On September 2nd, Atlanta Ventures hosted Kristin Oja, Founder & CEO of Stat Wellness, for Coffee, Candor & Kristin Oja, our latest Atlanta Healthcare Entrepreneur Meetup. Kristin walked the room through the entire arc of Stat Wellness: from a burned out ER nurse frustrated by seven minute primary care visits, to a $185/month membership model, to 12,000+ patients and eight locations today.
She didn’t hold back on the hard parts either, including crying in a bank parking lot and signing a personal guarantee she hadn’t told her husband about yet.
Bootstrapped From a Sister’s Floor
Before Stat Wellness had a lease, Kristin had about 50 nos from investors and banks. One bank offered a meeting, then asked for 50% down on the loan.
“If I had 50% to put down, I wouldn’t need the money.”
She sold their house and lived on her sister’s floor to fund the build out, signed a personal guarantee on the lease before telling her husband, and taught 16 fitness classes a week while answering the phones herself. The business never had a negative month. Every dollar of profit went straight into the next hire.
Growth Without a Marketing Budget, Until It Wasn’t
Stat Wellness grew from zero to 12,000+ patients and 100 employees across eight locations, with no outside capital and no marketing for the first six years. The one place that trend broke was Nashville, their biggest build out yet at $1M, which opened to silence because the Atlanta brand recognition didn’t travel with her.
Her takeaway for the room: know your market avatar and actual consumer behavior before you open the doors, not after.
Taking Capital on Her Own Terms
After two years of turning down VCs, angels, and PE firms who wanted to dictate square footage and furniture specs, Kristin closed a deal with Fulcrum, an Atlanta based healthcare and tech PE firm, keeping majority ownership.
“Wellness is a trillion dollar industry. Am I going to be the black car that gets squished?”
She also shared a close call that’s worth remembering for anyone reading a term sheet: she nearly signed a participating preferred clause that would have paid investors back double before anyone else saw a dollar. She caught it after signing, called Fulcrum, and they agreed to redraft it.
“Every word in a contract is important.”
What Founders Can Steal for Their Own Health
Kristin didn’t just talk business. As a nurse and founder managing her own ADHD, she gave the room a short list of what actually works for her: exercise before anything else, phone on do not disturb, protein and electrolytes before caffeine, and a breathing pattern for stress recovery (inhale 4 seconds, exhale 6 to 8 seconds, 4 to 5 rounds). Her line on stress stuck with the room:
“Stress itself is not the problem. It’s the lack of recovery.”
She also flagged muscle mass as the most overlooked asset as we age, since sarcopenia starts at 30 and costs about 8% of muscle per decade if you’re not training for it.
What’s Next for Stat Wellness
Kristin closed with what’s ahead: 4 to 5 new locations planned for 2027, a full rebrand and new website launching in early October, and WellPro, a functional medicine AI platform already live in Charlotte and rolling out to other markets. She’s also building out a B2B, per employee per month offering aimed at self insured companies with 5 to 1,000 employees, and asked the room directly for two things: corporate health benefit referrals, and help protecting the word “wellness” from getting diluted by med spas and GLP-1 only positioning.
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