Insynctive | Gary Goldstein

Transcript, Insynctive | Gary Goldstein

Alan
Welcome back. I’m visiting here today with Gary Goldstein. And Gary is the founder of instinctive. Gary, welcome to today’s show,

Gary
Hey thanks Alan! I appreciate you having me here today.

Alan
So Gary, for the listeners, can you give me your background and how you got to where you are today?

Gary
I was born in St. Louis. So I’ve always had to live die there, show me state model and went to around the country with my father who was in the military. He was an obstetrician gynecologist, went to UCLA. And then in the San Francisco, he was at Moffitt in San Francisco General and I went to junior high school and walking Moraga. campolindo High School and then cow. And I traveled the United States because I helped father chapter of Phi Kappa Psi at Berkeley. And so now I’m the hardcore chairman, president of the Cal gamma chapter of Phi Kappa Psi.

Alan
So coming out of school did you do it was your ambition to immediately say, I’m just going to start a business and move into it? Or did you have a transition into this?

Gary
Well, when I came out of school, when we were in school, they didn’t have the entrepreneur programs that they do today. And so I really didn’t know I was an entrepreneur until you find out that you really are. And I come from a long line of entrepreneurs. My grandfather was an entrepreneur, my mom was an entrepreneur and my brother’s an entrepreneur. So we found out along the way, after we work together as a family, and then I started my own business in the insurance business and worked my way up. And in 1997, I started a company called biz that that allowed for benefits communication, enrollment, administration and transactions to over 100 insurance companies. We have clients like eBay and E trade and Sony Playstation and dryers, ice cream and Blue Shield of California, and not only for their own employees, but they’re but they would pay for any Blue Shield enrollee on our system. So we sold that company in 2005. And then again, unfortunately, in 2008, and it’s still alive today. So it’s kind of incredible. So having the opportunity to get back into the same business, again, where you’ve been very successful, through instinctive is is a tremendous opportunity.

Alan
And this go round it is when you found them synched up, how old is the company first?

Gary
It’s about three years old. And I came in, met the original founder, three and a half years ago. And we, myself and the Vice President of Product took over the company June 1.

Alan
And this is an insurance based company.

Gary
Well, no, we support the benefit brokers and the HR outsourcers, the payroll service bureaus, third party administrators, and accounting and tax groups. And we are the platform that allows them to transform their clients from paper based environments to electronic environments. And a lot of the employers today, up to 1500. Employees, like to buy best of breed solutions for HR and Benefits Administration, payroll, time, and attendance, background checks, performance reviews, talent management, online learning, etc. And what incentive does is allows for us to offer our core product, which is onboarding lifecycle management, HR, and benefits administration for small groups and large groups, and then partner and integrate to these third party products and services. So our it’s a an App Store for Business products, back office business products.

Alan
You know, Gary, as you as you ventured attitude and synced up and you said you you came across a person that had started this and really what you were there for is to help them scale and get it organized and move it to the next level. went dry drives you you know, in other words, when you see something how do you know when you step into the quadrant segments spent time in this? How do you capture that vision of this is what I need to do to drive this company to the next level?

Gary
Well, I you know, have I’ve had a lot of success and mom’s successes in working with businesses of all types, high tech, low tech, no tech, businesses. And so through that process, and it was a real learning process, you really kind of understand what it takes. And and when I was introduced to instinctive, three and a half years ago, I knew immediately that it had the components of being what we are today. But it was going to take a lot of work to get where we were. And I proved to the business owner that we had to change the business model and how to change how we’re going to do business and how we’re going to leverage into this marketplace instead of winning one new business at a time.

Alan
And so this this go around instinctive is really scaling on technology. versus people?

Gary
Correct? Exactly. And it allows the, it’s a platform that allows our our service providers, the distributors have incentive to actually onboard their clients and manage their clients electronically going forward. Okay, how’s business doing now? It’s great. I mean, you know, as I mentioned, we’ve just gotten going. And we have eight distributors that represent 650 client companies, and 26,000 employees, and 35 of those 650 companies are on the system. And we’re growing every month. So we’re coming out with some new features and functionality that are gonna allow us to really scale. We’re in four different states right now. And we’re bringing coming live in Virginia and Missouri. And then next, Colorado.

Alan
And visiting here today with Gary Goldstein. He’s the CEO of and synced up, Gary, I need to take a quick break. And we’ll be right back after these messages.

Alan
Welcome back and building here today with Gary Goldstein. He’s the CEO of instinctive and Gary in the last segment, we were talking about how you stepped in and saw this vision for instinctive and helping it to scale into the next level. When you’re looking, though, at the competition, because right now, as things are moving to the cloud and technology, how do you differentiate yourself,

Gary
We differentiate ourselves because we have a tremendously flexible onboarding solution for employers that encompass the unique forms that every employer uses. So for instance, one of our clients has 21 onboarding forms, you have your I nines and you have your W fours. But after that, you have a lot of unique forms that are there for every employer group that are that are needed. And then the paperwork world, it’s very difficult and electronically, it’s very easy to manage. And we have the ability to manage forms in a number of different ways. We also have an extremely flexible Benefits Administration solution that handles the benefits administration for small groups, up to 100 employees, and then over 100 employees. So for the small groups, whether it be here in California or across the United States, the insurance companies still need their applications. And so we have the ability to populate those applications at the end of the open enrollment process, bundle them together and send them HIPAA compliant and secure to the insurance companies than the pre addressed envelope. And so we have the ability to handle lots of different ways of communicating with the third party administrators, insurance companies and other entities that need forms and documents and information.

Alan
You know, Gary, in this day and age of information flow, and he talked about HIPAA requirements and just the compliance is overwhelming. are you how are you using technology? In in what you do to really are you? Are you involved with machine learning with instinctive and you know, helping people come to easier decisions and directions they need to go?

Gary
Absolutely. So, in part, We will partner with a decision making tool to help employees understand what is a PPO versus an HMO, help them understand what is a better insurance company, which versus one that’s not paying as many claims. But at our core, we’re the database of record. And so as employees, as we get information about employees into the system, from an applicant tracking system, through a spreadsheet or through an administrator, the employees are asked at every chance that we get to validate information about themselves and their dependents. And that way that information is then passed to our forms and other systems accurately, timely, securely incorrect. So that’s our that’s our main function in the in the in the ecosystem.

Alan
So when an individual comes to you says, Gary, I like to sign up for the services, where do they find instinctive?

Gary
People are finding Yes, all through the web. Right now we have a very small sales force. And so there’s potentially 650,000 different types of distributors that would use our system for their clients. And so they’re coming to us through the web. We have the ability for them to go to our website and fill in a form, and then we get right back to them.

Alan
So Gary, when we’re looking at a sector of who are you really targeting what is the ideal client for you?

Gary
Well, we work with our service providers, the benefit brokers, HR outsourcers accounting and tax groups, payroll service bureaus that have clients from two employees up to 1500 employees.

Alan
Okay, and so typically, they’ll bet you that to enroll to come find you on the website.

Gary
Well, the the service providers come find us on the website, and then we work with them, we help them set up their first 15 accounts. After that they can set up their own accounts themselves, or continue to have us set it up for a nominal fee. And then we support them throughout the process, part of what we want to do is continue to listen to what their needs are continuing to listen to what their client’s needs are. And as they want to change service providers. We have the ability to go out and partner with those service providers, whether they be in a payroll group, background check, tax, accounting and tax group, whatever it might be, and pre integrate with these services. And then we can configure the system to the unique needs of that employer.

Alan
At visiting today, here with Gary Goldstein, he’s the CEO of instinctive Gary, I need to take another break. And we’ll be right back after these messages.

Alan
Welcome back and visiting here today with Gary Goldstein. He’s a CEO of instinctive and Gary running a company, it’s never easy, and that you know that this show at American Dreams talks about pathways in life and, and, you know, I had a guest come on once and say, you know, life there is no path. But it’s really the path is created by the series of choices that we make and the consequences that follow. And so I want to step back into the mind of the entrepreneurs specifically, when you stepped in and became part of instinctive you know, there was a, there was a transition that involved, you know, from, from the founder, and you taking the reins as a CEO. But in the process of scaling a company, what are some of the biggest challenges that the entrepreneur faces?

Gary
Well, I look at it is, it’s not a straight line to success. And that success, or non success is determined by the quality, and number of people you have surrounding yourself. And, and having been in this business, that was one of the components, that was really key and critical for me, in order to take on this opportunity with the entrepreneur. And having the mindset of putting together a series of milestones that achieve your goal is what’s critical, so that you have measurable results if you need to achieve and every time you hit those results, you know, you’re on track to get to where you need to go. And what one of the things I’ve learned in the past is that you’ve got to get the company to break even in order to have a real company.

Alan
You know, I like that that measurable goals are building accountability in plug into that, when you find that you’re not meeting goals. Typically, how do you how do you step back and reevaluate?

Gary
Well, part of being a leader, you have to surround yourself with people who have their own opinions, many, many other times, they’re gonna have a diverse opinion than you do. And so, if you’re not, if you’re not on track, to meet your goal, you have to reevaluate, you have to take into consideration what the client’s needs are, what the distributors needs are, what your employees are suggesting, what your what your network of advisers are suggesting, and then you come together and and you put together a new path. And and ultimately, you it’s always a bunch of checks and balances along the way.

Alan
So in the in what, what keeps you motivated to drive the company?

Gary
Well, you know, it’s exciting to build something it’s exciting to see that it’s actually working and it’s exciting to see that it’s actually helping people do things better, faster and more efficiently more effectively? And, you know, it’s great to see us being compared against some of the other groups out there that have raised, you know, hundreds of millions of dollars.

Alan
Have you have you taken on outside financing? Or do you intend to?

Gary
Well, we will take on outside financing right now we’re, we raised about $2.75 million, from angel investors from myself, and from the original founder, and we’re looking for an additional million dollars of convertible notes to a series a of $8,000,000.06. Seven, it’d be no money.

Alan
Okay. So when you’re, when you’re thinking about, you know, how you come so far, are there any lessons that you’ve learned or experiences that you can look back on, say, you know, that was a great, a great experience in my life?

Gary
Yeah, even the ones that aren’t such great experiences, add up to the sum of total. And at the end of the day, we are, as you mentioned, we are a summary of some of all of our experiences at both good and bad, and you have to take both into consideration to help motivate you as an entrepreneur. Because there’s a lot of days and there’s a lot of nights, where you’re making decisions. You’re taking everything into consideration. But at the end of the day, it’s your decision and you know, you win or lose on those decisions. And you are you have, by having more experience, you have the ability to make better decisions along the way.

Alan
What do you consider yourself with instinctive to be a disruptor in the industry.

Gary
We’re absolutely a disrupter. We’re a disrupter to the paper. We’re a disrupter to the spiralling downside, that benefit brokers are going through right now. Their Commission’s have been cut by 10% to 6% or less, the value of what how they play in the marketplace going forward is, is really critical and important. The HR outsourcers need a different than brand new platform to do business with. And all the service providers are being asked by their clients to do more for them, because they want to by best of breed solutions, but they want them on an integrated basis today. And that’s exactly what instinctive does,

Alan
you know, people are looking at the health care, the Affordable Care Act, and they’re saying, you know, how do we best take advantage of making sure that our service doesn’t go down? Well, the premiums are, are skyrocketing, right? And do you help guide people through the process of the best solutions for keeping healthcare costs down?

Gary
Now, the benefit brokers and the HR outsourcers do that. But well, we are as a platform that helps them implement those decisions. And then at renewal, we help them get out in the marketplace, see what’s available, and then implement those new those new plans from new carriers and new REITs that are being put forth. And we handle all the documentation and updating of rates and plans on the back end.

Alan
You know, as you look across the United States and go from state to state, things aren’t always the same in terms of what’s required for compliance. Right? How do you handle that?

Gary
Well, that’s part of what we do on the backside is that we work with the different vendors, with the different insurance companies etc. And we internalize all their forms, their rates, and the uniquenesses. And so that when an employee who is going through open enrollment, or as a new hire going through enrollment, for the first time, we show them all the different products that are specifically available to them based on their role based on their class, and allow them to enroll in those plans. And then we pass help our system passes that data, a number of different ways, through to the carriers and third party administrators at center,

Alan
You know, that are the lessons of leadership that have had great impact on your life.

Gary
Well, you know, it’s more people who have had a great impact on my life. And you know, obviously, it starts with my mom’s parents, who are entrepreneurs themselves and ran a company up into, you know, 30 $40 million in, in value, which was great. Back then, my mom was an entrepreneur, my brother and sister had been a big influence on my life. And, of course, I can’t forget my, my wife of 34 years and, and my son who 22 years, where I created the phrase, it’s not a straight line to success is it? And then I’ve got a lot of other people who have been really important to me in my life, both from mentors, like a friend of mine, Norman Smith, for the last 18 years, has been a really influential person in my life. I’ve gotten You know, a guy named Neil Bronstein who is an important investor and does that and then also some other key people who are fraternity brothers of mine. And you know, in being the house court president of the Berkeley chapter is, is a great way for me to give back and in by next week will be 100 members strong. So it’s pretty, it’s pretty incredible. The path that I’ve taken them where we are today, but the future looks bright.

Alan
Excellent. Let’s again for the listeners. How do they find the Sanctum?

Gary
www.instinctive.com.

Alan
Okay, Gary, thanks for being on today’s show.

Gary
Thank you all appreciate it. Thanks.

 

 

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About Gary Goldstein

Gary Goldstein is a serial entrepreneur living in the san francisco Bay Area. Currently he is the Ceo and co-founder of Insynctive, white-label cloud-based HR and Benefits Administration Platform. Prior to his founding of Insynctive, Gary founded and served as the CEO of BisNet, Inc.,one of the original online benefits communication, enrollment, administration and transaction companies.