This episode features an interview with Taylor Justice, Co-founder & President of Unite Us. Unite Us is an outcome-focused technology company building coordinated care networks of health and social service providers. Since launch in 2012, Unite Us has raised $195m in venture funding. On this episode, Taylor talks about how there really are no rules as an entrepreneur, how he raised subsequent rounds of funding for Unite Us, and why he believes it’s so important to keep that sense of purpose, even after serving.
This episode features an interview with Taylor Justice, Co-founder & President of Unite Us. Unite Us is an outcome-focused technology company building coordinated care networks of health and social service providers. Since launch in 2012, Unite Us has raised $195m in venture funding.
On this episode, Taylor talks about how there really are no rules as an entrepreneur, how he raised subsequent rounds of funding for Unite Us, and why he believes it’s so important to keep that sense of purpose, even after serving.
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“There are no rules. And I use it like and I’d tell people at business school, this as well, who are in finance or consulting, there's this formula that you can run through to make that career jump. And you do X, Y, and Z. It's going to give you some results. Whereas in entrepreneurship, there are formulas that you can follow. But you have to break down those walls because when there are no rules, then you get to define what the world then sees or how they perceive certain things.” — Taylor Justice
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Episode Timestamps:
*(2:05) - Segment: AAR - After Action Review
*(5:40) - Taylor’s first entrepreneurial endeavor
*(10:00) - Where the idea for Unite Us came from
*(16:28) - Going to Columbia Business School and meeting his co-founder
*(29:10) - How Taylor raised subsequent rounds of funding for Unite Us
*(23:10) - Segment: The Sitrep - Situation Report
*(35:20) - Segment: The SOP - Standard Operating Procedure
*(40:40) - The habits that Taylor’s held onto through his success
*(47:35) - Segment: Giving Back
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Links
Connect with Taylor on LinkedIn
Connect with Old Grad Club on LinkedIn
[00:00:00] There are no rules. There are no rules. And I used to like, try to tell people at business school, this as well, who are like finance or consulting, there's like this formula that you can run through to make that career jump. And like you do X, Y, and Z. It's going to give you some. Whereas in entrepreneurship, there are formulas that you can follow, but you have to break down those walls because when there are no rules, then you get to define what the world then sees or how they perceive certain things.
[00:00:34] You are listening to OnPoint a show about veteran business leaders, entrepreneurs, executives, financeers, and social. Who made a name for themselves in the military, and then took the private sector by storm. This show is hosted by the founder of the old grad club, Eddie Kang. Hello and welcome to OnPoint.
[00:00:51] This episode features an interview with tailored. Co-founder and president of United us is an outcome focused technology company, building coordinated care networks [00:01:00] of health and social service providers since launch in 2012, United has raised 195 million in venture funding. Taylor studied Latin American studies and environmental engineering and played football at west point and then went on to receive his MBA from Columbia.
[00:01:13] He began his entrepreneurial journey shortly after he was discharged as an infantry officer in 2007. On this episode, Taylor talks about how there are really no rules since. How he raised subsequent rounds of funding for Unitas and why he believes it's so important to keep that sense of purpose. Even after serving through Unitas, Taylor has helped hire an incredible number of west point grads that are continuing to make positive change in the lives of others.
[00:01:37] After service. This story is incredibly inspiring and relatable. Before we jump into it, feel free to check us out on LinkedIn and instagram@oldredclubandonlineatoldgradclub.com. Now please enjoy this interview with Taylor justice.
[00:01:53] Welcome to OnPoint. I'm Eddie Kang, founder of the old grad club and your host for today. I am joined today by a very special guest Taylor [00:02:00] justice. Taylor, how you doing this morning? Doing very well. Thanks for having me. Awesome. Well, there's so much to dive into, but we always start these sessions with like the old grad story or what we call the eight.
[00:02:10] Let's get into our first segment, the AAR or for our non-military listeners, the after action review in this segment, we talk about our guests personal journey and the decisions that they made quickly recap for us went from west point. Graduated, spent some time as an infantry officer, but can you connect basically graduating from west point to today and maybe even like, you know, why you chose to join the military?
[00:02:32] Yeah. So I always knew I would be in the military. I just didn't know how it would happen. My father did 30 years in the air force, you started went the enlisted route, ROTC through Cincinnati, became a fighter pilot, got a silver star in the first Gulf war. You know, I was always tied to it and really looked up to his service as something that I felt like I wanted to do.
[00:02:53] And then in high school, I was decent enough in football to be recruited by a number of different [00:03:00] schools, army, Navy, air force, and a number of other organizations. And my first official visit was to west point and I showed up there, saw the campus and was like this. This is the place canceled. All my other official visits didn't go on any others.
[00:03:14] I wouldn't recommend that for any of the listeners that might have brothers, sisters, or siblings that are going through the recruiting process. Just go see what else is out there, because I can't tell anybody what that experiences. And so I entered the academy out of high school. Initially just thinking through a football lens, honestly, and going through beast and doing those things just like really got into the career aspect of being in the military.
[00:03:38] So obviously do the four years there graduate in 2006, uh, as an infantry officer, I went through the add so program when it started. So I made my three years in active, active to guarantee. I was an infantry officer because, you know, I wasn't near the top of my class. So if you needed to go that route. So I thought it was in for eight years and [00:04:00] unfortunately, through playing football, I had too many concussions and almost was at a point where they didn't know if they were going to commission me out of school.
[00:04:07] Now sent me down to Walter Reed, to the TBI center there, and basically the arrangement that was made as I would go through all my infantry training. After that, I would follow up with a neuro neurologist in Fort Benning, and they would make the ultimate assessment of if I was fit for duty or not. And ultimately.
[00:04:22] Was was found unfit in the sense of like, if I took another hit to the head, I could have long lifelong issues. So they were obviously looking out for me. So I was medically discharged before my. And then entered the civilian workforce, went to one of those JMO recruiters. First job was kind of like medical device sales type around the diabetes sector.
[00:04:43] Didn't fall in love with that industry, but it kind of taught me the humility of selling, of going into like a gatekeeper and in doing that sort of thing, and then transitioned to a technology company that wasn't in telecommunication space, where I really cut my teeth and learned how to. And really understood how to drive a market and lead [00:05:00] sales teams and do those things got involved on entrepreneurial ventures on the side, and then got involved with a nonprofit organization, team, red, white, and blue out of Philadelphia, where it really started the Genesis of the unite us solution and the need to connect multiple organizations that can help individuals.
[00:05:16] And shortly after that started unite us in 2013 with my co-founder, who just came up behind us over here in the corner. But yeah, that's I guess, a quick down and dirty of. Yeah. I mean, as I have gotten to know a little bit about Unitas, it seems to be like some type of combination of a lot of different things that have affected your life.
[00:05:34] I mean, you get medically discharged, obviously, you know, taking hits and football has its effects on people. And then you, you learn about what healthcare looks like. Probably both firsthand and then also on the industry side as, as a sales guy, essentially. Right. So before United us, can you tell us a little bit about higher echelon and.
[00:05:52] Kind of founding that because, you know, as I'm looking at the dates here, you get out of the military in oh seven and you start a company, [00:06:00] essentially an oh nine. And so there's not that much time between leaving the military, getting a taste for the private sector and being like, okay, I'm going to find a fund, a company or an organization here.
[00:06:10] Right. Cause there's options. Right? Like you, you could've stayed with. You could have gone probably to get your MBA, you know, maybe even earlier, there's all these different things that probably floated through your mind, but instead you were like, I'm going to find a company. Yeah. So that experience was, I dunno, I, I kind of relate it to the infantry officer mindset where overvalued sense of self-worth and knock all.
[00:06:33] I can do anything like I'm selling, I'm doing all these other things, but my mentor at the academy. Was the director of center for enhanced performance. So CEP at school. And he was also an army football player, also an infantry guy. He and I were medically discharged around the same time. He was a, I think, a major at the time, uh, or about to be Lieutenant Colonel at broke his back on a airborne job and he was getting out and we [00:07:00] first started talking about the idea around what if he took CEP to the.
[00:07:06] And taught folks, you know, those soft skills that help them become better leaders. And so we called it the resilient and adaptable leader and he had a, uh, uh, a classmate 95 grad. This was Joe Ross, who was my mentor, Joe Ross had Paul Magento as a classmate from school. We were all kind of saying, Hey, let's do this.
[00:07:25] And we all did it. Part-time it. Wasn't our full-time. And we had kind of made them a commitment at the beginning that we weren't going to go full time until the business could support our salaries and we could make a clean break away. So we spent a number of years kind of building this from the ground up.
[00:07:39] And, um, Joe at the time was an army football coach. Paul at the time was working at an organization called old castle and I had my full-time sales. And we were at nights, just kind of working on this idea, uh, sending emails throughout the day I worked from home. So I had some flexibility to kind of do double duty if I needed to.
[00:07:56] And we just made it work, you know, and, and we're building [00:08:00] it out and realize that we were also a service disabled veteran owned, small business with Joe's injury and my injury. And we started to kind of dabble in like the government contracting space. Basically. You're like a glorified recruiter back in the day of like, you're just trying to get a button.
[00:08:15] And they're like, oh, you're a service disabled veteran owned small business. I can tag that to this thing. And Joe really put us on his back and made all of that happen, built the relationships and, you know, hire our salon today. Is this big organization, I think nearly 200 folks, if not more. Uh, government contracts and both Joe and Paul are still full time.
[00:08:35] I left that business in 2014 timeframe, but I think the starting point was always knew. I wanted to do something on my own and kind of learning the skills in my sales role. I was already working for home. So I felt kind of like I was on my own and every sales person is kind of managing their own territory as if it's their own business.
[00:08:56] And so I just kind of took it to the next level. It's like, and I was reading a [00:09:00] bunch of like books from Gary Vaynerchuk on crush. It, like when that first came out in 2009 and I was just like, you can do this, like just stop making excuses. So I just focused all my time and effort on that and building that type of business on the side.
[00:09:13] And then when I finally exited, I realized that my next business, I didn't want to grind it out, uh, as like I want to be in the technology space. I want to go after venture capital, but I've done kind of both sides of the coin of. With nothing and kind of building up and then starting with some venture funding and building.
[00:09:30] Yeah, so much to dig into there. Um, then being on the vendor side, I see a bunch of companies and most of them aren't bootstrap these days. There's a lot of capital out there, but you took a very kind of like risk adjusted step into entrepreneurship. The first time you were working, you had a full-time job, but some people call it extra preneur ship, but you were, yeah, you were really, um, it's an encouraging, I think thing to hear that story to at least, you know, people like me and others.
[00:09:56] That, you know, don't necessarily want to quit their job full stop and say [00:10:00] like, Hey, like, you know, we'd love to start something on my own and stuff like that, but like, you can, de-risk it a lot. If you, if you get some traction while you still have your current job and all that kind of stuff. So you're doing higher echelon, you spend time.
[00:10:12] Eventually going to business school. Right. And is that, was that the direct transition? Like, Hey, I'm going to, you know, eventually like move into, you know, my time at CVS. And then did you th uh, Columbia business school that is, is that where you came up with the idea for United or did you know, going into business school, like, Hey, I'm going to do this kind of in parallel tracking a little, but yes.
[00:10:31] So the idea for United, I guess my version of unite us started going through the VA. And so I was there for an appointment. I forget what the appointment was. And somebody was like walking by, like, it wasn't even the person that I was meeting. They kind of just walked in the room to talk to the person that I was meeting with.
[00:10:51] And like they said, oh, what do you do? And you know, what are you looking for? And, you know, et cetera, et cetera. And they said, you know, why don't you go back to school? Well, you know, I was medically [00:11:00] discharged since going to west point. I don't qualify for the GI bill and they're like, well, you're medically discharged at this percentage.
[00:11:05] You qualify for this other program called. And I was like, what's that? And so they walked me through the VOC rehab process and he's like, just go down the hall and talk to this person. I was like, okay. So I went down the hall and they walked me through what the Voke rehab program was was were, you know, long story short, it pays 100% for school and also your prep to get into that school.
[00:11:27] And I was like, oh, this is amazing. And they're like, well, where do you want to go? And I was just like, well, if I, if I go back, I want to go to. I have no idea, like what that meant. I just like, I want to go to a top school and they're like, what does that cost? So I look it up and, you know, it was obviously very expensive and I said this, I was like, well, it's outside of that program.
[00:11:46] So we need to go talk to the director. So like through this VA medical appointment, I'm like stitching my way through the organization. Just because somebody random walked in, I would sit down and talk to like the person that could approve that amount. And he goes, you know what, if you can get [00:12:00] in. I was like, okay, I'll get in.
[00:12:03] And then I just put a plan in place to go to go there. And so that triggered an idea for me, whereas this, like why don't people know that this is available to them where they can go to these really great schools. The VA is putting you in a position to make that happen, but it's not like widely known.
[00:12:18] And then I started to talk to the guy and he's just like, yeah, actually 70, some odd percent of people that start this program. They go into one of these trade type of programs. They're not actually going to a long-term school or they, uh, they see it as a way to receive the BH for a little while. And then they're not actually interested in what they're doing, or they don't have a support system around them to actually finish the.
[00:12:42] And I was like, man, that's like so much wasted money, but it's like so valuable if people would just took advantage of it, it's like, there's gotta be an easier way. And so the idea started there and then I met Dan going through the admissions process at Columbia business school. We didn't know each other going in.
[00:12:59] Current veteran military [00:13:00] students with veteran military applicants. And we were just linked up to talk about the admissions process. And so after like the first five minutes of pleasantries, he's like, you know, you know, what do you do? And I was just like, well, I'm doing this, but I'm really interested in this.
[00:13:12] And it was like this concept of unite us. And he was actually writing as part of his operations class, a capstone paper, or about the same problem, because he was a reserve air force. Pilot people were coming in to him asking questions. And so we. Really spent five hours on the phone on that first call, just talking about what is now unite us in, in what we wanted to do.
[00:13:32] And that was in the early summer of 2010. He did a deployment to Afghanistan. We talked every day. One of the benefits of talking to an air force pilot, um, yes. Access to text messages and emails. And he came back in November, December of 2012 and we just said, you know what, fuck it, man. Let's go build this thing.
[00:13:54] And we started the business officially and that December timeframe, technically and legally it's [00:14:00] in January of 2013, but we have the idea of back into. Yeah. Okay. So let's just say we rewind and you don't have that conversation with that person in the VA. What path would you your life have taken and like, do you think, do you think, like you're the kind of person that somebody would have had a conversation with you that sparked this with, if it wasn't that conversation, it would have been some other one and it just kind of like, you needed some catalyst to like ended.
[00:14:26] Or was it more like that conversation literally changed the course of your life kind of thing? Well, I mean, I don't think that there was, there's ever one thing that changes your life. It's like this compounding of like engagements and things that kind of just build upon an idea. Cause when I first brought it to, I initially brought it to the higher echelon team.
[00:14:44] I was like, there's something here that we need to figure out. And I was also the chapter captain for team red, white, and blue at the time as a volunteer. And I was. People were coming in to these social events or physical fitness events with needs outside of what team? Red, white, and blue. And I just had this Excel [00:15:00] sheet trying to connect them to services.
[00:15:01] So like that experience was like firsthand. I'm trying to navigate them to the services and it's, it is, I thought it was a relatively smart person and it was just like really way harder than it needed to be. And I was like, there's gotta be an easier way. And so it's just like, you know, having the conversation with the higher echelon team, the team, red, white, and blue experience, the VA experience, having a conversation with Dan, all of those things kind of just said, Other people see this problem, or other people realize that this is an issue and let's go try to solve it.
[00:15:30] So I think to your question is like, there's never like that purely off moment. There's a number of moments that have been eventually gets you to the aha. But I think that. I would have started unite us either way. It just might not been as fast as it had happened. If I didn't have that one conversation or if I didn't meet Dan or if I didn't do those other things, but I think I would have eventually found out.
[00:15:56] Yeah. And then do you think that if you, if you didn't meet your [00:16:00] co-founder being, talking through admission stuff at Columbia, like, was there another option? Like where were you, was there a part of you at all that was thinking, you know, people talk about the herd mentality when you get to business school of, you know, going to banking or consultant or the service firms or whatever it is like, is there any part of you that was attracted to that versus being like, you know, fuck it.
[00:16:19] I'm going to go start a company. No, Columbia is known for like their finance program. And I only took the mandated finance classes. Like I knew who I was like, I knew what I wanted to do. And even my classmates were like, why, why don't you take any of these classes? Like, that's not my skillset. Like if I do that, then I'm just going to struggle through it.
[00:16:39] Just like I did at west point just to grow, like just to pass. And I'm not going to like learn anything. So I focused all my time on like management and entrepreneurial and marketing classes that I felt were like already kind of strength of mine. I just want to sharpen them up a little bit. And if I ever gotten to the point where I had to run like a cap table, in a sense of like, I had to create it from scratch, or I had to go run corporate [00:17:00] finance, or I had to go do some of these different analysis, like we're probably in the box of like, where I want it to be.
[00:17:05] Because again, that's not my core skillset. Like my core skill set is go to market revenue. Build a machine and do those things. And so that was a skillset that Dan brought to the table. Cause he came from venture, had a finance background as well and in, and we just meshed that way. And so to your question, it's like, you know, there's this herd mentality.
[00:17:25] But even in that, before we had officially started unite us and my first semester at school, cause I started in the fall of 2020. I already knew what path I wanted to go down and like what my electives were going to be. And I was kind of already outside that herd. I just knew finance wasn't for me. I knew I didn't want to get into consulting because we were kind of doing that with higher echelon.
[00:17:44] And that wasn't necessarily where I saw kind of like my long-term career path. So yeah, I mean, I think it's, for me, it was almost like it was in me before I knew it was in me of what I wanted. Yeah. So, whereas a lot of people use business school as a transition point to figure out what kind of, [00:18:00] what they want to do.
[00:18:00] It sounds like you leverage it more as a tool like to catalyze that what you already kind of knew you wanted to do. But then like, you know, because of Oak rehab, because the, you know, going to a grade school at Columbia that has a lot of resources, it sounds like you're able to kind of make it a little bit more real in a risk-free way.
[00:18:17] Right. Cause like you've got the two years, like you can explain that you were at, uh, an MBA at Columbia and it's really good for you, but at the same time, it's, you're not really paying. For school there's opportunity, cost of networking, but that's a little different, right? Yeah. Well, I did the, I did the executive MBA program, so I wasn't technically a full-time that that's all that I was doing.
[00:18:35] I was going every other Friday, Saturday, so I was doing higher echelon up until, uh, or excuse me, my full-time job because we weren't full-time with high restaurant. I never went full-time with higher echelon. Uh, I was still had my full-time job while doing higher echelon on the side and it wasn't until that December.
[00:18:52] January after my first semester that I went full-time with United us, where that was my full-time job during the week. And then every other weekend, I would go back to this, [00:19:00] you know, frankly, I don't know if like the U S economy has gotten more competitive, but when you listen to the younger grad stories that are kind of breakouts, there's always a degree of risk that people are willing to take.
[00:19:09] And then there's also, the other common element is that you're doing multiple things at once and you kind of have to find a way to make it work. And you know, it's very consistent. So you talked about not being like the finances. United us has raised, what is it like a hundred? I was calculating like 195 or something, million dollars total or something.
[00:19:27] Something like obscene like that. The company was started, you know, not too long ago. Right. A 2012. Well, like, can you take us through like the, what does it take to raise all these subsequent rounds? And obviously iconic is, uh, you know, iconic firm, but you you've done a slow clap on that one. Um, but you, you all have done, you've had a lot of receptivity, is it because the company is because of the mission?
[00:19:50] Is it because the founders is a, it. And maybe it's not a single answer, but you know, the amount of money you all have raised is, is not inconsequential. Yeah. I mean, I think [00:20:00] me not being the finance guy and we raised 195 million plus dollars. Me not being a tech guy, running a tech company that is pure software.
[00:20:11] Like doesn't have that skillset either. One of my favorite books is by Ben Horwitz, hard thing about hard things. And the thing I took away from that the most is like, there are no. There are no rules. And I use it like try to tell people at business school, this as well, who are like finance or consulting, there's like this formula that you can run through to make that career jump.
[00:20:33] And like you do X, Y, and Z. It's going to give you some results. Whereas an entrepreneurship, there are formulas that you can follow, but you have to break down those walls because when there are no rules, then you get to define what the world. Or how they perceive certain things and then you get to go figure out.
[00:20:51] I was like, okay, if I need to know finance the point to go raise money, want to learn everything I know about that topic, but I don't have to necessarily be the expert. I can just have the conversation of [00:21:00] like what I need to go deploy my business and be successful with it. So from that standpoint, your entire job as an entrepreneur is to like solution and figure out ways to get things.
[00:21:13] That could be educating yourself on a particular topic, or that is like figuring out the unsolvable or what people think is impossible or what people think is too hard. And so if. Your knee jerk reaction is to kind of get into that mindset of like really both having a vision for something. And then kind of that military backwards planning on how I'm going to get there.
[00:21:33] Then there's an opportunity for you to be a successful entrepreneur and there's no right path. There's not one path or people are destined for, to be entrepreneurs or not. I do think you can teach it, but it requires you to just think a little bit differently and not kind of follow the norms of what I guess traditionally.
[00:21:51] Work opportunities could be, especially coming out of business school or west point or these other things. It's just like, you have to, you have to see the matrix a little bit of what's [00:22:00] possible. And then just figure out is like, am I the type of person that can go figure out my gap? And if I can figure out that gap and I can get over the hump.
[00:22:07] And so for us, like we've been at this for almost a decade, right? In January, you know, it will be nine years. And it took a long time for us to get to this point. I would say our biggest growth, like hypergrowth has happened in the last 18 to 24 months. And for the iconics to care about this, like we had to go create a.
[00:22:27] Four then people to want to come in and invest. And it took a while for us to get there. And we took a couple of hits on the chin and like we had a, we had a view that we had to pivot every once in a while to make sure that we were meeting the market demand or keeping up with the market domain. But as you start to build that, then everybody else wants to come in and be a, be a part of it.
[00:22:46] And. That's historically invested in market leaders and we were the market leader within the SDOH space. So when they came, it was, it was an easier conversation. Not that we didn't have to go through the ringer on diligence because they, they have [00:23:00] resources to talk to anybody and everybody, and just kind of like your background check and the military, like.
[00:23:05] And they're going to find if there's gaps, they're going to find them. We just built a very solid business that was growing at a right clip in a market that is massive. And so there's a lot of potential. Yeah. That's, that's awesome. Onto the next segment, the sit rep or the situation report in this segment, we'll dive into what our guest is focused on.
[00:23:23] And how their vision is transforming the future of industry and society. So it, you know, it's a good transition into Unitas because while it's eight years running, you mentioned how it's kind of accelerated in the last year and a half. What does that mean when it comes to like your goals and as a president of a really, you know, pretty sizable company now, what, like, where does your focus kind of go within the next like year?
[00:23:47] So to speak with Unitas? Like what do you want this to look like? Also, you know, just because maybe the listeners don't exactly understand yet. And maybe I don't completely understand how you're bringing all the different aspects [00:24:00] in some ways of healthcare kind of together in this network form. Like w what is the effect on the, on society really?
[00:24:05] That's that's of what I want to understand. Yeah. So there's a. I'll answer the first part of that of like, where do we go next by kind of explaining kind of my journey up until we got the term sheet in March, where back in 2009, you know, you read crush it and you read all these other books, you start following these businesses that are just getting started Uber's and all this.
[00:24:27] And you're kind of following the success path of like these high growth technology companies being a unicorn was always like a goal. Like, yeah, I want to do. Like that seems awesome. And like an outsider looking in, like, even in 2009, you're like, oh, that's the pinnacle. Like you hit that. Like you're you're there.
[00:24:44] And I still remember, um, when we got, I got the term sheet for my chronic, when it came through, like I woke up in the middle of the night, they're based on the west coast. And, um, it was like 3:00 AM when I got it and I opened it up and like, I started. No. There's like, oh shit. Like this is real. [00:25:00] Um, and it was like a really unique moment that my, my wife went to the car.
[00:25:03] What happened? What's going on? I was just like, you know, it's like one of those things, he was like, oh man, we
[00:25:12] really built something special. And like, people see it. And like, it was really cool. But then like, it hits you. It's just like, there's no different. Th there was nothing. That happened that next morning, when I woke up that wasn't there like the, the day before, other than like this piece of paper. Right. And then you realize it's like, oh yeah, I climbed that summit.
[00:25:33] And then you get up there and you realize like, oh, there was fog. That was just hiding the next summit. And then you, you just got like a retrain your brain. I'm like, okay, what's the next, what's that next mountain? I got to go climb. And so like, it's, it's you always going to have challenge. You know, I used to always think it's like, oh, if I get this one deal back in the early days, like we're there, we're on that.
[00:25:53] It's like, it never works that. It's a bunch of little deals or a bunch of deals, and then, you know, get you to [00:26:00] from 1 million to 10 million from 10 million to a hundred million. And then you go to like, okay, how do I get to the next a hundred million? Or like, how do I get to the billion in revenue? Like, it's all these smaller steps that actually get you there.
[00:26:10] And so for us, what we, what we realized early, um, by just focusing on the veteran and military community, it was the best thing that ever happened. Because for where we are right now in this world of social determinants of health and social determinants of health is defined as where you live, work, play.
[00:26:26] Do you have a roof over your head? You have food in your belly access to an employable wage. Like those social factors that impact your overall health and wellbeing. And so that. Um, broken down into human and social service agencies. So housing organizations and food and transportation and all of these different components that say, are you healthy or not?
[00:26:47] And there has been research done by Robert Wood Johnson foundation and others that 80% of someone's overall health and wellbeing happens in the community. As it relates to social determinants of health, it's like 10 to 15% that are [00:27:00] actually impacted by your clinical. But 20% of our GDP is nearly, nearly 20% of our GDP is in healthcare.
[00:27:09] Uh, so we over medicalize treatment for a lot of different things. And so. Realized by building these networks that we're solely focused on the veteran and military population that were solely focused on these community-based organizations around GI bill and housing and transportation and employment opportunities and all these things.
[00:27:29] We were building a care coordination network at the time. We didn't know what that meant. And at the time social determines of health, wasn't above. And we realized that you have to be in the community and build this infrastructure to give the tools to these organizations that are on the front lines to better service, those that are coming in their door.
[00:27:47] So if a veteran walks into my door and says, Hey, I need assistance with housing and I'm a housing provider. And then I start having a conversation with them and the reason they have housing assistance, because they don't have. And the reason I don't have a job is because they have to make life decisions or [00:28:00] do I take care of my child or do I go to work?
[00:28:02] And like, you start to like peel back the onion and realize there are co-occurring and reoccurring needs that this person has a cost across multiple service categories. And if those organizations know about each other, we can help that individual. More efficiently and then put them on a path of self-sufficiency.
[00:28:18] So we started building those networks just for veteran and military, and then in 2018, we've ventured into the healthcare market. When social determinants of health started to become a big bus turn. So you start to see the affordable care act. You started to see that healthcare was shifting from fee for service to value based healthcare, where you need to take into account these other social factors and address those if you really want to reduce healthcare costs and improve health.
[00:28:39] Um, and so when we ventured in, we weren't. Like everybody else is trying to solve the problem with like a digital phonebook. And we were actually like laying fiber. I always give this example of like Verizon wireless, where we have to go to the last mile. Like I have to get a lay fiber in a community, get those organizations to use my software, not just say, Hey, this is where the organizations are located.
[00:28:58] Um, and so we started to [00:29:00] build those networks and when we moved into care, And healthcare at that time, just thought they needed a resource directory. So we had to grind and just say, Nope, we're going to build what you need, not what you want right now. And then eventually the market caught up to us and like, oh, I can't just send people out into the ether and hope they figure it out.
[00:29:15] I need to know that they showed up. I need to know that they received that service and we. So then we get our first deal in upstate New York. Then we became the statewide infrastructure in North Carolina. We became an enterprise wide solution at Kaiser Permanente, and then we were off to the races. And so what we do for communities and especially what was highlighted in 2020 during the pandemic is the second and third order effect of the clinical response to the pandemic where people were out of work, children lost their access to food because schools are shut down and you had people that weren't able to pay their rent or mortgage.
[00:29:49] So state governments started to see that there was unprecedented stress put on their human and social service systems. And they had no way of identifying where [00:30:00] organizations open, where people getting taken care of, like, how do I create that supply chain? And we jumped in head first where a lot of the market kind of retreated to kind of see how this plays out.
[00:30:08] We went into full attack mode and just said, there's an opportunity to help these states. And we were able to replicate our North Carolina networks, 16 times and 20. Massive like growth in a very, very difficult year because we took a different view and saw it as an opportunity to help people. And we had a solution that we thought we could deploy very quickly and we were able to do so.
[00:30:29] So what we are doing to go to your question of like, how does this impact humanity? We are bringing social care to the same priority level as healthcare we're helping governments operate more efficiently because the healthcare industry is nearly $4 trillion. Our human and social service industry in the United States is 3.5 trillion.
[00:30:48] And where's does it bring them together of how we can better leverage funding to improve health and make sure that people can access government assistance when they need it, but not be in a [00:31:00] perpetual cycle of always being. And so how do we continue to kind of level up and get people out of either crisis scenarios or, uh, an area where they just don't see, they don't know where to navigate or how to get out of their current predicament or situation in our infrastructure is connecting all of those dots so that we can improve how people connect to these services and then how they can become more self-sufficient more quickly, uh, while reducing taxpayer spend while improving health, while reducing healthcare spend and doing that in a very efficient.
[00:31:31] Yeah. The community aspects of what you mentioned is, is particularly, um, obvious to me, I moved to Seattle kind of in the beginning of the pandemic. And so I remember thinking, you know, sitting kind of like in this Seattle ecosystem, but working remotely because everybody's working remotely. Is that like, geez, I'm not really physically in like community from a community aspect connected to anything.
[00:31:52] Cause it used to be that I at least go in the office a little while and like I had people's off the time. Then it got to a point where it was like, jeez, like, and you know, we, we [00:32:00] started doing these clubhouse things and we started doing these things and like it's an opportunity to talk to community in some way.
[00:32:06] And community told us that people want to know about careers stuff and hear about what Taylor justice did with his life. But what we found is there's just like a whole bunch of people that wanted some. Connection. And, you know, going back to the military thing is just like, I remember in the military, like, it doesn't matter if you have you report to somebody and it wasn't just their job to make sure that you're efficient at your job or like productive, but it's also their job to check in and make sure that like you have like your basic health and life needs and it does.
[00:32:32] I forgot what. You know, there's that army system that helps you make sure that your healthcare is all right, but look, there's, it's a, it's a terribly outdated system. I remember it was just terrible, but then there's also like the human aspect of like, is this person okay, like morally, like, you know, is the morale high?
[00:32:48] Like, that's something that I, I really, I truly believe is important and it affects everything and I'm hoping that, um, and I, and I'm sure that United has had an effect, especially in the last, you know, year and a half, two [00:33:00] years while people have been saying. You know, you can talk about making money and raising money and having a huge valuation and hopefully exiting and all these different things, but she is having an effect like you can't probably put a price tag on that.
[00:33:11] I tell you, I think the one thing that a lot of younger grads, or even my classmates, when they're transitioning out, I think people are always searching for that sense of purpose, again, whatever that is. Right. Like, and I definitely can say that. There's good days and there's bad days. But at the end of the day, everything we're doing is driven by a purpose of helping somebody else.
[00:33:34] And I tell folks all the time, I'm like super, super lucky that this, this industry, this sector found me and that we were able to bring a solution to it because like, I, you know, That's the best of both worlds, right? You have the ability to build a technology company while like literally you can prove that you impacted someone's life in a positive way.
[00:33:54] And, um, you know, when we think of, of unite us, like there's an opportunity now for us to build a [00:34:00] generational business, zero doubt. That we'll, we'll be at the same table as the Amazons, the Teslas, the Googles, and all this other stuff. And maybe that's just me being an entrepreneur, but I see it, like, see it so clearly.
[00:34:12] And it's not just here in the U S like we have applicability across the globe of what we're doing and bringing technology to communities everywhere to address these needs. And I think that that sense of purpose. For folks when they're transitioning is critically important because you know, you hear all the cliche things just like do something you're passionate in and then, you know, the money or the other things will come like that, that stuff is very, very true.
[00:34:37] But like you have options. The moment you leave the military of what you do with your life at that point, because there is no blueprint anymore. It's up to you on what you want to do. And your first step might just be somewhere to get grounded. And so you kind of see the battlefield and like, which direction do I want to go?
[00:34:54] And that is. There's always time to start. And I think if people [00:35:00] make that transition and always have that chip on their shoulder of like, I've got something to prove that is a mindset that is like critical to any success in any industry, whether you start a business or not, like never get completely.
[00:35:12] Never sit back and be like, yep. Got it all figured out. Good to go like that chip on your shoulder of like staying humble. And I've always got to prove myself like that. That is a mindset that is like undefeated. Okay. Let's get into our next segment. The SOP or standard operating procedure in this segment, we're going to talk about the personal routines habits and words to live by that have been instrumental to our guests success.
[00:35:36] It sounds like. Okay. So you've talked about the chip. On your shoulder that kind of keeps you hungry and driving where where's your chip come from? Uh, again, I think it's a number of different things. So, you know, Sam, Ella Salvos, obviously, right? Yeah, of course. Yeah. He's great. So we, we do, we, we have dinner every, um, uh, every month and just kind of like, you know, just talk about entrepreneurship, talk [00:36:00] about a number of different things and.
[00:36:02] He was saying, he goes, I think you've figured something out at westbound. And I still don't know if it was like a dig or a compliment. Sam's the nicest person in the world. So it was definitely a compliment he's he's like so nice. Yeah, because he's so smart. And it's like, this guy is like pisses me off so much because he's just like brilliant.
[00:36:20] Beyond brilliant. Super super smart, but he and I have different skill sets, right? Like he's just naturally really, really smart. And I'm like, you're street smart. Like I'm just going to go figure it out and hustle as much as I can. But he goes, he goes, what I realized about you is you are the guy in the working group at west point that immediately said where all the.
[00:36:43] And I'm going to go find those smart people and I'm going to bring them together. I'm going to make sure everybody has what they need to be successful. If I got to go, go get the pizza, do these other things that like, I'm going to put really good teams together. Uh, and he goes, I was like, I was just like, go get me the pizza.
[00:36:56] I'm going to get this done. We're going to get. A hundred percent [00:37:00] like we're done. And he goes, and he goes, what I didn't realize at the time is like you crack the code where I was just like trying to be the smartest kid in the room. He goes, cause now this world is all about like putting really good teams together and solving, solving problems.
[00:37:13] I think my thing has always been, it goes back to problems. And realizing that me alone is probably not going to get some of these things done. And that comes up from like, I grew up in Kentucky. I moved from Kentucky to Florida when I was like, middle school timeframe started playing football. Wasn't necessarily great right away, but had some instincts.
[00:37:33] And like you just like you learn all of those things. And, you know, sports taught me a lot of humility of being. Burnt and football. And you know, when you play defensive back, like you make a mistake, everybody knows about it. It's like those things of like having a short-term memory and like not getting like super wrapped up on it.
[00:37:50] And it's like, you know, take your next crack at it. But like, my chip is, I don't know. I feel like I was never the greatest athlete, but I was smart and I just put in a lot of [00:38:00] effort. So I had to think of other ways to be good. And I don't know. I think sports taught me that. Um, maybe I wasn't the smartest person, maybe I wasn't the most gifted, but I was still going.
[00:38:09] I wanted to be in that top tier and I had just had to figure out a different path to get there. And so I think that that shift for me has always been like, just trying to prove myself and make people realize that, you know, I, uh, I'm good enough if that makes sense. Yeah. Do you think you're growing up, do you think your parents had like expectations that were like really high for you?
[00:38:29] Or do you think like they were kind of just like, what were they expecting kind of out of tailored. And did you meet those expectations or how did, how did that kind of play how you think and you're in the family life. I mean, I had a big family growing up in Kentucky. And so you have all these different influencers.
[00:38:45] I think the first thing that my mom did was she always led with love. Like I always knew us. Right. And I didn't know like where we weren't the richest family by any means, but I never was like struggling for things or, or even if my mom was [00:39:00] struggling, I think she shielded me from, from some of that. But I think she.
[00:39:04] Just lead with love and like made me feel like I was super, super important, which then transitions to how I feel about myself and those things. I think that was super important. My dad was, was a go getter, right? He grew up in the same town as my mom. He was enlisted. My parents had my older sister when they were 17 and 19 me when they were 21 and 22.
[00:39:26] So they were. And then he went into air force as an enlisted guy in comms. Then it was just like, okay, I'm going to go to school. Cause he had the path to become an officer then, you know, went into the air force and it was like always, you know, willing to go do whatever it took to kind of continue to advance his career.
[00:39:45] He'd take the bad job and he would just Excel at it. Then I think he was super, super driven. So it's like you have this combination of. Being loved and loving yourself and this driven person where they all had flaws, like everybody has falls, but those qualities [00:40:00] were like super, super powerful that I think were kind of infused in me that have helped me kind of match being humble and maybe sometimes overly nice with being very, very ambitious.
[00:40:14] And I don't think they ever had any particular expectations. My dad wasn't super happy when I went to west point over the air force academy. Oh, wow. Like what a real man, somebody needs to tell these air force folks, Hey, you know, you got to set the tone early. Right. But I mean, there was never like, you have to go to.
[00:40:34] No, they let me make some decisions and, you know, they helped me along the way, but I think they're just more empowered me than anything. And that was super critical, I think, for my success. Yeah. That's great. And then have any of your tendencies, it doesn't matter if it was kind of like, you know, getting into west point, being an army football player, like being an infantry man, or have any of your life habits and tendencies kind of stayed someone and it's interesting cause it kind of ties to Unitas.[00:41:00]
[00:41:00] I think mainly because I think that having good habits. Leads to health, both physically as well as sometimes like emotionally and like how you kind of interacting with the world, but what have been some of the habits that you've kind of like held near and dear to yourself that have allowed you to kind of stay stable and sane through like a pretty turbulent in the last 10 years that you've had?
[00:41:19] I wish I was better. Like physically, like I would wish I would say like I get up every morning and I work out and I do these things, but I mean, I have.
[00:41:30] Yeah, I ebb and flow. Like, I'll go through like the stents, like there are little things that I do every, like I make my bed every morning, every morning without fail. It's just like the thing that I do. Cause it's like, it just gets me going in a sense of like, Hey, I accomplished it. And I won when you come home and like your places clean.
[00:41:49] There's like, like it's a stressful. You know, it's, I dunno. It's just like, there's something where it's just like, it's great. I read a lot or listen a lot. I'm [00:42:00] listening to audio books all the time. Cause I want to get, like, I'm always looking for an edge. I feel like, like, it goes back to that athlete mentality.
[00:42:07] You're always looking for an edge of like, oh, I'm gonna work out or I'm gonna try this thing or whatever. I'm still looking for that edge. And there's always something you can learn. So it's like could be sales books could be Matthew McConaughey is Greenlight's book could be like anything. Oh recently became an investor who recently became an investor, right?
[00:42:24] Yeah. I saw that online. Who's he's everything you think he is. Right. And he's just the coolest person ever. And like truly understands what we do. Not in like a superficial level, but like, you can get like a couple layers deep with them, which is, which is awesome. But it's like, I like reading to habit of like, just continuing to like educate myself and sharpening the toolkit is something I would try to do.
[00:42:43] And then during the pandemic I've recently took up golf, which I was never. Really into like, I would play once a year. Honest, honestly, play once a year at the army football called golf tournament every year I'd go. And like prior to the pandemic, maybe the last four [00:43:00] years, I may be finished like 18 holes combined in four years.
[00:43:04] Like I would just, I'm there to hang out with my friends, but during the pandemic you get out, you play. And it's just like, what I learned in playing golf is just how incredibly difficult and hard it is. And it's a challenge in and of itself that is like, takes me away from. Unite us for three or four hours whenever I'm playing.
[00:43:22] Uh, and it's, it's, it's something that is very difficult in everything has to be perfect or. Going into the woods or you're, duffing a shot and it's very humbling because you think you're good on one shot and you're horrible on the next. And it's one of those things where it's like, I've realized like taking myself away from unite us is really healthy, healthy at times.
[00:43:42] So I can just like clear my brain, but I think it's just like, you know, there's little habits there's educating yourself and then it's just like finding what are those outlets? That I can, uh, I can leverage to kind of get away from United us or just ping ideas off of someone. And I think I was getting into a rut recently and I know I'm just.
[00:43:58] Rambling here, but I was [00:44:00] getting into a row recently where like, there's a lot of pressure right now with where we're at in this business. And like problems, just get bigger, the numbers you have to go hit or just like, just get bigger. And I was like, starting to kind of just kind of get down on myself a little bit.
[00:44:13] Mike, you would have dinner with someone and you would cancel it. Cause I could just. Time to myself. And, uh, there was another army buddy that wanted to go to dinner and I was almost going to cancel, uh, just cause that was just like getting in my fields. And I was just like, I just want my time. And I was like, no, I'm just going to go.
[00:44:27] And I went and it was like such a refreshing moment for me because it like immediately brought me back from an energy perspective. And this was recent. This was like in the last couple of weeks. And it's just like those things. And that happened to me last night. I was totally going to, I was going to cancel on somebody last night and, and we, you know, we had a group that.
[00:44:46] I think we've, it's easy to forget as human beings, how much like what other human beings can do for us in terms of the energy, the motivation, the purpose, just the idea of feeling human again. Um, I can't imagine [00:45:00] that the numbers that you have to hit to make people on the board you'll have after raising that much money, you know, like when you raise a hundred plus million dollars in a go at people have expectations of you.
[00:45:11] Right. And yeah, I mean, like, I mean, there's, those things are obviously pressures, but there there's no, no more, a bigger pressure rather than the pressure you put on yourself. Like, I have my, like, I have targets that we give the board and then I have my. That I have for myself. And there's no one that's ever going to be a bigger Monday morning quarterback than, than myself, but finding those outlets of getting into some sort of routine, even if it's simple as making your bed in the morning, continuing to educate yourself and like sharpen your Spears and then never canceling on friends because you need that positive energy or just some.
[00:45:45] It's like so critically important. I dunno, maybe those are the three things that I have been rallying around, but I don't know. That's kept, I've always been impressed by, well, two things within the community. So this old drug called kind of kicked off because [00:46:00] people were lacking kind of engagement within the alumni base for like younger grads and older heads and, you know, businesses a good way to kind of connect everybody.
[00:46:06] But it doesn't matter if it's employees that I see on LinkedIn that are joining. United state or my classmates or west point grads, or just everybody that in somehow that you're connected to or touch at the, you know, in the alumni base. Um, you, you certainly have a lot of impact on a lot of the grads out there.
[00:46:23] And I, I think that kind of goes towards, you know, your philosophy and not canceling on people, but also just kind of like caring about people because it's. It really has an effect. We're all in this together. I used to use this line. There was like, um, when I first started unite us, there was a, there were a couple other businesses that were started by grads too.
[00:46:41] Um, and I still believe this, like to the core of like, we are all on this together. Like that could be entrepreneurs that could be grads that are transitioning out. Like everyone has their own path, but you're in it together. And it's like, it goes back to like the cooperating graduate type of thing. It's like, it's the same thing in life.
[00:46:58] And. [00:47:00] You need each other. And I think giving back, like when I was transitioning out and going through my problems, there were a handful of people that helped, but not as many as I would've hoped or thought would have. I was like, I don't never, I never want to be in that situation. Like I never want to be the person that gets to a point.
[00:47:17] And, uh, it was just like, all right, well, I'm, you know, I'm not going to help anybody else. Like. I feel like it helped me it's it might be more for me than it is for them. Um, uh, at the end of the day and everyone gets what they want out of that, but it's just like, I dunno, it's, it's something that's like critically important to me, just personally.
[00:47:36] All right. It's time for our final segment giving back. Um, obviously you give back a ton with what you do with Unitas, and this has been really enlightening session so far, but you know, if you were to say, and I, and I hesitate to say. Like, if you were to give some advice back to those that are listening out there, when it comes to, you know, finding whatever it is that they want to do with, what would it be?
[00:47:59] And it [00:48:00] doesn't have to be for the masses. You can cater it towards whoever that you want to speak to out there. But there's a lot of people that I can learn. I think. And we'll listen because of the success that you've had to Barbra, what would your advice be? There's no right answer to this in the sense.
[00:48:14] And I think that goes back to the, that mantra that I took from Ben Horowitz's book, a hard thing about hard things is like, there are no rules and so you don't have to have everything figured out. It's okay. Not to. And I think coming from west point and like you're taught where the cream of the crop, and I'm supposed to have this job, or I'm supposed to make this amount of money.
[00:48:36] I'm supposed to do these certain things that like are just what west point people to throw all that shit over. 'cause that will send you down a path of trying to impress people that you don't either want to impress or doing something that you don't want to do. And I got sucked into that a while ago.
[00:48:53] Like Anthony Noto is my mentor, right. So we talk every month, CEO of sofa. I remember watching him when he was back at Goldman Sachs [00:49:00] and I was just like, oh man, that guy is like, crushing it. Maybe I should, maybe I should get into finance. And then I'd be like, what are you like, you don't care about finance at all.
[00:49:08] Like, I don't want to do that. It's just like, it's like, What is it you want? And that's like a journey. I think we're all on, but like professionally, like what do you think that you can go be the best at not what somebody else does because they make a lot of money, but like, what is it that you think you can go be best at?
[00:49:25] Like, my advice is to go find that thing and just crush it, like be the best person in that role that you can be, and things are going to happen for you either within that organization. Or you're going to see an opportunity if like I am the best at this, I could probably go do this. And start my own business that way.
[00:49:42] And I think it goes back to having that chip on your shoulder to have whatever it is that you're doing. Try to be the best at it and try to like, just be positive negativity within like the old grad space. Like we're all. Cynical. That's what I'm looking for. Like, we can all be like very, [00:50:00] we can all be cynical on certain things.
[00:50:01] Like we all have it. Like, it's just like part of getting through the school, right? Like it's, it's part of west point culture to be, you know, to, to be cynical. It gets kind of gets ingrained in a little bit, but like that negativity can start a spiral. And so my advice is like, do something you can. And then like your core group of friends will care about that.
[00:50:21] And it's that next layer? That next layer that sometimes you're just like, oh, well this person thinks X, Y, and Z about me or what. Get those folks out of your circle because this life is about you and about what makes you happy. And it's like, you just need to kind of follow. It goes kind of goes back to your passions a little bit, but like figure out your lane and what you can be the best at, and then go be the best at it.
[00:50:43] And it's going to give you opportunity. And it doesn't matter what that role is. Like. I just feel like we're, we put too much pressure on ourselves coming from west point or that someone else just because I'm part of the longer line is going to take a chance on me. It doesn't always happen that way.
[00:50:57] Yeah. And it sounds like, you know, to your point in that [00:51:00] conversation you had with Sam, which I think is hilarious, but you know, you all, you both are two different, very different people, but you found in some ways what makes each of you really good and, and both of you, at least at this point in our careers really crushed it.
[00:51:12] So, I mean, it's, it's great to see. Continue the conversation over beers some time, but that's, I think all we have time for we've gone over, but T Taylor really, really appreciate the time. Um, thank you so much for joining us today and uh, if there's ever anything we can do, uh, let us know. No, I appreciate that.
[00:51:28] Thank you for having me. Thank you for listening to OnPoint. Please take a moment to rate and review the show. Wherever you're listening. It really helps. Also subscribe to our newsletter@oldgradclub.com and follow us on Instagram and LinkedIn at old grad club. We'll see you in the next episode.[00:52:00]