Summus Global: A Focus on Provider Experience can Change Healthcare
By: Dan Stein
Tags: Founder Interviews, Startup Life, Entrepreneur, Entrepreneurship, Startup

Interview with Julian Flannery, Founder & CEO of Summus Global

Interview with Julian Flannery, Founder & CEO of Summus Global

Tell us about Summus Global. What do you do?

Summus Global, the leading virtual specialist platform, empowers families by providing access to a network of 4,000+ top specialists across 48 leading hospitals — within days, from anywhere in the world. The Summus model sets a new standard for speed of access to high-quality medical expertise and drives industry-leading engagement with employers. Pioneering the future of corporate health benefits, Summus Global partners with companies across the country to create an elevated healthcare experience for their employees and to support better, cost-efficient outcomes across all health questions and stages of care.

What is your startup’s origin story?

I am the founder and CEO of Summus Global. I previously served on the management team at Gerson Lehrman Group (GLG), the world’s largest membership-based platform for professional expertise. I oversaw GLG’s service operation, products, and content, and directed management of its 400,000+ expert membership base.

After GLG, I had a conversation with a friend, who is a former surgeon, and an idea clicked. The question we arrived at was: “What if we could bring a similar marketplace concept to healthcare?” With experience in building and running marketplaces, and my personal background coming from a family of doctors, Summus was created as a way to access high-quality medical expertise from anywhere in the world. Today, we have built a new way for families to make more informed medical decisions through fast, virtual access to high-quality providers across the US healthcare system.

Had you been involved in the industry before this startup? What is your background?

Before founding Summus, I didn’t have experience in healthcare, outside of knowing the provider experience from my family. At GLG,I developed great experience building tech-enabled marketplaces and specifically around scaling of knowledge / expertise. I did have experience in financial services which has served me well in managing and capitalizing Summus in the right way. Formerly, I worked at Morgan Stanley as Associate and Chief of Staff to the Chairman & CEO and in Special Situations and Investment Banking. In 2001, I served in The White House as an aide to the Chief of Staff to the President. I received an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and B.A. from Duke University.

What’s unique about your company? What are the key differentiators between you and other players?

Summus has built the most attractive virtual platform for specialist doctors. We’ve learned how to create the right experience and incentives for busy, accomplished doctors. We like to think we are the choice platform for leading specialists. We are a unique virtual specialist model. Summus allows our members to access high quality specialist expertise across all health questions. Our model broadens the funnel inside of employers (meaning, we are a solution for 100% of health questions requiring specialist expertise) which drives market-leading utilization (engagement) and impact. Our model empowers employees and their families to make better medical decisions and feel more powerful in healthcare. A focus on quality across our network, service, and technology.Consumers of healthcare rank the caliber of providers and hospital systems where they are being treated as the #1 and 2 indicators of ‘quality’ (Mercer 2020). Summus has built a platform that attracts leading doctors from top hospitals and makes it easy for them to connect with Summus members. We relentlessly focus on the provider experience and by doing so, we improve the consumer experience. Great doctors like working with Summus and choose to engage with our members within days. And because we’ve made the patient experience great (being ‘delighted’ as a healthcare consumer is a first for many of our members), they choose to engage us on an increasing range of issues.

Take us through a day in your life. What does the typical day look like?

There is no typical day. COVID has changed everything for us fundamentally. Our team is fully virtual and we are supporting members around the world who are challenged in accessing healthcare in a pandemic. We feel grateful to be able to provide a powerful solution, and the weight of responsibility that comes with helping our members with their health.

What has been the most challenging part of growing your company?

Building a business that has marketplace concepts in healthcare takes time. Healthcare is complex and hard. We know this and always try to think a few steps ahead of where we are today. Large, complex systems take a long time to change, so patience, combined with picking your moments to accelerate change, is important.

Healthcare is also human. Technology or a business model can’t solve problems in healthcare without a focus on compassionate human interactions to support families.

What has been your best marketing channel? What are some channels you are looking to explore next?

This past year, we have built our direct sales team under a great sales leader, and are pleased with the wins we have achieved, and the pipeline the team has built. We get a lot of inbound interest from health systems, so we tend not to market there too heavily at this point.

As we look ahead to 2021, we are focused on selling a unique virtual specialty care solution to employers and large groups; and partnering with health systems to deploy a SaaS platform to scale specialist expertise.

Do you have a book, podcast, or Youtube channel you would recommend to other Entrepreneurs?

I’m not sure I have any mainstream recommendations for entrepreneurs. I read a lot about history, politics, and innovation in business. I tend to read faster than someone’s ability to talk, so prefer books over podcasts. Generally, I’d recommend reading lots of different things and not just focus on the industry you’re in. It broadens your perspective and prevents shiny object chasing.

If you could go back in time to the day you founded your company, what advice would you give yourself?

Understand the sales cycle deeply. How much time (cash) do you need to prove traction and/or get to breakeven is critical. Your first hires are critical. Hire well and have a view on the upside of everyone you hire.

What’s something you’ve learned from building your business that someone else can learn from?

Diversify your bets to increase your chance of success. Stay lean, place smart bets, accelerate quickly where you see traction.