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From Physician to Market Creator: The Unconventional Growth Story Behind a Healthcare Analytics Company
63 minutes. That’s how long the average American spends with healthcare providers annually. The other 525,537 minutes? They’re a black box of critical health determinants that most healthcare organizations can’t see or measure. This data gap sparked Trenor Williams to build Socially Determined, a healthcare analytics company that’s achieved 70% year-over-year contracted ARR growth in 2023, even as major health plans conducted significant layoffs.
In a recent episode of Category Visionaries, Trenor shared how he’s building a new market category in healthcare analytics, navigating brutal 15-month sales cycles, and transitioning from founder-led sales to scale.
The journey began with a contrarian bet: social determinants would move from the nonprofit sphere into core business operations. “It was really seen as not part of the business. It was part of what the foundation did,” Trenor explains. “It was not integrated into the business operations and strategic decision making of systems or plans or life science or employers.”
Creating a new market category meant embracing the grind. “It is a back alley brawl every single time,” Trenor says of their sales process. “And it is not, especially in this space where you’re building a new market, for the faint of heart.” The average sales cycle stretches 12-15 months, further extended by the pandemic’s impact on healthcare decision-making.
The breakthrough came from letting customers tell the story. One of their longest-term health plan clients expanded from 160,000 members and one team to 3.2 million members across 14 different teams. “In healthcare, most people are risk averse, most people don’t want to go first,” Trenor notes. “Hearing and seeing what their peers who look like them, act like them, have businesses like them are doing, has probably been the biggest thing that turned the opportunity for us.”
Scaling beyond founder-led sales proved challenging. “You’re going to make mistakes,” Trenor admits about hiring salespeople. The key was investing in processes and materials to support non-founder sales teams: “Because this is all I think about. It’s all I’ve been doing, like two years before I started the company. We’re seven years into this. There’s nobody that’s going to be able to tell the story in the same way.”
For market education, they maintain an aggressive conference presence – 32 events this year alone. But they’ve gotten strategic about it. “We know that some of them are purely just about eminence and being there,” Trenor explains. “We know that some of them are going to be about building our partner ecosystem… And then there are others that we are really explicit, like what do we do ahead of time meetings to set up driving to very specific, targeted leads.”
Looking back, Trenor wishes they’d moved faster on customer adoption: “I would invest earlier in getting faster customer adoption, to try more things out at lower cost, just to test the market and worry less about any early revenue and more about established use cases and valued propositions as fast as we could.”
The vision ahead is ambitious. “I see us as starting to acquire some of those different point solutions across the ecosystem,” Trenor shares. Their unique position at the intersection of payers, providers, life sciences, and employers creates consolidation opportunities. As he notes, “A provider thinks of them as a patient and a health plan thinks of them as a member and a life science as a clinical trial practitioner, somebody who takes their drug and employer as an employee, it’s the same people.”
For founders building new market categories, Trenor’s journey offers a crucial lesson: the market creation timeline often exceeds initial expectations. Success comes from building strong customer relationships, letting early adopters tell your story, and maintaining unwavering focus on the long-term vision while continuously adapting your go-to-market approach.
Actionable
Takeaways
Focus on Establishing Use Cases and Value Propositions:
In the early stages of building a new market, prioritize testing and validating your product with customers to identify clear use cases and value propositions. Don't worry as much about generating revenue right away.
Invest in Infrastructure and Operations Early:
While it's tempting to delay investments in infrastructure and operations, doing so can hinder your company's growth and efficiency in the long run. Make these investments earlier than you think you need to.
Leverage Customer Stories to Drive Adoption:
As you mature your customer base, use their stories and results to demonstrate the real-world impact of your solution to potential new customers. Hearing from peers is often more compelling than a founder-led pitch.
Be Prepared for Long Sales Cycles in Healthcare:
Selling into health plans and health systems can be a lengthy and challenging process. Focus on building genuine relationships and partnerships, and be prepared for the "back-alley brawl" that comes with creating a new market.
Look for Opportunities to Integrate Across the Ecosystem:
As your company grows, consider acquiring or partnering with point solutions that complement your core offering. By becoming a one-stop-shop for your customers, you can increase your share of wallet and drive more value for all stakeholders.
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