Episode 1: Julia Chou - COO of Abridge - Restoring Connection in Healthcare

Julia Chou is the COO of Abridge, one of the leading AI companies transforming healthcare. She joined as Abridge's first commercial hire and has helped scale the company to more than 500 employees. In June 2025, Abridge raised a $300 million Series E led by Andreessen Horowitz at a $5.3 billion valuation. Today, its AI platform helps clinicians across more than 150 health systems automate medical documentation, reducing administrative burden and allowing doctors to spend more time with patients. Sapienne first met Julia when she joined our C-suite dinner series as a spotlight speaker at Octavia—a restaurant where she had once worked as a culinary extern before beginning her career in technology. Julia shares her story growing up in Wisconsin and her motivation to build companies at the intersection of technology and social impact. We discuss her experience founding Binti to improve child welfare, why she joined Abridge early and what it takes to build a lasting culture while scaling one of healthcare's fastest-growing AI companies. We also talk about her philosophy on raising children as a mom in an AI-first world that looks very different from the one she grew up in. Timestamps: (0:53) Sapienne Intro (2:17) Early life and her path into tech (6:38) Early conviction in Abridge and crafting her role (16:30) Abridge's evolution with AI (18:23) Abridge's culture and values (23:14) Taking Abridge to the next level (26:28) Raising a family in an AI-first world (31:59) Lightning Round More about Abridge: website - abridge.com X - https://x.com/AbridgeHQ Follow Julia: X - https://x.com/juliajchou Linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliajchou/ Follow Sapienne: Website - sapienne.ai Linkedin - linkedin.com/company/sapienne X - https://x.com/SapienneAI Newsletter - sapienne.substack.com