An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
Stay ready so you don’t have to get ready. Opportunity is everywhere. The people who win are those who are ready to seize opportunities, create openings, and can move fast when they see something in the making.
As a part of our series about business leaders who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Shannon Goggin.
Shannon Goggin is the CEO and co-founder of Noyo. Before starting Noyo, she built product at Zenefits, where she was inspired by the powerful role technology can play in improving people’s experience with their health insurance. Shannon holds a BSBA from Georgetown University and currently lives in San Francisco, where she enjoys cooking elaborate vegetarian meals.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
I am the CEO and co-founder of Noyo, an API-led benefits data platform that powers the benefits and insurance industries. We are working to make it dramatically easier to build amazing benefits experiences for people across the country.
My co-founder, Dennis Lee, and I started the company after working together at Zenefits, where we were building benefits software for small businesses. Users loved our product, but behind the scenes, it was extremely costly and difficult for us to get the right data in the right place at the right time. We started Noyo to solve the underlying data and infrastructure challenges that ultimately lead to the negative consumer experiences we’re all familiar with — expensive insurance, unexpected bills, and confusing benefits.
With Noyo, benefits data is continuously synchronized, scrubbed, unified and instantly available anywhere it’s needed. The technology unlocks new possibilities for how benefits are designed and delivered and enhancing the benefits journey for all: employees, employers, carriers, brokers, and modern benefits administration companies.
Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?
We see ourselves as “collaborative disruptors.” Often, when you think about disruption it’s about tearing down the old and creating the new from scratch. That way can be effective, but that’s not the approach I am leading at Noyo with our team. When trying to change an influential, monolithic industry like healthcare insurance, for example, which has 50-year-old systems in place and is connected to the bigger U.S. healthcare ecosystem, a collaborative approach was crucial.
There is so much change needed across healthcare and benefits. This change can be daunting, and it is critical to have a deep understanding of how it all works today — not just the technical systems and the digital workflow, but the economic incentives, all the different players, and how they effectively work together (or don’t).
Noyo is a benefits data platform. We offer tooling, like APIs, to help benefits administration software build better benefits experiences for their members, HR, and broker users. The API-powered technology platform we have created serves as the bridge between legacy infrastructure and modern software. So, we view ourselves as disruptors because we are paving a new way forward while working collaboratively with all the many important players.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
When the company was just a few months old, we secured a meeting with a large potential customer. They were in San Francisco visiting several of their existing partners, and we saw it as a great opportunity to connect. We were able to get on their schedule for dinner to share our vision for connected benefits and talk about how we might work together.
It was in the early days for the company. It was just the founding team, and I think we’d each put a few thousand dollars into the company bank account to get things off the ground. We were supposed to be hosting this big, national insurance company, but when the bill came, I fumbled when I saw the check. I think they saw my face, and they were very gracious and covered the meal. We had a good laugh. It definitely protrayed just how much of a startup we were at that point, but it all worked out — we started working with them formally a short time later.
We all need a little help along the journey. Who have been some of your mentors? Can you share a story about how they made an impact?
When I was interviewing to join Zenefits, I felt an immediate connection to my soon-to-be manager, Jason, and I knew right away that I wanted to work with him and learn from him. Near the end of my interview process, Jason asked me where I saw myself in five years. I mentioned that I might like to start a business someday. At the time, I didn’t have a clear idea what the business might do, but I felt the draw. As we worked together, he would regularly nudge me on this topic — “You are going to start a business. What are you learning right now that’s going to help you do that?”
Jason was more than a mentor to me; he was a sponsor, placing me in positions to try new things and develop and round out my skill set. When he would challenge me with a new project, he always connected it back to my goals saying something like: “You’re going to work on this project with the sales team. You haven’t been exposed to that part of the business yet, and when you start your company, you will need it.”
He helped me build on my natural strengths, while challenging me in areas I was less comfortable. He held me accountable, and helped me move from a dream mindset to a goal mindset.
Three years later, when I decided to go all in on Noyo, Jason was one of the first people I called. Again, he was right there with encouragement and support, making introductions and helping us recruit crucial early hires. His vote of confidence meant more to me than he probably realized.
In today’s parlance, being disruptive is usually a positive adjective. But is disrupting always good? When do we say the converse, that a system or structure has ‘withstood the test of time’? Can you articulate to our readers when disrupting an industry is positive, and when disrupting an industry is ‘not so positive’? Can you share some examples of what you mean?
Disruption with clear vision is a positive. Disruption for disruption’s sake, with no solution and just to knock a system or organization down, doesn’t seem wholly positive to me.
Every day is an opportunity for growth and development — of people, systems, processes, and organizations. The world is changing and the supportive systems, strategies and approaches should change with it. But change is hard for so many. I find it energizing!
Can you share three of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey? Please give a story or example for each.
- Get many points of view, and then make your own decision. If you hear the same thing three times from people you trust, though, you probably have your answer. This advice came from another mentor of mine. It’s great to get lots of opinions so you can make a considered decision. The speed at which you make decisions matters as much as the quality of the decision.
- Never show up alone for an important meeting. Bring a second person, even if they say nothing. I got this advice when we were just starting out. I laughed at the time, but it’s excellent advice. When the company you’re meeting with is big and established, showing up alone highlights just how small you are. Showing some bench strength is essential, especially for an early-stage startup.
- Stay ready so you don’t have to get ready. Opportunity is everywhere. The people who win are those who are ready to seize opportunities, create openings, and can move fast when they see something in the making.
We are sure you aren’t done. How are you going to shake things up next?
We need to make it easier and more compelling for more people with fresh perspectives to join the modern connected benefits industry. The work is vital to people and population health, and the opportunity is tremendous. I am committed to cultivating an inclusive group of leaders to build the future of benefits in a way that serves everyone.
We have all seen how the way we work and live has changed dramatically. Companies are distributed across states and countries; people have different needs and priorities. All this newness underscores the need for a fresh look at how benefits are delivered, and new technology unlocks new possibilities. This requires talent from different industries and creative energy to build the future.
I am so committed to infusing new talent into the industry that I welcome anyone interested to email me at [email protected]. I’ll help you find your next opportunity, whether at Noyo or any of the other amazing benefits tech companies out there.
Do you have a book, podcast, or talk that’s had a deep impact on your thinking? Can you share a story with us? Can you explain why it was so resonant with you?
Truth be told, I don’t read a lot of business books. I love reading essays. E.B. White is the writer I go back to most frequently. His writing is captivating, witty, and perceptive. He speaks plainly to the reader — no flowery language — and he draws you in with his observational style. His essay “Here Is New York” is one of my favorites, and while I haven’t lived in New York City in nearly a decade and the essay was written in 1949, it has a timeless energy and I still revisit it regularly.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
I come back to Nelson Mandela’s quote: “It always seems impossible until it’s done.” To create meaningful change, you must first believe it’s possible and then work to make it a reality. Ambitious, dedicated people have incredible power to do extraordinary things, no matter how seemingly impossible or lofty they may appear. Mistakes, failures, and missteps will happen along the way, and there will be many people who doubt if it can be done. But at the end of the day, it always seems impossible until it’s done.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
I care deeply about a lot of causes but getting our planet healthy is number one right now for me. I would mobilize people to planet-saving action.
How can our readers follow you online?
Find me on Twitter at @ShannonCGoggin and @NoyoHQ and
on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/shannongoggin/
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!
Meet The Disruptors: Shannon Goggin Of Noyo On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
