regardless of how far we have come, regardless of how much we think we've accomplished,

there's always things to learn, there's always things to do, right? So it keeps you humble, it keeps you grounded. And even if you think about the overall our existence as a timeline of the entire creation of the universe and things like that, you're such a small speck, right? So just to have that feeling to have that humble feeling around, this is just the beginning, right? So that guides me. Every day that motivates me, that energizes me to want to go and learn more and do more.

Pranam, you already sort of told us that you're from India. Tell us a little bit about yourself. And like, so what city were you born and how were you raised? Just tell us all the way to how you got to the United States. Awesome. I was born and raised in a city in South India called Bangal. and I was one of five in a very lower middle class family, very humble beginnings.

I mean, we were lucky if you could have two meals a day. That's the kind of life we had. My dad was a very hardworking accountant. My mom was a homemaker. We had an amazing life growing up. Just five living in a one-bedroom house was a reality for us. And then, you know, when I grew up, I couldn't care. I was an avid cricketer, right?

So I used to play cricket on the street the entire time. That was my thing. In fact, I remember telling my mom that if I didn't become a cricket, I'm going to end my life. That was my thing. But then, you know, as you grow, life happens. And then I went to an engineering school. So I did my engineering in electronics and communication.

And then a major life event was the passing of my dad. He succumbed to a cardiac arrest in 1999. and that wasn't even that changed all our lives. And what it meant to me was a desire and a urge to change my approach and outlook to life, to want to do and achieve some of the things that my dad always wanted. Those were his ambitions, so I made them my own and started defining and chasing new targets in life. And that's what brought me to the U.S. Wow. Well, I'm sure, you know, he'd be very proud of you, right?

A CEO now of a company doing great things to transform other people's lives so that they can be well and be healthy longer. I'm sure that's got to be very meaningful to you. Yeah. I mean, healthcare is important to all of us. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So that's how you found health care. So you've been in health care for a while. Take us through your career to the point of becoming CEO of the garage. Sure. I got into healthcare in 2004. I joined this company, a startup based on Orlando, Florida.

And they were designing the first commercial kiosks for patient check-in in healthcare. I found that idea fascinating, right? So if you could check in using kiosk at the airports, why couldn't you check in using kiosk at your doctor's opposite? So I was employee number five in that startup. and we were a small team, had a lot of fun building the product. At one point, we had 170 hospitals using the product. And that company got acquired,

and I had a chance to lead the healthcare division of the company that acquired that business for a couple of years and eventually branched out on my own. And my foray into entrepreneurship in healthcare ed was born out of a personal experience. We've all been victims of the discharginged process in healthcare, right? There are no exceptions here.

I distinctly remember it was a Sunday afternoon. I was in my apartment, and I had cute stomach pain, right? So I was like, what's going? First I thought it was something gas, something I ate, whatever, but it kept increasing. So I went to the urgent care, and within five minutes of observation,

I was sent to the ear. So you kind of realized that it was part of a process. So I was sent to the ER. I spent the entire night in the ER where I was practically a guinea pig for every test that ER could run on me, right? And the next morning, the ER physician comes to me and says,

you're good to go son, nothing's wrong with you. To this day, I don't know what was wrong with me that day. Right. So walking to the parking lot, I started thinking, this was my experience. Imagine the seniors in the country that have to go through this multiple times in a year, right? And that triggered this urge to want to do something about it.

And I said, okay, let's use the asset I know best, which is technology. And I've been a software engineer by profession. So let's use technology and data to bring in real change. And that's how I jumped into this, you know, to become an entrepreneur in 2009. Wow. And so what is that like? So tell us for the audience that might not know.

So you have this compelling, these life circumstances that happen, first with your father, then you get you into health care, and then this situation gets you sort of into analytics and population health, value-based care. So what happens next? What's the next step that you take? So the next step is to kind of first create, identify a gap, right? Identify a real gap that is validated and mitigated in the real world and come up with a very specific tactical solution that you can operationalize it.

The thing in healthcare that I learned very quickly is you cannot boil the ocean. You cannot change the system overnight, right? So what you need to do, the best approach is to fill gaps and seek incremental progress. It's the only way healthcare has progressed, if you really think about it. In fact, Vali Bays Care is a testament to that approach too, right? So I took the same approach in my entrepreneurial journey as well to identify this one gap with my first venture, built a solution around that gap without any frictions in the world. Right.

And then found a partner slash customer that was willing to work with us to pilot the product, install the software, and benefit from it. And we found one in South Lake in Florida. And at one point, we had more than 200 physicians using my product. So the first critical master of adoption, if you will. And then from there on, we were growing very well. And a publicly traded company based out of Atlanta, Georgia, heard about my story. And they were looking to jump into healthcare.

So they contacted me. And for me, as a first-time entrepreneur, we live that American dream, right? So jumped on that opportunity. and eventually they acquired my business in December of 2010. So that was my first realization of the beam. And it really was a very, very, you know, important even for me to kind of realize that this is what, this is my thing. This is what this is my identity. This is what I do best.

And around the same time, the early beginnings of Valley-Based Care were beginning to form the country. And I was thinking about, okay, what do we want to do next? Right. And I had this feeling that Valley Base Care is going to warrant, you know, a major disruption. It will warrant groundbreaking innovation. Yes. Data first, digital first approach. And I wanted to form a creative company that would be the hub for those innovations, right?

Which is why I initially called this company the factory. That was the first name I came up with for the garage. So we could be a factory for innovation. And as I was thinking through the process, the name the garage clicked. And if you think about every innovative company at scale that started in a garage, Amazon, Microsoft, you name it. So we said, let's call ourselves the garage

and pay tribute to innovation at scale in healthcare. Yeah, I love the name. It's very clever, but also very indicative of what you're doing, and that is creating solutions for the marketplace in order for us to be more successful and better stewards with all the dollars. Tell us about the logo. So for those who haven't seen the logo, although we will have a visual, it's a bright sun with sunglasses.

So tell us about that. Yes. That's Blaze. That's our mascot. In fact, Blaze was conceived and designed even before I named the company. I was actually sitting in a coffee shop in India with my creative designer and I was wearing Oakley sunglasses. At the Carbiltab, he just saw my face and drew and drew.

this on napkin in the coffee shop and they said okay this is this has to be the basket like if you look at it right it has energy it has positivity it has a very very strong vibe to it you know so we said there's a mascot called in place and then everything else followed from that yeah yeah it's it's great so we we talked a lot about just being an entrepreneur and just sort of what drives you we talked about the garage how that was formed and the name and also the logo so tell us about some of the things that you're really proud of that the garage has done in partnering with health systems and payers and such. Yeah, we've had, we've been on this road for 13 years and seven months now, right? So that's a, that's a lot of them.

You really think about it. You know, we've been very committed to our mission, which is, you know, healthcare needs to change. Yeah. And the only way to change it is one community at a time, one provider at a time, one patient at a time. That's how we've come at it, right? and we've been very honest about the work that we have taken on, the impact that we've had, you know, the partnerships that we have secured, right? And that's one thing that's very important to us, that we do right, we be very honest about our journey and capabilities of the platform and things like that.

And along the way, we've been relentless in our commitment to innovate. So it's been a non-stop, absolutely amazing job. journey. Every day we learn more as a team. Every day we are fascinated by the opportunities and the challenges we face and both are equally important for us. And we typically work with network, providers, regardless of size, specialty or location that are either participating in value based care or looking to participate in value based care. Like, either looking to shift existing care models or implement absolutely new care models that are anchored on value. So to enable both, we become the platform.

And in that sense, we become the operating system. Right. For that's basically how we come at this and that's been our work. Yeah. And so if I'm a health system or I could be a large practice and I want to get into value-based care, not only do you provide the platform, but if I know that I need to do that for a wide variety of reasons, I can come to you and you can help me. Absolutely.

I think we built enough experience and domain knowledge. in the space that we can go in and say, if you're a health system and you're looking to transform to value-based care for X, Y, and Z reasons, right? Here's a playbook for it. Here's how you come about it based on our collective experience, working with providers such as yourself. Here's what to watch out for. Here are your opportunities. Here's where you could have potential leakages. And here's a platform that has baked in best practices with a data-first approach that allows you to scale and build new care experiences for your patients. Yes, absolutely.

So, yes, not only are you helping on a business level, but also on the experience level. Can you share an example? You don't have to give the names, because I know sometimes confidentiality agreements will keep you from doing that, but how it improves sort of the patient or member experience. So there's one thing that we are grounded on it,

and this is something I tell my team as well. everything we do impacts the patient. Think about it, right? I mean, if you're building a quality reporting system, just as an example, right? The reporting of the quality and the consequences of that directly impact access and cost of care

for that population. There's nothing that we do that has, that is patient relevant, right? Everything we do is patient relevant. The question is, basically, we look at it and say there's going to be things that we do that have an indirect impact on the quality of life of patients.

And there are things that we're going to do that are going to have direct impact on the quality of life of patients. But patients are central. They are in the driver's seat for everything that happens in the garage. We are absolutely grounded in that. In fact, I tell my team as well that our responsibility is towards those patients. Our customers are a conduit for us to benevolent that service, have that impact with the patients that they serve.

And those patients, they don't know who you are. They don't know, Pran. They don't know the garage, right? So your responsibility is to build the right solutions in a responsible way that those patients can get the care they deserve at the time that they need. As an entrepreneur myself or in my background, I've had an opportunity to help found a company. What's your preferred method of working with your customers?

Because I'm sure, you know, I'm sure you accept all of them. Some of them will be very transactional. But what's the ideal customer relationship like for the garage? I always look for a strategic long-term fit, long-term alignment, because you're not going to fix health overnight. Our problems may seem short-term, but our solutions need to be long-term, right? That's something that we have very particular. So if somebody comes to us saying, hey, can you help me with this three-month project?

It's probably something we'll walk away from. And we have done that in the past. But if somebody comes to me and says, hey, we want to change healthcare for our patients, whatever it takes, however long it takes, you're in. You are my ideal, perfect, partner, customer, and we will commit to you. We will commit to your mission. Your experience will be that me and my team are part of your team. You want to see us as a vendor.

You will see us as one of your own. And that has been the experience for all of the garageist customers to the point that today, every customer of ours can have it direct. direct access to me, they text me, they call me, they brainstormed me. That was true on April 1, 2012 when I started the business. That is true today. That will be true 10 years from now. That's awesome.

I really like that approach. And I think that all stems from the humility that you talked about in the beginning, you know, how you were raised. And that's the way you lead. You haven't allowed the CEO title or the size of your company and your success to change who you are fundamentally. And so that's... And a simple thing.

When we started, when we came to this offices that I'm in right now, you know, we said we're going to have an office space that has no walls, no cabinets, right? So I'm sitting in the pot with the crew, rolling up my sleeves, doing whatever it takes. So everybody can, anybody can talk to me, anybody can come and ask questions. It's a very, the culture is designed to allow for that level of transparency and commitment to play out as well, you know. Yeah, I love that approach. I'm always curious, like with, especially at the speed that technology moves, it's always moves. It's always moves so fast and health care is moving.

Parts of health care move fast. Other parts move painfully slow. But how do you and the garage, how do you keep up with all the technology? So I hate to throw in the word AI, but I might as well. You know, with all the changes, AI, you've got to be thinking about it all the time. So how do you all stay ahead to help your customers? We are very grounded in the realities of the workflows that we are engaged in that. So there's actually the flip side to what you said.

we put in more effort to not get carried away by the hike. Yeah. Right? You're very, very particular about it. We took nine months before we even defined our AI strategy. We didn't rush into it. We were not taken away by the high up. There was no chat GPD that, you know, that got us to say, saying, hey, this is the direction we go.

You're already late. Not going to happen in our world, right? So for me, the A. AI is applied. what is applied is intelligent. So that's one part of the equation. The other part of the equation is we created this initiative within the company to stay on top of all the technology shifts and all the latest and greatest models and AI breakthroughs and whatnot.

We call it Mozart. It's kind of like a lab within the garage. And we have a very cool group of members in that team. I'm involved in that team. You know what I'm saying? So we meet three times a week. That's where we brainstorm. We talk about things that are happening or there.

What can we bring into our world? While ensuring that it doesn't distract, doesn't defocus and it doesn't create any friction. So we have a very grounded, a very authentic, real approach to adopting AI. We have three agents that we've deployed within our platform today. And because they're ingrained in that realities of the workflows, we are seeing a lot more success where it matters and less. and more throughput and more outcomes.

Yeah. I love that. Where were you when I was in the C-suite of my health systems? I love where I prefer the type of partnership that you've been describing as well. And then I always want to make sure that my partner was grounded like you all are, but also thinking forward forward so that I could spend more time on the things that I needed to do and just know that my partner had some things covered. So interesting.

I want to pivot into leadership. What were some things that you think you learned from? from cricket that helped you today. That's a great question. You have to truly love the game, man. That's one thing that I've learned. You can't fake it. You can't fake away as an entrepreneur, right?

You have to truly love. You have to truly be passionate about the game. And that was what cricket meant to me. I was never tired of it. I was never bored. I was always, you know, energy. And I have played even when I was injured. You know, so that kind of passion is what drives that level of commitment, right?

So every day I'm very, very particular and one is for me to be passionate about what we do with the garage, right? And then how do we ensure that every moving asset in the company is as passionate or more passionate than I am? You know, that drives the commitment. That was number one. And number two, which is something that I, you got to work hard. to like practice hard. There's no shortcut to it, right? You can't master a craft by just, by just, you know, there's no super bullet to it. So it's sheer hard work and practice and hours and hours of our work. And I remember Kobe Bryant is someone that I have looked up to as an

athlete. And when he received his ESPN award for sportsmanship award or something, and when he was giving a speech, he basically said, we all know I'm here because of 4 a.m. So 4 a.m. is when he would wake up and go to the gym for his cleaning and workout and things like that, right? So that 4 a.m. is just a metaphor for what that meant, that hard work, that ethic, that come around. Those two things, those two are the things that come to my mind when we're a picture from cricket and applied in the business world. You're a super creative person. Everything, you know, we talked about your logo and the name and just the way you think. Where do you go for inspiration, for creativity? I mean, do you ever find yourself, like, in a situation where you might,

not be creative. So do you do something to sort of stimulate creativities or a place or, you know, something you do? I do things to just have a mental reset. I work out. That's one thing that I'm disciplined about. I'm a, I'm the crazy softball dad for my daughter. When she's playing, I'm the one that's yelling. So that's me.

So I do that. But very rarely do I get creatively trained to the point where I hit dead it. it. There's something about the creative aspect of what we do. That's so fascinating and so beautiful and so arresting that I don't find myself drained per se, but I do look for some research. Yeah. That's good. And, you know, when I was preparing for our podcast, I spent some time on your website as well, super creative. I'm sure you have people that help you with that. But super creative. People, if nothing else, we'll put it in. the show notes, people should go check out the website.

I just found it super fascinating because I love creativity myself and I love unique things. I love differentiation and the garage teams all about that. That's one thing. Like I remember April 1, 2012, I had no employees. I had no solution, no customers, right? But I was stubborn about the fact that we're going to do something big and we're going to do it different.

So that's been a staple from day one that we are going to be. distinct in our expression, in our identity, in the way we look at things, in the way we do things. Yeah. No, I'm definitely, you're based in our, where's your headquarters? Orlando. Orlando, I was just going to say, next time I'm down Orlando, I'm definitely looking you up and we'll have some chai or

or anything. Absolutely. You know, we talked earlier about your parents. Was there something your parents forced you to do when you were a kid that you maybe kind of like rolled your eyes, not to them, but inside your mind? and but now you look back and you're like, wow, I'm glad they made me do that. I'm glad they taught me that. I've seen, there's two forms of inspiration.

My parents, you know, growing up, especially teenagers, you tend to be cocky about certain things. You tend to be arrogant over certain things. My parents forced a behavior to be kind to everyone, regardless of their social status, regardless of whether they spoke your language or not, regardless of whether they were your same skin color or not, regardless of whether they were your neighbor or not, whether they were at your same academic level or not, that was one protocol we had in the house.

Be kind to everyone, right? So I think that helped me in a very big way, it continues to help me even today. You know, that's important, especially in today's world. And two, I've seen my mother deal with situations with no, like, prior, skill or capabilities. So she is an absolute hustler.

So she will figure out situations. She will come up with solutions that are out of the box, creative thinking and how to deal with different kinds of people and things that. I've seen her do that in all practical situations, right? So that kind of gave me this inner confidence that whatever will be the situation, you can figure it out, right? So you just like to think out of the box,

think differently, approach it differently. So those are the two kind of, like things that were in a way forced on me growing up that helped me in a very big way as I built my career and my journey. Yeah. So you mentioned already you have two daughters when they one one one daughter. One daughter. When she graduates from college, what's the advice that you're going to give her in terms of her career? I think for her, my my advice would be to never stop believing in yourself. Yeah. And don't follow the, you know, the common path.

Be a trailblazer, chart your own path, you know. Yeah. Yeah, this has been a fascinating conversation. You know, we talked earlier a little bit about India and some musical influences, and we talked a lot about humility and just, this is just the beginning as a key phrase, which I love in many respects. We talked about cricket. We talked about your parents and how that influenced your career and how you made it to the United States

and you've been an entrepreneur at heart and you've started a couple of companies, but the garage. You've been it with the garage for a long time now, doing some great things in the value-based care space. And then we sort of switched to leadership and talked about things that enabled your success. We used cricket as a metaphor, which is great about being passionate about everything that you do,

the hard work, the 4 a.m. that it takes, taking practice, being proactive. And then, you know, what is success and, you know, telling your daughter, which I think is a great message, which is why I asked it, you know, to chart your own path, don't follow the status quo, be your own person, you know, live the life that you're meant to have.

What did we miss, or is there anything you want to double down on? I'll give you the last word. I think as a collective, as a community as a society, I think sometimes we are, we tend to be ignorant to the challenges that healthcare face until it happens to us. Yes, yeah. It's not our problem until it's truly our problem, right? So my only message to your audience is healthcare is important to call.

And we are at a point where I think we have to realize a real change in the way healthcare is delivered in this country. And all patients deserve better. So it will take the collective, it is going to take the entire, it is going to take a militia to drive the outcomes that we all seek, that we all deserve. So everyone in their own way can contribute to this movement. that as begin with Valley-based care, I think this is just the tip of what is to come in the next decade or so. I believe there's going to be a lot of different variables that will be at play and a lot of things that we can change.

So that's my message is for all of us to put in the effort together to bring it to a change in health care. Yeah, for now very well said. Thank you so much for being my guest on Digital Voices. Thank you so much for having me. Thank you for listening to Digital Voices Podcast with Edm, Mark. If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe on your preferred streaming service and leave a rating and review. And most importantly, thanks again for listening.