How One Med Student’s Frustration Launched a Global Company

What if medical education felt less like memorization, and more like discovery?In this episode of First in Human, we sit down with Shiv Gaglani, the founder of Osmosis, to unpack the story behind how a frustrated med student turned an idea into one of the most influential learning platforms in healthcare.Shiv shares the spark that started it all—the moment he realized medicine was being taught the way it had been for a century: dense lectures, endless flashcards, and little room for real understanding. That frustration became fuel for building Osmosis, a platform designed to make learning medicine feel intuitive, visual, and human.Along the way, he opens up about the messy middle—the setbacks, the near-misses, and the lessons learned in building a company that was eventually acquired by Elsevier. We explore what it means to return to med school a decade later in the age of AI, what humans still do best, and why Shiv's newest venture is taking him from Osmosis to ... wait for it .... reverse osmosis - helping people make their homes as healthy as their habits.This is a story about curiosity, resilience, and what happens when learning itself becomes the experiment. Connect with Shiv: https://bit.ly/441n0W4