Sift Healthcare | Milwaukee
Founded: 2017 | Employees: 26
sifthealthcare.com
Funding raised: $12.9 million
Product or service: Advanced analytics and data science for health care payments
Milwaukee-based Sift Healthcare provides health care customers with advanced analytics and data science to improve the payment process. Since starting the company in 2017, founder and chief executive officer Justin Nicols has grown the business to 26 employees and raised nearly $13 million in funding.
What was the point where you knew you would launch the company and what was the biggest hesitancy or concern you needed to overcome to do it?
Justin Nicols: “I founded Sift to fill a gap in the health care payments space. While developing a mobile payment app for health care, I observed the staggering amount of employee time devoted to the processing and collection of medical bills and noted dollars wasted because of disparate data systems and human capital-intensive workflows. With my background in data-driven e-commerce, I understood how predictive analytics would revolutionize the process.
“My biggest hesitancy in founding Sift Healthcare was being able to build a world-class data science team. We’ve been lucky to find incredible talent here in Milwaukee. Our team is innovative, brilliant and truly world class.”
What would you consider your breakthrough so far?
“Our health system clients can’t get enough of the analytics we provide. We knew our data science and machine learning were impactful, but hearing from our clients how much they rely on our intelligence is a huge affirmation, as well as seeing the results in terms of hard-dollar savings to them.”
What’s the number one thing needed to sustain a culture of innovation and/or growth?
“Communication. Our team is in constant communication, and everyone has a voice. We take the time to get buy-in, to hear opinions and meet regularly. The more we communicate, the more we’re on the same page.”
