When True North Shifts: Lessons in Building, Rebuilding, and Staying Grounded
By Matt Wilson, President & Chief Commercial Officer at SparkChange
I recently had the chance to join Michael Coggins, along with Doug Rogers and James Kanary from The Counterweight on their podcast in partnership with the Digital Health KC, and the conversation stuck with me long after we wrapped. We talked about startups, scaling, and the unpredictable path of building something meaningful in healthcare. What emerged wasn't a polished story of success, but a raw and honest look at how things often break, shift, and eventually come back together stronger.
At SparkChange, I serve as President & Chief Commercial Officer, but in a company like ours, that title means wearing many hats—from sales and partnerships to market strategy and team building. Our mission is simple but not easy: fix what's broken in the revenue cycle so leaders can focus on what matters most.
The challenges are real. Our clients are battling legacy systems, shrinking margins, workforce burnout, and the lingering effects of industry-wide disruptions like cyberattacks, constantly changing regulations, etc. We don't just hear about these problems from our clients—we sit with them, shoulder to shoulder, trying to find the path forward, together.
I've learned—especially in the last few years—that the most challenging part of growth isn't building the product. It's staying grounded while everything around you changes.
In the early days, your True North might be a specific product or service. But as you scale, that "North" has to shift. If it doesn't, you'll get stuck. For us at SparkChange, that meant letting go of some early ideas and doubling down on what's actually working: our deep operational expertise, our commitment to solving client pain points quickly, and our ability to innovate directly at the system and data layer, not just the interface. While the industry went all in, often with mixed if not disastrous results, on bot technology, we resisted that status quo and pushed down a path of true database layer automation.
We're not building generic software or one-size-fits-all automation. We're building with and for healthcare operators—people buried under denials, payer friction, and inefficient processes. People who don't need just another dashboard—they need real, measurable results.
That mindset drives everything we do. When we enter a new engagement, we're not selling. We're solving. “Sales demonstrations” most often turn into working sessions to diagnose, and problem solve our potential client’s biggest pain points. We've stood up critical operations in days. We've built custom automations that eliminate thousands of hours of manual work. And we've helped organizations weather major industry disruptions by being the team that shows up when others are still figuring out where to start.
But none of that happens if we get rigid. The market shifts, client needs evolve, and solutions that worked yesterday might fall short tomorrow. That's why we've built a team of former operators, data scientists, engineers, and strategic advisors who know how to adapt fast without losing sight of the bigger picture.
When your True North is "showing up differently for clients," it gives you a compass—not a map. And in healthcare, that's often the difference between progress and paralysis.
If you're interested in that kind of work—the messy, meaningful kind—I encourage you to listen to the episode. And if you're trying to find your footing in the middle of a system transition, workforce challenge, or revenue cycle rebuild, reach out. We've been there, and we're still there, and we'd love to help.
