‘Are we there yet?’ It’s a familiar refrain from pretty much every conversation I’ve had for as long as I can remember now. When do we get to close the door on the dumpster fire that was 2020, and start fresh in ’21 – as if that single digit will magically wipe the slate? For all the challenges faced this year, there is plenty of reason for optimism. Q3 smashed fundraising records for Digital Health, the election is behind us (sort of), and at least 2 vaccine candidates appear poised to find their way into the arms of front line healthcare workers before the end of the year. As I’ve reflected in recent weeks, it occurred to me that we as a company probably accomplished more beyond our core search work this year than we may have if it weren’t for Covid. We launched the Health Talent Exchange, made major strides in our DEI efforts – including our DEI Talent Leader Roundtables and the launch of our DEI Resource Center, opened our First Annual Digital Health Executive Compensation Study, and completed a host of important internal initiatives. To cap off the year for the Catalyst Newsletter, Nina distilled some insights from all of those DEI Roundtables, Steven sat down with Ari Brenner, the Co-Founder and COO of Stellar Health for a great chat, and Polina weighed in on hiring for potential – a topic that’s more important now than ever. We hope you and your family have found some silver linings this year, have a safe and happy holiday season, and come rested and ready for what promises to be a remarkable 2021.

— Tim Gordon, Founder & Managing Partner

An Interview With Ari Brenner,
Co-Founder and COO of Stellar Health

Ari Brenner is the Co-Founder and COO of Stellar Health, an NYC-based healthcare technology company empowering providers and practice staff to deliver high quality care through real-time notifications and meaningful incentives, aiding in the shift towards value-based care and helping control healthcare costs.

Steven: How did Stellar come to be? What was the inspiration behind it?

Ari: We were a co-founding team of four. Three of us came together at the beginning, all non-technical. Mike came from Apax Partners, Ben consulted in healthcare at McKinsey before going in-house doing VBC (value-based care) services, I was also from management consulting and VBC tech/services. We were introduced to Octavian, who was a former Googler who subsequently was a technical cofounder of a large e-commerce company. When we met Octavian, he was specifically targeting healthcare for his next venture, and a VC firm put us in touch.

The three of us in healthcare all had our “why we did it” motivation, and for me specifically I came at this primarily because of passion for healthcare and VBC specifically. An anecdote I’ll share is from my consulting days, where I built experience and passion for VBC. I was consulting for a state (public sector healthcare initiative) and we had convened a grand group of stakeholders (insurance, provider, public sector, patient advocacy, etc.), and we were trying to theoretically work through what VBC should look like across the state system. We would have these big conceptual meetings and talk through things like ‘what is the appropriate amount of funding insurance companies should be providing to doctors to switch them to being VBC providers?’ There was this one practicing provider who sat on the governing board, and he would sit and listen and every once in a while he would exclaim, “this is not my reality, this is not what it’s like to be a doctor today!” That really stuck with me, because so much of the work I did in consulting was so conceptually good, but didn’t reflect the reality of providers who were being asked to make this change. I truly believe the concept of VBC – of holding providers reliable for outcomes – is great, but we haven’t put power in the hands of providers yet to do that, and I picture this doctor’s reaction all the time.

Take a Seat at The (Virtual) Roundtable!

Highlights from a Series of Candid Discussions with Talent Leaders Across the HealthTech Industry

Zoom fatigue and virtual happy hours – these were all new concepts to my team at Aequitas Partners at the start of 2020. As a close-knit group of colleagues, we were used to spending 8+ hours a day together in our shared office space in NYC, so the transition to a remote workplace was, well… a little rocky. As we were going through our own 2020 growing pains, I knew that many of our clients were likely experiencing similar obstacles ranging from maintaining strong employee engagement in a remote environment to creating effective diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) strategies.

The Rising Star: Hiring for Potential

You just got funded, your customers are eagerly awaiting implementations and results – your company is finally at a place where you get to hire the people that you’ve always dreamed of hiring. You create your list of requirements for the one individual who will propel your company forward. They. Will. Be. Awesome.

As excited as you are for the future, you know that you needed that person yesterday. The problem is that the person may not exist. Or if they do, it will take you a long time to find them, and then you may not be able to afford them. So you cut your list back, with every item that drops from the “need to have” to the “nice to have” bucket leaving you feeling like you’ve settled for a lesser version of what your company and your team deserve.