In a League of Their Own - Mike Serbinis, CEO and Co-Founder, League [S6.E2]
Mike Serbinis is the CEO and co-founder of League – a healthcare platform on a mission to empower people to live the lives that they want to lead; happier, healthier and longer. League started on the premise that the future of healthcare and its delivery was going to be less bureaucratic, less institutional, and consumer first. This simple insight came about both from personal interactions with the health ecosystem in the United States, but also more importantly from Mike’s previous experiences of solving problems through a consumer lens – first at Zip 2, working alongside the Musk brothers, and later as the founder and CEO of Kobo, the largest Amazon Kindle competitor. Being at the forefront of the consumerization of healthcare and driving outcomes by making the convoluted simple, League is currently the infrastructure platform that allows large US insurers, providers and employers a consumer-centric one stop shop, digital front door in a world currently employing multiple single point solutions. This conversation traverses a variety of topics including an interesting discussion on the emergence of cloud marketplaces and their impact on enterprise technology deals, as well as the deliberate and thoughtful nature that League has scaled multiple aspects to it culture, particularly on its journey in become a best in class diverse workplace. You can’t buy experience, and Mike has had that in spades – the lessons for business builders of all sizes are weaved right throughout this episode. Show Notes; League founding story (3:40) US health ecosystem snapshot (7:44) How League fits into the ecosystem and the problem being solved today by League (11:26) League customer proposition (14:30) Customer engagement in the consumerisation of the health space (16:33) Lessons about shaping the strategy of League throughout its scaling evolution (consistent mission, relentless adaptability) (18:39) Effectively allocating resources to grow a business aligned with its core (23:10) Emergence of cloud marketplaces and Leagues interactions with them (Go-to-market models) (26:24) Enterprise growth phase at League (29:15) Reinforcing culture and values in scaling a business (31:46) Journey of hiring generalists to specialists (35:53) Advice for building a diverse workforce (39:49) Leagues ‘Work Your Way’ policy (43:20)