Kellogg Chronicles: Zell Fellow launches app to help improve gut health

Sam Jactel '21 MBA on why the school's unique approach to entrepreneurship has been instrumental in his success and the growth of Ayble.
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Kellogg students go on a hike and proudly take their school's flag along with them.
”I received a huge amount of support from the Kellogg and broader Northwestern ecosystem as we iterated through the early versions of Ayble,” says Sam Jactel of his new venture.

This content was originally published in Poets&Quants.  

By  Sam Jactel ’21 MBA

My journey to business school was somewhat unconventional. I started my career in clinical research, working in translational pediatric pathology research at Emory School of Medicine and Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. I published research on everything from respiratory viruses to gastroenterology to graft-versus-host disease.

Following my clinical experience, I spent several years as a strategy consultant at Accenture in the healthcare field. While I was working with Fortune 500 companies, I noticed that many conversations were centered around how these larger, established companies could better protect against, partner with, or learn from early-stage digital health companies. I figured if early-stage digital health companies like Omada, Noom and PatientsLikeMe were making the big “Goliath” players like Pfizer, Merck and Novartis take note, then these smaller players (the “Davids” of the industry) could be catalyzers of positive change.

I came to Kellogg to make the pivot from consulting and legacy healthcare organizations to dive into digital health startup world. Going to Kellogg seemed like the ideal platform to make that pivot because it had such a rich healthcare ecosystem that overlapped with an incredibly strong entrepreneurship track.

Discovering the Zell Fellowship Program

My path into entrepreneurship was somewhat unexpected. It was inspired by a personal event nearly ten years ago, when I was diagnosed with a gastrointestinal issue known as inflammatory bowel disease.  Despite receiving care from some of the world’s best academic medical centers, I still found it challenging to manage my symptoms and stay in long-term remission. I knew diet and psychology had potential to transform my quality of life. However, I had such a hard time with accessing experts in the field that I decided to build a solution for myself, starting with nutrition. This was the inception of Ayble, a comprehensive ecosystem of support for digestive health patients.

My passion for Ayble inspired my curricular choices at Kellogg, and I decided to take New Venture Discovery with Professor David Schonthal to begin applying tried-and-true startup principles to my personal project. The class put a significant emphasis on customer discovery — to understand the problem deeply prior to building a solution — therefore avoiding the “solution-looking-for-a-problem” issue that haunts many startups these days.

I developed the framework for what would become the full-fledged business during that class. When the course ended, David introduced me to the Zell Fellows program which is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. The program offers an entrepreneurial experience for Kellogg students who aspire to start or acquire businesses. At the time, it felt like a perfect fit as I worked on bringing Ayble to life. David had explained how participants received mentorship from Kellogg faculty and external experts and were able to engage in global treks and obtain stipends for their ventures.

Sam and other Kellogg MBA students pose for a picture under the stars during their KWEST trip in the Atacama Desert.
Jactel and other Kellogg MBA students pose under the stars during the KWEST trip to Chile, one of the school's many global immersion opportunities.

One of the things that resonated with me the most about Zell was that it focused on backing the founder, rather than backing the business. The programming, coaching, skill development activities, and overall structure of the program made me a better business operator and leader. I then invested and applied these learnings to the business, through its multiple pivots during the program. By the end of the Zell experience, I felt prepared to dive into the business full-time and make my vision for transformative, whole-person gastroenterology care a reality.

Read the original article in its entirety on Poets&Quants to hear more about Jactel's transformational journey as a Zell Fellow including personalized mentorship from faculty members. He shares why he believes the entrepreneurship program at Kellogg is only getting more robust as well as advice for aspiring B-school entrepreneurs.