Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Jumpstart Episode 5: Robert Hendrick
- Robert Hendrick co-founder Change Healthcare
- They provide cost transparency for the America healthcare consumer, works with large self-insured employers to provide employees with insight to where they can get services at most cost effective price.
- Founded in 2007
- The entrepreneurial bug is a sickness you’re born with. He adopted the title entrepreneur 18 months ago.
- They haven’t had trouble filling seats, but it’s challenging to find the right people. They really network and hire people they know they can trust.
- Zappo’s pays employees to quit.
- Talk about the job and find the person for it, not the person and then the job.
- Check out Rail Yard Studios & Change Healthcare.
Robert’s 3 tips every entrepreneur needs to know
- Hire people who are smarter than you are.
- Stay healthy.
- Be the founder. Embrace it and enjoy it. It’s a title people can’t take away from you. Most entrepreneurs are often not happy once they are in the CEO role.
Please SUBSCRIBE to the podcast in iTunes, so you’ll get new episodes as they are available.
Jumpstart theme song “DLDN Instrumental (ft. Onlymeith, Mellotroniac)” by: St. Paul from ccMixter.
TRANSCRIPT
Dave: Welcome to Jumpstart. I am your host Dave Delany. My guest today is Robert Hendrik; co-founder of Change Healthcare. Hey Robert, how are you doing?
Robert: I’m doing good Dave, how are you doing?
Dave: I’m great man. Welcome to Jumpstart, thanks for joining us.
Robert: Oh hey, I appreciate it. Thanks for having me.
Dave: Thanks. So let’s begin by telling me a little about Change Healthcare. What is it that you guys do?
Robert: Well, Change Healthcare we provide cost-transparency for the American healthcare consumer. We’re primarily with large self-insured employers to provide their employees with insight into what services – what prescriptions are going to cost, and let them know where they can begin in those costs at the most effective – or begin those services at the most cost-effective price.
Dave: That sounds great. What year did you guys start?
Robert: Gosh, it was four years ago, so it was 2007 I guess.
Dave: Has healthcare – I mean, obviously things have changed a bit. But – you know, how have they affected your business?
Robert: Well, it’s – we sort of stake-out a plot of land and everybody decided to drive a highway through it, and so we’re kind of excited about that. But when we started out, I can remember going to companies and they said, “You know, we’re thinking about putting one of those HSA things in place where those high-deductible plans next year.” And then the next year, everybody starts saying, “Well you know, we’re definitely going to start pushing people on that.” And – you know, here we sit today four years later…
Dave: Yeah.
Robert: And there are almost of them – it’s surprising how many – even large companies have already gone to all out – that’s it. It’s a high-deductible plan. I mean major auto manufacturers, major corporations – General Motors, General Electric, Nissan – they’ve all gone to high-deductible plans. It’s like twenty-five hundred dollar individual deductible, five thousand dollar family; if you don’t like it, there’s the door. Go find somebody in this country who’s hiring. Wow.
Dave: Yeah.
Robert: That’s a long way from where we were four years ago.
Dave: Yeah, yeah it is. So let’s talk about you a little bit. At what point in your career did the entrepreneurial bug bite you?
Robert: Well, I guess it’s an illness; you’re sort of born with it.
Dave: (Laugh) Yeah.
Robert: It’s an affliction. But – I don’t know. I think it’s – I don’t really see myself as an entrepreneur. I guess I adopted that title sort of eighteen months ago. I think it’s sort of a convenient term for mothers who don’t know what their children do.
Dave: (Laugh)
Robert: I mean it’s very difficult for my mom to explain – “Well, he was a Chief Marketing Officer for a technology company at one point, and then he’s been Chief Technology Officer for a healthcare company. Now he’s with an HIT company. He’s the founder, and he owns a railroad. And he’s an industrial designer that creates furniture as well.”
Dave: (Laugh)
Robert: It’s easier to say, “Oh he’s an entrepreneur.” And so it makes everybody feel better. But I don’t really – I don’t feel that there’s a title that really sticks. So I’m an entrepreneur for lack of a better term unless you want to make it really really long conversation.
Dave: Well, it almost sounds like – like what a lot of other people – a lot of other guests have claimed that they’re more of a serial entrepreneur in a way.
Robert: Well…
Dave: It sounds like you’ve done a lot – and you’re doing a lot of different things that are really interesting.
Robert: Well, I’ve done everything. I’ve held every job in a company. I mean I’ve – there’s no CFO in a company, and so I’m doing the pro forma. There’s nobody to take out the trash, so I take out the trash; I’m the janitor.
Dave: Uh-huh
Robert: You know, it’s whatever that needs to be done is what gets to be done. And so I’m an entrepreneur. I’m a jack of all trades. I’m a Renaissance man – I mean, I’ve been called a lot worse things I guess.
Dave: (Laugh) Have you talking about being a CTO as well – I mean, have you had trouble hiring? Or what’s the sort of environment like right now? I know there’s a lot of opening in tech jobs here, have you had trouble filling seats?
Robert: You know, we haven’t really had – it’s not been difficult to fill the seats.
Dave: Uh-hm.
Robert: It’s really difficult to find the right person. It’s challenging.
Dave: Yeah.
Robert: It’s challenging. We do find the people. We have a sort of unorthodox method of going about it. We really network into people. We hire people that we know or that we can get recommendations on from people that we trust.
Dave: Right.
Robert: And we’ve even opened up a secret little back door into it – a very popular tool nowadays that has given us a lot of insight into the market. So recruiting is really it’s – I think it’s one of our strongest points as a company. And making the company enticing enough that somebody wants to join on board – that’s a big part of it.
Dave: I think – I mean you look at companies – I’ve always been impressed with companies like Zappos who – I don’t know if you know this, but if they hire somebody – I think within the first week or two of their job, they pull them into a room and say, “Look – you know, here’s a check for five thousand dollars if you quit right now.”
Robert: Yeah, I’ve heard about that.
Dave: To see if they’ll do it. Yeah.
Robert: I’ve heard about that. It’s an interesting approach. I don’t – we don’t churn them through. They’re churning through a lot people.
Dave: Yeah. Yeah.
Robert: doing that. And you’ve got those – this sort of customer service jobs in mass like they do.
Dave: Uh-hm.
Robert: It’s an effective technique. I’ve got a good friend who’s a CEO of a company here in town who – I’m not sure if he actually uses that technique or he’s threatening to use that technique/ He really likes it so…
Dave: I like – I mean – yeah, I like the idea – I mean, just in the sense that you take so much time and money to train people so – you know, for them to end up not working out is certainly a waste of everybody’s time and money. So…
Robert: Yeah. It can be. It really can – so you’ve got to be careful about – not be careful but you’ve got to be very deliberate in hiring. I mean, one of the things that we talk a lot about – and I know that my team has gotten a little tired of hearing it, but they’ll [Inaudible – 00:06:05] somebody, I’ll say “Look, let’s talk about what the job is, and let’s find the person for the job. Let’s not find the person and then go and create the job for them.”
Dave: Right. Right. Makes sense. And what three tips would you give any entrepreneurs sort of starting out? Or even some of these Cs and Ds who’s been doing it a long time?
Robert: Gosh, there’s so many things. And I know you’ve had other guests on and they’ve sort of stolen a lot of what I’d say.
Dave: (Laugh)
Robert: I guess it comes back – you kind of stumbled back into it. I think the first thing is hiring the people who are smarter than you are.
Dave: Uh-hm.
Robert: Or in my case, it’s really easy.
Dave: (Laugh)
Robert: You know, I’ll just point at somebody and go, “Okay, yeah you’re in because you’re a lot smarter than me but…” I mean, I own a railroad contracting company as a being part of Change Healthcare.
Dave: Yeah.
Robert: And – you know, these are guys that are blue collared workers, and they’re fantastic people. And for pure IQ, they may not necessarily match me. But when I get out there on the track, I’m learning from them. Every single time, I see something.
Dave: Right.
Robert: So they’re much smarter than I am on that track.
Dave: Uh-hm.
Robert: And I have to watch them and learn from them so I – you know, first tip would be hire people who are smarter than you are as an entrepreneur.
Dave: Uh-hm.
Robert: They’ll make you look really really smart even if you’re not. So…
Dave: That’s good.
Robert: That’s the first thing. I think the second thing is you’ve really got to – and I think Marcus eluded this or spoke directly to it – is that you’ve got to stay healthy.
Dave: Yes.
Robert: I spend – I am very very protective of my time. I try to get in my bike ride or my hockey [Inaudible – 00:07:49] getting my bike ride a day for example.
Dave: Uh-hm.
Robert: But I try to spend that time, I try to eat right, I try to eat healthy. That’s not easy to do especially for an entrepreneur. You’ve got to be very deliberate about that; have a lot of intent on making it happen. So taking care of yourself and your family – you know, making sure you have that time for yourself, for your family.
Dave: Uh-hm
Robert: That’s really important. Having a spouse or having a partner who will be very supportive of you as you go through this – what will be a trial and a tribulation no doubt.
Dave: Yeah.
Robert: Oh gosh, and then I’m down to one more. I guess what I’d say is, for an entrepreneur, I’d say – you know, be the founder. Embrace that and enjoy that. The founder is – it’s a title that people can’t take away from you. A lot of people want to be the CEO and they see that as the big power position. But that’s a position that can be taken away.
Dave: Uh-huh.
Robert: And to be perfectly honest, most of the entrepreneurs that I’ve ever met; they’re just not happy once they see what the CEO really does. They’re not really enjoying that role. They’re really more builders. They’re more creators. And that’s not the really the role that a CEO gets to play. I mean, there’s only so many Steve Jobs in the world, and you’re probably not one of them you know?
Dave: Yeah, yeah.
Robert: And it’s hard for an entrepreneur to hear it – to hear that. But when I talk to an entrepreneur and they understand that – they’re at least receptive of that. That goes a long way. That means that they’re listening and they’re learning. So when I say be the founder, I’m kind of checking to see if somebody’s listening. Are they willing to learn? Are they willing to adapt? Are they willing to put aside what’s best for them and do what’s best for the company?
Dave: Yeah, now those are amazing tips and ones that I know that people are going to get a lot out of so thank you for that. The railways stuff – I know that you’ve been – you’ve started Rail Yard Studios as well, did you want to talk a little to that? It sounds like a really interesting venture.
Robert: Well, it’s been a lot of fun. My degree is in industrial design from Auburn University and then from Ohio State. And for the railroad contracting business – you know we replaced ties, we replaced railing. We were pulling this old rail out – you know it has names on it like Carnegie and Illinois and Pennsylvania on it. And then it’s got date from 1899 or 1911.
Dave: Wow.
Robert: And we take it and we throw it in the scrap heap. And we send it overseas and it comes back as a new car somewhere. We’re like “Woah, woah! We can’t do this.”
Dave: Yeah.
Robert: So we started creating functional furniture out of it. And it’s interesting I guess from – it gives you a little bit of insight into me. I don’t see the same thing that other people see when they look at a company or when they look at a product. I see – you know, people see railroad tracks. And you know, I see fine furnishings that literally are going into very high end homes. So it’s far away as you can get from the railroad tracks. So…
Dave: And this is – I’m sorry, go on.
Robert: But it’s been something that I’ve really gotten to enjoy. It’s been a hobby and its sort of taken of and taken on a life of its own which has been – it’s been very gratifying but it’s also – it’s a little bit daunting at times.
Dave: That’s pretty amazing. Well, thanks so much. Oh, before I go, where can people find out more about what you’re up to – about Change Healthcare, about Rail Yard Studios, and everything you’re doing?
Robert: Well, the two best places are at changehealthcare.com. It’s all one word; changehealthcare.com. And then the other site would be railyardstudios.com. And then from there, that links over to bloggers – I’m all over the place. But changehealthcare and railyardstudios are the two primary places where you can find me.
Dave: That’s great. Well, thank you so much for taking the time of the day. I really appreciate it.
Robert: Hey, thank you Dave. And thank you for being a part of this. It’s great to have Jumpstart finally going. It’s great that you’ve come down from the great north.
Dave: (Laugh)
Robert: Make national so much better.
Dave: Thanks man, I appreciate that.
Robert: Alright, thank you.
Dave: You too, thanks.
Posted on April 17, 2011
Categories: Blog, Podcast
Tags: Change Healthcare, Jumpstart podcast, Rail Yard Studios, Robert Hendrick, Zappos