APPAIC

University of Washington, Foster School of Business

Website Link: n/a

Industry: Healthcare

MBA Founding Student Name(s): Xiaoyu Qu

Brief Description of Solution: The application of artificial intelligence in lab tests, starting with tests for patients with blood cancer.

Funding Dollars: $110K

What led you to launch this venture? I became a clinical lab geneticist 10 years ago. When I passed my board exam, my mom, a physician, told me, “Stay alert because diseases do not follow textbooks, and do not make patients wait.” I did not fully appreciate what tall orders those are.

Today in healthcare, those issues are a universal struggle. Using my field as an example, in the past ten years, the new incidence of blood cancer diagnosis per year increased 12% and the testing volume typically increased 5-10% per year. However, the number of certified clinical labs performing highly specialized tests has stayed stagnant. This increasing strain between demand and supply is everywhere in healthcare. We must solve this problem.

The mission of APPAIC is to understand where the pain points are and how they interplay, and to bring in technologies for laboratorians to regain control of their work and to better provide patient care.

What has been your biggest accomplishment so far with the venture? There have been many celebrations along the way and many people to thank. This project taught me how challenging it is for people from different disciplines to communicate with each other and how critical this is for our success. So, perhaps my biggest accomplishment so far is seeing that I can assemble and build dream teams.

In the second year of the Executive MBA program at the University of Washington Foster School of Business, I assembled a capstone team with the goal of validating whether APPAIC is a viable business initiative. Together, we participated in the University of Washington Dempsey Startup Competition and were ranked among the top teams for 2025. We also won the first-place prize in the business plan competition of the Executive MBA program.

Shortly thereafter, I assembled a team within my institution that represents expertise in both clinical and machine learning, as well as business acumen. Together, we secured a $110K commercialization grant to turn our bold idea into reality. This is just the beginning.

What has been the most significant challenge you’ve faced in creating your company, and how did you solve it? The most significant challenge has been the highly specialized nature of the initiative. Although people understand the struggle in healthcare, they tend to think of overworked physicians and nurses. People seem to have the impression that lab tests are done by machines, and they’re unaware of the business opportunities in supporting the immense labor force behind the lab testing sector. Additionally, as someone deeply involved in this sector, I may explain things in ways that are too technical for the audience.

This challenge is ongoing, but a combination of the following measures helps:

• Consider what matters most to your audience.
• Explain a concept to friends from business school and take inspiration from how they reword it.
• Seek out audiences, including advisors and investors, who understand the field.

How has your MBA program helped you further this startup venture? The Foster School of Business Executive MBA has helped tremendously. Coming from a clinical testing background, I have a precise and detail-oriented way of thinking. I tend to focus more on technologies and products. Although these are essential for the success of the startup venture, there is much more to consider in building a business.

The Executive MBA program taught us strategy, management, leadership, economics, and finance as they apply to building and scaling ventures. An overarching lesson from the program is that one person can’t be proficient in all of these areas, but we must appreciate the importance of each area when assembling a founding team. Success depends on bringing together people who know what I don’t. I need always to remain humble and listen to advice backed by the evidence and expertise they bring.

Which MBA class has been most valuable in building your startup and what was the biggest lesson you gained from it? The building of the startup was enabled by the strong foundation provided by the Executive MBA program as a whole, so it is tough to single out individual classes. If I were to focus on the word “startup,” two classes come to mind: Business Plan Practicum, taught by Christy Johnson, and Entrepreneurship, taught by Dr. Benjamin Hallen. Christy’s class demystified the startup world for me and helped set the framework for my journey. Dr. Hallen’s class guided students, case-by-case, to approach entrepreneurship analytically. My biggest lesson learned is that although the startup journey is like a rollercoaster ride, the entrepreneur must perform due diligence to protect themselves and the team from avoidable or unnecessary volatilities.

What professor made a significant contribution to your plans and why? For the business plan and various competitions, Dr. Suresh Kotha was there with us every step of the way. There are many things that I would like to thank Dr. Kotha for, especially the advice to zoom out of the field that I have been in for many years and see the big picture.

My career background instilled in me the desire to solve specific problems. Although the Executive MBA program has empowered me with comprehensive and high-level thinking, when it comes to the startup initiative originating from my specialty, I tend to quickly zero in on a specific hurdle or question. So, it was important for me to hear this advice in the context of my startup from the very start of the journey.

How has your local startup ecosystem contributed to your venture’s development and success? We benefited from Seattle’s startup ecosystem through multiple channels, including the University of Washington Dempsey Startup Competition and the Executive MBA business plan competition. These events connected us with alumni, entrepreneurs, and investors who provided valuable advice on our business plan through multiple iterations.

What is your long-term goal with your startup? The long-term goal of my startup is to meet the needs of human experts with deep-learning-powered tools, so that together we achieve the most desirable performance in laboratory testing and beyond.

Looking back, what is the biggest lesson you wish you’d known before launching and scaling your venture? There are many lessons. Perhaps the biggest one is to listen to the market. With my background in clinical laboratory testing, I thought I knew all about the market. However, as we carried out customer interviews and market research, I began to appreciate that there are other stakeholders with different views. I learned that it is one thing to say the words, “The market always wins.” However, it’s a lot of work to generate information that accurately represents customer needs in ways that can help guide a company’s direction.

DON’T MISS: MOST DISRUPTIVE MBA STARTUPS OF 2025

© Copyright 2026 Poets & Quants. All rights reserved. This article may not be republished, rewritten or otherwise distributed without written permission. To reprint or license this article or any content from Poets & Quants, please submit your request HERE.