The Team Building the
Future of Medical Education
Founders, physician advisors, and student leaders at 20+ medical schools.
Ora's journey to a nationwide platform
A prototype at UCSF
Frustrated by scattered study resources, Ryan Phelps builds an adaptive-learning prototype at UCSF to optimize his own study schedule.
#1 at UCSF, then everywhere
The Ora team forms and builds the first version of Ora. The tool becomes UCSF's top study resource within a week, spreads to Stanford, the University of Washington, Harvard Medical School, and Texas A&M, and reaches a quarter of all US medical schools by year's end.
Y Combinator and a $1.8M seed
Joins Y Combinator and closes a $1.8M seed round, backed by YC, General Catalyst, Zeno Ventures, Pioneer Fund, and physician angels.
An AI-native rebuild
Re-architected the platform around AI from the ground up, shipping the comprehensive QBank, flashcards, and library. Ora begins outperforming leading med ed platforms in performance benchmarks.
Proof, in a randomized controlled trial
Ora validates effectiveness in the first multi-institutional RCT of a USMLE QBank, outperforming UWorld. Launches the MD+ partnership and builds out a physician and faculty advisory board.
Expanding institutional capabilities
Ora partners with Sketchy. Builds out institutional feature set, delivering faculty dashboards and aggregated student analytics. Ora signs its first two med-school institutional deals in June.
Built by people who've shipped at scale
Meet Ora's leadership team.
Ryan Phelps, MD
CEOHead of Content
Former Stanford neurosurgery resident and UCSF medical student, with a background in learning psychology and NBME-style question-writing.
Kevin Bastoul
CTOHead of Engineering
Full stack software engineer specialized in AI and EdTech, having built AI-powered educational products used by tens of thousands of students. Previous roles at Square and Veeva Systems.
Jacob Caccamo
COOHead of Design
UX designer and front-end engineer specialized in building EdTech platforms in medicine. Previously at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
The clinicians and educators behind the product.
Physicians, professors, and student leaders across 20+ medical schools.
PHYSICIANS & FACULTY ADVISORS
Jessica Valdez, MD, MPH
UCSF Obstetrics & Gynecology, UCSF School of Medicine
General Advisor
Adeel Yang, MD
Founder of Picmonic (acq. by TrueLearn)
General Advisor
Derek Harmon, PhD
Associate Professor
Clinical, Division of Anatomy
Sophie Yu, MD
UCSF Otolaryngology, Harvard School of Medicine
Surgical Subspecialty Advisor
Donald Keating III, DO
Duke Anesthesiology, KCU College of Osteopathic Medicine
COMLEX Strategy Advisor
Hadley Leatherman, MD
University of Washington School of Medicine
General Advisor
Luis Freitas, MD
Universidade Federal do Paraná
IMG Success Advisor
MEDICAL STUDENT ADVISORY BOARD
Alex Zhou
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (MS4)
Amber Chan
Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine (MS4)
Henry Nguyen
Stanford School of Medicine (MS4)
Sunitha Konatham
Texas A&M College of Medicine (MS4)
Andrew Ma
NYU School of Medicine (MS3)
Bryan Colasacco
Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine (OMS3)
Christina Stylianou
UNC School of Medicine (MS3)
Ethan Bernstein
California Northstate University (MS3)
Karthika Venugopalan
DeBusk College of Osteopathic Medicine (OMS3)
Kor Akiti
University of Pennsylvania (MS3)
Tanish Gandhi
Ohio State College of Medicine (MS3)
Tejas Sekhar
Rush Medical College (MS3)
Aliya Shabbir
Harvard Medical School (MS2)
Ansh Bhatt
University of Miami (MS2)
Gabriel Cuilan
University of Michigan Medical School (MS2)
Hiba Fatima Hamid
Tufts University School of Medicine (M2)
Nikolai Rogalinski
UConn School of Medicine (MS2)
Robert Tran
UC Irvine (MS2)
Shoaib Siddiqui
Lake Erie College of Medicine (M2)
Trevor Sobol
The Ohio State University College of Medicine (M2)
Yashas Basavarajappa
Tufts University School of Medicine (M2)
Spencer Singh
The Ohio State University College of Medicine (M1)
Tina Le
California University of Science and Medicine (M1)
Backed by leading investors
