Jessica Harthcock was 17 years old when she suffered a devastating sports-related injury, which ultimately paralyzed her from the chest down. Almost instantly, she was thrust into the medical system, where she saw first hand the gaps in care quality care for patients with neurological conditions.
She set out to solve the problems she experienced via Utilize Health, which is a specialty care coordination solution that guides patients through the healthcare system, ensuring they reach maximal outcomes and health plans see a cost savings in their care. Today, she’s the CEO of a two million dollar company that she built from the ground up. In the interview below, she describes her journey as a patient, CEO and advocate.
We hope she inspires you, as she did us.
Allie Hoffman and Ally Bogard: What have you triumphed over?
Jessica Harthcock: The first would be triumphing over paralysis. When I was 17, I was paralyzed doing gymnastics. Unfortunately, the injury I suffered was grim. Doctors said that I wouldn't walk and I wouldn't recover. After years of rehabilitation, I eventually learned to walk again. It took about six years before I learned to confidently walk unassisted.
Most patients, when they suffer an injury, they’ll be in an acute care setting. Then, they’ll move into a different setting, whether it's a skilled nursing facility or in-patient rehab facility. Then, patients will, often, once they're out of inpatient rehab, move into out-patient rehab. Most patients will do two to three hours of rehab a week, sometimes four or maybe even five hours a week, of physical therapy.
I did six hours a day, often six or seven days a week, for the first three years that I got hurt.
Everyone around me was saying, "Hey. There's no point in doing this. You're not going to get any better." Looking back, I don't really know why I did it.
I guess I saw this as the first big hurdle I had to overcome.
Then, the second one would be starting a business. Holy cow. It's hard. I was so naïve when I started Utilize Health. I was right out of grad school at Vanderbilt. I thought, "It'll be fun. I'll work for free for myself, but I'll get by." The financial strain that put on us was enormous – not only my marriage, but just the financial strain that it put on our lives.
I ended up getting a job, where I worked at five in the morning doing data entry, just to try to make ends meet to support us.
Where we started four and a half years ago, is not what we're doing today. It's a big part of what we're doing today, but it's evolved and become so much more robust. We had to go through so many iterations to get here.
Hoffman and Bogard: In starting the company, what was the most adventurous or riskiest thing you did?
Harthcock: In the beginning, we put everything we had towards it – and I mean everything. When we got investment money, Adam [my husband] quit his job full-time. Then we really had put all of our eggs in this basket, in Utilize Health. It’s pretty risky to go all in with your spouse.
We took a huge risk when we made a pivot in how the company functions. Initially, we sold – and still do today – to consumers. They can purchase the patient advocate subscription online, which is like a concierge service. They get access to clinician at all times. That clinician becomes a concierge for whatever they need – medical, social, or environmental. They also have access to a suite of digital tools that help them manage their health.
We knew if we kept executing on this model that it was, 100% guaranteed, we were going to run out of money.
At that point, we decided to pivot to selling to health plans. Since then, we've raised money. There was a couple months where it was really nerve-wracking because we knew the sales cycle was so long to land a health plan contract. Then to know you're going to run out of money in the process – that's really scary as an entrepreneur.
Alas in the process, we raised $1.4 million in a convertible note and we're doing a $7 million dollar round in May. We're very secure now; by end of January, we will have raised over $2 million dollars.
In terms of revenue, we're expected to see a couple million this year. Primarily, that's going to be from our health plan clients. From a consumer model perspective, we've run over 750 patients through the program.
With our new health plan model, the number of patients we reach jumps to 25,000 per client. That's really why we chose to sell to health plans. It was so much more scalable. It was a much larger business opportunity; members that are eligible for the program receive it as a covered benefit so it's completely free for them. When they go through our program, their hospital readmission rates lower. Patients see better health. They see better outcomes, and that saves an astronomical amount of money for a health plan.
Hoffman and Bogard: What is the biggest professional failure you've experienced so far? What did you do with it?
Harthcock: I would say that early on in Utilize Health I focused so much on the patient. From a business perspective, wrongfully so. It was almost like I was paralyzed by my own passion. I wasn't creating a sustainable business. It's not like I didn't know... I knew how to make a business sustainable. It's logic, but I think my passion just overrode it.
When I initially started out, I didn't create the most sustainable business and that really showed. As we explored the problem, as I fell on my face and as investors told me this model would never work, it forced me to look around and say, "Okay. Well, the problem obviously starts with the patient. They're the ones that need the help. They're the end user for sure, but who else was actually impacted from a business perspective?"
That led us to providers and health plans because they're financially impacted, which is how the business has evolved today four and a half years later. Initially, when I first got out of grad school, I couldn't see past my own passion. I think it's because I'm so close to the problem. As someone who has had so much experience as a patient in the healthcare system and being a part of it in the way that I have, I just wanted to help them. That drives me everyday, but it drives me in much more focused, business savvy way now.
Hoffman and Bogard: What would be one of the primary lessons you'd like to pass onto those you mentor?
Harthcock: Focus.
Focus.
Focus.
