Saloni Aggarwal never planned to be a founder. She was thriving in corporate life, building her marketing career in B2B SaaS — until an ACL surgery at age 27 changed everything.
Stuck in a hospital bed, drowning in paperwork and delays, she saw firsthand how inefficient the medical system was. Instead of moving on, she got to work, shadowing doctors, studying regulations, and ultimately building a startup to fix the problem herself.- ■ Learn the system before trying to change it.
- ■ Documenting the journey builds clarity and credibility.
- ■ The right co-founder aligns with the mission, not just the idea.
- ■ Learn the system before trying to change it.
- ■ Documenting the journey builds clarity and credibility.
- ■ The right co-founder aligns with the mission, not just the idea.
“Honestly, I never thought I’d be a founder,” Saloni Aggarwal says with a laugh. “I was happy in my corporate life, working in B2B SaaS marketing. Honestly, I’d still be doing it if I could.”
That changed when she had ACL surgery at 27. Lying in a hospital bed with her knee under the knife, Saloni got her first real glimpse of the medical system. “There was so much paperwork, so many delays because of admin issues. It was an eye-opener.”
For most, the story would end there — another frustrated patient vowing to avoid hospitals forever. But Saloni got to work.
She spent months shadowing doctors, diving into research, and learning the ins and outs of medical regulations. “I’m not a doctor. I don’t have a medical degree,” she says. “I didn’t want to make assumptions and build something nobody needed. I wanted to solve a real problem.”
Throughout the process, Saloni kept a journal — a “very messy” one, filled with sticky notes and scribbles. “I never thought anyone would read it,” she says. “But it turned out to be super interesting to others. If they wanted to understand why I was building this, they’d read the whole thing. It’d take them two days, but they’d do it.”
Those journals became the cornerstone of her credibility. They caught the attention of investors and even convinced her co-founder to join. “That’s how I built trust,” Saloni says. “I wasn’t writing for the media or a shiny label. I just wanted to solve the problem.”
"Try and understand the life of a provider (doctor). So that whatever I end up building is really solving a problem and not just becoming another me-too AI product."
Now, as the founder of a healthcare startup incubated at Antler, Saloni’s life is a far cry from her corporate marketing days. Her days are filled with legal paperwork, tax filings, and pushing her vision forward. “It’s not just about solving the problem anymore. A lot of a founder’s job is getting others to see where you’re coming from and getting them excited about what you’re building,” she says.
“And of course, I don’t get paid every month anymore. You have to be okay with the broke life.”
Even so, the title “founder” still feels heavy to Saloni. “The way the media talks about it, like if you’re a founder, you’re automatically building a billion-dollar company,” she says. “It still hasn’t settled in that I can introduce myself as a founder. I think I’m having a bit of an identity crisis there. But yeah, not yet. Hopefully soon.”