Seattle tech vets Nirav Shah and Jorge Sanchez paid around $1 million to buy a majority stake in financial planning website PhysicianonFire and plan to broaden the platform’s offerings by launching a suite of new personal financial management tools.
Shah and Sanchez previously founded Alertive Healthcare, a Seattle patient monitoring platform acquired by Carbon Health in 2021.
They will co-lead PhysicianonFire with digital entrepreneur Vinci Palad.
“Jorge and I both had a unique path to financial independence and are interested in sharing the traditional and non-traditional approaches such as through entrepreneurship,” said Shah.
Founded in 2016 by Leif Dahleen, PhysicianonFire tailors its financial literacy content and tools to help high-income earners manage their money. The site covers topics such as burnout related to student debt, personal finance, and business planning. The idea is to help users develop strategies to achieve F.I.R.E., or “financial independence, retire early.”
Dahleen, who retired from his career as an anesthesiologist at 43, will remain at PhysicianonFire as an employee but ultimately plans to step down.
Following the acquisition, PhysicianonFire plans to roll out a suite of new digital products that help users with tasks such as tax planning, investing, and debt management.
The startup’s platform has more than 40,000 users in fields like healthcare, dentistry, and law. It makes money by selling advertisements and affiliate partnerships, with plans to reel in additional revenue from the new software tools.
Shah is a venture partner at Newfund and advisor at Carbon Health. He’s joined by Sanchez, who previously served as chief medical officer at Alertive Healthcare and is currently an advisor at Carbon Health. Palad has experience in digital media and e-commerce. The startup has five employees.
