Born and raised in Toronto, Nicholas Chepesiuk became the founder and CEO of OnCall Health. He had begun his career in the local tech startup community before climbing the ranks.
At OnCall Health, Nicholas Chepesiuk leads a tech company that “provides best-in-class software and services that enable hundreds of healthcare practice owners, brands, and enterprises to launch and grow their own virtual healthcare programs.”
Under the leadership of Nicholas Chepesiuk, OnCall Health has grown considerably. The company’s “virtual care platform” caters to more than 1 million virtual appointments every year.
Nicholas Chepesiuk started his career working the sales floor at Top Hat, which is an education technology company. Then he moved to Turnstyle, “a marketing technology company which was eventually sold to Yelp.”
The idea for OnCall Health grew out of a conversation between Nicholas Chepesiuk and a friend in 2015. They were talking about “the reasons why I couldn’t text my doctor or FaceTime my therapist.”
From this conversation, Nicholas Chepesiuk got inspired to “bring virtual care to healthcare providers.”
Nicholas Chepesiuk and OnCall Health began their journey in 2016 by helping a psychology clinic set up an “easy and secure way” to offer the option of video appointments to patients.
Check out more interviews with healthcare innovators here.
I learned a great deal through my time at those companies, watching and supporting their growth, and applied what I learned to my own entrepreneurial journey when starting my own company. Nicholas Chepesiuk, OnCall Health
Jerome Knyszewski: Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?
Nicholas Chepesiuk: I was born and raised in Toronto and built my career in the local technology startup community. I started out “smiling and dialing” on the sales floor at Top Hat, an education technology company, and then worked my way over to Turnstyle, a marketing technology company which was eventually sold to Yelp.
I learned a great deal through my time at those companies, watching and supporting their growth, and applied what I learned to my own entrepreneurial journey when starting my own company.
Jerome Knyszewski: What was the “Aha Moment” that led to the idea for your current company? Can you share that story with us?
Nicholas Chepesiuk: Back in 2015, when times were much simpler, I was having a casual conversation with a friend about the reasons why I couldn’t text my doctor or FaceTime my therapist. That prompted the idea for OnCall Health and my drive to bring virtual care to healthcare providers.
In 2016, OnCall Health began its journey by providing software to a psychology clinic that needed an easy and secure way to offer video appointments as an option to its patients.
At that time, the clinic operators believed that in the distant future every healthcare provider and enterprise would need to adopt virtual care as part of their practice or operations.
Today, when we look back at the acceleration of digital transformation in the healthcare industry over the past several years, it has been incredible and far faster than expected. And as anticipated, virtual care has become a necessary component in healthcare providers’ toolkits.
It has been a long process to bring that initial idea into its current state and, as with all ideas, we still have a long way to go. But I am proud to share that five years after beginning my entrepreneurial journey, OnCall Health is uniquely positioned to be the chosen virtual care program vendor for some of the largest healthcare brands in North America.
It’s really not in my nature to give up — I’ll see it through, no matter what happens.
Jerome Knyszewski: Can you tell us a story about the hard times that you faced when you first started your journey? Did you ever consider giving up? Where did you get the drive to continue even though things were so hard?
Nicholas Chepesiuk: I think the hardest part for me has been letting go of certain things as we scale and letting other people run their various departments.
I have had to learn on the fly how to evolve from being a sales account executive to being a CEO that manages a rapidly growing company of nearly 50 people.
Another big challenge has been the insane pace at which our industry (virtual healthcare) has evolved, especially in the last year due to the pandemic.
I’ve had to make some really challenging decisions that have pushed the limits of my mental health, but there isn’t anything else I’d rather be doing. There have been so many incredible learning opportunities that I am gaining from this experience.
It’s really not in my nature to give up — I’ll see it through, no matter what happens.
Jerome Knyszewski: So, how are things going today? How did your grit and resilience lead to your eventual success?
Nicholas Chepesiuk: Things are going far better than I could have imagined. We’ve seen amazing growth over the past year and have raised additional funding to continue our acceleration.
I think a huge factor in our success has been a willingness and ability to take a very small salary for the first couple years, and the people that joined super early have chosen to stick it out with me.
We built the foundation for the company together and we were fortunate to have some excellent early customers that really helped to shape our product. I have always been of the opinion that no task is beneath me — I’ll pick up the phone and talk to anyone if something needs to get done.
At scale, the best practice is to be honest about where your product is at and the timelines of new features. It will ultimately lead to the best customer relationships.
Jerome Knyszewski: Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lessons or ‘takeaways’ you learned from that?
Nicholas Chepesiuk: In my early days of the company, I promised features to prospective customers that were either in development or on our long-term roadmap. I think there is a time and place for that in sales when you are scrappy and trying to get customers.
But it certainly led to some awkward conversations when I over-promised and under-delivered.
At scale, the best practice is to be honest about where your product is at and the timelines of new features. It will ultimately lead to the best customer relationships.
Jerome Knyszewski: Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Began Leading My Company”? Please share a story or an example for each.
Nicholas Chepesiuk:
- Booking new revenue is the fastest way to build momentum, optimism, and motivation in an organization. Our team celebrates every new deal in a shared Slack channel.
- Investors can move as fast as they want to. If they aren’t staying engaged with you through your fundraising process, they’re probably not going to invest. Move on.
As an example, I once spent four months working through a deal with a potential investor and then decided to walk away. I ended up getting a new deal done with a new investor in less than a month. - Give your people a clear career path and let them own projects. At some point, you need to let go and trust in your people to get things done their way.
Recognize that the key people you need to get you from 0–1 may be different than the key people you need to get you from 1–2. 0–1 people are hands on, wear multiple hats, and can grind on their own.
1–2 people are experienced, strategic thinkers and project managers that can orchestrate input from multiple departments to get things done at scale. - Transitioning your business from being hands on with customers to enabling them to self-serve and realize the value of your product themselves, can be one of the most challenging processes in your business’ journey.
You need to be hands-on with your customers early on to inform your product, but you will never reach large scale without eventually enabling your customers to self-serve. - Investing in expensive software to run your business is often less expensive in the long run than hiring several extra people to fill in the gaps left by cheaper software.
Also, invest early in a great website and branding — it is key to building a better business in the future. We just launched our new website with updated branding and are noticing the increase in leads it’s generating right away.
Give your people a clear career path and let them own projects. Nicholas Chepesiuk
Jerome Knyszewski: How can our readers further follow you online?
Nicholas Chepesiuk: The best way to reach me is on LinkedIn. Search for Nicholas Chepesiuk.
Jerome Knyszewski: This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for the time you spent with this!