Meet the two cofounders who went on a 10-month-long trip before starting their $350 million business—they say you should too

Nate Wilson and Eli Ben-Joseph, cofounders of the AI healthcare company Regard, took a 10-month trip through China, the Philippines, and Colombia before launching their business. They say this experience, which included being stranded and lost control of plans, helped them understand each other's strengths and weaknesses as potential business partners.

Wilson, a former biomedical engineer, and Ben-Joseph, a bioengineer at MIT, met while searching for sublets in Boston. The trip, according to Wilson, was like a "boot camp" for future cofounders. It exposed them to "extremely high-stress situations, very ambiguous," and "dropped them into situations where they've lost control." Wilson emphasizes that such experiences can be a valuable test for future business partnerships.

He encourages other potential cofounders to undergo a similar journey to better understand each other. Regard, now used across several hundred hospitals, was built on the foundation of their partnership forged during the trip. Wilson argues that the "highs are higher" and the "lows are less bitter" when you know someone deeply, especially during challenging times.