Latest / I Am Wiser Podcast with Dr. Laura Purdy / The Wrong Tech Partner Can Cost You Everything

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The Wrong Tech Partner Can Cost You Everything · I Am Wiser Podcast with Dr. Laura Purdy

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: I think one of the things you can look for is honesty.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: If they yes man you the whole time when you're on the call, that's probably a red flag.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: A quality person that's not gonna lie to you, I think it's okay saying, like, right now is not the time for you to go forward with this, focus on some other things.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: Let me give you, you know, these are some free advice things that you can do to get ready to the stage where we should have enough.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to the I Am Wiser Podcast, where the biggest questions in health care and wellness meet the collective wisdom of industry leaders and innovators.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_01: I'm Dr.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_01: Laura Burdy, and here we explore the intersections of AI, care delivery, telehealth policy, and through the lens of those who are reshaping healthcare.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_01: This is not just about theory, it's about lived experience and real industry insights.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_01: Let's dive in and get wiser together.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to today's episode of the I Am Wiser Podcast with Dr.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_01: Laura Purdy, where I explore the real stories behind groundbreaking healthcare innovations and the human impact they have on patients and providers.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_01: On that note, I'm delighted to welcome Nathan Menzatti, a technology strategist, AI expert, and the founder of Tech Ramen.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_01: Nathan has spent over 15 years leading enterprise-level tech projects, modernizing complex systems, and guiding organizations through high-stakes transformations.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_01: He now brings that expertise to healthcare, helping providers navigate the realities of AI adoption while maximizing patient-centric benefits.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_01: Nathan believes that while AI offers enormous potential, understanding the risks, implementation challenges, and the ethical implications is essential to truly transforming care.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_01: Nathan, welcome.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_01: I'm happy to have you here today.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for having me.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_01: So we were just chatting before the show started.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_01: I feel like we must have met at some point in our careers because while I was at Ushu's, you were in the DC area working at NYCO.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_01: We both served active duty in the military during the time of the surge.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, what else?
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_01: You worked for the DHA as a CHCS in Alta administrator, and I was using that system for a decade and a half.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_01: And now you are either an advisor, a professor, or something at the at the school where I got my MBA, Southern New Hampshire University.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_01: So we we have to have met at some point in time, I'm sure.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: Probably.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's a small world.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um and CHS and Alta, I worked with very in-depth for probably over a decade.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and yeah, I'm an adjunct professor for computer science classes at S NHU now, and I've been doing that.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_01: What a small world.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_01: And you still work for the federal government now, I think you said in the insurance or in the in the finance sector of the federal government.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so I work for the FDIC, uh, but I'm not speaking on behalf of the FDIC or the government, right?
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: Of course.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: I'm here as a tech ramen guy.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_01: So as a tech ramen guy.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_01: Fantastic.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_01: Well, how do you balance that?
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_01: So you kind of and I did the same thing, by the way.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_01: The last five years, I was in the army, I had off-duty employment paperwork, and so I had kind of one foot in the military, and I had one foot, you know, outside the federal government in the digital health tech startup world.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_01: How are you navigating that?
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_01: How's it going?
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: Well, you know, I guess that's probably a good place to start about, you know, it's kind of wisdom gained over the years.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um, for a long time I struggled with like, can I do anything on the side while I'm, you know, working for the government?
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: And the truth is you can.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of public servants don't realize that and they they kind of shy away from everything that could be um interpreted as an ethics concern.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: But that's why we have ethics offices and you know, every government agency has it, is to help you navigate those things.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: So as long as you're transparent and keep everything above board, you can, you know, you can keep everything above board and you can do these things.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: It's not shady, it's not something you're not supposed to do, but you work with your ethics, you know, lawyers and you can navigate it.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's what I've done.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: It's really probably taken about two years uh to get this going on because of all of those kind of questions of like, hey, you know, how do I treat it?
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: What situations can I work on on the side where I can't, where I need to notify somebody, and you know, so there's a little bit of work to be done, but you can absolutely do it.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm glad that I went down the path.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: Because um, in addition to tech ramen, I've had a couple other things, like board participations and stuff like that, too.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: And so, you know, you just because you work for the government doesn't mean they own you.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: And it, you know, maybe that's a little bit of wisdom that you have to shake off that military mindset because that's a little different situation.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I will say I know people that were active duty and launched restaurants and did stuff like that.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, if you have a good idea um and you're willing to work for it, you can do it, whether you're also a public servant or not.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_01: I would argue that you should do it.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_01: And here's why.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_01: Number one, eventually we all stop serving the government, right?
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_01: Whether you're in the military or you're a civil service person or you work for an institution, um, eventually we do all stop.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_01: And most of us, if we stick around, I'm I did 14 years, so it wasn't 20, but it was 14, and that's a long time.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_01: You do develop some level of discipline, some level of work ethic.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_01: And for a lot of people, they don't get out and stop working.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_01: And so you do have to come up with a plan of how do I keep myself busy?
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_01: How do I keep myself from being bored?
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_01: How do I continue to give value to the community and to the world?
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_01: And I will tell you that on the outside, they speak different.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_01: The words, the acronyms, the language, the lingo, everything, even the work ethic in a lot of people is very different.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_01: And to rip off the band-aid and go from one to the other with no sort of transition at all is very difficult.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_01: And I do think it's a setup for failure because there can be some culture shock that happens when you do that.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_01: Did you experience that?
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, I got out of the military so long ago that no, I was just broke and needed a job, so I bought, you know, like I was just hustling to pay the bills.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: And so I never really went through that, like, hey, I'm uncomfortable here.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, if I can make money with this thing, I'm comfortable all of a sudden, you know.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: I worked a bunch of manual labor jobs, and you know, my journey wasn't straightforward into tech or anything like that.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: So I didn't have that, but I could see interestingly, this year, you know, new administration coming on board.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: You're probably aware of all the you know, dog and the federal employees getting let go and stuff like that.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um yeah, so a lot of people are dealing with this situation now.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: Wait, do my skills transfer or what to do?
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um I plan to start a nonprofit, and I went down this road.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: I built this uh so if you go to helpfeds.com, you'll see what I started there.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um, long story short, IRS never approved my 51c3, so I couldn't get money from donors, and I kind of I decided to um to shut it down.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: But a very similar effort that I almost partnered up with um is called Feds Forward.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: So that's what they exist to do.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: I'm giving a free plug to Karen Lee and Feds Forward.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, if there's people in there, the government that found themselves on the outside now that need to figure out what to do, go to fedsforward.org.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and they have some services for you.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: So it's I love that.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um time for folks like that, especially if they plan to retire and they're in that stage where they're like not old enough to retire, but also old enough where they don't want to jump into a brand new industry and stuff like that.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: There's important support for you.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: So check it out.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_01: I promise you that your skills transfer.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_01: I promise you that you do.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_01: Whether you are a government civilian or military, I promise you what you have learned working for the government, whether it's as a soldier or you know, airman, whatever, or as a civilian, I promise you your skills transfer.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_01: They probably just are called something different.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_01: And it it can be hard to figure out what to call it and how to describe it and how to put it into words that communicate to the people that are in like recruiting firms and in the industry what you're qualified for.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_01: But yes, I would agree.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_01: Find organizations to help you.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_01: And this is what we used to do at the Warrior Transition Unit with soldiers who are moving into veteran status, is we would help them put words like company first sergeant into terms that the civilian side understands.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_01: That's a mid mid-level manager for just about any industry, right?
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, I I would agree, I would agree with you on that 100%.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, I'll say this too, because you know, we won't stay on this the whole time, but I'll may make one more point.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: I just had a conversation yesterday with somebody about um how the opposite is kind of true of what like the public thinks.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: So a lot of people think you know, public servants are lazy and don't do anything, and that's a story that you hear in the media by certain, you know, politically driven organizations.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: But actually, folks in the private sector that are hiring these government employees that have, you know, just recently become jobless are finding out that they're actually blowing their other workers out of the water because um I think you not that you know, look, people are great from whatever background they come from.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: Here are stars are gonna shine, right?
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: No matter how they uh get there.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: But but you do get a unique kind of hybrid set of skills in the military and in the public sector.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: You know, the people are dealing with like a lot of constraints all the time, pressure situations, you know, things like that.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: So um, yeah.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: Public servants, military people, you're overqualified, probably.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: So don't worry about it.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, you are.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, contact the that'll help you and you'll get back right into it.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_01: You'll be fine.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_01: That's right.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_01: Find somebody to help you, feel confident in who you are and what you have to give to society.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_01: And I I agree with you, you will find a job.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_01: So I agree.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for actually thank you for that.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_01: I hadn't even thought about that as a part of the conversation today, but I think that is a really valuable piece of wisdom for people who find themselves in that situation and don't know what to do.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_01: So let's shift a little bit because I do want to talk about tech ramen.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_01: So for me, I have been in the digital health tech startup industry for almost a decade, five years of which overlapped my time in the military with permission and all ethically above board.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that this is a beautiful solution.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_01: Now, as a business owner, because I'm also now I'm a startup founder of almost six years, there are a lot of people out there who will take advantage of small business owners who don't understand their, who don't understand their skill set, who don't come from their industry and who don't have expertise in things like finance, technology, marketing, or even healthcare.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_01: I just don't need that because I'm the doctor.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_01: But there are people out there who will take advantage of the small business owner who doesn't know what they don't know and they can be easily um exploited.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm interested to hear how you find yourself in this industry where you're being fractional CTO and how you are committed to doing it ethically in a way that helps businesses rather than harms them.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, I think right now we're at a unique time in history um because of things that are going on with technology, especially with AI, and you know, other technologies also that have to support AI.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: They're all evolving really fast.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: So um everybody kind of knows that they can use technology as an accelerant for their business, right?
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: The difference between large and small business, in my opinion, is having the resources to immediately do so.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: So it's created an environment where small and especially medium-sized businesses have a lot of data that they've been collecting.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: But if they're not technology-focused businesses, they probably don't have mature tech on the back end of their business, right?
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_00: And even if they do, it's probably been set up piecemeal as they needed to solve one problem at a time.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_00: And so as they scale, it's disjointed, you know, and then I can relate to what you're saying right now.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_01: I feel that deep in my soul, what you're saying right now.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's a pretty common problem, right?
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: Like it's just kind of a been there, done that of growing your business.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: Your top priority, if you're not a technology focused company, is not on you know using best practice in your tech.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, what do I need now to get the customer happy, you know, and keep doing what we do.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um and then, you know, because of AI, Chat GPT coming out in 2022, everybody can go in there and play with it and do, you know, something that looks promising, but then to take it into their environment and do it in production in a way that's useful and shows real value, that's a lot more difficult.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: You know, there's a big space in between like I played around with this little thing.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: I think a good example of that is like all of these no-code kind of vibe coding tools that are out there now.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_00: You can create a website front page in ten minutes, you know.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_00: But now to connect that to secure authentication and you know, storage on the back end, or some other middleware services that you have, and you know, to put it in the uh cloud and configure all that, that's a whole nother thing.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_00: And most small businesses don't have that skill set in-house, right?
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: So what happens is they say, Okay, I I've played around with this AI tool and I got it got me to this place.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: I think I have a a use case for a product that my industry would love.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: And they know the value proposition well, right?
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_00: But they go, okay, what should I do?
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_00: Let me go and see if I can hire some developers overseas and I'll just tell them what I want.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and then so they spend a couple months scoping it out, they're paying along the whole way, and then they realize halfway through, oh, wait, I need to be SOC 2 compliant.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_00: These guys have no idea what that means.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_00: I need to have, you know, data encryption that rested in transit, and I need to have obfuscation of the data in the back end because I have HIPAA requirements.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_00: And I need to provide all these reports, and they're you know, they're going, wait a minute.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a training company, I'm a you know, a hat manufacturer.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: This is not what I'm doing.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: So that's the value that I bring, is that I understand in big enterprise environments, all of this kind of production level stuff that's not fun and cool, you know, but it's necessary, needs to be there, and it can be make or break for the business.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_00: So what I offer is fractional CTO services right now, you know, I go in, work with the execs, look at the tech stack, um, make a recommendation on what we should do, how much it's gonna cost, stuff like that.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: Kind of a go-no-go decision.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: You know, do you really want to go down the path?
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_00: And then if they do, I can help with kind of the rest of the journey as well.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_00: So rather than um say yourself, right?
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: A medical officer going out to a software company that's gonna augment you and you tell them what you need, and from a requirements standpoint, it makes a lot of sense, but you haven't passed that through kind of a technical expert with an executive skill set as well, to really hone those uh instructions for the development team, you know, you don't realize that you're going down the wrong path until you've wasted, you know, potentially a couple hundred thousand dollars.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_00: I solved that problem.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_00: I could say, okay, we need to do this first, that second, this third, that fourth.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_00: You have to make a decision about this.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_00: This is a business decision, this is a technical uh thing that needs to be in place, it's expensive.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_00: But if you decide that you don't want to go down that route, you can't because your industry is gonna shut you down.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_00: You're never gonna go to market, you know?
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, and I know people that that's happened to.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_01: I do know people that that has happened to, not me.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_01: Thank goodness.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's scary, right?
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm not fear-mongering here.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: There is a way through all of these things.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and yeah, that's what I'm trying to do with tech ramen is just bring this kind of like high maturity enterprise grade IT lens to small and medium-sized business so that they can still compete, you know, with these big businesses as they start automating everything and consolidating services all together.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_00: You know, that's kind of the mission behind Tech Ramen is not only to like scale the business and be a good business, I believe in helping small business thrive.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_00: And I think it's important that the kind of the tech community goes out and helps um these folks compete.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_01: I think that's beautiful.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_01: I'm hearing that one of the common themes, I mean, I just met you five minutes ago, but I'm hearing that you are someone who has compassion for people at an individual level.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_01: You care about the federal service workers who got laid off and don't have anywhere to go.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_01: You care about these small businesses who may not be given the same opportunities as larger businesses because they don't have the same access to the same resources.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm sensing that that is something about you, which I'm sure helps make you so successful in your endeavors on both sides.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I try to be a good person, you know.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_01: It matters.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_00: It does.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I'll tell you one of the pieces of wisdom that I have learned because I, like we talked before, I have used fractional um executive assistance before.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_01: We do fractional legal all the time.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's essentially what it is if you're working with an attorney on a, you know, per DM capacity if they're not on your payroll.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_01: That is a fractional general counsel, right?
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_01: I also have fractional chief marketing that I work with.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_01: But you know what?
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_01: I'll tell I'll tell you a story.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_01: So here's a piece of wisdom I've learned.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_01: And the piece of wisdom I've learned is twofold.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_01: Number one, not everyone who extends you assistance is best suited to give you assistance.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_01: And as a business owner and a founder, you have to be a good judge and a good steward of what is coming your way.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_01: Now, for me as a business owner, when I see your resume and your CV and all the places you work, especially for the federal government, I already know that you're a generally ethical person because you understand how to work with regulations.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_01: You qualify to work in the government, which means there's certain vetting processes that you have been through as a person.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_01: You probably have never been to jail, I would assume.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, there's just not yet, knock on the lid again.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_01: There's just certain things about you that I know.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_01: So I'll tell you a story a couple of years ago when I was looking for fractional chief off chief technology officer type of work, someone from my personal and professional network reached out to me and offered that service.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_01: And I didn't understand at the time.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_01: So, for my founders out there, be a good um, be learn how to be a good veter of what comes across your plate.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_01: And if you aren't qualified to vet, then find someone who is, because I wasn't qualified to vet this person, even though I knew them on a professional and personal level.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_01: This individual came in as a paid, contracted, fractional chief technology officer.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_01: And after about, we'll say five or six months of attempting to set up our back office systems.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_01: And this was the deepest knowledge gap that I had.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I worked with CHCS and Alta and you know, whatever else the government was doing for 15 years.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_01: I had no exposure to more modern technology.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_01: Um what I did not realize had happened was that this individual had purchased many of our tech stack, to use your term, many of our tech stack underneath their name, underneath their company.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_01: I know it gets worse.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_01: My Stripe, my QuickBooks, my Zoom, and the infrastructure for at the time, the building of my EHR was all purchased under um something that I didn't have control over.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_01: And then we ended up being uh we received demand for a high, high, high amount of money and told that if we didn't pay that money right away, then we were going to lose access.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_01: And we did.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_01: We lost our entire Google domain.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_01: We lost our Stripe and our QuickBooks, which I was able to get back because I knew that they were federally regulated.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_01: And so, of course, I threatened, you know, reporting to the federal authorities and got those back.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_01: But I never got my Google domain back.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_01: I never got two years worth of work emails just gone, and um never got that EHR that we paid for for six months either.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_01: And that was because I didn't understand as a business owner how to vet someone like you.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_01: So, what advice would you give?
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_01: Like, let's say if I was coming to you and saying, okay, Nathan, help me be a good connoisseur of people to work for.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_01: What do we look for in people like Tech Ramen and people like developers?
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_01: How do you know somebody's gonna do well by you and not try to steal your entire domain?
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um I think in this space, like as a fractional CTO type space, I think one of the things you can look for is honesty.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_00: If they yes man you the whole time when you're on the call, that's probably a red flag.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_00: Because I get every single customer that I've you know gone through the process with, there's things that they think make sense that don't, and you have To tell them, you know, just like in any other field where you have expertise and then you have people who can go on the internet and get knowledge, and then they come and they say, Hey, you know, I think my elbow is uh you know falling off my body on a gangrene, whatever.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_00: You're like, No, you just got some dirt on it.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_00: Or so you know, uh stories in the medical field.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_00: So that's one of the things uh is that like you know, I think what's the term I'm looking for?
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um like transparency, maybe yeah, kind of kind of like um just an open conversation to say, like, hey, you sent me this stuff that you want, but actually, this is like five projects and it's gonna take you three years to do it.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_00: We you know, we can break this down, or you know, this is gonna cost five million dollars, not thirty thousand that you want to pay.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_00: You know, because uh so having that kind of like honest and in that honesty, you a quality person that's not gonna lie to you, I think is okay saying, like, right now is not the time for you to go forward with this, focus on some other things.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_00: Let me give you, you know, these are some free advice things that you can do to get ready to the stage where we should have another conversation.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I love that.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, if they're holding on to the all they want is the business no matter what, they're probably no good.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_00: And um in my experience, I've learned that if a person is shady in any kind of way, like they're bending things or saying, like, you know what, I know a guy, we can work around this thing, they're probably gonna be like backdoor handshake deals.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, like it if so I don't personally want to do any of that because I know the people who operate in that manner, they'll come around and give it right back to you.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_00: They'll screw you in some way down the line, you know.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_00: So I think kind of character evaluation is important with business partners, you know.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what I see myself as a fractional coming in, not as just a a contractor, but as a partner, you know, in your business.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_00: I want to see you succeed just as much as my own business, right?
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_00: Because that is my business, is to bring people along in their business journey with technology.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_01: Because when they are successful, then you are successful and you're mutually, you know, that rising tide floats both boats, if you will.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_01: And everyone is successful together, not one is successful at the expense of the other.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_01: And that happens a lot out there in the startup industry.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_00: And so, uh, and when you were talking about how, you know, the person you were working with owned all your accounts, it actually made me think about something that I'm planning to do to scale.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, so there's kind of like two ways I want to scale Tech Rom, because right now it's just me.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_00: But I know a lot of people who are just as qualified as me to provide this advice.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's me and also contractors that I can bring in to help with software development work.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_00: But as a fractional, it's only me and I have limited time.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm building a roster of other fractional CTOs and I'm putting them through a vetting process because I'm not gonna put my name on someone that's not gonna knock it out of the pocket, right?
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_00: So I love it.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'm building a roster of those types, but the other way I want to scale is by um building a platform that can take some of the things that you don't want to focus on as a small medium-sized business out of the equation because we already have it built in.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_00: Right now, the way that I want to build it is using modern cloud technology, right?
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_00: Like all the three uh CSPs, right, cloud service providers, have tools that completely make it possible that you own all of your you know resources inside the application that we build for you or whatever, and the billing goes right to you, it's a pass-through, but we can still share some of the services from our account.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_00: Like we will set up an enterprise grade multi-account structure, and we use uh like secure technology so that my support team can still support your application and do everything that needs to do, but your cloud resource costs it's all in your name and all of that, and you pay directly to you know Azure or AWS or GCP, we don't upcharge your infrastructure costs, you know what I'm saying?
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_01: That's the way to do it, right?
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, because it's also in my opinion, I don't know why I'd want to be holding your Stripe account or your QuickBooks, right?
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_01: You don't.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think you do, right?
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_00: Not in a million years, yeah.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_00: Because that's a risk for me.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, it is, yeah.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_01: And like I said, we got it back, but but that's but that's what we're looking for, founders and small business owners.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_01: That's what we're looking for is people who don't want to back you into a corner or take away your freedoms or your privileges or your rights on your own stuff and say, Oh, we got this for you.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_01: Don't worry about it, we got this, don't worry about it.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_01: But people who will say, This is yours, and we're gonna help you manage and set up and maintain and sustain what is yours, not we're gonna do this for you and take it away from you.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_01: That's not the point.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_00: And in that specific instance, uh, like I said, that I'm still building out this offering.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but the idea is that let's say you onboarded two Tek Rama platform, right?
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_00: Tech Rama Cloud is what I'm gonna call.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, even though you own your own cloud, right?
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_00: Your own cloud instance for your applications or whatever infrastructure we set up for you.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_00: As part of that, you're gonna have a transition plan of like if you decide, hey, look, we have a better deal now with this other support, we don't need this anymore, you know, we have a full-time CTO, we're you know, whatever, we can transition everything out to you in a way that's gonna work, streamlined manner, migrate your data, all of that.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_00: That's I plan to bake in from day one.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_00: So going back to what you said, like what to look for, transparency is huge.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_00: You know?
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_01: And someone who wants to grow with you, but is allowed like this just like what you just said, will allow you to grow without them.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_01: You want every company that you work with, I assume, because this is how I feel too, if I'm a fractional chief medical officer.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_01: I want every company that I work with to become so big that they have to go hire their own full-time chief medical officer because I can't give them.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_01: I'm successful.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_01: And you're probably the same way.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_01: You want every company to be so big and so prosperous that they have to hire a full-time salary with benefits, CTO, and a whole tech department because that's how successful they are because of the help you gave them at that smaller stage to help take it to the next level.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_00: See, and I I think it's a mindset thing, right?
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_00: Like I see that as a win.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_00: If the company moves on, they're successful, and now they have to scale huge, you know, that it's not that I'm losing a customer, it's that I have a success case, and the more of those I have, the more I'm gonna be seen as an accelerator, a business accelerator, which helps me grow, right?
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_00: Because it's not locking in a couple accounts, it's like, yeah, I can effectiveness.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I can get more business out into the economy.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_00: It's good for everybody.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_00: And now that opens up all sorts of other doors, right?
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_00: You can maybe get funding from the the state or something, and you're working with um bringing interns on to train and all this.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_00: So you don't have to um screw people, you know.
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_00: That's kind of one thing that I I've so going back to the Holland Weiser thing, just as a human, I've learned, you know, if I meet somebody and when they have the opportunity to help somebody or screw them, they screw them, then they're no good.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_00: You know?
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_00: Help people.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_01: I love that.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_01: The true motives will always shine through.
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_01: And another thing that I will often say is the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior, which is also what you said.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_01: If you see someone who's showing that behavior somewhere, they will probably come back around and show it to you.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_01: So be careful who you associate with because those things those things tend to become patterns.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_01: My goodness.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_01: That's a lot of wisdom.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_01: That's like 15 pieces of wisdom for for one episode.
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_01: So I think that was a really high, high-powered episode.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_01: So, okay, Nathan, we we have reached the end of our time, although I feel like I am much wiser and maybe even a little smarter with all those tech acronyms you're throwing out there.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_00: Sorry, yeah.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_01: No, I love it.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_01: I love it.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_01: We gotta we gotta use it because we all gotta learn how to speak this language eventually, right?
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_01: Or we're gonna be obsolete.
• 30:33
  SPEAKER_01: So can you tell us?
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_01: Um, can you tell us where we can find you at TechRamen?
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_01: LinkedIn, website, Instagram, where are you right now?
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, so you can go to techramen.com, see my very basic website.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but you can put in a request through that to get in contact with me, or feel free to reach out.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um, LinkedIn Nathan Menzati, just you know, Google my name and you'll find my LinkedIn.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um, or you can send me an email directly, Nathan.menzati at techramen.com.
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, I'm here to support you.
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_00: So reach out and we can have a conversation.
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_00: See what we can do.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_01: Are you taking new clients right now, or is your plate full?
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_01: Where are you?
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_01: Are you or how what's your lead time for onboarding if somebody wants to do discovery and get on your your profile, like get on your suite of clients?
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_01: How long is the lead time right now?
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_00: Currently, as of October 1st, 2025, um, I have space for one more client.
• 31:29
  SPEAKER_01: So get in there.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_00: And I'd love to work with you.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_01: So get in there, get in there, people.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_01: Reserve your spot.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_00: I will mention one more time.
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_00: So I am in the process of creating a roster and you know, verifying experience for other fractional CTOs with the same or better level of experience that I have.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're interested in working with me, reach out.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_00: Even if I'm at the pastor, we'll find a way to help you one way or another.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_01: I love it.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_01: I love it.
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_01: Nathan, thank you so much.
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_01: You're all about helping people, and I can tell you're very ethical and you're very wise from all the experiences that you had.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_01: So thank you for being here today.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_01: I wish you the best of luck in everything.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_01: And you know what?
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe we'll do this again in a couple years and kind of see where Tech Roman is and see how you're doing on the outside after that time comes.
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_01: I would love to watch your progress because I think you're gonna be very successful.
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_01: So thank you for being here today.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I appreciate it, Dr.
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_00: Purdy.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for having me.
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_00: I'd love to come back.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for tuning in to the I Am Wiser Podcast, where each episode brings us closer to a wiser, more human approach to healthcare.
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_01: If today's conversation inspired you or sparked new ideas, share it with someone who's ready to rethink healthcare.
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_01: And if you have a story or innovation that could light the way for others to reach out, we'd love to hear from you.
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_01: This space is yours too.
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_01: Don't forget to follow, rate, and review us on your favorite platform.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_01: Until next time, stay curious, stay courageous, and stay wiser.