Co-founder of Doctoralia and creator of Llamalítica.
Highlights:
- Fredi Llordachs, co-founder of Doctoralia, specializes in launching projects from scratch, like his new AI startup Llamalítica, which reduces doctors’ administrative burden.
- He began in medicine but shifted to health tech early, despite skepticism about the internet’s potential in healthcare.
- Doctoralia succeeded by simplifying how patients connect with doctors and scaled internationally before merging with DocPlanner.
- Llamalítica aims to restore time and focus to doctors by automating repetitive tasks, though it faces resistance to change.
- Fredi believes successful innovation starts with a clear problem, deep focus, and strong teams—technology should always serve human connection.
Sometimes, to move forward, you have to be cyclical. Have a dream, question it, veer off course… and eventually return to where you started. “I’ve discovered I’m a zero-to-one kind of guy,” says Dr. Frederic Llordachs (or Fredi, as everyone calls him), a doctor by training and an entrepreneur by instinct.
I’ve discovered I’m a zero-to-one kind of guy.
His thing is giving shape to what doesn’t yet exist. Create, solidify, let go, and start again. He is one of the founders of Doctoralia, the platform that today connects millions of patients with doctors around the world. And now, his drive has led him to launch Llamalítica, an initiative that seeks to reduce the bureaucratic burden of medical practice with the help of artificial intelligence.
It’s the 1990s in Barcelona. The first web page had just gone live. “I finished medical school in 1995,” Fredi recalls. At the time, the internet was nowhere near being a major part of daily life—especially not in the medical world. “When I was studying medicine, I never even imagined getting involved in technology,” he says. In the hallways of the faculty, in doctors’ offices, during hospital shifts—the digital future simply didn’t exist. But something in him wasn’t satisfied. He pursued an MBA at ESADE Business School and entered the world of health insurance. That’s where he heard a phrase he still remembers with some amusement: “This internet thing will never be useful,” his boss told him—never imagining what was coming.
I have to get into this internet thing because it is going to be useful.
With the curiosity that often precedes great ideas, Fredi thought the opposite. “I have to get into this internet thing because it is going to be useful.” So, he bought the Doctoralia domain. The idea was to create an online medical scheduling system. It sounded futuristic and ahead of its time. It was 2001, and the team, he admits, was small. “The first time it didn’t work out… nobody paid attention to us.” So, they pivoted and became a service managing the medical exams required for mortgage insurance approval. A more functional, less ambitious twist. Still, the banks rejected the idea. “They said no, because nobody wanted to pay for that,” says Fredi.
The first time it didn’t work out… nobody paid attention to us.
In 2007, they returned to their original idea. The digital landscape had changed. They saw that internet searches for doctors were growing in Spain, and the field was still wide open. “The only health-related site optimized on Google was Doctoralia, which made us skyrocket in Spain,” he recalls.
The project began to take off, even as they juggled it with other jobs. “It was a plan B that became a plan A,” he says proudly and with amazement. And that plan A went international quickly. Together with his partners Albert Armengol and David Díaz Daré, they brought Doctoralia to Brazil and Mexico. “They’re big, developed countries when it comes to the internet,” says Fredi. By 2014, they had surpassed 130 million users. “Doctoralia’s great success is that people use it,” he asserts. In 2016, the platform merged with DocPlanner, becoming part of the largest global network for finding and accessing healthcare services and taking on a central role in what became a unicorn.
Llamalítica is a tool that allows doctors to be doctors, not administrative assistants.
After leaving Doctoralia in 2020, Fredi realized that despite technological progress, doctors were still trapped in administrative tasks far removed from their clinical vocation. The electronic medical record, once promised as a solution, had instead become another obstacle. It put a screen between doctor and patient. Far from easing the workload, digitalization introduced new forms of friction. Out of this frustration came Llamalítica, a tool designed to give doctors back their time and let artificial intelligence handle the repetitive tasks. “Llamalítica is a tool that allows doctors to be doctors, not administrative assistants,” he explains.
The idea is not to replace, but to liberate. But the main challenge now is human—resistance to change. Some fear losing control or even becoming dispensable. “Some people would rather stick with a burdensome process that runs them over than try to get rid of it,” he says. As always, the greatest enemy of innovation isn’t technology—it’s ourselves.
And still, Fredi decided to try again. With Llamalítica, he started from zero to get to one—but with a different perspective. Now he works with public and private hospitals, applying everything he learned from his Doctoralia journey. “We’re having a great time because we’re looking for very niche use cases,” he says, almost like an explorer. Technology shouldn’t distance us—it should push us to be more human. At its core, it’s about remembering why we chose this profession in the first place.
The medical value is this—caring for people, looking them in the eye, explaining things well.
“The medical value is this—caring for people, looking them in the eye, explaining things well.” Because what matters is people. “Right now, doctors are being a bit dehumanized,” he warns. He doesn’t say this as a critique of digital progress, but as a reminder of the doctor’s purpose. In his view, technology should not get between doctor and patient. It should enhance the humanity of medical care. What’s most important is that someone listens, looks, explains. And that this someone has the time to do it.
That same logic is also what applies to entrepreneurship. “If you want to start a startup, you must first clearly identify the problem—and ideally, it should be from a field you know very well.” The most common mistake entrepreneurs make is starting with an idea instead of a human need. When you start with the problem, you have a better chance of building something that addresses a real need. And healthcare has many. There’s the doctor-patient relationship, for example, which Llamalítica seeks to ease. But also the mental health crisis, maternal and infant mortality, preventable accidents, and communicable and non-communicable diseases still claiming lives. There’s a massive number of problems waiting to be solved in this sector. The challenge lies in choosing which ones are worth solving.
Success comes from focus.
“Success comes from focus—it comes from laser,” says Fredi, repeating a phrase from his partner Albert Armengol: laser-focus. In Doctoralia’s case, they had strayed from their focus—because even though the need existed, the market was still immature. They explored other paths, eventually returning to the original idea with greater clarity and strength to solve the need. It was a full-circle moment. The focus of connecting patients with healthcare professionals in a simple, trustworthy, and fast way. And when they returned to it, the platform took off. The same thing is happening now with Llamalítica. The administrative burden continues to pull doctors away from what really matters—their vocation. Their patient. And that, says Fredi, is where focus makes all the difference.
That same focus is also reflected in the way he leads his teams. “If you want to work with good people, let them grow,” says Fredi, firmly believing that leadership also means knowing when to step aside. Achievements, he says, come from surrounding yourself with better people, trusting them, and letting go. “What matters isn’t being right—what matters is doing what makes the most sense.” Without a strong team, no project—no matter how brilliant—goes far. In the end, everything an organization builds depends on the people who make it possible. And that, Fredi understands perfectly.
Some people perfect what already exists, optimize what works, scale what’s been built. But Fredi isn’t one of them. His projects begin where others see no path. He goes from zero to one—from nothing to beginning. Not once, but every time something calls to him. Problem, focus, idea, form, foundation. And when the structure holds, he starts again. Because that’s where he feels he can contribute most. “I think the most beautiful thing is working on something you truly enjoy,” he says. And in his case, what’s beautiful is starting.
