Who I Was
My name is Allison Harper. I’m thirty-one years old. I’m the founder and CEO of MedLink—a healthcare data platform used by over 400 hospitals across North America.
But my family doesn’t know that.
They stopped asking about my life seven years ago, when I dropped out of MIT halfway through my computer science degree.
To them, dropping out meant failure. It meant I couldn’t handle the pressure. It meant I was the one Harper who didn’t finish what she started.
They weren’t cruel about it. They were worse. They were sympathetic.
“It’s okay, Allison. Not everyone is cut out for that level of academics.”
“You tried your best. That’s what matters.”
“Maybe you’ll find something else that suits you better.”
I didn’t argue. I didn’t defend myself. I just left.
Because the truth was: I didn’t drop out because I couldn’t handle it.
I dropped out because I’d already built something better than anything they were teaching me.
The Beginning
I was nineteen when I started MedLink.
I’d been volunteering at a hospital near campus—part of a community service requirement—and I kept seeing the same problem over and over.
Medical errors. Medication mix-ups. Information silos.
One department would prescribe something. Another department wouldn’t see it. Patients suffered because data didn’t flow.
“Why isn’t this automated?” I asked a nurse.
“Because the systems don’t talk to each other,” she said. “We use five different programs. None of them integrate.”
“That’s insane.”
“That’s healthcare.”
I went back to my dorm and started coding.
Not for a grade. Not for a project. Just because the problem was obvious and no one was solving it.
Six months later, I had a prototype. A platform that pulled data from different hospital systems and unified it in real-time.
I showed it to the hospital. They loved it. They wanted to test it.
So I did something crazy: I dropped out.
Not because I was failing. Because I was succeeding.
I incorporated. Found a co-founder—a med student who understood the clinical side. Raised a small seed round from an angel investor who believed in the problem I was solving.
And I built.
For two years, I lived on instant noodles, worked 90-hour weeks, and told my family I was “doing freelance tech work.”
They assumed I was building websites for small businesses.
I didn’t correct them.
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