Welcome to our Ecosystem Highlight series, where you’ll meet the innovators in our vast ecosystem of startup builders from across Florida, who are actively solving some of the world’s greatest challenges. We interviewed Rachel Hayes, Co-Founder of Ravel Genetics, a precision health company that reads the genome in the context of dynamic biology to reveal which health risks can be modified with integrative approaches.

What were you doing previously, and what inspired you to join, launch, or help grow your company?

I’m a geneticist and medical affairs consultant. I trained at Seton Hall University and the Center for Discovery and Innovation, Weill Cornell Medical College, the NIH, and Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. After spending some time in the genetic testing and pharmaceutical industries, I launched my company to help provide clinicians and patients with a tool to learn more about epigenetics and mitochondrial health, and integrative solutions to address health risks associated with chronic disease.

What pain point is your company solving? What gets you excited to go to work every day?

Our health intelligence platform addresses prevention in a largely reactive healthcare paradigm, connects health data using a systems-biology approach, and generates actionable integrative insights for health management. I’m exciting to work every day knowing that our product has the ability to help people understand their genetics, that their genome is dynamic, and can be changed with interventions.

What’s the biggest challenge you’ve faced in helping build or scale the company? How did you overcome it?

The biggest challenge faced in launching this company was the development of an MVP at the very early idea stage without funding. We onboarded two software engineers, one on the bioinformatics side and another focused on back-end platform development, for equity, and today we have a fully functional product.

Where do you see your company headed next?

We’re expanding into phase 2 of our product build which focuses on measuring the epigenome, piloting our phase 1 product with our initial customers, and raising a pre-seed round alongside an NIH SBIR application ahead of our 2027 commercial launch.

Give us a tactical piece of advice that you’d share with a founder just starting out.

Persistence is key. Map out every direction you need to take; start small, and work towards your goals every day. The small steps will build momentum.

Why Florida?

Florida’s life sciences ecosystem is expanding rapidly!

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