Start School Session: Nomi Health Founder & CEO Mark Newman

Mark Newman was 20 years old when he started HireVue.

He was a college student at Westminster, working jobs that included washing dishes, serving food, and doing animal shows at Hogle Zoo. He had never worked at a major corporation, never raised venture capital, and had no idea what it actually took to build a successful technology company.

But he had an idea.

Mark and his co-founder, Ryan Money, believed that people deserved to be evaluated for more than what appeared on a résumé. They wanted to give candidates an opportunity to tell their stories, demonstrate their abilities, and get a shot at jobs they might otherwise never have been considered for.

They started HireVue in 2005 as a college project. What they thought might last a few years turned into 15 years of building a company that would eventually serve some of the largest employers in the world.

Along the way, Mark raised venture capital during the 2008 financial crisis, brought on major investors, navigated difficult board relationships, and learned firsthand how quickly a founder can lose control of the company they created.

HireVue was sold in 2019.

But Mark wasn't finished building.

A few years earlier, while sitting in a hospital room after the birth of his first child, Mark had experienced something that completely changed the way he thought about healthcare.

A hospital employee came in to discuss his $4,500 bill. When Mark asked what would happen if he paid the entire amount immediately, she offered him a 30% discount.

He couldn't believe it.

The same medical care. The same hospital. The same bill. But suddenly, the price was dramatically different simply because of how he paid.

Mark started asking questions. He talked to insurance companies, healthcare executives, and industry insiders. The more he learned, the more convinced he became that the problem wasn't necessarily healthcare itself.

It was the business of healthcare.

In 2019, he started Nomi Health to do something about it.

Today, Nomi Health works with thousands of employers to bring greater transparency to healthcare spending, simplify payments, and help organizations purchase care directly.

Mark has spent more than two decades building companies, challenging established industries, making expensive mistakes, and refusing to accept that the way things have always been done is the way they have to remain.

And he has plenty to say about what he has learned.

Valuation Is Temporary. Control Is Forever.

Mark learned one of his most expensive lessons while raising money for HireVue.

As a young founder, he was focused on getting the deal done. He listened to lawyers, accepted terms described as standard, and assumed that bringing respected investors onto his cap table meant he was making the right decisions.

Looking back, he sees things differently.

Mark described experiencing roughly 90% dilution at HireVue, along with financing terms and board arrangements that left him with far less control than he originally anticipated.

He learned that raising money is not simply about getting the highest valuation or attracting the most recognizable investors. Every financing decision can have consequences that last for years.

One of his favorite reminders came from an old AngelList mug: “Valuation is temporary, control is forever.”

That lesson shaped how he approached fundraising at Nomi Health. He became much more intentional about protecting founder rights, structuring agreements, and understanding exactly what he was giving away.

His advice to entrepreneurs is to raise more money than they think they need, be clear about the terms they want, and never assume that something is a good deal simply because someone says it is standard.

The money matters. But so does what happens after you take it.

Find Investors Who Actually Believe in What You're Building

Mark has raised capital from some of the most recognizable names in venture capital. He has also experienced what happens when the person who believes in your company is no longer the person representing the investment.

At HireVue, he developed relationships with individual investors who understood the business and believed in its potential. But when those people moved to different firms or roles, someone new would take their place.

Suddenly, Mark was dealing with board members who hadn't made the original investment decision and didn't necessarily share the same conviction.

That experience changed the way he thinks about choosing investors.

Entrepreneurs spend enormous amounts of time searching for product-market fit with customers. Mark believes they should be doing the same thing with investors.

Does the investor understand your industry? Do they believe in the problem you're solving? Do they share your vision for the company? Are they willing to make an independent decision, or are they waiting for someone else to invest first?

Mark was particularly outspoken about Utah's venture capital ecosystem, arguing that local investors have become too dependent on social proof and too hesitant to lead.

His advice is to look beyond geography. Find the people who understand your business, believe in what you're doing, and are the right partners for the journey ahead.

The goal isn't just to find someone willing to write a check. It's to find someone you actually want beside you when things get difficult.

The Best Business Opportunities Often Start With a Simple Question

Nomi Health didn't begin with a complicated healthcare innovation strategy.

It began with a hospital bill.

When Mark discovered that paying immediately could reduce his bill by 30%, he started wondering why employers couldn't negotiate and pay for healthcare in a similar way.

He wasn't a healthcare expert. He was a technology entrepreneur who had spent years working with HR departments and understanding the challenges employers faced.

But he recognized a business problem that nobody seemed interested in solving.

When he approached industry insiders with his experience, many dismissed him. They explained why healthcare pricing worked the way it did and why his idea wasn't realistic.

Mark wasn't convinced.

Instead of accepting their explanations, he decided to build a company that could challenge the system.

Today, Nomi Health's approach centers on helping employers understand their healthcare spending, control their payments, and contract directly for care. Mark says the company's customers can reduce healthcare costs while improving the experience for employees.

The lesson goes beyond healthcare.

Sometimes the most important entrepreneurial opportunities are hiding inside experiences everyone else has learned to accept.

A confusing bill. An inefficient process. A customer frustration. A problem that has existed for so long that people have stopped questioning it.

Mark saw something that didn't make sense and refused to stop asking why.

Don't Confuse Hype With Reality

Mark has little patience for the way success is sometimes presented in the startup world.

He has watched companies celebrate enormous fundraising rounds, impressive valuations, and exciting headlines while the reality behind the scenes looks very different.

His advice is simple: don't believe everything you read.

He challenged the hype surrounding artificial intelligence, questioned the way investors follow trends, and encouraged founders to think critically about what is actually creating value.

He also acknowledged that entrepreneurs themselves contribute to the problem.

When someone asks how the company is doing, the answer is almost always some version of great. Growth is incredible. Everything is moving forward. The future has never looked brighter.

Meanwhile, the founder might be exhausted, overwhelmed, struggling to make decisions, and carrying enormous pressure.

Mark believes that pretending everything is perfect can become more damaging than the stress of running the company itself.

Entrepreneurship is difficult. Even when the business is successful, the experience can be chaotic, demanding, and deeply personal.

Being honest about that reality doesn't make someone a weaker founder.

It makes them a more honest one.

Know Yourself Before You Try to Lead Everyone Else

When Clint asked Mark about self-leadership, Mark didn't pretend to have a perfect routine or a carefully structured system for managing his days.

He admitted that he struggles with discipline and context switching.

His calendar can include a dozen meetings covering everything from customers and government relationships to legal issues, finances, and internal operations.

He knows he isn't naturally suited to being a day-to-day manager. He describes himself as more of a sprinter and firefighter than someone who thrives on repetitive operational management.

Rather than pretending to be someone he isn't, Mark has learned to recognize where he creates the most value.

He gets energy from being in front of customers, solving difficult problems, and pushing new ideas forward.

That self-awareness influences how he builds teams and leads organizations.

Mark also shared the simple framework he has carried from HireVue to Nomi Health: deliver innovation people thought was impossible, drive massive adoption of that innovation, and earn incredibly passionate customers.

Those three priorities help him stay focused even when everything around him feels chaotic.

Leadership doesn't require every founder to operate the same way. It requires understanding your strengths, recognizing your weaknesses, and building an organization capable of succeeding beyond your personal abilities.

Part of Success Is Just Not Dying

Mark has built companies through financial crises, difficult fundraising environments, leadership changes, industry resistance, and the extraordinary uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic.

At Nomi Health, the company went from roughly 10 employees in January 2020 to operating massive healthcare programs during the pandemic. Mark says Nomi served 17 million people through that period and, at one point, had thousands of people working across its operations.

The company has evolved significantly since then, but Mark says its original mission has remained remarkably consistent.

He has never stopped believing in the problem Nomi set out to solve.

That persistence is something he sees as a common characteristic among successful entrepreneurs.

Founders have different personalities, management styles, backgrounds, and approaches to building companies. But the ones who make it often share a refusal to let the business die.

As Mark put it, “Part of success is just not dying.”

That doesn't mean refusing to change. Companies have to adapt, make cuts, abandon strategies, and find new ways forward.

It means remaining committed to the mission even when the path becomes difficult.

Mark summed up his own experience by saying that his companies have died many times, but they have not given up.

Build Something Worth Fighting For

Mark isn't trying to make healthcare a little more convenient.

He believes the way America pays for healthcare is fundamentally broken, and he wants to change it.

He spoke passionately about the enormous amount the country spends on healthcare, the financial burden placed on families, and the complicated payment systems that leave both patients and providers frustrated.

He believes employers should have more transparency, providers should be paid more directly, and patients shouldn't have to fear the financial consequences of getting sick.

That mission is what keeps him going.

Mark described a distinction he heard from Utah Governor Spencer Cox between optimists, pessimists, and builders. Optimists believe things will improve. Pessimists believe they won't. Builders recognize that the world is a work in progress and decide to do something about it.

Mark wants to surround himself with builders.

People who see problems and refuse to accept them. People willing to challenge powerful institutions. People who care enough about an outcome to keep working toward it, even when the process is difficult.

He knows that building Nomi Health will continue to demand enormous time, energy, and sacrifice.

But he believes the problem is worth solving.

And that belief is what gets him up every morning.

Mark Newman has spent more than 20 years building companies, and one thing is clear from hearing him tell his story.

He has never been particularly interested in doing things simply because that is how they have always been done.

He started HireVue because he believed talented people were being overlooked by traditional hiring practices. He started Nomi Health because he couldn't accept that something as essential as healthcare could operate with so little transparency.

Both companies began with a problem he believed deserved a better solution.

Neither journey was easy.

There were difficult investors, expensive mistakes, unexpected crises, enormous personal sacrifices, and plenty of moments when the future was uncertain.

But Mark kept building.

His story is a reminder that entrepreneurship isn't always about having the perfect plan, raising the biggest round, or following the latest trend.

Sometimes it is about noticing something that doesn't make sense, believing there is a better way, and being willing to fight for it long enough to make a difference.

You don't have to accept every rule of an industry. You don't have to follow every investor's advice. You don't have to pretend everything is going perfectly.

You do have to understand what you're building, why it matters, and what you're willing to do to make it work.

Watch the full session above, take notes, and come to the next one ready to build.

Show up. Give more than you take.