From high tech to healthcare: a seasoned entrepreneur learns ‘pacing’

An interview with SilverVue CEO Will West

Will West is a prolific tech entrepreneur with a long track record of success. In 2013, he took Control4, the leading whole-home automation company, public. Before that, he co-founded iBAHN (originally STSN), the worldwide leader in broadband services for business travelers. He has raised close to $400 million in private capital for his last three companies.

After taking Control4 public, Will intended to retire. So how did he end up at the helm of a new startup in the healthcare industry?

At our most recent Tales From the Trenches, Will shared the story behind his latest entrepreneurial venture and first foray in healthcare, SilverVue.

SilverVue is developing a cloud-based technology platform that connects payers and providers with patients to reduce costs and improve patient outcomes and satisfaction. The company has landed contracts with more than 350 hospitals nationwide in just over two years and continues to add new hospitals every month.

Even with his impressive entrepreneurial track record, Will has found navigating the healthcare space challenging. “It’s a whole different economy in healthcare. [Building SilverVue] has meant relearning business all over again,” he reflected.

We followed up with Will to hear more about what he has learned through his journey from high tech to healthcare.

Will, you’ve founded and led an impressive number of highly successful technology companies. SilverVue is your first healthcare company. What has surprised you the most about building a company in this industry?
The single most shocking thing about healthcare is the sales cycle, and the multifaceted decision process buyers deal with. In the “real world,” if you present a better product that produces more revenue, higher returns, greater efficiency and better performance — if you build a better mousetrap — you can likely find a market niche for that solution. That is most certainly not the case in healthcare. Or at least, you may not be able to sell into that niche within the reasonable lifespan of a startup. This effect is why you have to learn to match the pace of your customers in this business.

What does “pacing” look like for a business like SilverVue?
The concept of pacing is something I learned from a wise man named Dan Mingle, CEO of Mingle Analytics. He has become something of an icon in the industry and is someone I look up to. He taught me that you have to meet healthcare providers where they are. Don’t show them the new shiny object. Understand the current problem they are trying to solve today. Help them with that. Walk with them in their shoes today. The longer you walk with them at their side, the more you are in a position to then lead them into the brighter future of new solutions that will help make healthcare truly better.

Following the pacing approach, SilverVue has developed a number of products that improve, rather than disrupt, existing hospital workflows — like replacing hospital case managers’ binders with a digital tool. What is the long-term vision for SilverVue?
That is correct. SilverSearch, our solution for helping case managers and patients make better choices about their post-acute services, is now found in hundreds of hospitals across the country. It is in many ways a digital presentation of the paper binder case managers have been accustomed to using. We knew we had gotten close to the market when a common reaction by case managers was, “Oh, I was going to do that!”

And while it might feel similar to the old method, the truth is our tool allows high quality decisions to be made in a matter of minutes based on constantly changing quality information. As we become more integrated into the clinical data, we will increasingly match complex comorbidities with the quality outcome results of post-acute providers to ensure the highest quality and lowest cost healthcare for patients and healthcare systems.

You observed that the healthcare industry, generally speaking, is less open to collaboration than other industries (including technology). Why is it important for the industry to become more collaborative?
There are few industries where self-interest driven control of data is more harmful. Under the guise of patient privacy, terrible harm has been done by those whose primary intent is to protect profit at the expense of innovation and patient care.

The more information we responsibly share about patients, outcomes, costs and every other aspect of healthcare, the more our healthcare system can flourish and serve its customers the way so many other parts of our economy already do so well. How can a new company with a new technology innovate and provide new services if it can’t gain access to the data it needs to deliver its service to providers? How can a big data innovator discover inefficiencies and recommend improvements in a healthcare system without access to the data?

From your experience, what are the keys to a successful collaboration between businesses?
Innovation, economics and government intervention are all working toward the common goal of getting technology companies to collaborate. There are some very encouraging signs on the horizon. The Blue Button Initiative could provide real help. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar has the very clear objective to enforce open APIs which will allow for more free flowing information between companies and systems. If the path is made open for innovation, then as one speaker recently suggested at this year’s HIMSS conference, there won’t be a city large enough to host all the innovation that will follow in healthcare.

Dr. James Mault, connected health expert and Qualcomm Life CMO, joins us on Wednesday, March 28 for the next event in our Tales From the Trenches series. Learn more and RSVP.