Laudio is a company that empowers and connects frontline healthcare leaders to drive outcomes that matter. And with its intelligent leadership solution, Laudio automates repetitive work and serves daily recommendations and best practices that help frontline leaders gain better visibility into their teams, find opportunities for meaningful connections, and discover clearer paths to achieving their goals. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Laudio co-founder and CEO Dr. Russ Richmond to learn more.
Dr. Richmond’s Background
After finishing his MD at the University of Cincinnati, Dr. Richmond planned to embark upon his career as a physician with aspirations to help as many as possible. And Dr. Richmond said:
“Having always had an entrepreneurial streak, I turned my eye to systemic issues in the healthcare system and started daydreaming solutions while I was completing my residency. I loved the clinical work I was doing, but I knew I did not want to practice for the next 30 years. I wanted to tackle broader problems within healthcare operations with the aim to provide higher-quality care at a lower cost.”
Formation Of Laudio
How did the idea for Laudio come together? Dr. Richmond shared:
“About three to four years ago, I became a patient. I had a skiing accident and spent almost three months in hospitals, flipping my perspective of healthcare on its head. The people I valued the most in my recovery were frontline caregivers, including my nurses and therapists. The length of my stay meant I had time to grow close with my caregivers and hear their day-to-day grievances firsthand. It was incredibly eye-opening.”
“In each of my last three companies, I’ve worked with a core group of individuals invigorated by the issues of turnover and burnout on the front lines of healthcare. At Laudio, I’m one of four co-founders who share this passion. Our prior business, which built and sold nursing pre-hire assessments, was our portal into understanding the specific issues plaguing nurses and helped us see our entry point into the market for solutions supporting frontline managers.”
“Managers of healthcare staff have enormous numbers of direct reports—most average around a 50:1 ratio, but some have as many as 200, all operating in a 24 x 7 environment. There is also high variation in managers’ professional backgrounds, with most being promoted into the role with little training and sparse opportunities to connect with other managers. Looking at our data, an extensive cross-institution set, within similar departments, we identified a correlation between a manager’s span of control and the rate of turnover and engagement of that manager’s team.”
“The Laudio team – at the time composed of 15 engineers, two designers, and two data scientists – accepted the challenge with humility and gusto.”
“We built a system that sits on top of managers’ existing systems to make workflows better, faster, and more productive. We leaned on the guidance of a panel of executive leaders and frontline managers that could support us on a day-to-day basis. These managers came from a wide array of institutions and care settings, enabling us to focus initially on common pain points across sites of care. Together, we identified almost one hundred administrative management workflows to automate.”
Favorite Memory
What has been your favorite memory working for Laudio so far? Dr. Richmond reflected:
“Seeing the company grow and impact many caregivers’ lives.”
Challenges Faced
What are some of the challenges you face in building the company and has the current macroeconomic climate affected the company? Dr. Richmond acknowledged:
“Yes, health systems are having a tough time given their increased labor costs. On the one hand, this has benefitted Laudio because we support solutions to decrease labor costs. On the other hand, it has also made it a longer sales cycle and health systems are more closely scrutinizing their spend, even in this important area.”
Core Products
What are Laudio’s core products and features? Dr. Richmond explained:
“Laudio’s platform integrates and automates frontline managers’ core workflows to boost efficiency and operationalize best practices. It includes solutions for employee engagement, recognition, and retention; patient rounding; compliance; audits, and more.”
“Using AI to enable a hyper-personalized, targeted approach to collaboration and communication among managers and their team members, the easy-to-use Laudio platform points leaders towards the right action at the right time with the right person.”
Evolution Of Laudio’s Technology
How has Laudio’s technology evolved since launching? Dr. Richmond noted:
“We have expanded to incorporate more leader workflows, and increased our ability to help the manager do the right thing with the right patient at the right time using AI.”
Significant Milestones
What have been some of Laudio’s most significant milestones? Dr. Richmond cited:
“1.) Raising $13 million in Series B funding in June of 2023
2.) Announcing partnerships with major health systems like UNC Health, Northwell Health, and Nebraska Medicine
3.) More to come!”
Customer Success Stories
Upon asking Dr. Richmond about customer success stories, he replied:
“We just recently completed a great case study with UNC Health. Laudio collaborated with UNC Health’s nursing and human resources departments to support their work to improve nurse retention.”
“With help from Laudio’s software, the health system standardized how nurse managers engaged with their new nurses during the first year of employment. The results were remarkable:: the health system achieved a 20% reduction in nurse turnover rate between 2021 and 2022, and the strongest Laudio user group had a 5.7% higher retention rate for nurse managers.”
Funding
After asking Dr. Richmond about the company’s funding, he revealed:
“We raised $13 million in Series B funding in June of this year, building on our $7 million Series A in December of 2019.”
Total Addressable Market
What total addressable market (TAM) size is Laudio pursuing? Dr. Richmond assessed:
“1.) US Healthcare services: a $100 billion market
2.) Reducing frontline employee burnout, managing rising labor costs, and maintaining a high standard of care amid operational and financial strain are challenges that affect virtually every health system in the US.”
Differentiation From The Competition
What differentiates Laudio from its competition? Dr. Richmond affirmed:
“According to a 2022 Health Management Academy Survey, the top priority themes for Chief Nursing Officers and Chief Human Resource Officers at healthcare systems are solutions for retention, burnout, employee engagement, and hiring. While there are point solutions in the market that aim to address particular manager workflows, Laudio provides a holistic and long-term solution with the first and only platform designed specifically for frontline managers’ needs.”
Future Company Goals
What are some of Laudio’s future company goals? Dr. Richmond pointed out:
“This year, we are focused on deepening the action orientation of our platform and scaling growth and product development. We’re also expanding our sales team and increasing overall investment in marketing, with an emphasis on generating awareness in the market.”
“Additionally, Laudio is making sizable investments in its AI and analytics, to further enable leaders to take the right action at the right time through real-time insights and recommendations.”
Additional Thoughts
Any other topics to discuss? Dr. Richmond concluded:
“Technology is going to be required to increase the productivity and effectiveness of our caregivers!”
