Meet Kevin Williams | Co-Founder, Ravel Health

We had the good fortune of connecting with Kevin Williams and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Kevin, is there something you can share with us that those outside of the industry might not be aware of?
We are focused on a very specific part of the healthcare industry — Lyme, Long COVID & complex chronic illness — that is considered very niche, but actually affects more than 50M+ patients in the U.S. alone. What most people don’t understand, including many doctors, is that these conditions are prevalent in our society, insidious and debilitating. A National Institutes of Health survey comparing various chronic diseases had Lyme ranked as worse than congestive heart failure, stroke, heart attack, diabetes, MS, depression and arthritis. Patients have been medically gaslit for decades and are trying to navigate a broken system that doesn’t understand how to treat complex chronic illness. We are working to change that through affordable, virtual care for a patient population that’s been left by the wayside.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
I began my career as a newspaper journalist, then moved into the web world as a content writer, almost by happenstance, as everything started moving to digital. That led to being part of multiple website rebuilds at various companies, where I worked a lot on user experience before UX was a thing. If I’m being honest with myself, I never played all that well with others in an employee role, so I eventually went the independent contractor route as a copy writer/UX specialist. That was fun, but it wasn’t easy covering the bills, so when a friend approached me about starting a mobile app company in 2012 I was all in.

My friend didn’t last long, so I eventually found a new business partner for our software development company, Epic Apps, which continues to this day. Epic specializes in custom enterprise mobile applications and websites.

It was a fun ride, but I’d been wanting to do something in the digital health space for some time. Ravel didn’t come together overnight, not by any stretch of the imagination, but I knew I wanted to try and help other people who were experiencing mystery symptoms and didn’t know where to start or turn for help. That was the genesis, the seed, but actually getting it off the ground was HARD. Starting a business is hard. Any business. That’s one thing I think gets lost when you hear all of the success stories. People seem to think it happens in the blink of an eye; the stories gloss over what really goes into it. Anyway, after meeting Jaime in 2021, we finally launched our Pilot in October of 2023 in Colorado. We had 7 providers to start, including our Chief Medical Officer at the time, and we capped it at 30 patients. We wanted to keep it small so we could get feedback as we went and make changes as necessary. We learned more in that first month than we had in the 2 previous years 🙂

Even though it’s early days, we’re very proud of the foundation we’ve built, especially creating something in the health space as patients. As far as we know, we’re the only (almost) nationwide virtual health company that’s focused on this patient population. And we’re just getting started!

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
So if someone hadn’t been to Denver before and I had a week to show them around, in no particular order: I’d definitely take them to see a show at Red Rocks, doesn’t matter who’s playing, and make sure we got there early to tailgate and enjoy the views. If we added a few day trips, I’d love to take them up to Boulder and hike the Flatirons or go a little farther to Idaho Springs/Georgetown to do the Argo Mine and Georgetown Loop railroad respectively. Staying closer to town, Ravel is based in Edgewater, just west of Sloan’s Lake, so I’d take them to the Edgewater Beer Garden and then walk down to Joyride’s rooftop to grab a beverage overlooking the lake. Even though the product on the field leaves a lot to be desired, Coors Field is a beautiful ballpark and you can’t beat a day game there. After, would either head up to RINO and check out the assortment of restaurants and bars in that neighborhood or head the other direction toward the revitalized Union Station, which is always hopping. And one of my favorite bars (which used to be a well-kept secret, not so sure anymore), The Cruise Room, in the Oxford Hotel, is right nearby. If they liked to play sports, I’d take them down to the The Island for a little sand volleyball and then over to 3rd Shot in Wheat Ridge for some pickleball. Then I think I’d round it out with a trip to Meow Wolf, since it’s only in a few states and it’s a wild artistic experience.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Nobody ever gets to where they are on their own and a number of people come to mind to give a shout out to! First and foremost would be my wife, who’s been there for me for 15+ years, including through the worst of my chronic illness. It’s not easy living with someone who feels like a shell of themselves, who spent years trying to figure out what was wrong, and who experienced many ups and downs after finally getting a diagnosis. She’s been my rock.

My co-founder, Jaime Intile, deserves a massive shout-out as well. As with all companies, Ravel started with an idea, and Jaime and I spent a year and a half talking to as many providers and organizations as we could, getting their feedback, and figuring out our model. I feel very lucky to have a partner with a shared vision to move our company forward.

And then there were a number of people, providers and Lyme organizations, special shoutout to my family, with early words of encouragement, investment and feedback on what we were building that got us to where we are today!

Website: https://ravel.health/

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Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ravel-health/

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Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ravelhealth#