We're lucky. We spent a remarkably short period of time answering the existential startup question. We found surgeons, anesthesiologists, and seasoned healthcare IT executives that believed in our dream, and were willing to fund and pilot it.

We're among the most atypical startups on Earth:

We have a billion dollars of free marketing (thanks Google)
No one expects us to or holds us to having market traction
We are competing in a green field (which we'll burn in our wake)
Paradoxically, legacy health IT vendors have already validated the market for us, despite the fact that we're competing in a green field
The CEO writes for what's widely recognized as the leading blog in the industry, HIStalk

The combination of all of the above empowered us to get off the ground faster than the vast majority of startups.

The moral of the story is that selling a dream is 10x more powerful than selling traction. That's why Amazon is worth $50B even though they don't make money. Jeff Bezos is probably the greatest dream salesman of all time.