Entrepreneur of the Year 2025: The founders taking healthcare out of the waiting room

Anyone who has ever waited an entire work shift in the emergency room knows that North American health-care systems are stretched thin—and so too do B.C.-based entrepreneurs Shane Madden and Vahid Shababi. When the COVID-19 pandemic had folks shifting away from visits to the doctor’s office in preference to remote solutions (telehealth calls, for example), the two business partners recognized it was time to move quickly with their platform and merge technology, mobility and compliance.

Enter Hydreight Technologies Inc., a digital health company bringing licenced health-care professionals directly to patients, wherever they are. The platform, which focuses on the U.S. market, gives direct-to-consumer access to nurses, doctors, labs and medications in full compliance, plus offers weight loss treatments, hormone therapy and other wellness services.

“We are the future of health care in the United States. COVID expedited that because now people want to have medications, doctor visits and all that at their convenience, at their place with the cheapest price,” says Shababi.

Hydreight Technologies Inc. aimed to give quick health-care access to patients who were suddenly relegated to phone calls and virtual visits, but the puzzle to solve was how they could keep up compliance across 50 different states, each with its own rules and regulations. The first step they took was understanding all the legislation across the pharmaceutical boards, nursing boards and medical boards.

The result is that, today, Hydreight “creates that platform and infrastructure that anybody can use,” says Shababi.

Providing a solution to the health-care problem has definitely been profitable for Shababi and co., with reported revenues in 2024 reaching to more than $16 million. Hydreight Technologies has projected 27.5-percent revenue growth—and with the company now public, enabling Hydreight to leverage stock as a currency for acquisitions and partnerships, it’s well-positioned to reach that mark.

An embarrassing obsession of yours?

VS: Eating. I love food.

SM: Working!

An odd job you’ve had?

VS: Club promoter.

SM: Professional golfer.

After work, we can find you…

VS: Spending time with my son and my family. And sports: I play sports, I watch sports. I live and breathe that.

SM: Entertaining 20-month-old twins and maintaining mama’s sanity.