A Chat with Sally Ann Frank: Global Lead - Health & Life Sciences | Microsoft for Startups; Author of "The Startup Protocol: A Guide for Digital Health Startups to Bypass Pitfalls and Adopt Strategies that Work" and "The Unicorn Protocol: Digital Health Unicorns, How They Got There and What You Can Learn from Them"

This week, Stephen Ibaraki has an exclusive interview with Sally Ann Frank.

Sally Ann Frank leads the global HLS strategy, programs and portfolio for Microsoft for Startups, an organization dedicated to accelerating the development of innovative, market-making companies. Through business strategy planning, go-to-market development, and technical excellence, she enables startups to achieve their short-term revenue goals and long-term visions.

Previously, she was part of Microsoft's IoT Solutions team, helping healthcare and life sciences companies use IoT to improve patient outcomes and efficiency. With more than 25 years in the technology industry, she is focused on business outcomes, helping providers, payers, medical device, pharmaceutical and life sciences companies use IoT, Machine Learning, AI and a variety of other Microsoft technologies to meet the changing demands of the healthcare industry.

She earned an MBA from The George Washington University (Washington, DC), an MS in Systems Management from the University of Southern California and a BS in Marketing and Computer Science from Virginia Tech.

Sally is the author of "The Startup Protocol: A Guide for Digital Health Startups to Bypass Pitfalls and Adopt Strategies that Work, from Routledge Press and is currently working on her next book, The Unicorn Protocol", due out in January 2026.