PitchMI Finalist Spotlight: BedConnect

In this episode, guest host Pete Martin talks with Lindsay A. Joseph, Co-Founder and CEO of BedConnect and a PitchMI Championship finalist, about improving how hospitals connect patients with post-acute care providers after discharge.

Lindsay shares how BedConnect helps hospitals and nursing facilities coordinate patient placements more efficiently by matching clinical needs, bed availability, and insurance networks in real time. She reflects on her path from healthcare consulting and hospital leadership to launching a startup, the firsthand experiences that inspired BedConnect, and the challenges of building technology in the healthcare system. As a PitchMI finalist, Lindsay also discusses preparing for the $1 million Championship and offers advice for founders building companies in Michigan.

Host: Pete Martin
Guests: Lindsay A. Joseph, Co-Founder and CEO, BedConnect
Producers: Jenna McNamara and Doug Snitgen
Music: "Devil on Your Shoulder" by Will Harrison, licensed via Epidemic Sound

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Transcript

David Washburn 0:05

Welcome to the MSU Research Foundation podcast. Today, Pete is talking with Bed Connect, which is led by Lindsay A. Joseph. I hope you enjoy the episode.

Pete Martin 0:15

Hey, it's Pete Martin with the MSU Research Foundation podcast and I am joined today by Lindsay Joseph, the founder of BedConnect. How you doing, Lindsay? 

Lindsay A. Joseph 0:40

I'm doing fantastic. Happy to be here. It's 70 degrees out sunny. I mean, I'm waiting for the third winter to come in Michigan, but the 70-degree weather is really nice.

What Is BedConnect?

Pete Martin 0:49

It's coming. The forecast tells us it's coming, but we are fortunate uh to have a really lovely warm day. Uh for folks that don't know you yet, uh, you want to give just a little bit of background on you and your company and and what you guys are doing?

Lindsay A. Joseph 1:02

Sure. I am the co-founder and CEO of Bed Connect. And what we do is we help hospitals discharge patients to post-acute sites of care like rehab facilities or nursing homes.

Pete Martin 1:14

And can you uh explain that um to someone that doesn't understand, like me, right, that doesn't have like the healthcare background. Why is that important?

Lindsay A. Joseph 1:23

Sure. When patients are admitted into the hospital, um, they're applied with a diagnosis. And with that, the hospital, the team, everybody around there is focused on how do we get them out safely, of course, uh to their next level of care. Because reimbursement a lot of times is tied to that. So when we look at when patients do need to go to a nursing home, like let's say they're they had surgery and they have dementia and they have dialysis needs, they're not going home to finish their recovery. They need to go to that next site of care. And there's difficulties in this space right now because what they do is they send out these referral blasts and say, Hey, can anybody take this patient? And so then they're sitting, they're waiting. The pressure to get the patient out so that there isn't a delay due to placement is immense. And so on that flip side, those post-acutes, they're inundated with these requests to take people that they may not even be able to care for. And so there's this big disconnect. And so what we do is we help match patients based on criteria that the hospital puts in to the right side of care that has bad availability, meets their clinical needs, and is in network with those favorite payers of ours.

Pete Martin 2:34

This is like a more complicated solution to, or a more complicated problem and a great solution to a problem that we had. Uh, so as a hospitality business major at MSU, my parents had a hotel. Uh, and anytime that we had, like hotels oversell their rooms. And so anytime we had to send someone to another hotel, we would throughout the day be calling, calling around to these different hotels just to understand what all of their availability was. So if somebody ever came in and we didn't have a room for them, we could say, okay, here's a place down the street, we'll we'll comp your room, et cetera. Uh it's like that, but way more complicated, way more expensive. And you've built a solution around that for health systems all across the country.

Lindsay A. Joseph 3:12

Correct. And I I love that analogy though. That that is very to put it into non-healthcare terms. Yeah, we we call ourselves the open table of nursing homes because if you're looking for Italian food, you don't want uh bar food popping up. And so here you can see what times do they have available, what seats, how many people can we take all of that information from a healthcare perspective is what we do.

Lindsay’s Background in Healthcare

Pete Martin 3:36

Nice. Yeah, open table for healthcare. Super cool. Uh, and you didn't do this uh randomly. You were you've lived uh this problem, you understand this problem. What's your background? How'd you get into this?

Lindsay A. Joseph 3:47

So I'm a CPA by background. From that perspective, uh went and did healthcare consulting with PwC for years and then was over um hospitals in Detroit. And then I was a CFO of a level one trauma center. And in those experiences is where I really saw what my team members had to go through, witnessed how the patients were really put in this process that didn't really serve them in a way that made the experience uh something that uh you know, they're in a vulnerable state of time. And so this is something that I saw this, I witnessed it, but we had pressure. You need to leave. Like we have other patients waiting in the emergency department. So this ecosystem that was being built around in these processes just continued to drive that pressure. And so, from that experience and then my co-founder's experience, a Yale Fellowship trained geriatrician and licensed nursing home administrator, when we actually sat down and say, how do we solve this for both sides? That's where we came up with BedConnect. And what we do is we're trying to make doing the right thing the easiest thing. Human nature is we we go the path of least resistance. So this way, everybody is winning. The hospital wins because they can discharge the patient timely and safely. The patient is winning because they're empowered with information that they didn't have before. And the post-acutes are empowered to really be able to curate to say this is our availability and these are our skill sets. So everybody through the continuum is benefiting with BedConnect.

Pete Martin 5:22

And this is uh the product is live. You've got people signing up for it today.

Lindsay A. Joseph 5:25

Correct. Yep, absolutely. So we're we're located um in the Midwest right now. We have a lot of irons on the fire throughout uh Southwest, middle, out west, I guess. I don't, I don't know what to call those states, but I guess out west, um, and then down south as well. So we have uh our our goal is a national reach so that our process becomes the new gold standard.

Pete Martin 5:48

Are you are you allowed to tell us about any of the names of the health systems or post-acutes you've signed up?

Lindsay A. Joseph 5:53

Not right now. Um, we there folks folks get a little sensitive about promotional things that they don't that they're not approving. Um, but I promise they are fantastic partners who are aligned with the mission of truly serving the community.

Pete Martin 6:09

Fair. Uh and you said your your focus uh is on the Midwest right now. Have you been deploying in Michigan at all, or will you be soon?

Lindsay A. Joseph 6:18

Our goal is to be deploying in Michigan soon. So we're we're looking to uh finalize some of those meetings to really get that that timing nailed down. And the great part is hospitals can go live in an hour. Post acutes go live in three. So this is not something we made sure to build something that I wish vendors had presented to me so that you can get the ROI, you can get the benefit without having to do that 18 month-long integration.

Reducing Delays and Manual Workflows

Pete Martin 6:43

Can you talk to that ROI? I I know you you you've shared with me uh off the record plenty of plenty of data on like what people are seeing, but is there anything that you're able to share uh more more publicly?

Lindsay A. Joseph 6:53

Sure. So um right now we have a 96% acceptance rate. So what that means is patients' first choice when they are saying this is the place I want to go to, they are getting accepted 96% of the time, would be slightly higher. Um, but again, this is a totally new process for both sides. Um we go down to the level of, you know, are there substance abuse issues? Do you have wound care needs, all of those different pieces? So once that's all done properly, then we can make sure that the site is appropriate for them too. Uh length of stay reduction. So what that means is that how long is a patient staying in the hospital? Every single time a patient stays longer than necessary, on average, they incur around $3,100 of avoidable day costs. And that adds up. And Florida alone, $550 million last year of avoidable day costs. And this is all across the country, multi-billion dollar issue. And when we talk about the soft savings, again, this is where the CFO hat comes in. Um, you have you have highly paid clinicians sitting on the phone saying, Hey, is this done? Did you do this authorization? Can you accept this patient? Faxing, emailing, rather than just being able to quickly look at our dashboard to say, Oh, yes, everything is going fantastic. So that's where when we really look at how do we make people's lives easier, that's part of that reduction of the manual workload as well.

Pete Martin 8:27

Uh, so the vision of the future is no more faxing at a minimum, no more faxing. Uh any anything to do with faxing these days, absolutely unreal. Uh okay, so BedConnect, let's uh we'll look to the future a little bit. So it's, you know, let's say five years from now, 10 years from now, BedConnect is everywhere. Everyone's using it. Uh, what's the impact that that has on the world?

Lindsay A. Joseph 8:50

Exactly what I had mentioned before is making sure that people are doing the right thing. And that means having the patient be at the center of healthcare. So when we talk about ensuring that patients are going to the right sites of care, that people aren't getting inundated with requests, and they're not just feeling pressure to accept because they need to fill beds. What this does is it truly ensures that patients are have the choice, right? They they'll have the ability to look through who can serve them, um, making sure patients can go back to their communities. Because when we talk about rural communities, or we talk about I'll I'll use up north as an example. When they come down to Grand Rapids, because it's easier, most likely they're going to be sent to a post-acute that's within five miles of the hospital. Because the hospital doesn't have insight as to three and a half hours away up north, is there a post-acute that can serve their needs? But statistically, people do better back in their community, back surrounded with their families. So being able to have patients be repatriated, being able to have communities um grow their revenue as well. So having it where those rural sites can accept patients that may not know that they're there. Um and and really, like I said, I'm not here. I I'm not here to solve the entire world. I'm here to solve a very, very niche tiny spot that my goal is to have rippling impacts across how this process actually works.

Pete Martin 10:19

And that's where we're going with BedConnect. That's gonna happen. So cool. If you're a healthcare system or if you're a post-acute care system, uh BedConnect, right? What's the website? Really quick?

Lindsay A. Joseph 10:29

Uh Bedconnect.health. And I will I will plug this is that we have extremely high ratings. All of our post-acute partners want every hospital on this. And we have it where they are 100% satisfied. So they they love the team, they love the product, and they love the future of what this work is gonna look like.

Pete Martin 10:49

We uh for those that are listening, we spent a lot of time on the phone with Lindsay. Every single time we talk to her, she is traveling somewhere to do a deployment, somewhere to to do what do you call them when you do your rounds on Tuesday?

Lindsay A. Joseph 11:00

Rounding.

Pete Martin 11:01

Rounding. Yeah, all right, cool. Yeah, listen, not I'm not a healthcare guy, it's very obvious. Uh, but yeah, she's like constantly out there doing the thing. Super cool. Uh okay, so what has the MSU Research Foundation's role been in this journey of you building your company?

Lindsay A. Joseph 11:17

So the MSU Research Foundation, their impact has been tremendous. So when we look at what they've been able to do in growing the Pitch MI program specifically, this is something that gave us an opportunity to be able to be on a stage, be able to get extra investors as well, especially a health system, which is extremely exciting, and have that opportunity to share our vision and share our mission. The team itself has been incredible. So when we see that there's a specific conference that we may need to go to or connections, healthcare is still a very connection-based uh ecosystem. And so companies can can make or break based on the fact of are there connections? Are you a trusted resource? The great part is that our clients look at us as partners because we live this. We're not software folks who are coming in saying, Oh, I can solve for this. You're still faxing. I know the reason why. Let me just completely fix this and you just listen to what I think your process should be, and life will be better. And that's just not how it goes at all. So the fact that our team is comprised of clinicians and administrators on both the hospital and the post-acute care side allows us to continue to grow uh with those relationships. And the MSU Research Foundation has been extremely supportive of trying to get us those opportunities to get in front of the right people so we can continue to expand our mission.

Pete Martin 12:45

Yeah, and that works, uh that works sometimes. Sometimes we're unable to make the connections, but at least trying, right? Like at least at least being able to say, hey, yeah, we will try to make that connection to...

Lindsay A. Joseph 12:55

I mean, I think I text you, right? I'm just like, hey, what about this? What about this? What about this? So you guys have been incredible partners to either A, bounce ideas off of or B, when I'm saying, is there a lever that y'all can pull to help us? You guys are always more than willing to do that.

Discovering PitchMI

Pete Martin 13:09

Yeah. Well, it's the the goal from our team is to be one of the most one one of the most value-added investors on your cap table, right? So if we if and we know that if we can open a door here and there, uh that founders like you are just gonna absolutely run through that door, like that that part's easy to understand. Uh, and so that's it. If we can do the little thing, you'll do you'll do the hard thing, you'll do it really well.

Pete Martin 13:29

Um, okay, so Pitch MI, uh, you are one of the four finalists for the PitchMI championship coming up on April 7th. Uh gosh, can think back six, eight months ago when you heard about the the PitchMI pitch competition. Like, where were you? Uh do you do you recall having thoughts? Like, what is this thing?

Lindsay A. Joseph 13:49

I do. Actually, it was you. Um, I saw on LinkedIn, which I am a super bad social media person, but since creating the company, I've had to have more of a visible impact. So that's something that has been intentional, but that's also allowed me to see different opportunities and really get into this startup ecosystem. Coming from corporate, I didn't even know any of you existed. Now I'm part of that, right? So this is something that it's been great. But I saw the post, I wanted to reshare it because I love you, Pete. Like whatever I can do to help support you as well and support the Michigan vision. And so uh I reached out to you and I got a little bit more information. And then lo and behold, I applied and and it worked out.

Pete Martin 14:35

So uh and you pitched in Grand Rapids, you won not $250,000, but $300,000, $325,000. Uh, and that that's been fantastic. And then we have been doing some fun stuff uh over the last six months, just had you and the other few founders together. Um, what has that experience been like as you've been gearing up for the championship?

Lindsay A. Joseph 14:57

I'm really impressed with the activities that you've had us do. So this is something where when people participate in different accelerators, I think a lot of times they a lot of times they're they're doing a lot of the same activities. What you guys are doing is completely different with us. You are trying to provide a well-rounded experience and give us different opportunities that help us grow, not only from a business perspective, but from a personal uh side as well. So I'm gonna go to my favorite part of what we've done so far is the improv uh experience. And that was something that being silly when when you're pitching your company constantly, you know your cues, you know who your audience is. And that experience of being able to just have fun with it, it's energizing. And it allows, and I don't want to talk for the other, the other PitchMI folks, but it allowed us to just have fun and to get to know each other even better and get to know our pitches. And there was a part of that where we had to co-pitch a made-up product. And I'm gonna say Josef and I killed it, but this is something where if you can't have fun, then a lot of times that's where it can lead to burnout. That's where it can lead to, oh, it's another day. But this experience has just been wonderful.

PitchMI Founder Experience

Pete Martin 16:18

We've been looking at the video content from that that those couple of days. It's fantastic. And I cannot wait to release it to the world. It's coming out very soon. I cannot wait to release it to the world. Uh, maybe we'll give you in the office here, so maybe we'll give you a sneak preview.

Lindsay A. Joseph 16:31

I would really like to see the sneak preview maybe have a final say over some of those cuts, but it again, this is the creativity that you guys have come up with to give us a different ability to grow and to have a different type of exposure has been incredible.

Pete Martin 16:47

Yeah, and you you mentioned uh getting to know the other founders better. Uh, there has been uh a secret group chat, and we're just gonna put it on record now. Uh, I think my hunch is that you started the secret group text. You can let me know if I'm wrong.

Michigan’s Founder Community

Lindsay A. Joseph 17:03

I don't even know where you got the secret group text thing. I mean, it could be named I love Pete Martin, like we love Pete Martin, uh Pete Martin rocks. It could be that Mr. Michigan is is my hero, could be any of those things. But the thing, the thing that I actually found interesting is that we had folks who are used to working with companies out on the West Coast helping with those activities during during those filming days. And more than once did I heard from them to say, wow, you guys are like super friendly with each other. And it's not the Midwest nice, it's not that. It's something where you can be competing against each other, still have respect, and still have fun. This is not a zero-sum game, and that's something that is completely unique to our ecosystem. We all rise when we are all working together. And those three other contestants, along alongside myself, we all believe that.

Pete Martin 17:59

That that's an absolutely huge point. I do think that the founder culture in Michigan is very, very special. And it's yes, there's like the uh everyone in Michigan wants to be helpful and is is generally kind of defaults to nice because there is that Midwestern culture. Uh, but founder culture in Michigan goes way, way deeper. They they these are people across the state, doesn't matter where you go. I am particularly uh uh jealous of the founder community in Traverse City and what those folks do have for each other and with each other. Uh, but doesn't matter where you go across the state, founders in each region are willing to go out of their way to help you. And I think that that culture is spreading to the rest of the community around founders too. Uh so the things that are happening in our state are just really special. Thank you for bringing that up. Super cool.

Pete Martin 18:43

Okay. Um, a couple more questions for you, and then we'll we'll kind of wrap it up. But uh do you have advice for uh someone that is getting ready to start a company that is here in Michigan? Um, what would you tell them?

Lindsay A. Joseph 18:58

The advice that I would provide to people is to just be open to the different experiences, understand that building a business is difficult and that you have incredible resources that are around you. There is a big difference of being a student founder versus being someone that is a multi-time founder versus somebody who is coming from corporate and is now exploring the founder space. Everyone has their own journey, and there is no one right way. I have a lot of folks that I mentor uh in the community, which has been fantastic. But I always tell them you have to find your own pathway. I'm here to provide you insights into my own experiences and into the experience that experiences that others have shared as well. But you have to make those choices, and that's okay if there are mistakes that are made. But the number one key here is surround yourself with people that you trust, but also don't listen to all of the noise. That's something that I'm trying to coach a few folks on is find your one person, find a backup person, and look to make those decisions based off some of their guidance. If you have too many voices trying to tell you, uh, create your pitch deck this way, now this way, now this way, now this way, the frustration that I have been told from a variety of people is palpable. It just is. And somebody goes, if this is all basic stuff, then everybody should be on the same page. Okay, that's not that's not life, that's not reality, but it's something where if you can learn to learn to look and say, okay, this advice I am gonna take to heart. This advice that person meant well, not gonna do anything with it. That will help you be able to advance faster than if you are trying to change and please and do everything that everyone has told you to do, because then you're just gonna spend all your time making pitch decks and nobody enjoys that.

Closing Remarks

Pete Martin 21:06

Uh uh very accurate statement. I think the the number of people that'll give you advice versus the advice that you should take is very different. Uh and so I that's I think everybody should do this. If you're gonna proffer somebody advice, also tell them that they should take it with a grain of salt and throw away everything except for the stuff that's useful for them.

Pete Martin 21:24

Uh, last question for founders that are looking at PitchMI or any other large pitch competition that's out there, any advice for them on getting ready to apply for a large pitch competition?

Lindsay A. Joseph 21:35

Know your product inside and out, know the why behind it. I think that I have had great success in the pitch competitions that I've been a part of because I'm able to connect with people on why BedConnect is so important. And even if they haven't experienced it or experienced the process that I'm I'm talking about, that light bulb goes off in folks head when I when I do present the business. So it's something where have your confidence, uh have your one of a thousand pitch decks ready for dependent on uh on what audience and what time limit uh you have, but know your story, know it inside and out, and do it with the the gusto that you did to to create your business. Like there's a reason why you're here, there's a reason why you're pitching, and people will see that. Pre-seed companies, they're investing in the founder. They are investing in can this person pull something across the finish line? Sure, if you have a fantastic product, that's that's fantastic that that's great. But they're looking at you as the founder to say, are you able to have this come to life? Do you have the right people around you? Do you have own personal experience? That's something that's really gonna help people be able to win these pitch competitions.

Pete Martin 22:59

Love it. How can people get a hold of you? What's the best place for them to go to see what you're up to?

Lindsay A. Joseph 23:04

Yes, if they follow us at BedConnect.health, we have our website there, also on LinkedIn. LinkedIn, we post pretty much every week. Our company page does, as as well as myself, even if sometimes it's a struggle, but there's so much stuff going on and being able to share in the community. And I will say that the people who have reached out because they are following have been incredibly helpful to me. So please, everyone who's listening, check out BedConnect on LinkedIn and feel free to connect with me as well.

Pete Martin 23:36

I would say that the unstated piece of advice from Lindsay is you have to post on social media, even if you don't like it, because it's uncomfortable. It's uncomfortable, especially for people from Michigan. We're allergic to self-promotion, but like you gotta, you gotta do it.

Lindsay A. Joseph 23:49

My my uh board may or may not have set set that as one of my goals as a weekly post, but it's becoming more and more second nature for me. So so that's great.

Pete Martin 24:00

Love it. Okay, that's it, everybody. We've been joined by the lovely Lindsay Joseph of BedConnect. Thank you so much for the time.

Lindsay A. Joseph 24:06

Thank you so much, Pete. Appreciate that.