Shawn Nason has worked for both Disney and a large health insurer, owned a boutique customer experience consultancy – and over the past year added the title of cancer survivor.
All of those experiences led him to a new role that's the perfect fit: Offor Health Inc. named Nason its CEO to take the mobile health startup through the next phase of growth.
"I really believe in serving the underserved in the under-resourced communities," Nason said.
"There’s still a huge gap in collaboration in the healthcare space – my hope is I can help bridge that," he said. "This is a serendipitous moment to step in and hopefully make a difference."
Saket Agrawal, co-founder of Columbus-based Offor, announced on LinkedIn last month that he was stepping down as CEO after seven years.
"I am extremely proud of the foundation and momentum laid down for the current and future employees of SmileMD/Offor Health to take to the next level," Agrawal said in the post. "We have made a significant impact – but it's only the tip of the iceberg of its true potential."
Agrawal did not immediately respond to an interview request.
The startup's first brand was SmileMD, a mobile OR for pediatric dentistry, and it has expanded into broader healthcare services such as "hospital at home."
Starting in Ohio, the company has expanded to five states with its tech-enabled services that improve access to dental and specialty medical care. The company's website now says it's looking to hire part-time anesthesiologists nationwide.
Offor has raised a cumulative $16 million in venture capital, including a $9 million round a year ago.
SmileMD brings anesthesiologists, support staff and needed equipment to enable oral surgery in a dentist's office, eliminating months-long wait lists for hospital or outpatient operating rooms. Offor's expanded services deploy a similar model for women's health, sleep disorders and other care.
Its mobile integrated health unit brings home care to patients on Medicaid, with an emphasis on avoiding hospital readmissions. It's piloting the service with Dayton-based CareSource, the state's largest Medicaid managed care plan.
Offor's broader vision is to remove more barriers to healthcare, Nason said in an interview.
"We thought the Affordable Care Act was going to alleviate the underserved and under-resourced need in America, and we see that it’s not," said Nason, who as an entrepreneur was covered by an ACA Marketplace plan. "We still have a huge gap in access to care."
For the past seven years, Nason was founder and CEO of Mofi, a Cincinnati consultancy with clients including Walmart Health on how to improve and simplify customer experience. The strong leadership team now is running that company, he said.
A few years ago, he met Navin Goyal, another Offor co-founder and CEO of Loud Capital, one of Offor's lead investors. The two became fast friends.
At the beginning of the year, Goyal had informal conversations with Nason on envisioning "Offor 2.0," Nason said, and with Agrawal's impending departure that led to the job offer. Nason started in February.
The transition also meant reshaping the workforce: The company eliminated about 20 jobs. But that was not part of the tech industry's global belt-tightening, Nason said. Revenue is growing.
"We really needed to reimagine skill sets and align the organization around those skill sets," he said.
Today the company has 95 employees plus about 50 contractors.
Nason lives in Cincinnati and commutes several days a week to the office on Shrock Road on the north side.
Before healthcare, Nason worked more than six years as a "magical experience creator" for Walt Disney Imagineering – which has informed his approach as an "experience evangelist" ever since, he said. That encompasses both customers and employees.
"My hope is a year from now, here in Columbus this is the place people want to come work," he said. "If you get the human experience right, you get the numbers you need."
Before founding Mofi, Nason had roles as innovation and customer experience director at Humana, chief innovation officer at Xavier University, and chief experience and transformation officer at Healthways.
Last April, Nason was diagnosed with colon cancer – and got the all-clear this January. It took his industry know-how and connections to navigate the healthcare system, he said, all the more driving his resolve to remove barriers for other patients.
