Seqster founder says family cancer crisis tested his health data platform

Seqster founder and CEO Ardy Arianpour says the health-data company he started after a lucrative genetics deal became urgent for his own family when his father was diagnosed with colon cancer. Fortune reported that Arianpour used Seqster to collect scattered medical records, bring in specialists and help secure a treatment plan within six hours.

Arianpour, 46, told Fortune that his father was in surgery within a week. The account shows the problem Seqster is trying to solve: patient information often sits across many health systems, slowing decisions when fast care is needed.

According to Fortune, Arianpour left Tehran with his family at age 6 in 1986, during wartime, and arrived in San Diego with four suitcases. He later grew up in the city, worked at the Salk Institute as a teenager and taught himself online stock trading by age 16.

Fortune said Time magazine featured him in 1998 for his investing while he was still in high school. Arianpour later studied biological sciences, earned an MBA from the Marshall Goldsmith School of Management and joined Ambry Genetics, where Fortune reported he became senior vice president.

His major business breakthrough came at Ambry, according to Fortune. Arianpour led the company’s $1 billion sale to Konica Minolta and told the magazine that the outcome left him wealthy enough to stop working if he had wanted to.

He instead founded Seqster in 2016. Fortune described the company’s goal as bringing together medical records and other patient data that are usually split across separate systems.

The work soon became personal, Arianpour told Fortune. After his father’s diagnosis, he used the platform to pull together records and coordinate care, an experience he said showed him the system could turn fragmented information into medical action.

Arianpour also told Fortune that he used Seqster when his wife had severe heart rhythm episodes. According to his account, she had been told that specialist care could take nine months, but he used the company’s tools to consolidate records, speed access to doctors and help arrange surgery within weeks.

Seqster now spans 150 million patient records, Fortune reported. The company connects with more than 20 electronic health record systems, and its customers include Fortune 500 companies valued from $5 billion to $300 billion, according to the magazine.

Arianpour has continued expanding the business in 2026. Fortune reported that Seqster introduced four products in the first three months of the year, including an AI-powered clinical trial recruitment tool designed to screen 10,000 patients in less than an hour.

Fortune’s profile also detailed Arianpour’s work habits and spending. He told the magazine he usually wakes at 5 a.m., works about 60 to 70 hours a week, often skips lunch unless it is tied to a meeting and spends about $500 a month on acai and carrot juice.

Arianpour told Fortune he rarely takes a full day off and said Seqster closed a deal on New Year’s Day. He also said he bought green Rolex watches for himself and his team when Seqster was formed, while his preferred break from work is running or adding brief personal time to business trips, especially in Ibiza.

This story draws on original reporting from Fortune.