In this episode of The Brainiac Blueprint by Left Brain AI, Kyle sits down with Lauren Funaro, Content Marketing Manager at Freed, to discuss one of healthcare’s toughest challenges: clinician burnout.
At a time when many professionals are leaving medicine due to paperwork overload, Freed’s mission is refreshingly clear – use AI to reduce documentation, restore balance, and rebuild human connection in healthcare.
As Lauren puts it, “We’re not building doctors. We’re working with doctors – helping them spend less time clicking buttons and more time connecting with patients.”
Where It All Started: A Personal Mission to Give Time Back
Before Freed became one of healthcare’s most promising AI platforms, it began with something simple – a husband wanting to spend more time with his wife.
Freed’s founder built the company after watching his wife, a medical resident, spend long nights charting instead of resting. That frustration turned into a mission: build a tool that gives clinicians back their time.
Lauren says that story still defines the company’s culture today.
“Our whole value system is based on one question – ‘Is this going to benefit a clinician?’ If the answer is yes, that’s where we invest.”
That north star continues to guide Freed as it grows, shaping how it builds, markets, and measures success.
Rethinking AI’s Role in Healthcare: Efficiency Without Losing Empathy
When Kyle asked Lauren to finish the sentence “I think AI is…,” her answer captured Freed’s philosophy perfectly:
“I think AI is about making the work we care about easier – and making the work we don’t like to do disappear as much as possible.”
For clinicians, that means getting back the hours lost to admin tasks. Freed’s AI scribe eliminates tedious documentation, giving doctors and nurses more time for what really matters – patient care and personal well-being.
Lauren explained that many clinicians spend nearly 19 hours a week on notes and documentation, often after work hours. Freed’s technology now saves them millions of those hours – over 2.5 million since 2023 – without taking away their human touch.
“They love their patients, but they also love who they are outside of work,” Lauren said. “It’s our responsibility to help them do that without spending all their time staring at screens.
”Freed’s approach proves that AI doesn’t need to replace empathy – it can protect it.
How Freed’s AI Evolved from a Scribe to a Full Clinician Assistant
Kyle and Lauren then turned to how Freed is evolving. The company’s next phase goes beyond note-taking.
“Right now, we’re focused on the experience within the visit,” Lauren explained. “Next, we’re looking at how to support clinicians before the patient even walks in – and after they leave.”
With a $30 million Series A led by Sequoia, Freed is expanding into a full clinician assistant – helping with pre-charting, follow-ups, and seamless EHR (electronic health record) integrations.
The idea is simple: let AI handle the repetitive logistics so clinicians can focus on care. Lauren described the roadmap as “an evolution from a great scribe to a true right-hand assistant.”
And that vision ties back to Freed’s founding goal: not replacing doctors, but enabling them to thrive.
Marketing with Empathy: How Freed Builds Trust and Community
As Freed’s Content Marketing Manager, Lauren leads strategy for a growing community of more than 20,000 clinicians. Her focus isn’t on flashy growth hacks – it’s on trust.
Before joining Freed, she helped scale another SaaS company, Scribe, from 8,000 to 130,000 monthly visitors. Now, she applies those lessons with a different lens: storytelling that genuinely helps healthcare professionals.
“We’re a genuine PLG motion,” she said. “We speak to individual clinicians and small practices. Our content isn’t just top-funnel SEO – it’s lifecycle nurturing and education.”
Instead of relying on typical B2B platforms like LinkedIn, her team meets clinicians where they already are – inside niche Facebook groups, healthcare forums, and publications they read daily.
“Clinicians aren’t as active on LinkedIn,” Lauren explained. “So we go where they gather, listen to what they’re asking, and build resources that actually help.”
That strategy has turned Freed’s users into advocates – building a content ecosystem rooted in empathy, not ads.
Creating Depth Over Volume: Why Expertise Outranks Algorithms
When the conversation shifted to content quality, Lauren was direct:
“If you just use AI, it’s not going to perform well.”
She credits Freed’s visibility to E-E-A-T – expertise, experience, authority, and trustworthiness – and to collaborations with real clinicians. Every blog, article, and workflow guide pairs clinical accuracy with relatable storytelling.
“When I write about SOAP notes or charting, I work with real clinicians to show their actual templates,” she said. “It’s about making content that’s truly helpful.”
Freed’s internal blog, called “Note Bloat,” plays off a clinician term for overly long notes. The posts are intentionally short – two to three minutes – and deliver value fast.
The result? Content that earns credibility, not just clicks.
Turning Conversations into Actionable Content
Lauren doesn’t guess what clinicians need – she asks them. In her first year, she personally met with more than 50 clinicians to understand their workflows, pain points, and jargon.
“If I hadn’t spoken to them, we wouldn’t know what content works – or what doesn’t,” she said. “A single chat can lead to a blog, a demo, or even a product fix.”
That feedback often loops back into product development. When users highlight friction points, Freed’s marketing team passes those insights directly to engineering.
It’s content marketing that doesn’t just promote the product – it shapes it.
Where AI Fits – and Where It Doesn’t
Lauren made it clear that AI is a partner, not a replacement.
“People think AI on a marketing team means AI is writing everything. It’s not. What matters is figuring out where it’s actually useful and where it falls flat.”
At Freed, AI is used for analysis and efficiency, not storytelling. It helps identify gaps in content, generate summaries, and visualize data – but humans still write every final piece.
“AI gives me the foundation,” Lauren said. “Then humans layer in the expertise. That’s what makes content specific and valuable.”
That philosophy aligns with Freed’s product approach – automate what slows you down, but keep people at the center.
Protecting Privacy While Personalizing Care
When Kyle asked how Freed balances personalization with HIPAA compliance, Lauren didn’t hesitate.
“Security is fundamental. I can’t do anything if I’m not thinking about the safety of the user and their patient.”
Freed doesn’t touch patient data – it’s deleted after each use. What the team studies instead is interaction data: how clinicians use features, which tools they prefer, and where they encounter friction.
That insight helps shape product priorities – from pre-charting tools to post-visit instructions – while maintaining complete privacy.
“We’re not building doctors,” she emphasized again. “We’re working with doctors – and strengthening the administrative side so they don’t have to do it all themselves.”
It’s a model of ethical AI in action: personalization without compromise.
Empowering Humans Through AI Collaboration
As the discussion turned to the future, Lauren described how Freed’s internal hackathon led to one of her favorite innovations – an AI-powered trend-tracking system that monitors online conversations across healthcare forums.
“It’s 100 AI agents scanning the internet so we can spot new themes before they go mainstream,” she said.
The tool helps Freed stay ahead of emerging clinician topics long before they show up in search data – a perfect example of how AI can enhance creative instincts rather than replace them.
“Use AI to free you up for the fun stuff,” Lauren said. “That’s the goal.”
Looking Ahead: The Future of Content and Care
Lauren believes the next chapter of content marketing will go deeper, not broader.
“We’ll see a shift toward specificity, expert partnerships, and product integration,” she said. “It won’t just describe tools – it’ll explain workflows and real outcomes.”
That philosophy drives Freed’s plan to launch specialty-specific content hubs featuring real clinician workflows, templates, and case studies – practical assets, not just thought leadership.
The message is clear: depth and usefulness will define authority in the AI era.
Rapid-Fire Highlights
If you could snap your fingers and have a fully automated process or AI solution in place – what would it be?
“I might already have it with the hackathon – I wanted something that helps predict what’s coming, and I think we built it.”
Harder to perfect – headlines or visuals?
“Headlines can take forever because how do you distill something that’s going to catch attention? They see that first.”
Describe a crunch-time night before a big deadline.
“I have a cup of coffee and I’m crying – just kidding.”
“Usually, I’m refining copy with my team and sending it to my CMO, hoping she’s awake on the East Coast.”
Current social-media obsession?
“The musical Death Becomes Her on TikTok. Not useful to my marketing brain – but very fun.”
Beyoncé or Taylor Swift?
“Beyoncé, hands down.”
Built by and for Clinicians
Freed’s journey comes full circle – from a husband coding through the night to help his wife reclaim her evenings, to a global platform saving millions of hours for healthcare professionals worldwide.
Lauren summed it up best:
“If we can make clinicians’ lives better, we’ll always make that choice. That’s the win that matters.”
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