In 2010, Michael joined HealthTap as its first employee and co-founder — a digital health company that would go on to become a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer and one of the leading virtual care platforms in the United States, connecting consumers and enterprise clients with a network of 150,000 U.S. physicians.
For eight years, he served simultaneously as General Counsel, Chief Privacy Officer, and Operations Lead — a combination that is genuinely rare. He wasn't just the lawyer in the room. He was a member of the founding team making product decisions, building teams, negotiating partnerships, managing compliance, and closing deals. He closed financings from Seed through Series C, with backing from Khosla Ventures, the Mayfield Fund, Eric Schmidt, and other leading institutional investors.
Michael is a founding board member of Stanford Alumni in AI — a network of Stanford graduates working at the intersection of artificial intelligence and industry. That affiliation reflects both his academic roots and his active engagement with the AI landscape that defines so much of his current practice.
That experience fundamentally shaped how he practices law. When he advises a founder on a term sheet, he knows what it feels like to be on the other side of the table. When he recommends a governance structure, he understands the operational reality of maintaining it. When he flags a regulatory risk, he's weighing it against the company's actual velocity and priorities — not just its theoretical exposure.
This is what "founder-first counsel" actually means. Not a lawyer who uses startup-friendly language. An attorney who has held a P&L, managed a team, and made the calls that determine whether a company survives its growth.
