Innovation Stack Meets Healthcare: A CEO's Journey from Music TV to the Mayo Clinic
From creating a YouTube predecessor in 1999 to revolutionizing healthcare diagnostics with Mayo Clinic, Ken Mayer's entrepreneurial journey spans entertainment, digital media, and now life-saving healthcare innovation. At 19, he sold his entertainment magazine to Gannett for $400,000, then used those funds to film concerts with artists like Lenny Kravitz and Dave Matthews Band, eventually creating GTVa video platform six years before YouTube existed.
Today, as CEO of Health Cloud Corporation and co-founder of Safe Health Systems, Mayer is tackling the "gray tsunami"the looming healthcare crisis as baby boomers enter their highest care-consumption years. His solution? Connected diagnostics that enable at-home testing with clinical-grade accuracy, reducing costs while improving patient outcomes.
In this revealing conversation, Mayer shares his "arm the incumbents" strategy for healthcare innovation, explaining why aligned interests matter more than personalities when choosing partners. He discusses the four-year, $12 million FDA collaboration that created new regulatory pathways for connected diagnostics, the challenge of balancing mission-driven leadership with commercial viability, and why the future of healthcare lies in agent-to-agent AI communication rather than traditional SaaS models.
From his early "too-early" experiences with streaming video and enterprise messaging to building regulated healthcare software, Mayer offers hard-won insights on tenacity, strategic partnerships, and creating meaningful innovation in complex, regulated industries.
His story demonstrates how diverse experiences across industries can inform breakthrough solutions to society's most pressing challenges.
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com