Boris Fründt · A personal pitch for x-cardiac

A digital biomarker is only as good as the decision it enables.

I'm Boris — CTO and technical product executive with 20 years building digital products. x-cardiac's clinical decision support is scientifically exceptional. This is my case for what I'd bring to the team that ships and scales it.

Scroll

Validated science
needs great product.

x-cardiac has achieved what most health-tech startups only dream of: MDR-certified, clinically validated products — published in The Lancet and Nature — that genuinely improve outcomes in cardiac ICUs. That foundation is extraordinary.

But clinical validation is only the beginning. The real challenge is making a real-time prediction for post-operative bleeding or renal injury feel like a natural extension of clinical intuition — not an additional screen to check. It's the cognitive load of the ICU nurse at 3am. It's how a plug-in integrates so seamlessly into existing hospital systems that adoption feels inevitable.

That's the intersection I've been working at for 20 years: product thinking, technical depth, and genuine empathy for the people who actually use the software. I'd like to help x-cardiac own that space.

10+ Years in AI & connected products
23 Engineers scaled as CTO
2015 First AI product shipped (IBM Watson)
2+ Health products shipped (mental health & insurance)

Why Boris
for x-cardiac?

Core Thesis

Clinical decisions need great interfaces

The best clinical decision support is invisible. A prediction for post-operative bleeding only saves a life if the right person acts on it — confidently, quickly, without hesitation. I have spent 20 years making complex data actionable for real users under real pressure. That is exactly what I build.

Product + Engineering Bridge

I think in user journeys, not just in technical architectures. I translate what an ICU physician needs into something an engineering team can ship in two-week cycles.

Scale-up Leadership

I have built engineering teams from 0 to 23. I know how to move from founder-driven decisions to structured, autonomous squads without losing velocity.

Personal

Healthcare is Personal

My wife is a neurologist in Potsdam. Healthcare is not an abstract market to me — it is the conversation at our dinner table. I have shipped real products in the space: a mental health app combining therapeutic expertise with practical tools, and a white-label platform for health insurance providers. I understand both the clinical and the regulatory reality.

What I would focus on
in the first 90 days.

01

Understand Clinical Workflows

Shadow ICU teams. Sit next to nurses and physicians using x-cardiac's products. Identify where predictions create trust and where they create friction.

02

Map the Adoption Funnel

Analyze how hospitals evaluate, purchase, deploy, and maintain the product. Find the drop-off points. Build a feedback loop between clinical reality and the engineering roadmap.

03

Invest in Frontend & UX

A real-time cardiac prediction displayed as a raw number means nothing. Displayed as a clear, contextual alert integrated into existing monitoring UI, it saves lives. I would invest heavily in the presentation layer.

04

Build for Scale

Prepare the technical architecture and team structure for multi-hospital rollouts. Define SLOs, establish integration patterns, and ensure the platform operates reliably at 100 clinics, not just 10.

"The science is done.
Now build the product
that makes it irreplaceable."

Career
Trajectory.

2025 – now

CTO @ SWAN

Led 23 engineers building connected hardware/software products — IoT architecture, device-to-cloud communication, firmware to mobile. Navigated the company through acquisition by a US investor.

2019 – 2025

Freelance Technical Product Manager & Developer

Full ownership across industries — including health tech (mental health app soulx, health insurance platform for SDA SE) and AI-driven pricing products. From pitch to production.

2017 – 2018

Technical Director @ Jung von Matt

Built the tech organization from zero to 14 engineers in 18 months. Shaped product strategy for major brands. Drove adoption of emerging tech — PWA, headless CMS, VR/AR.

2015 – 2016

Web Application Architect @ IBM iX

Helped build and establish IBM iX Studio Hamburg from the ground up. Built IBM Watson cognitive prototypes and conversational UIs — before AI was mainstream. Bridged technical product management with cutting-edge AI research.