An interview with Embold Health Founder & CEO Daniel Stein
Recently, we sat down for a chat with Daniel Stein, Founder & CEO of Embold Health. The company uses a TiVIZOR Fractional CTO to get the most out of its technology and IT team.
Q: Early in 2021 you chose to engage an executive, fractional technology advisor to support Embold Health. What were the key factors that led you to the decision to go down the fractional advisory path?
A: In early 2021 we were experiencing substantial business growth opportunities with strong, but not fully experienced technology leadership. We felt that the right fractional IT leader could help us meet near-term project, planning (and associated communication) imperatives while simultaneously supporting the mentorship of a highly capable young management team for future leadership responsibility.
Q: It sounds like filling an IT leadership experience gap was a major driver for going the Fractional leadership route. Can you tell us more about that?
A: Yes. We wanted a strong IT leader with experience in large-scale technology planning, and IT resource attraction and retention, and with strong skills in communicating technical concepts to less technical executive and board-level stakeholders. And we wanted them to be able to do these in ways that provided mentorship for our internal IT leadership team.
Q: How did the fractional IT leader work out based on your objectives for the engagement?
A: We could not have asked for it to work out better. The fractional IT leader stepped in and immediately get our subject matter experts focused on achievable but aggressive project approaches for a critical transformation of our analytics infrastructure. He also worked closely with our software development leadership to identify a strategy for improving the scalability of our back-end data platform. In addition, he provided a realistic assessment of the project, technology, and IT human asset roadmaps to our executive and board-level stakeholders, and provided mentorship to the three members of our young but amazingly talented IT leadership team. The project and mentorship outcomes have been far more positive than we could have anticipated.
Q: And since you have come through the past year much stronger with regards to your IT organizations, maturity, and process rigor, you have chosen to retain the fractional IT executive as a resource for the organization. Why the continued commitment?
A: It is an investment in our IT leadership team. Their rapid growth is undeniable, but they will routinely encounter things they have not seen or had to manage through before. The Fractional IT leader we included as part of our extended team has that kind of broad and deep experience and is an invaluable resource to one of our key investments, our IT leadership team.
Interested in becoming or hiring a TiVIZOR?
Our network of TiVIZORS is growing fast, and the demand for TiVIZORS with specific skill sets is constantly increasing based on the engagements we have received. If you would like to become a TiVIZOR, or if your firm is in need of hiring a TiVIZOR, please contact Rob Morrow at rmorrow@captiveeight.com to join the platform and get started.