How the MIT Executive MBA Powered One Alum's Leap into Health Tech Entrepreneurship

When Ryan Troy, EMBA ‘24, enrolled in the MIT Executive MBA program, he was already thriving at Workday, a leading provider of enterprise cloud applications for finance and human resources. As a trusted advisor to Fortune 500 clients, Troy guided organizations through complex digital transformations, helping them optimize workforce strategies and streamline operations.

He joined the MIT EMBA to gain a broader strategic lens, enhance his leadership toolkit, and build confidence in navigating uncertainty. The coursework in global strategy specifically was transformational. Within six months of starting the program, Troy’s role at Workday expanded. He was promoted and began playing a larger part in shaping the company’s global strategy efforts.

The program also sparked his entrepreneurial aspirations. Surrounded by a cohort of driven and mission-focused leaders, Troy found a like-minded partner and began laying the foundation for a new startup. That partnership resulted in Opdoc, a health tech startup that uses AI to automate clinical documentation and streamline medical coding.

Why did you decide to pursue an Executive MBA, and what led you to choose MIT Sloan?

I always had aspirations of starting my own company, and there were a couple of things going on at the time that pushed me to finally go for it. I was at Workday, moving up in the ranks, and honestly, I felt like I was moving up too quickly. I’d just been promoted to director and found myself regularly talking to senior leadership. Suddenly I was making decisions about people’s promotions and livelihoods. I felt a responsibility to do right by everyone on my team. Some of them had gone through six different managers in just three years. It was a lot. And I realized I needed to equip myself with the right tools and knowledge to lead effectively at that level.

From 2020 to the end of 2021, my career took off. That’s when I knew it was time to go back to school. I started looking at different programs. I was considering full-time options, but then I started thinking more seriously about executive programs. That’s when MIT Sloan really stood out.

I wanted a program that focused on entrepreneurship and managing global teams, which aligned with what I was doing at Workday. As I looked deeper into MIT, I started researching alumni and reaching out to them. Their stories and the level of talent in their cohorts were inspiring. People were taking companies public and doing amazing things. That’s when I thought, "This place is different." MIT’s alumni make a global impact, and I wanted to be part of that community.

What were you doing at Workday, and how did the MIT EMBA help you fill in gaps in your knowledge?

I was the Director of Global Solution Architecture at Workday, which meant I was leading a team that worked across both pre-sales and post-sales. Our team covered all of Workday’s products and geographies, and at the time, I was leading a team of about 60 people. I helped grow and expand that team into Europe, Singapore, and Canada. We were responsible for working with our largest and most strategic customers, helping them design solutions and ensuring those solutions were successfully implemented.

The level of responsibility was high, and I wanted to make sure I was fully equipped to lead at that scale. That’s where the EMBA came in. One of the biggest gaps I wanted to address was global strategy. I had gone from managing a development team in Pleasanton, CA, to suddenly leading a global organization. I needed to shift my mindset and learn how to think on a more global scale.

How did your startup come about, and what role did the EMBA program play in it?

The origin of my startup, Opdoc, really begins inside the walls of MIT Sloan. Dr. Ted Blaine, EMBA ‘24, who is an orthopedic surgeon, was in my study group. During one of our regular check-ins, I noticed he’d missed a few meetings. When I asked if everything was okay, he told me he was overwhelmed with medical charting and documentation. He had more than 200 charts to finish, which meant staying up late nights and sacrificing personal time. That’s when he described the administrative burden he faced as a physician, including documentation and billing code entry.

He brought the problem, and I saw an opportunity for a solution. I told him there might be a way to apply artificial intelligence to streamline and automate some of the work he was doing manually. We started collaborating, combining his deep domain knowledge in healthcare with my technical and strategic background. Our idea quickly gained traction.

We began pitching the concept during IDEA Week and validated it through conversations with more than 35 healthcare providers across the country. What started as a documentation assistant soon evolved into a broader platform targeting revenue cycle management, including autonomous coding, which was still very new at the time. We received support from MIT’s entrepreneurship ecosystem including Sandbox, FUSE, and several classes where we shaped our pitch deck and product strategy.

We officially incorporated Opdoc in September 2023. I serve as CEO and Ted is Chief Medical Officer and Chairman of the Board. What made this journey especially meaningful is that it all came together organically from the program. It started with a conversation between classmates and grew into a real company addressing a real problem in healthcare.

What kind of real-world validation did you get for Opdoc after developing it through MIT Sloan?

The validation came fast. We pitched our idea during class at MIT and got strong feedback. Then I flew out to San Francisco for a pitch event while I was still in the program. I landed, pitched the idea to investors, and they immediately said they wanted to invest in us. A few weeks later, they offered us a quarter-million-dollar pre-seed investment. That was before we even graduated.

That moment showed us how quickly the EMBA training translated into traction. It proved that the ideas and training we were getting in class were credible and compelling in the real world. We knew we were onto something, and that momentum carried forward as we started raising our seed round and building out the company.

What are some of the most impactful lessons you learned at MIT Sloan, and how have you used them in your work?

I know some people will say they liked one or two classes, but I actually liked every single class. But the class that had the biggest direct impact on my company was Analytics Edge, taught by Dimitris Bertsimas. That course was all about applying analytics and machine learning in the real world. We learned about neural networks and deep learning, and our final project could use any technique we’d studied. I used that as an opportunity to learn more about healthcare operations and the billing process. I built a model to predict ICD-10 codes from unstructured clinical notes, and that model ended up forming the foundation of what became our product at Opdoc.

That work still blows away prospective customers. They’re amazed by what the technology can do. And the best part is that I learned how to do it in class. So yes, the lessons I learned weren’t just interesting, they were immediately applicable and foundational to the business I’m building now.

What has been the return on investment for you from the MIT EMBA?

Compensation is just one part of the ROI. Yes, I got a salary bump, but more importantly, I feel prepared to lead under any circumstances. I’ve learned how to learn more effectively, which means I can adapt quickly in a world that’s always changing. Everything that’s happening globally now makes sense to me. I understand how different parts of the economy affect each other and how that impacts the people and systems around me. That kind of awareness helps me make better decisions in business and in life.

The EMBA taught me how to lead, but also how to live with purpose and awareness. I’ve become more confident, more strategic, and more connected to what’s happening in the world. Opportunities have started coming my way more frequently. I’ve had people approach me about new roles.

So yes, the financial ROI is real and ongoing, but the personal and professional growth I’ve experienced is priceless. I started to see the return while I was still at Workday. And now, as I lead my own startup, I’m seeing that return every single day. The MIT EMBA has changed how I lead, how I think, and how I show up in the world.