I’ve always been a healthcare geek. I thought I’d be a doctor, but along the way I didn’t have the passion to commit to practicing medicine. I found that the way healthcare is delivered intrigued me. To break into the business, I took an unpaid internship at UnitedHealth back when it was a much smaller player. What I learned is that although we call healthcare a business, we don’t really treat it like one. We should be listening more closely to the customer and offering the products and services she wants.

When we meet with entrepreneurs, I want to know what drives their passion about the business they are presenting. Call it a mission, vision, sense of purpose… I want to hear from someone who has the drive to make the business work, who won’t get sidetracked by the details of execution. It takes a leader and a team with tremendous focus to build a successful business.