EnterprenuerShitel Patel is a board-certified plastic surgeon, software entrepreneur, and the CEO and co-owner of Lift Plastic Surgery in Houston, Texas. He is also the founder of Ad Vital, a healthcare software platform focused on improving communication and efficiency within medical practices. His work combines medicine, technology, and patient-centered leadership.
Growing up in a family-run business helped shape his strong work ethic, adaptability, and entrepreneurial mindset. Through both healthcare and technology, he is committed to creating systems that improve patient care and operational efficiency.
Outside of work, Shitel values personal growth, family, and intentional living. Alongside his wife, Bijal Patel, he focuses on gratitude, accountability, and raising their two children while maintaining a lifestyle centered on learning, wellness, and meaningful connection.
What inspired you to build Lift Plastic Surgery?
With software, I saw the inefficiencies in medical private practices for which I knew there was a better way. The software actually gave time back to the staff to spend time with patients. It made the process of seeing a physician more caring and human. In times where loneliness kills more people on this planet versus anything else.
I wanted to decrease the barriers of connection and confidence. The systems and processes of the software were attractive to the loose structure I live my life with. A canvas and colors are needed to create art but each piece can be uniquely made.
What challenges did you overcome at the beginning of your journey?
I was dead wrong about being able to do pediatric craniofacial surgery in private practice where I wanted to live. There were no neurosurgeons available to do these cases and therefore I pivoted into cosmetic facial plastic surgery.
Specialization is required for the masses to know you for that. If you do not decide on what you specialize in, then the public will decide.
What is unique about your business?
The AI trend is the one that excites me the most currently. The use and application is mind-boggling and I’m here for the show. The creative uses of AI in all types of fields to the simplest use cases.
The other part that is interesting is the speed at which the world is changing with AI. I love consuming the content and seeing what my minds comes up with along with others
Is there anything you would have done differently when starting?
Laugh more, and be unapologetically yourself. That is what I would tell my younger self. So much of early striving comes with a heaviness that is not actually required. The work can be serious without you being grim about it. I think I would have moved with more lightness and trusted my own voice a lot sooner.
What advice would you give to someone trying to become an entrepreneur?
Have gratitude for the opportunities you have already been given, and then for the ones you have left to claim. Gratitude is not a soft idea. It is a practical one. It keeps you grounded in what is already working while keeping you hungry for what is still ahead. Entrepreneurs who lose either side of that balance tend to either burn out or stall.
What are the qualities of a good entrepreneur?
The most important one, in my experience, is the willingness to ask bold and honest questions about yourself, especially the questions about what is holding you back from reaching your true potential. It is uncomfortable work, and most people avoid it. But your business rarely grows beyond the limits of your own self-awareness, so the entrepreneurs who keep asking those questions are the ones who keep growing.
How do you define success?
My three greatest skills are being resourceful, having a gift of anticipation, and being able to simplify the complex. Those three give me the confidence to solve almost any puzzle life puts in front of me.
For me, success is exactly that: having the capacity, and the privilege, to solve hard problems well, whether that is in the operating room, in the company, or at home. It is less about reaching a destination and more about being equipped and trusted to do meaningful work.
What’s your favorite book or podcast, and why?
I get the most value from podcasts, particularly The Diary of a CEO and Motiv8. They carry a wealth of knowledge and frames of opinion outside the ones I am exposed to in my own environments. They keep me curious in areas that are uncomfortable, and that discomfort is usually exactly where the growth is. Listening to them on my commute is one of the habits that keeps my mind open.
What’s your favorite quote?
No idea, action, or instance will define you. It is the frame you decide to believe about yourself that you allow to define you. I come back to this often. It is a reminder that events are neutral until we assign them meaning, and that the meaning is always a choice. Owning that choice is one of the most freeing things a person can do.
TL;DR by Patel:
I am a person with depth who lives with a growth mindset. I take on challenges, I have grit, and I am drawn to high-risk, high-reward scenarios. Most of all, I constantly challenge my own beliefs, in the hope of revealing a better version of myself.
