Colton Calandrella
San Francisco, California, United States
6K followers
500+ connections
6K followers
500+ connections
About
I am a serial builder who loves integrating business with social impact.
Currently…
Articles by Colton
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A Quick Guide to Startup Spaces in St. Louis
A Quick Guide to Startup Spaces in St. Louis
By many accounts, the last few years have seen St. Louis rapidly transform into one of the most robust start-up scenes…
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4 Life Lessons Interning in Venture Capital
4 Life Lessons Interning in Venture Capital
“We may be a VC firm, but we’re as scrappy as a startup”. Colleen Liebig, my boss at St.
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Activity
6K followers
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Colton Calandrella shared thisWe're very proud that ~50% of our teammates at Barti came from referrals, which also tells you how much our team enjoys working together! If you want to work at a company building impactful AI for healthcare, we're growing rapidly and need more good people - please share with your network! Roles include Finance, Marketing, Product and moreColton Calandrella shared thisWe're hiring at Barti! We're building the future of eye care technology, and we need more great people to help us get there. We're growing fast and looking to add to our team across Sales, Marketing, Product, Finance, and Customer Success. Swipe through to see our open roles 👉 Know someone who'd be a great fit? Tag them below, or apply directly at https://lnkd.in/g29ySF8X. #Hiring #StartupJobs #HealthTech #EyeCare #RemoteJobs #Innovation #Barti
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Colton Calandrella shared thisAOA’s annual conference is always a highlight of my year - thanks to the entire American Optometric Association board and team for putting on another great week, especially the forums for discussions on AI in eye care! Had 2 different chances to speak on the importance of AI for independent practices, with one key message: For independents to thrive, they need access to the same cutting edge tech (AI and more) that their big competitors have. That’s our mission at Barti, and that’s what gets us out of bed every day. Whether I’m speaking to a provider at a big chain or a local independent practice, almost no one (outside of Barti customers) has started using AI Scribes, let alone other AI tools. Big opportunity ahead for independents who can move FASTER than the behemoths. Dr. Steven T. Reed Robert Layman OD Teri Geist, O.D. Bob Kehm
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Colton Calandrella shared thisHad a chance to talk about the “SaaSpocalypse” on a CEO/Founder panel at our investor Five Elms Capital recent LP meeting in KC (pretty cool it was at Arrowhead Stadium). The headline: unlikely that any independent healthcare practice is going to vibe code their own EMR anytime soon. Some key takeaways: 1. In terms of broad categories, vertical SaaS platforms are outperforming horizontal solutions in the age of AI 2. AI is bifurcating returns sharply. Static, slow-to-adapt businesses face compressed multiples, while AI-forward companies are commanding premium valuations. 3. Public markets seem to be under-valuing software assets, driving a big trend toward take-privates and fewer IPOs Noah Whitehead Walker Szurek Michael Zuercher Ryan Mandl Brooke Goebel Kylie Uvodich
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Colton Calandrella shared thisHonored and humbled to receive the Emerging Leader award from my alma mater Washington University in St. Louis - Olin Business School, presented to 3 recent Olin alumni "who exemplify leadership, innovative thinking, and vision." This means a lot to me, especially as a first-gen college grad. When I attended these award ceremonies as a student ~10 years ago, I never expected I would be a recipient one day. To the professors who pushed me, the classmates who became friends, and the alumni who helped me when I had no idea what I was doing — thank you. Congrats to the other award winners Ryan Harbison and Alison Gildehaus, MD, MBA, FACS, and special shoutout to one of my favorite professors Staci Thomas for many kind words in the intro video. Michael Mazzeo Berkeley Gillentine Daniel A. Bentle Beth Doores Todd Milbourn Laira Jacobo-Ruiz Oliver Feng Miranda Lan
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Colton Calandrella shared thisToday is Employee Appreciation Day, and wow do I appreciate the team at Barti! Our recent offsite was electric: the culture we've built is our "secret sauce" that lets us move fast, innovate and create delightful products for eye care providers. ~50% of our team was referred by an existing Bartian which tells you how deeply our team enjoys the work we do. If you or someone you know is looking for a role, reach out! Currently hiring for Rev Ops and SRE with more roles coming later this year. Link in comments.Colton Calandrella shared thisLast week, the Barti team came together in Scottsdale for our 2026 company offsite. A few focused days centered on: • Clarity on 2026 priorities • Growthathon & Hackathon builds (more coming soon) • A little fun in between including Family Feud–style Game Show Battle Rooms We’re dreaming bigger, building faster, and sharpening the impact we want to make for independent eye care practices. Excited for what’s ahead. #Barti #TeamOffsite #StartupBuilding #HealthTech #EyeCareInnovation
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Colton Calandrella reposted thisColton Calandrella reposted thisBarti Wrapped 2025 From new AI features and traveling across the country to a year of growth and a more unified system - this year was all about bringing everything together. One unified platform. Built to help eye care practices run better. Thanks for trusting Barti. Here’s to an even bigger 2026! #BartiWrapped #Barti2025 #EHR #PracticeManagement #EyecareSoftware #AI #OperatingSystem
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Colton Calandrella shared this2 big questions I hear all the time: how is AI being used TODAY in eye care and what are the most exciting use cases on the horizon? From "taking orders" to "making suggestions", I highlight some of the $1M use cases to put on your radar in this article for AI in Eye Care - thanks Rehan Ahmed and Scot Morris for the opportunity!Colton Calandrella shared thisNew content is live NOW on AI in Eye Care! Get the latest on the ways AI can revolutionize admin tasks, the shared duty of AI safety, the role of functional oculomics and more. Read it all here: https://aiineyecare.com/ #ai #artificialintelligence #optometry #ophthalmology #technology #advancedtechnology #personalizedtreatmentplans #medicalimaging #clinicaldecisions #predictiveanalytics #drugdiscovery #oculomics #optometryeducation #aiineyecare Scot Morris Rehan Ahmed Dena Weitzman Colton Calandrella
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Colton Calandrella shared thisBiggest challenges Barti faced in our early days, skyrocketing use of AI among providers and agentic AI use cases for eyecare - some great topics discussed on this episode of AI Innovators, thanks for having me Scot Morris always a blast!Colton Calandrella shared thisA new episode of AI Innovators is live NOW! Don't miss Colton Calandrella from Barti break down all things EHRs, the future of agentic AI, what the industry will look in the not-so distant future and more with AI in Eye Care's Professional Co-Editor Scot Morris! Watch or listen to their full discussion here: https://lnkd.in/eYDn4X3v #ai #artificialintelligence #optometry #ophthalmology #technology #advancedtechnology #personalizedtreatmentplans #medicalimaging #clinicaldecisions #predictiveanalytics #drugdiscovery #oculomics #optometryeducationAI Innovators: Colton Calandrella - aiineyecare.comAI Innovators: Colton Calandrella - aiineyecare.com
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Colton Calandrella shared thisToday marks a big milestone for Barti: we’ve raised $12 million in Series A funding! The eye care industry has been running on outdated systems for far too long. Doctors and staff are burdened by disconnected tools, endless clicks, and rising admin work that takes time away from patients. Meanwhile, everywhere else, industries are leaping ahead with AI and automation. Barti is changing that. We’ve built a business-in-a-box for modern eye care practices—one login, one system that unifies clinical, operational, and financial workflows. From AI Scribe to our native VoIP to websites and fintech-powered payments, Barti is redefining how practices run. We’re thrilled to have Ryan Mandl and Five Elms Capital as our partner in this next phase, with continued support from AOAExcel, Vertical Venture Partners, Bienville, and Zag Capital. Their expertise and belief in our vision will help us accelerate our AI roadmap, expand into ophthalmology, and scale to more practices across the country. Our mission has always been to pair Silicon Valley technology with deep industry expertise, and with this funding, we’re doubling down on that vision and leading the charge into the AI era for eye care. Axios covered our raise and we shared the full story on our blog. And if you know someone looking to make an impact in eye care, we’re hiring! Axios coverage: https://lnkd.in/gEhdGD5a Blog: https://lnkd.in/g6_QsaFg Hiring: https://lnkd.in/g3KqFw4F #SeriesA #HealthcareInnovation #Optometry #Optical #Ophthalmology #AI #Barti #OperatingSystemForEyeCareColton Calandrella shared thisWe just raised $12 million in Series A funding! We’re building the future of eye care and we’re just getting started. One login. One AI-Powered system. No more juggling 10 different tools. Read Axios coverage: https://lnkd.in/gUSP65H8 Full story on our blog: https://lnkd.in/g8ri-q78 Join the Barti team: https://lnkd.in/gT5tdBvr #EHR #Optometry #EyeCareTech #AIinHealthcare #Barti #SeriesA #HealthTech #Ophthalmology #Startup
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Colton Calandrella liked thisColton Calandrella liked thisOur team is at the Florida Optometric Association (FOA) conference in Tampa this week! If you’re a Florida OD attending the event, stop by our booth #319 to say hi and learn why ODs love practicing at Costco! #optometry #eyelovecostco #eyecare #FOA #optometrist #eyedoctor #optometricphysician Tina Lopez, LDO, ABO-AC, NCLEC Rebecca Fernandez Velez Pratil Lal B.Optom, OD, MBA Christi Haverstick Chad Payne Alicia Singleton
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Colton Calandrella liked thisColton Calandrella liked this𝐈 𝐚𝐦 𝐛𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐦𝐲 𝐧𝐞𝐱𝐭 𝐨𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐲. After founding, scaling, and successfully exiting GiftAMeal, I spent the past four months leading the transition of the company’s operations to Swipe Savvy. With that transition now complete, I am excited to begin a new chapter. Building GiftAMeal gave me the chance to lead nearly every part of a business, including partnerships, sales, fundraising, hiring, product strategy, and M&A. I learned how to operate effectively with limited resources, solve complex problems, and consistently turn ideas into execution through quick but thoughtful decision-making. I am especially interested in opportunities involving growth, strategic partnerships, go-to-market strategy, corporate strategy, venture capital, private equity, or other roles where a broad operating perspective can help an organization identify and capitalize on important opportunities. More than a specific title, I am looking for the right people and environment. I want to work alongside thoughtful, ambitious, kind, and highly capable people who challenge one another, act with conviction, and genuinely enjoy working together. I am incredibly grateful to everyone who supported GiftAMeal over the years, and I am excited for what comes next. If a person, company, or opportunity comes to mind, please message me with any ideas or introductions.
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Colton Calandrella liked thisPumped to be joining Whirl AI! I look forward to building alongside Sunny Bedi, Marco Castillo, Mario Duarte and the rest of the team. 🚀Colton Calandrella liked thisWhen we demo Whirl, we tell people the same thing: "Imagination is the bottleneck. Not the product. Not the tokens" If you hand someone infinite possibilities, it is natural to freeze. That is where the artist comes in... To envision a full canvas. That is what a Forward Deployed Engineer does. Today Neesha Godbole joins Whirl AI as our first FDE. With a CS degree, MBA from Kellogg, and relevant experience from Mulesoft, Workday, and Salesforce, she is a great addition to our team. Welcome to the team Neesha! And thanks Austin Liang for the intro.
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Colton Calandrella liked thisThere's a version of working with AI that looks a lot like working. You prompt, you get something back, you refine it, you generate three more options. At the end of the day you've produced an enormous amount of text and touched a real problem zero times. I've started noticing this in myself, and once you notice it you see it everywhere: people going through the motions of thinking, because the motions have never been easier to go through. It's not surprising this happens. Output has always been the proxy for work, and now output is free. If what you're measured on is documents produced and messages answered, a machine that produces documents is indistinguishable from progress. But proxies break when they get too cheap to game, and this one broke fast. The volume of text someone generates now tells you almost nothing about whether any thinking occurred. The actual thinking still happens the way it always did, which is slowly and in silence. You sit with the problem before asking anything about it. You write the bad first paragraph yourself, because the point of writing it was never the paragraph, it was finding out what you believe. None of this got easier, and next to a model producing instantly it now feels almost irresponsible, like you're wasting time. That feeling is worth distrusting. So the scarce thing has flipped. It used to be hard to produce and easy to be quiet. Now anyone can produce endlessly, and the discipline is in not doing it, in staying with the problem past the point where you could have generated something plausible instead. The people who can do that will be the ones who know what they think. Everyone else will have very good drafts of other people's thoughts.
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Colton Calandrella liked thisColton Calandrella liked thisIn this week’s Optometric Physician, I discuss concerns surrounding a pilot program aiming to ultimately provide prescription medication renewals using AI without any doctor oversight. https://lnkd.in/e_kSMfbd
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Colton Calandrella liked thisColton Calandrella liked thisToday, I’m excited to announce that Ciro has been acquired by Reevo 🚀 When David, Ross, and I started Ciro, we set out to solve one of the hardest problems in GTM - helping sales teams discover the right prospects. At the time, prospecting meant a rep with 18 browser tabs open, copying names into a spreadsheet, hand-crafting outreach, and hoping the data stayed accurate as they engaged over the next year. Fast forward a few years, and what we ended up with was an agent that finds, qualifies, enriches, and drafts outreach to prospects at a scale no human could match. Ciro is used by hundreds of sales teams - some for 100+ reps at once - who trust it to learn about each customer's ideal profile while staying faithful to the rep’s voice and preferences. We met the Reevo team through a mutual investor. Fresh off an $80m round led by Khosla Ventures and Kleiner Perkins, they've set out to build the platform revenue teams actually run on: CRM, outreach, enrichment, and meeting data all living in one home. Ciro’s prospecting agent will thrive inside that ecosystem as every closed deal, customer response, and account update teaches it about who to go after next. The fit was obvious. I'm incredibly lucky to have been on this journey. We couldn’t have gotten here without the amazing support from many of you: 1/ Our customers: you bet on us before it was obvious and steered us through this journey. I'm confident that you're in great hands with Reevo 2/ Ciro's team: past and present, and especially Yoshi and J.Morgan: every late night, feature discussion, offsite trip, and customer call. This company exists because of you 3/ Our investors: Veronica and Anna at CRV; Brad and Tom at Y Combinator; Mike, Topher, and Steven at SV Angel, and every angel / family member who believed in us. Thank you for your unwavering support through these many years 4/ My cofounders David and Ross: from classmates to flatmates to groomsmen - and everywhere in between. Thank you for the last 4 years in the trenches together. What an incredible ride 5/ The Reevo team: David, Cindy, Curtis, Clement - what you're building is the future of revenue software. I couldn't be more excited for Ciro’s next chapter
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Colton Calandrella liked thisColton Calandrella liked this🎙️ Listen in as Dr. Griffin Christenson sits down with Colton Calandrella on the latest episode of Eye.Talk.Tech. What once took hours of documentation… now happens in real time. What once required multiple disconnected systems… is becoming one intelligent, unified workflow. The practices moving early are not just gaining efficiency. They’re increasing value, scalability, and long-term influence. This isn’t just about technology it’s about aligning with where the profession is actually going. https://lnkd.in/dTy4ncr8 #EyeTalkTech #ODsonTechnology #ODsOnFacebook #OptometryInnovation #AIinEyeCare #Barti #EHR #EyeCareInnovation #Optometry #FutureOfEyeCare #FluoresceneGroup
Experience
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Education
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Washington University in St. Louis
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Activities and Societies: Alpha Delta Phi, Olin Business Council, Sigma Iota Rho, Catholic Student Center, Washington University Student Associate
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Volunteer Experience
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Tax Preparer
Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA)
- 5 months
Economic Empowerment
Working with the Gateway EITC Community Coalition, I received IRS certification on the electronic filing of tax returns and prepare free returns for persons making $53,000 or less, and other taxpayers who need assistance in preparing their own tax returns. I prepared returns for community members at the Ferguson Municipal Library every week for four hours.
Publications
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Magellan
Sigma Iota Rho, International Area Studies Honorary
See publicationIn the monthly publication of Sigma Iota Rho, I wrote about international issues and contemporary topics such as globalization, democracy, and human rights.
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Olin Blog
Olin Business School
See publicationI covered a variety of topics relating to business and the Olin Business School in my contributions to the official school blog.
Courses
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Business Strategy
MGT 380
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Capital Markets and Finance
FIN 370
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Financial Accounting
ACCT 2610
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Game Theory
MEC 390
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Investments
FIN 441
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Latin American Populism and Neo-Populism
LatAm 4611
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Management Communications
MGT 201
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Management and Corporate Social Responsibility
MGT 529
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Managerial Accounting
ACCT 2620
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Market Competition and Value Appropriation
MEC 470
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Modern Latin American History
LatAm 322
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Organization Behavior within the Firm
OB 360
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Survey of Latin American Cultures
LatAm 165
Languages
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Spanish
Full professional proficiency
Organizations
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Alpha Delta Phi Social Fraternity
Social Chair
- Present
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Kareem Farah
There is an extraordinary amount of hype right now about the potential of AI in K–12 education and much of it makes perfect sense. Some of the recent updates from the major LLMs are genuinely remarkable in their capacity to build quickly, synthesize information, and fundamentally change the way we work. But here’s what I haven’t seen: At their best, educators don’t just deliver content. They triangulate three things simultaneously: • Deep, content-specific academic support • Authentic relationship-building • The ability to spark and sustain motivation It’s that combination — content + relationships + motivation — that defines truly great teaching. And while AI is getting better at the first of those, it remains far from replicating the second and third. This is especially true for students who are extremely disengaged and in many cases, academically behind. AI will absolutely change education. It already is. But if we mistake acceleration of content delivery for the essence of teaching, we risk misunderstanding what actually drives student growth.
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