Balaji Ramadoss does not measure success by how much money a company raises.
He measures it by whether the work improves people’s performance.
After exiting Edgility, a bootstrapped health technology company, in 2024, the Tampa Bay founder is now building his next venture around a clear philosophy: keep the human, upgrade the system.
It is a mindset shaped by public health work, hospital leadership, crisis response and eight years of building a company without raising a single dollar.
The company was built alongside his wife and co-founder, Heather Holland, a healthcare leader who helped shape both the business and its decision to call Tampa Bay home.
Heather Holland, co-founder of Edgility, helped build the Tampa-based healthcare technology company alongside Balaji Ramadoss. (Photo courtesy of Edgility, 2024)
From public health to healthcare technology
Ramadoss came to the U.S. from South India for graduate school and earned his PhD at the University of South Florida.
He later worked in public health and for the CDC before joining Tampa General Hospital, where he served as CTO for seven years.
One defining moment came early in his career during Hurricane Katrina.
While deployed in Houston, Ramadoss built what he describes as an early application used to triage evacuees from New Orleans to help prevent communicable diseases. Ramadoss said the work impacted nearly 1 million evacuees.
“That experience grounded me,” he said. “Great people gave me opportunities. Everything I have done comes from that.”
Ramadoss said his work during the Katrina response later contributed to his path to U.S. citizenship.
Building a company without venture capital
After years within large healthcare systems, Ramadoss and his wife, Heather Holland, made a deliberate choice to build Edgility and move it to Tampa Bay.
Holland was instrumental in turning that decision into a sustainable company, helping anchor operations and culture as the business scaled.
They bootstrapped the business from day one.
The company focused on using artificial intelligence to predict hospital discharge timing, one of the most complex and costly problems in healthcare operations.
By breaking down discharge planning into measurable data points, the platform helped hospitals plan care more effectively and free up beds faster.
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Ramadoss said that at its peak, the company helped manage the discharge of nearly 2 million patients across the U.S., including during the pandemic.
Ramadoss said some hospital systems required prediction accuracy above 98% before considering the technology.
“This was never about replacing clinicians,” he said. “It was about giving them better tools so patients were cared for sooner and more safely.”
The company operated out of an unlikely Tampa Bay office: a converted 1940s gas station.
With teams constantly traveling to hospitals around the country, flexibility mattered more than polish.
Ramadoss credits Holland with helping create a work environment that made Tampa feel like home, even as the company operated nationally.
Despite interest from venture capital firms, the founders never raised outside money. The company was acquired by private equity in April 2024.
Ramadoss emphasized that the exit reflected a shared journey, noting that the company’s success was inseparable from Holland’s role as co-founder.
“Too many people treat fundraising as the scorecard,” Ramadoss said. “Your financial well-being matters. If you are diluted to the end, the outcome does not feel like success.”
Staying involved after the exit
Ramadoss remains active post-exit in multiple roles.
He serves on the board, helping guide healthcare investments and is also a lead investor with the private equity group that acquired the company.
The focus now is on building platforms by bringing together complementary healthcare companies.
At the same time, he is launching a new company called XOS.
What XOS is building next
XOS is not limited to healthcare.
The platform is designed to help teams work together more effectively using AI-driven workflows. Instead of focusing on individual productivity, XOS focuses on how work moves across people.
“We already know AI can make one person more productive,” Ramadoss said. “The harder problem is how teams work together.”
XOS is being tested across healthcare, manufacturing, utilities and consulting firms. Each industry faces different challenges, but Ramadoss sees common ground.
Healthcare struggles with capacity. Manufacturing struggles with demand. Both require high accuracy, compliance and repeatable processes.
One early use case focuses on pricing estimation in manufacturing, reducing the time and effort required to generate accurate quotes.
“It is not about shiny tools,” he said. “You still have to get the workflow right.”
A philosophy shaped by humility
Throughout his career, Ramadoss returns to one theme: humility.
From arriving in the U.S. with no guarantees to responding to a national disaster to building a company without outside capital, his approach has remained consistent.
“AI should help people do their jobs better,” he said. “If it does not improve the human conversation, it is not the right use.”
It is a philosophy he carries into Tampa Bay’s growing technology ecosystem, where success is often measured by capital raised or headlines earned.
For Ramadoss, the measure is simpler.
Build real systems. Solve real problems. Take care of the people doing the work.
For more information about EXOS, click here.
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