The Great Double Unicorn Fixer

The creator of Carbon Health wants to fix health care for the masses. Previously, he built a company with a mission to fix education for the masses. Both companies are worth billions. He comes from the edge of nowhere in rural Turkey. How the heck does this happen? It actually makes perfect sense.

- By Tom Foster

BLUEPRINT OF A REVOLUTION

Eren Bali, co-founder of Carbon Health, pictured in a cardboard prototype of a mobile health clinic.

No 2 EREN BALI

CARBON HEALTH

THREE-YEAR REVENUE GROWTH: 39,734%

FRIENDS OF EREN BALI talk about a certain kind of glow that lights up his face when he gets into conversations about solving problems. The soft-spoken co-founder and CEO of Carbon Health, this year’s second-fastest-growing company on the Inc. 5000, has what longtime investor and friend Paul Lee describes as “a weird, quiet confidence about him. He has a calm demeanor, but also this deep curiosity.”

Lee, who, like Bali, has a degree in mathematics, recognizes a mathematician’s way of thinking. “Math is not about throwing a bunch of formulas at something. It’s about solving problems in a very thoughtful, logical way,” he says. “And I think that’s the fundamental thing that Eren brings to being a founder: He falls in love with problems and breaks down those problems, and then attacks them with solutions.”