Health catalyst made headlines this February as Utah’s newest tech unicorn.
The healthcare data and analytics provider raised $100 million in debt and equity financing, tipping its valuation to more than $1 billion.
“When you hear about milestones such as this, people oftentimes think of the company as an overnight success story. But we’re more of a 10-year overnight success story,” says Dan Burton, CEO of Health Catalyst. “When we got the Unicorn news, it was exciting! We celebrated for about 10 minutes — and then we got back to work,” he laughs.
Well, if you won’t toot your own Unicorn horn, BusinessQ will do it for you.
The Ignition
Health Catalyst was founded nearly 11 years ago by two technical leaders from Intermountain Healthcare — Tom Burton and Steve Barlow. They built a flagship product of a data warehouse that healthcare institutions can use to analyze and improve their operations.
“We still use that flagship platform today,” says Dan Burton, who originally came aboard the company in a venture capitalist capacity (he is also Tom’s brother). “We are a mission-driven company, and that mission is to help healthcare institutions meaningfully improve their clinical, financial and operational outcomes. Healthcare touches every one of us, and it’s gratifying to work for a company that is truly changing lives. It’s a great reason to get up in the morning.”
Best Unicorn To Work For
Health Catalyst has nearly 800 employees, and it has been named a “best company to work for” a remarkable 42 times — which is no accident.
“As CEO, my first priority is not to investors or to our clients. It’s to our team members,” says Dan Burton, who personally replies to every single review on Glassdoor. “It may seem a little counterintuitive, but I spend a meaningful part of my day trying to improve the team member experience. If our employees are highly engaged, they will treat our clients in an extraordinary way. And if our clients are treated extraordinarily, the numbers will be there, and our investors will get what they need. I can’t be with our clients every day, but our team members are. And they are, without a doubt, the most critical part of our company.”
What’s more, Health Catalyst prides itself on being a transparent organization.
“It’s easy to be transparent when things are going great,” Dan Burton says. “But it’s important to be transparent in good times and bad. That transparency needs to be built into the fabric of the company through regular systems and procedures. Employees need to feel invested in the mission — whether you’re a startup of three or a company of 800.”
This Is The Place
Dan Burton is an Alpine resident and a board member at Silicon Slopes.
“I’m such a fan of Silicon Slopes,” he says. “They are a positive and proactive organization that is changing the landscape of Utah’s business world. I’m honored to be a small part of it.”
That Utah culture was also a key factor in Health Catalyst’s headquarters.
“When Sequoia — the gold standard of the investment world — invested in Health Catalyst, one of the requirements of that deal was that we needed to be headquartered in Utah (in the early days, a significant portion of their talent pool was in Boise). And there is no denying that our state’s vibrant culture has played a huge role in our company’s success.”
Powerful Prognosis
Today, Health Catalyst’s work supports more than 100 million patients and is expanding internationally. And that significant footprint is just the beginning.
“How many people are on the earth today? Seven billion,” Dan Burton says. “We’ve got a long way to go, and we’re up for the challenge.”