HRTech Interview with Matthew Kim, Chief Executive Officer, SureCo

Employee wellness is critical to the employee’s journey in an organization. How is SureCo acting as a boon for HR departments?

SureCo

1. Can you tell us about yourself? How did you get into entrepreneurship?
I was born and raised in Las Vegas; my mom was a blackjack dealer, and my dad was a keynote manager. I later moved to Orange County because I wanted to go to UCLA and become a physician, but I had to prioritize a career over education. At that time, money was tight, and I got evicted from my apartment and was living in my car, but my first commission check was just enough to pay the deposit and first month’s rent. I worked at a multi-level marketing insurance group, where I cold-called and set appointments for the senior agents. My experience here was quite influential and helped me understand our small-business and self-employed clients’ daily challenges.

2. Can you give us a brief idea of your career before SureCo?
My first job in the healthcare field was with United Group Associates, a Blackstone company and one of the largest healthcare brokerages in the country. Even though I didn’t have a long-tail view of the healthcare market, I noticed the inefficiencies. Shortly after my team made the top 10 list in the company, another agent joined me to form our own brokerage, Bayside Insurance Associates. Our training prioritized in-person meetings. However, as we digitized, our leads started coming from all over the state, so we had to evolve from phone to fax to email to DocuSign. We were so cheap we didn’t even buy a second phone and had to share. Unfortunately, with the passage of the ACA, our commission dropped from 20% to 2%. Nevertheless, the friendships and partnerships remained, and we ultimately launched SureCo.

3. Could you tell us more about SureCo and how the company has evolved over the last couple of years?
SureCo came about after a family tragedy in the passing of my sister. This event was a turning point in my life – I asked myself what value I wanted to bring to the world, which refortified my vision to make an impact in healthcare. Serendipitously, massive regulatory changes in the market opened the doors for us to develop SureCo’s Enrollment Platform. Likewise, in 2020 my partners asked me to become CEO, and since then, we have restructured the company to move away from the direct-to-consumer market to the enterprise B2B market. Today, we service 500-person businesses.

4. How is your work changing as your company scales up? What do you love the most about the industry?
Since WW2, everyone has had to use the same process where the employer must negotiate with a carrier, settle with a one-size-fits-all plan and then offer it to their employees. Today, our platform empowers employees to choose a plan that best fits their needs. We’ve managed to fully automate many processes while building integrations for different carriers and payroll systems. Likewise, we embedded ourselves within current workflows and understandings to provide that familiar group experience but tailor-made for the employee.

5. How do you perceive employee wellness in the employee’s journey in an organization?
Employee wellness is critical to the employee’s journey in an organization. Consider the Great Resignation. People are willing to leave their jobs if they aren’t happy and content with all facets of the company – especially healthcare. SureCo’s Enrollment Platform, paired with key legislative changes, can help employees personalize their coverage and select the doctors and specialties that can address their unique health needs. They’ll have the power to compare health insurance plans based on price, plan type, or depth of coverage, allowing them to enjoy the highest caliber of health benefits, enhancing coverage and care outcomes.

6. What is the significance of employee engagement in talent acquisition?
Benefits are a major factor when people assess a potential employer. Nevertheless, because of the limited nature of healthcare coverage or the one-size-fits-all paradigm, companies struggle to attract and retain top talents. Trends like distributed teams and remote work have also made engagement a challenge. However, by leveraging a platform like SureCo’s, businesses can strategically position themselves to stand out amongst the competition looking to recruit from the same talent pool. Plus, enabling employees to evaluate options and choose their healthcare plan will boost engagement, improve productivity and strengthen trust in the organization while serving as a powerful tool for talent acquisition.

7. You just rolled out SureCo’s Enrollment Platform, could you share some highlights of the platform?
Our platform overcomes a fundamental flaw of healthcare. Benefits are one-size-fits-all with little to no customization. SureCo’s platform works with almost every healthcare plan, tailoring the selection process to the individual employee by recommending the best available option.

This platform also aids employers, letting them conveniently manage 500 different plans for 500 employees, eliminating the need for 500 separate bill entries into payroll systems.

Another major factor that we solve is remote work. The current model doesn’t account for how distributed everything has become. With SureCo’s platform companies can provide regionalized plans and policies for individual employees.

8. What is the role of healthcare in shaping the HRTech landscape?
SureCo’s platform will be a massive boon for HR departments as it reduces the administration burden tremendously. Most of HR’s time involves performing tedious admin tasks, with a fair chunk of that directed at resolving employee healthcare-related issues. By integrating with payroll and carriers effortlessly, businesses can eliminate redundant work for their HR, including time-consuming processes like overseeing compliance, handling pre-tax payments, and processing claims. Additionally, because employees build personalized benefit plans, HR can divert more energy and resources to recruiting efforts, including programs that develop their most-qualified people to capitalize on market opportunities.

9. Can you give us a sneak peek into SureCo’s development plans?
We plan to downsize the service side of the business, allowing us to focus more on the product side, where we will likely add somewhere between 30 to 40 new employees in Orange County as we have deep roots here.

10. What is the biggest piece of advice you would want to give to company leaders?  
Earlier I told the story of my partner and I being too cheap to buy a second phone and having to share – well, we also shared a cubicle. Every time someone made a call, we’d have to pass the phone to the other. Nevertheless, it taught us to work smarter, not harder, including the importance of investing in ourselves and the tools needed to maximize our impact.

11. How do you stay motivated? What are your key learnings from your career so far?
I’m motivated to bring value to the world by optimizing healthcare. And throughout my career in this industry, I’ve realized that I have an opportunity to impact many people positively; recognizing that I need to work on healthcare rather than working in healthcare.

12. What movie/book has inspired you recently?
Although there are too many to choose from, one book that I find inspiring is “Good to Great” by Jim Collins – in fact, it’s required reading at SureCo. The book describes how businesses transform from good to great companies and provides valuable insights and lessons. What resonates with me the most from the book is how critical it is to have the right people.

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Matt-Kim-hr
Matt Kim Chief Executive Officer, SureCo

After helping launch SureCo as a co-founder, Matthew Kim grew into his role as Chief Executive Officer in a non-traditional way. Unlike many of his professional peers, Matthew didn’t attend college, work at an international consulting firm, or have VC funding to fuel SureCo’s growth. He did have copious amounts of determination and passion, which he shared generously with his team. Matthew began his career in insurance sales at HealthMarkets Inc, a Blackstone Group Company. He also built and led his own healthcare agencies prior to his current iteration of SureCo. A CEO with an open-door policy, Matthew has no qualms about rolling up his sleeves and getting in the trenches. He works closely with every department across SureCo, helping support, leverage, and advance our products and mission.

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