Healthcare software & services · Clinical trial data automation
Baseline AI
A Y Combinator backed startup that says it can turn a clinical trial protocol into case report forms, a database design and analysis code with AI, cutting months of manual study build work. Founded in 2023, it has a product description and a launch post, but almost no independent record of a paying customer, a compliance claim or a filed round.
From protocol to database
Every clinical trial starts with a protocol, the document that lays out who can enroll, what gets measured and when. At a large drug company, turning that protocol into a working study means building case report forms, a clinical database, a set of edit checks that catch bad data, and the code that will eventually transform and analyze what comes in. Baseline AI says it will do that work with AI instead of a team of people.
The company describes a three part product: Baseline Build reads the protocol and produces the data collection forms, the database design and the edit checks. Baseline Harmonize takes data arriving from outside sources and maps it into that database format. Baseline Analyze uses the protocol and the database model to generate the analysis tables and figures a trial needs at the end.
The problem it says it is solving
An independent article on the startup blog Hiretop, published in August 2024, cites figures that frame the case for automating this work: building a clinical trial database takes about 68 days on average, a single day lost in a trial can cost a sponsor between $50,000 and $300,000 depending on the phase, and roughly a quarter of a trial's budget, put at $1 million to $5 million, goes to source data verification. Those figures describe the industry Baseline is selling into. No source ties them specifically to a Baseline customer's trial.
Baseline's own account of the problem, on its Y Combinator company page, is similar: floors of people at large companies use the protocol to build forms, database design, error checks, analysis code and data transformation mappings by hand, at real cost in both headcount and time.
Founders
Baseline AI was started by Nabil Baugher and Zoe Sheill, who describe themselves as recent MIT graduates on the company's Y Combinator page. According to the Hiretop article, Baugher holds a degree in computer science and neuroscience from MIT and had worked on machine learning at YouTube and on software at Slack and Audible. Sheill studied computation and cognition at MIT and had worked at SpaceX and Microsoft, per the same article. That biographical detail comes from one independent source and was not corroborated against a second one.
Sheill's interest in health related AI predates the company by years. In an April 2018 GeekWire profile, written while she was a high school senior in the Seattle area heading to MIT, she named medical diagnostic AI as the most important technology to watch and said she was drawn to AI applications that "don't have physical manifestations, whether it's disease diagnosis or minimizing the ecological impact of a given venture."
Timeline: Y Combinator and after
Baseline AI was founded in 2023, according to the company's own profile. It went through Y Combinator's Summer 2024 batch and launched publicly in August 2024, with a Y Combinator company page, a Launch YC post, and third party writeups on Hiretop and, per its listed date, on the startup blog Fondo. The founders' backstory on the launch materials ties directly to the mission: Sheill "also participated in a clinical trial herself and wanted to see the system improve."
Past the August 2024 launch, the trail thins. No dated news coverage, funding announcement, customer case study or product update was found after that point. The company's own site, baselinetrials.com, could not be loaded on September 25, 2026 because its SSL certificate had expired, and no archived snapshot of it was found in the Wayback Machine.
What is proven, and what is still claimed
| Evidence | What the record shows | Source type |
|---|---|---|
| FDA and trial registries | No 510(k), PMA or ClinicalTrials.gov record for Baseline AI, its product names, or its founders as of Sep 25, 2026. Expected, since Baseline sells software rather than a device or drug. | Not found |
| SEC Form D | EDGAR company search for "Baseline", "Baseline Trials", "Baseline AI" and the surnames Baugher and Sheill returns no matching Baseline AI filer as of Sep 25, 2026. | Not found |
| NIH and NSF awards | No award tied to Baseline AI, Baugher or Sheill turned up in NIH or NSF award data. A broad NSF pull returns only unrelated companies whose names happen to contain "AI". | Not found |
| Named customers | No sponsor, CRO or site customer is named anywhere found. The company's own materials ask pharma and biotech contacts to reach out rather than pointing to a client list. | Not found |
| 21 CFR Part 11 or other compliance claim | No claim of Part 11 validation, SOC 2 status or any other compliance certification appears in the pages saved from the company or in independent coverage. | Not found |
| Cost savings figure | The Y Combinator company profile text says the platform can save “up to $27M in direct costs + lost revenue saved for a single phase 3 trial.” The same company's 2024 launch post, reproduced on Fondo's blog, says the workflows can “save a single phase 3 clinical trial up to $18M in direct costs and lost revenue.” The two company texts do not agree with each other. | Company figures disagree |
| Y Combinator batch | Listed as Summer 2024 (S24) on Y Combinator's own company and launch pages. | YC data |
| Company website | baselinetrials.com returned a certificate error, expired SSL, when checked directly on Sep 25, 2026. No snapshot exists in the Wayback Machine. | Not found |
Read plainly: everything specific about what Baseline AI does comes from the company's own Y Combinator and launch pages, echoed by two third party blog posts that add no new facts of their own. No public record, no named customer, no compliance claim and no funding filing was found to test any of it against, and the company's two published versions of its own headline savings figure do not match.
What to watch
- Whether Baseline names a pharma, biotech or CRO customer using its product.
- Any SEC Form D or other funding disclosure beyond Y Combinator's standard batch investment.
- Whether the company reconciles its $27M and $18M savings claims.
- Whether baselinetrials.com returns to a working, securely served site.
In their words
“Getting treatments out of the lab and into the hands of patients that need them”
Y Combinator launch page tagline, Aug 2024 · Company
“Baseline processes your protocol to create CRFs, database model, edit checks,and analysis code, so all you have to do is review and approve.”
Company description, quoted on Fondo's blog, 2026 · Company
“two recent MIT grads who want to help bring new treatments to patients in need faster.”
Founders' backstory, Y Combinator company page, Aug 2024 · Company
“Zoe also participated in a clinical trial herself and wanted to see the system improve.”
Founders' backstory, Y Combinator company page, Aug 2024 · Company
“there are far more applications of AI that don’t have physical manifestations, whether it’s disease diagnosis or minimizing the ecological impact of a given venture.”
Zoe Sheill, GeekWire interview, Apr 13, 2018 · Interview
“Looking forward to medical diagnostic AI improving and becoming an integrated part of a doctor’s process.”
Zoe Sheill, GeekWire interview, Apr 13, 2018 · Interview
Related companies
Sources
- CompanyBaseline AI company page
- CompanyLaunch YC: Baseline AI, AI Document Creation and Data Management for Clinical Trials
- IndependentHow Baseline AI Is Transforming Clinical Trials
- IndependentBaseline AI Launches: AI Document Creation + Data Management for Clinical Trials
- IndependentGeek of the Week: With an eye on AI, teen coder Zoe Sheill applies real intelligence to future goals
- Public recordEDGAR company search, "Baseline", "Baseline Trials", "Baseline AI"
- Public recordEDGAR company search, surnames Baugher and Sheill
- Public recordFDA, ClinicalTrials.gov, NIH and NSF enrichment pull for Baseline AI
- Not foundbaselinetrials.com, direct connection attempt
- Not foundbaselinetrials.com archive search
Profile researched and written by Healthcare Discovery. Last updated September 29, 2026.
