Taylor Justice spent 13 years building Unite Us from a veteran services startup into the infrastructure connecting healthcare, government, and community organizations across the country. In this conversation, he gets honest about what that actually looked like.

He talks about the first thing they built being wrong. The investor who told him healthcare was a mistake, then wrote back a year later to say he was wrong.

He also talks about the reality of scaling fast. Tripling headcount. Two acquisitions in 60 days. And what it took to stay the course when everything is moving at once.

As Justice puts it: “This sh*t is hard. And you definitely cry sometimes."

In this episode:

• Building for veterans, then pivoting into healthcare before knowing the landscape
• The first product they built (and why it was wrong)
• Realities of scaling fast: 300 to 900 people, two acquisitions, and trying to stay focused
• 12 years with a co-founder, and what it's like now that he's gone
• Myth bust: "Stealth mode is the biggest waste of time"

Taylor Justice

Taylor Justice is the CEO and co-founder of Unite Us, a software company connecting healthcare, government, and community organizations to coordinate care around health-related non-medical needs like food, housing, and transportation. A former U.S. Army infantry officer, Taylor was medically discharged and built Unite Us out of his own experience navigating the VA system and the gaps he saw for veterans without a network. Thirteen years later, Unite Us operates throughout the United States and has raised over $250 million to transform how human services are delivered.