Lessons in Leadership with Mike Collette, Founder and CEO of PatientPoint

In the latest installment of our ChasmConversations series, we had the privilege of speaking with Mike Collette, accomplished healthcare CEO, social entrepreneur, and proud husband and father. 

About Mike Collette

Mike Collette is the Founder and CEO of PatientPoint, a leading digital health company backed by L Catterton that connects patients, healthcare providers, and life sciences companies with the right information in the moments care decisions are made. PatientPoint’s products are used by more than 35,000 practices throughout the U.S. and impact over 750 million patient visits each year.

His proud achievements as a social entrepreneur include spearheading the PatientPoint Foundation, a 501c3 focused on mitigating health disparities in underserved and underfunded communities. Mike has been married for 36 years to his patient and supportive wife Carolyn and has three adult children.

What led you to a career in healthcare?

I started my career as an Assistant Brand Manager at Procter & Gamble in their Health & Personal Care Division. Listening to people talk about painful, life-altering symptoms in Focus Groups made an impression on me. In 2001, roughly 14 years after I co-founded On Target Media, the predecessor company to PatientPoint, we made the strategic choice to focus on the healthcare market. We were early pioneers in the place-based media industry. While our competitors chose to serve multiple market segments, we chose to be a niche player and focus exclusively on the healthcare market.

From the founder of a start-up to the leader of a PE-backed organization, what is one major lesson you learned?

As you grow, mistakes become far more costly. An early start-up company can afford to make decisions based on gut and intuition. It’s easier to take risks because the cost of failing is much less. When you accept outside capital and take on debt, however, you need to be more analytically rigorous. There was an acquisition we made back in 2013 that turned out to be a money pit and nearly caused the entire company to go under. That costly lesson dramatically improved our approach to due diligence in subsequent M&A deals. We now seek to partner first whenever we are entering a new, adjacent market where we do not have direct experience.

As CEO, what are some of your biggest challenges when scaling PatientPoint? 

The single biggest challenge I had was learning that I had to grow the company through others. There was no way for my co-founders and me to do everything ourselves like when we were bootstrapping the company. This is when I began to appreciate the importance of talent. Quality of talent makes or breaks a small company; even one great hire can have a huge impact on the business. Unfortunately, so can one bad hire. 

What words of advice do you have for other CEOs who are facing similar scaling challenges? 

You can’t start looking for talent when you have an open position. You need to constantly network and identify people you want on your team. Top performers are rarely unemployed, especially top salespeople. They are inevitably working for another company that will likely do anything they can to keep them. It’s extremely difficult to hire away top performers, which is why building a personal relationship and getting a prospective hire excited about your company is so important. 

I firmly believe most prospective hires base their decision on whether to join a company based on a company’s mission, culture, and who their teammates will be. Sure, compensation matters, but I see it as a secondary factor for most top performers. For me, if someone wants to join our company primarily for higher compensation, I don’t want them on our team. Monetary-driven people are like gig workers or unrestricted free agents — they’ll leave as soon as another company is willing to pay them more. 

What were the key decisions you made that made PatientPoint successful? 

I have actually thought about this a lot. Looking back, there were ultimately a small handful of strategic decisions that drove our success. First, we were the first media company to sell on an ROI basis versus a CPM basis, meaning we invested in research that could prove our programs were delivering actual business results for our clients, not just eyeballs. While measuring media on ROI is relatively commonplace today, it was a revolutionary idea back in the late 80s/early 90s.

Second was the decision to narrowly focus our business on the point-of-care channel. Even though that meant jettisoning some of our current revenue and customers, it ultimately proved to be the right strategic choice.

Third was the decision to secure outside investment to build out a digital point-of-care network. We began that process in 2002 when the Internet was still relatively nascent as was the digital out-of-home industry. Given how long it takes to recruit providers and build a network, beginning that digital transformation early provided us with a significant competitive advantage and eventually put us in a position to accelerate our growth through acquisition.

Finally, on a personal but sincere note, my decision to marry someone who was so understanding and supportive through the ups and downs of building the company was arguably the most critical decision of all. It’s not easy being married to an entrepreneur because the business you’re building needs you as much as your family. That can make for some difficult choices at times. Fortunately, my wife Carolyn understood and extended me grace when she knew the business demands were high. Some younger entrepreneurs may “hand wave” the importance of this decision, but just wait 5-10 years, especially after you have kids. You’ll say: “Damn, he was actually right”!

What are your plans after PatientPoint? 

I know I will continue to be engaged with the company, even if I am no longer the CEO. PatientPoint was like my fourth child. I raised it over 35 years, watched it grow, and instilled it with values I believe in. As such, it’s not like I can just say goodbye and walk away forever. Not to sound sappy, but it will always be a part of me, and I hope the reverse also holds true. Fortunately, we have selected a President and potential successor who is a superb culture fit. Our Board allowed me and our entire Leadership Team to play a very active role in the selection process. They deserve an A+ on hiring a potential successor in an empathetic way that engendered the trust and support of the entire senior leadership team.

Beyond that, I plan to invest much of my time growing the PatientPoint Foundation, a 501c-3 to help mitigate health disparities in underserved and underfunded communities. We have developed a unique, scalable approach that combines the latest digital health technologies with Health Ambassadors from the local communities we serve to get people connected to a primary care physician and then coach them on how to navigate the healthcare system post-visit. Click here to learn more

What is your industry outlook for healthcare technology, specifically the patient engagement sector? 

There are three emerging trends I see. First, there will be a continued evolution to 1:1 personalized HCP-patient communication with AI playing an increasingly important role in determining what message or content gets served as well as when it gets served. 

Second, there are too many different patient engagement solution providers across the continuum of care. That will consolidate into a single platform eventually. 

Finally, patient engagement solutions are typically nice-to-have solutions that providers want but can’t afford. As such, I see an increasing receptivity to providers being open to a sponsorship model so those solutions can be offered at no cost or low cost.

ChasmConversations is an interview series presented by Chasm Partners featuring discussions with prominent entrepreneurs, investors, and leaders in today's healthcare industry. Access previous installments of the series here, and subscribe to receive future editions of ChasmConversations and related content directly in your inbox.