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By David Newdawn
23rd September, 2026
The last time you walked into a hospital and were told, “Please wait a few more minutes, we’re trying to find your file,” how did you feel?
Those few minutes can become hours. And sometimes, important information about your health is sitting somewhere in a file you cannot access, buried in another hospital’s records, or simply unavailable when you need it most.
That frustration, helplessness, and danger of having critical health information scattered across different places is exactly the problem Adaure Anyanwu is solving with Gather Round.
Healthcare is often reactive: people seek help after symptoms worsen, while vital information remains fragmented across medical records, family memories, and different providers.
Adaure Anyanwu wants to change that.
The Nigerian-American entrepreneur is the CEO and Founder of Gather Round, a preventive health and family wellness platform designed to help individuals and families understand, organize, and act on their health information. She also leads YooAdaCare®, a natural skincare and personal-care brand inspired by her own experience with acne and her cultural heritage.
In this conversation with Spotlight Hub, Adaure shares the deeply personal experience behind Gather Round, the challenges of building a secure health-tech product, and the lessons she has learned about adaptability, communication, and leadership.
Gather Round is a community-focused platform built around preventive health and family wellness.
On the consumer side, one of its core features is a multigenerational family tree with genetic linking. It allows people to look back at health conditions within their families and better understand how that history may affect them.
There is also a shared family community wall. If someone is preparing for an appointment, managing a condition, or looking for support, they can reach out to trusted family members and friends rather than deal with everything alone.
That community focus is important to me because I am proudly Nigerian-American. Growing up with that dual identity, I saw a contrast between the individualistic approach that is common in the United States and the community-oriented way many Nigerians approach life.
I wanted to bring that sense of community into healthcare. Your support system could begin with your family, your friends, or anyone you trust.
The platform is also focused on prevention. Healthcare in the United States is often reactive rather than proactive, and that can contribute to poor outcomes. When people understand their symptoms, conditions, and family histories earlier, they are better prepared to advocate for themselves and seek appropriate care.
Gather Round began with a deeply personal experience. I lost my grandfather because critical health information was not delivered in time.
He was given a medication that was already documented as having caused an adverse reaction when he was younger. That information did not surface when it was needed, and the result was fatal.
I remember seeing him at the funeral and thinking that this could have been prevented. He could still be here.
That experience led me to pharmacy school because I wanted to understand medicine and how something like that could happen. As I gained more experience, I began seeing the same pattern in other people’s lives.
While working as a telescribe with a provider serving underserved and minority communities, I encountered a young man with diabetes who tried to advocate for himself. He did not have the medical information he needed in his own hands, and further complications ultimately led to an amputation that should have been avoided.
Seeing that pattern repeated made me realize this was not an idea I could continue carrying only in my head. It needed to become something real.
The platform helps users keep important information accessible and prepare it for conversations with healthcare providers.
For example, users can record medications, symptoms, and relevant family history. They can scan a prescription label instead of manually entering every detail, confirm that the information is correct, and add notes about how they actually take the medication.
There is also a symptom tracker. Someone can record what they have been experiencing, how long it has lasted, and its intensity. The platform can then help them organize that information and identify questions they may want to ask their doctor.
Users can generate reports containing the information they choose to share with a caregiver. The platform plans to integrate securely with electronic health record systems, genetic testing services, and wearable devices.
The goal is not to add another tedious task for people. It is to meet them where they already are and make the health data they are already generating more useful.
Trust, security, and communication are major challenges, especially for a new health-tech company.
People need to know that their health information is safe. That means thinking seriously about HIPAA compliance, AI governance, security, and the guardrails surrounding how data is used.
Another challenge is understanding what patients want while also understanding what healthcare providers need. My experience as a pharmacy intern and telescribe helped me see both sides.
Health literacy is another important issue. People may recognize the name of a condition without understanding what it means for their long-term health, their family, or future generations.
That is why Gather Round’s health library covers physical, mental, and behavioral health. The information is written at an approachable reading level and designed to be culturally relevant, particularly for minority and underserved communities that have historically experienced gaps in healthcare information and outcomes.
I evaluated different options and chose Base44 as the platform for building Gather Round. I did not have a traditional software-development background, but I had some prior coding experience and several years of experience training AI models.
While I was in pharmacy school, I worked part-time on projects that involved helping AI models interpret data, evaluate research, and distinguish strong information from weak information. I also have a master’s degree in chemistry, so research and analysis were already part of my foundation.
That experience gave me a head start. I still had to learn the platform, make edits, and understand the technical requirements, but no-code and AI-assisted tools allowed me to build without immediately hiring an entire development team.
I built the first functional version, including the platform and its content-management system, in about two weeks for a pitch competition.
The lesson for me was that we often have useful knowledge from previous experiences without realizing how those skills can work together.
I am completing an MBA with a concentration in marketing, and it has helped me better understand finance, outreach, leadership, and what it takes to run and scale a business.
My experience with YooAdaCare® also taught me valuable lessons. When I first created that company, I paid for a business starter package that handled several business tasks for me. It cost more than I originally expected, but it also taught me how those processes worked.
When I started Gather Round, I understood which things I could do myself, where I could reduce costs, and what I would eventually need to delegate.
As a founder, I think it is important to understand what you are asking other people to do. When I begin building a team, I want to know what is on each person’s plate and how to support them in executing well.
I am still learning what it means to be a strong leader. The business may be a solo operation today, but eventually it will be me and a team.
My first job was as a peer tutor, and I still tutor students ranging from kindergarten through university. That experience taught me how to explain the same subject differently depending on the person’s level of knowledge.
The same principle applies to entrepreneurship. You communicate with investors differently from how you communicate with customers, friends, family, or future team members.
I usually begin with one sentence: Gather Round is a preventive health and family wellness platform.
The questions a person asks after hearing that tell me what they understand and what matters to them. I can then explain the platform in a way that is relevant to their needs.
Regardless of the audience, I want Gather Round to feel approachable. Healthcare information should not be so technical that an average person cannot understand it.
I want them to ask, “Why didn’t I have this sooner?”
I do not want Gather Round to be seen as just another product or application. I want it to become a tool that individuals, families, and communities naturally use to understand their health and support one another.
Right now, the platform needs awareness and accessibility. Making it available through the major app stores is part of meeting people where they are and building credibility.
The vision is for Gather Round to become something people rely on, not because it creates another task, but because it makes managing their health and family information simpler.
Start!
Whether you like it or not, time is going to pass. You can let it pass and have nothing to show for it, or you can let it pass while building something.
You also need to learn how to pivot and become comfortable with being uncomfortable. I originally wanted to attend medical school. That did not happen in the way I expected. I moved into pharmacy, and that path also changed. But every experience gave me knowledge that I can now apply to what I am building.
Instead of focusing on what you lack, ask yourself what you already have.
Do not look at the glass only as half empty or half full. Look at it for what it is. Identify the knowledge, skills, relationships, and experiences already available to you, and begin from there.
Imagine arriving at a medical appointment with your symptoms, medications, family health history, and the questions you need to ask already organized and ready to share.
That is what Gather Round makes possible.
Gather Round is a preventive health and family wellness platform that helps individuals and families better understand, manage, and communicate their health information. It brings together tools such as a multigenerational family health tree, symptom tracking, medication records, accessible health education, and secure caregiver reports.
Gather Round helps people become more proactive, advocate for themselves, and involve trusted family members in their healthcare journeys.
We are building more than another health app. We are creating a tool that helps families protect one another, make informed decisions, and improve their long-term health outcomes.
Our goal is simple: after using Gather Round, we want people to ask, “Why didn’t I have this sooner?”
Three builders. Three perspectives. One conversation about building to scale.
Join us on 25 September 2026 as we explore what it takes to build beyond the product.
Dr. Dann Odotukpono — Product Building & GTM
Orane Carby — Navigating Investment as a Founder
Isa Aliyushata — Understanding Mergers & Acquisitions
Category
Founder's Spotlight
