Mobile Heart Monitor Maker AliveCor Taps Former Google Exec Vic Gundotra as CEO

AliveCor, which makes a smartphone-connected heart monitor, plans to announce Wednesday it has hired former Google executive Vic Gundotra as chief executive.

AliveCor

Gundotra, who left Google last year, takes the place of AliveCor board member Euan Thomson, who has been acting CEO since August 2013.

While there is a seemingly endless number of wearables monitoring heart rates and counting steps, comparatively few have gone the longer route to get the Food and Drug Administration approval required for more advanced medical diagnostics like AliveCor’s attachment, which offers a full electrocardiogram (ECG).

Such devices “take a lot longer, but the payoff can be huge,” Gundotra told Re/code.

Gundotra spent seven years at Google and 15 years before that at Microsoft, though he is probably best known for his time as head of the Google+ social network effort.

AliveCor

He left Google in April 2014. Gundotra said he wasn’t sure he wanted to take another tech job, but that he was swayed by Vinod Khosla, whose venture firm is among AliveCor’s backers.

“I’ve been having a wonderful time,” Gundotra said, adding that he was also persuaded by the allure of AliveCor’s technology, which combines wearables, machine learning and a life-saving mission. “It’s pretty amazing.”

Other AliveCor investors include Kearny Partners, Qualcomm and Oklahoma Life Science. The San Francisco-based company declined to say how much it has raised or how many people it employs.