Built by Margin with Laurie Chen

Laurie Chen, CPA, MBA
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  • Entrepreneuriat

Built by Margin is the podcast at the intersection of risk, numbers, and decision-making for founders, CEOs, and high performers. Hosted by CPA, fractional CFO, and author of the upcoming book Risk Worthy, Laurie Chen, CPA, MBA, the show explores how better decisions create better businesses, stronger leadership, and more meaningful long-term outcomes. From financial strategy and entrepreneurship to intelligent risk-taking and growth, each episode helps you think sharper and build with intention.

  1. -2 j

    The Risk Calculator Said 1 in 99. Then She Became the 1. Insights with Kristin Gype

    What happens when the person trained to assess clinical risk becomes the patient at the center of a life-threatening event? In episode 49 of Built by Margin, Laurie Chen speaks with Kristin Gype, DNP, MSQM, APRN-CRNA, CNE, a lead CRNA, healthcare entrepreneur, adjunct instructor, and Duke Fuqua MSQM alum. Kristin shares how her background in anesthesia, healthcare analytics, patient safety, and mental health education has shaped the way she thinks about risk, decision-making, and innovation in healthcare. The conversation explores the limits of today’s healthcare risk assessment tools, the opportunity for AI and data analytics to improve patient safety, and why human connection still matters deeply in a system increasingly focused on speed, volume, and automation. Kristin also shares the personal story of surviving a near-death experience during childbirth, and how that moment reshaped her perspective on wellness, healthcare leadership, and what it means to advocate for patients. From clinical decision support to value-based care, mental health first aid, and the future of healthcare innovation, this episode is a powerful look at how numbers, risk, and humanity intersect when the stakes are highest. Quotes "The tools we’re using in healthcare to assess risk are still in their infancy. We need to build them more robustly with technology and AI, because there are so many patient outcomes we still don’t have risk tools for." – Kristin Gype“Owning your own business is like drinking from a fire hose. You’re always learning — and you’re taking on risk from every side: legal, financial, operational, and human.” - Laurie Chen Laurie Chen Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lauriechencpamba/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauriechen/ Risk Worthy: https://www.riskworthy.co/   Kristin Gype LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristinmgype/

    34 min

  2. -3 j

    The Risk, Capital, and Regulatory Path Behind Medical Innovation with John Konhilas⁠

    In episode 48 of Built by Margin, Laurie Chen speaks with John Konhilas, founder, professor, and Chief Science Officer at BioXGen, about what it really takes to turn scientific discovery into a product that can reach patients. John shares his unconventional path from studying art at Duke University to earning a PhD in physiology, spending nearly two decades as a professor at the University of Arizona, and building ventures at the intersection of women’s health, heart disease, microbiome research, and medical device innovation. He discusses the lessons from scaling and exiting Menolabs, including how data, consumer behavior, and timing shaped the company’s trajectory.  The conversation then moves into BioXGen’s patent-pending single-use cardiac patch, designed to be placed directly on the heart during open-heart surgery to support healing during the highest-risk post-operative period. John explains the technical, clinical, and adoption risks behind the product, why surgeon buy-in matters, and how the company is pursuing an FDA 510(k) pathway to create a faster and more capital-efficient route to market.  Laurie and John also discuss capital strategy, including self-funding, friends-and-family investment, and BioXGen’s current Regulation CF raise. John shares why he believes in “science for the people,” how AI may accelerate medical device customization, and why founders building serious medical innovations need diligence, partnerships, and the willingness to step outside their comfort zone.  This episode is a powerful look at how discovery becomes utility — and how risk, science, regulation, capital, and persistence all come together when building something that could change patient outcomes. Quotes "It’s not always the best idea that makes it to the patient. It takes the right people, the right environment, and the willingness to bring science into the real world." – John Konhilas“Medical innovation is not just a science problem. It’s a risk, capital, regulatory, and execution problem.” - Laurie Chen Laurie Chen Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lauriechencpamba/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauriechen/ Risk Worthy: https://www.riskworthy.co/   John Konhilas LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnkonhilas/ BioXgen: https://invest.bioxgen.life

    36 min

  3. 23 juin

    Building Lyncoris: Turning Dental Billing Chaos Into Smarter Practice Operations with Adi Daryanani

    In episode 47 of Built by Margin, Laurie Chen sits down with Adi Daryanani, founder and CEO of Lyncoris, to talk about the hidden complexity behind dental insurance, billing, and collections. After acquiring a dental practice with his wife, Adi saw firsthand how fragmented and manual the insurance verification and claims process still is for independent practices. That experience became the foundation for Lyncoris, a platform designed to bring eligibility, claims, patient billing, and denial management into one more centralized workflow. Adi shares how his background in engineering, analytics, data systems, and product development shaped the way he approached the problem. He explains why dental billing is especially hard to automate, how payer fragmentation creates operational friction, and why AI is helpful but still needs human judgment for edge cases. The conversation also covers the risk decision behind acquiring an existing dental practice instead of starting one from scratch, the importance of testing software in real-world workflows, and the trap founders face when they confuse personal access to a problem with full market understanding. This episode is a great listen for founders building from lived experience, healthcare operators managing administrative complexity, and anyone interested in how AI, automation, and human expertise can work together to make small business operations leaner and more scalable.  Quotes "AI does help to build a lot of the scaffolding around workflows and processes and problems. But you ultimately need a reviewer or someone who can verify that that is correct." – Adi Daryanani" We shouldn’t confuse access to the problem with understanding of the market." – Adi Daryanani“Having experienced your own pain point, you’re able to better diagnose and solve the problem for someone else who’s probably experiencing it as you are.” - Laurie Chen Laurie Chen Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lauriechencpamba/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauriechen/ Risk Worthy: https://www.riskworthy.co/   Adi Daryanani LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daryanani/ Lyncoris: https://lyncoris.com/

    24 min

  4. 16 juin

    Leading With Mission: How Roller Coasters, Community, and Risk Shape a 7,000-Member Nonprofit⁠ with Elizabeth Ringas

    In episode 46 of Built by Margin, Laurie Chen talks with Elizabeth Ringas, president of American Coaster Enthusiasts, an international 7,000-member nonprofit dedicated to preserving, celebrating, and educating people about roller coasters. Elizabeth shares how a lifelong love of roller coasters grew into more than two decades of volunteer leadership, eventually leading her to guide ACE through a major technology and member engagement transformation. She explains how the organization balances fun, preservation, fundraising, and community while serving an incredibly passionate membership base. The conversation explores the numbers Elizabeth watches most closely, including membership renewal rates, regional fundraising participation, and annual preservation donations. She also discusses the risks of modernizing a 48-year-old organization, especially when introducing a new website, app, automation, and AI-powered personalization while still honoring longtime members who value tradition. Laurie and Elizabeth also dig into the deeper leadership questions behind nonprofit growth: how to measure trust, how to protect volunteer time, how to make mission-aligned partnership decisions, and why strong communities require both data and intuition. Elizabeth reflects on the personal and professional risks she has taken, including choosing flexible and volunteer-heavy roles to support her family while building a meaningful leadership path. At its heart, this episode is about more than roller coasters. It is about preserving joy, leading through change, and making mission-driven decisions that keep a community thriving across generations.  QUOTES "As an all-volunteer organization, it's meant to enhance our love of roller coasters, not be a burden. And that's a really delicate balance." – Elizabeth Ringas" Ideas are so important because without a random idea like, hey, let's run the coaster an hour before the park opens, I don't know where we would be as a club." – Elizabeth Ringas“My questions are always based around risk, numbers, and decision making. That's really the theme, the angle that I'm trying to come at it.” - Laurie Chen Laurie Chen Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lauriechencpamba/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauriechen/ Risk Worthy: https://www.riskworthy.co/   Elizabeth Ringas Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coastr_gal/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/explorationandthrills/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elizabethringas/ Website: https://www.ridewithace.com/home

    31 min

  5. 15 juin

    Healthier Habits: Building a Gym That Changes Lives with Phil Fortin

    In episode 45 of Built by Margin, Laurie Chen sits down with Phil Fortin, CEO of OCFit in Ottawa, Canada, to talk about his journey from respiratory therapist to gym owner. After 12 years working in hospitals and seeing the long-term consequences of poor health, Phil felt called to build something focused on prevention rather than crisis care. He shares how he opened OC Fit with no business background, learned through trial and error, and leaned on coaching, data, and community to grow into an eighth-year gym owner.⁠ ⁠ Phil also breaks down the numbers and decisions behind running a successful fitness business, from hiring coaches based on personality first, to using attendance as the gym’s “North Star” metric, to maintaining low churn through personal member relationships. The conversation expands into longevity, high-intensity training, strength work, nutrition, and the habits that help people make fitness part of their identity. Phil’s story is a reminder that the strongest businesses are often built around a deeper mission: helping people change their lives before they are forced to.⁠ ⁠ QUOTES "The twice-a-week membership, if you're not doing anything else, it'll be hard all the time... you won't be able to get into a routine that feels comfortable, and that is just going to be what you actually do." – Phil Fortin"We made sure that we know every member's name. We'll meet with you one-on-one every 90 days to review your goals, your progress, and related topics. So it keeps it very personal." – Phil Fortin“That has to become a habit in order for someone to consistently reap the benefits of it and consistently go. Especially if we’re talking about health and fitness and going to the gym, it has to become part of your routine.” - Laurie Chen Laurie Chen Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lauriechencpamba/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauriechen/ Risk Worthy: https://www.riskworthy.co/   Phil Fortin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fortin.phil/  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/philippe.fortin/#  OC Fit: https://ocfit.ca/about

    27 min

  6. 3 juin

    The Numbers, Systems, and Decisions That Scale a Business with Jaramogi K. Adams

    In episode 44 of Built by Margin, Laurie Chen sits down with Jaramogi Adams, founder of Jarkara Strategies, to discuss his journey from dot-com consulting to an 18-year career at American Express, global finance leadership, to fractional COO and strategic advisory work. With an educational background from Duke University and Stanford Graduate School of Business, Jaramogi shares how his name — meaning “one who travels often” — became a through line in his life and career, shaping his desire to learn across countries, companies, and industries. The conversation explores how growing companies can move from intuition to execution by building stronger operating rhythms, clearer KPIs, and better communication systems. Jaramogi explains why his core superpower is listening, how he helps leaders translate qualitative challenges into quantitative decisions, and why scaling requires more than ambition — it requires people, tools, processes, and disciplined change management. He also shares how he uses AI as a thought partner, why nonprofits still need financial stewardship, and how one early career decision at American Express became far more valuable over time than he could have measured in the moment. QUOTES "Good work begets more work. My brand is the work that I deliver — and when that work becomes memorable, people either refer me or bring me back in." – Jaramogi Adams"YI don’t use AI to do the thinking for me. I use it as a thought partner — to give me alternate perspectives so I can make a better decision." – Jaramogi Adams"Ultimately, it’s my human brain and your human brain that are the most valuable. AI is here to make things faster and give us a different perspective." – Laurie Chen Laurie Chen Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lauriechencpamba/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauriechen/ Risk Worthy: https://www.riskworthy.co/   Jaramogi Adams LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaramogikadams/  Jarkara Startegies: https://jaramogikadams.com/

    36 min

  7. 1 juin

    From Coffee to Code: Building an AI Startup That Predicts Customer Churn with Alisha Esmail⁠

    In episode 43 of Built by Margin, Laurie Chen sits down with Alisha Esmail, founder and CEO of Latch, an AI-native customer retention platform helping founders detect churn before it happens. Alisha shares her unexpected journey from international development and building a coffee company with fully female supply chains and microloans, to launching a tech company focused on customer success and retention. After losing her largest client in her first business, Alisha became obsessed with understanding why customers stay, why they leave, and how founders can build systems that protect recurring revenue.⁠ ⁠ Laurie and Alisha also explore what it means to build an AI company as a non-technical founder, how AI is changing financial modeling and startup operations, and why early-stage founders need to know their cash runway, burn rate, and customer acquisition metrics. Alisha opens up about leaving a comfortable company to start over, the fear of visibility and rejection, and the importance of founder resilience. Their conversation blends risk, numbers, decision-making, and the mindset required to keep building when the startup journey gets hard.⁠ QUOTES "The most successful founder is the one that doesn’t quit." – Alisha Esmail"The numbers tell a story… finance is just a tool, like everything else." – Alisha Esmail"Risk worthy does not equal reckless. You have to know your numbers in order not to be reckless." – Laurie Chen Laurie Chen Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lauriechencpamba/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauriechen/ Risk Worthy: https://www.riskworthy.co/   Alisha Esmail Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alishaesmail/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alisha-esmail/ Latch.ai: https://yourlatch.com ⁠

    32 min

  8. 30 mai

    Building Trust for the Agentic Future: Decentralized Identity, Healthcare Fraud, and Startup Growth with Javier Casado-Cocero

    In episode 42 of Built by Margin, Laurie Chen sits down with Javier Casado-Cocero, Duke MBA graduate and founder working on Valyd, an identity infrastructure company using decentralized identity technology to fight fraud in healthcare and secure the next era of AI agents. Javier shares how his work evolved from blockchain and decentralized technologies into a broader mission: proving who is behind each digital action while preserving privacy, protecting credentials, and enabling doctors and organizations to safely delegate work to AI agents.  Laurie and Javier also dive into the business side of building a frontier technology startup, including pricing models, enterprise sales, customer validation, financial forecasting, and how Valyd uses AI tools like Claude and Gemini to strengthen market research and pro forma models. Javier discusses how the Duke Fuqua entrepreneurship ecosystem helped shape the company, why Valyd converted from an LLC to a Delaware C-Corp, and the leadership lessons he has learned while scaling a remote team in cybersecurity and healthcare infrastructure. QUOTES "We realized that the technology is also very secure and is able to preserve privacy as well as prove data about individuals. And it was this that made us realize that we can use this technology to solve the identity problem." – Javier Casado-Cocero"Sometimes it's important to remember to just double check and dot your I's and cross your t's, but it's always a push and pull because one of your advantages is how fast you're able to move too." – Javier Casado-Cocero"As a fractional CFO myself, I’m very interested in how startups in the rise of AI era are utilizing AI to drive their financial models." – Laurie Chen Laurie Chen Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lauriechencpamba/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauriechen/ Risk Worthy: https://www.riskworthy.co/   Javier Casado-Cocero LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/javier-c-c/  Valyd: https://valyd.id/

    19 min
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À propos

Built by Margin is the podcast at the intersection of risk, numbers, and decision-making for founders, CEOs, and high performers. Hosted by CPA, fractional CFO, and author of the upcoming book Risk Worthy, Laurie Chen, CPA, MBA, the show explores how better decisions create better businesses, stronger leadership, and more meaningful long-term outcomes. From financial strategy and entrepreneurship to intelligent risk-taking and growth, each episode helps you think sharper and build with intention.

Informations

  • Création
    Laurie Chen, CPA, MBA
  • Années d’activité
    2025 - 2026
  • Épisodes
    50
  • Classification
    Tous publics
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Built by Margin with Laurie Chen
  • Site web de l’émission
    Built by Margin with Laurie Chen