The End of an Era

Bittersweet seems insufficient to describe the fact that we turned the lights out at BeckonCall this week. Dr. Jeffrey Becker and I co-founded the company in 2015, and by any measure, 10 years is an incredible run by startup standards.  Unfortunately, we never achieved escape velocity. And so here we are.

So many thoughts and emotions are rattling around my brain right now, but I want to do a couple of things with this post.

First, how & why did we last 10 years only to reach this point? I’ll take both sides of that question:

1.   We made it this far because we are deeply committed to the mission to improve care team communications. The Joint Commission released a report indicating that if miscommunication were classified as a cause of death, it would be the 5th leading cause in hospitals. Our commitment to that mission kept us moving forward through a ton of tough times.
   2.   We made it this far because we walked the talk. More than a few customers have been with us since day 1 and we’ve had ridiculously low organic churn. We have been a 24x7x365 must-have, and at our peak, we were managing communication for 10s of thousands of patients each month.
   3.   We made it this far because we worked incredibly well as a team. I’ve experienced the other end of this spectrum and know what it feels like to have a company torn apart by team dysfunction. We were the opposite.
   4.   We’re not making it any further because we didn’t/couldn’t adapt to changes in our market. BeckonCall is an SMB product for independent medical practices. Our market has contracted over the last 10 years, however, as nearly 80% of providers are now employed by Hospital Systems, ACOs & PE firms. Pivoting from SMB to enterprise is difficult for even the most profitable & well-funded businesses (QuickBooks, anyone?), and we were neither of those.

To paraphrase the late, great Walter Cronkite: and that’s the way it was.

Second, I want to give my sincerest gratitude to the people who volunteered to go on this ride with us. 

To the amazing founding team - Tim Lytle, Jason Offutt, Kacie Donovan, and Cory Smith. You took us out of the starting blocks and built what became BeckonCall. It seems trite to say we couldn’t have done it without you, but we couldn’t have. You’re all amazing. Thank you.

For the wisdom and guidance generously shared by exceptional advisors, including Thomas Blondi, Tom Curzon, Scott Weiss, Rick Lopez, and Andy Lombard. You’re also all amazing. Thank you.

To the investors who trusted us with your precious capital (and patience!), I wish the outcome were different. We are immensely grateful. Thank you.

And finally, to my co-founder and brother from another mother - brother, you’ve been an incredible colleague and friend. I feel gratitude beyond words, and God willing, we’ll still be kibbitzing to each other in our 80s, complaining that our grandkids don’t call enough.

And that’s a wrap. Onward.  But before I go, I'll leave you with this.  Because it will never not be funny.