to tap the area’s deep engineering talent pool to continue to improve capabilities like this. Accolade has about 800 employees, including more than 60 in Seattle.
“The skills that we require here are data science, machine learning,” Singh says. “We’re building a business that is sitting on top of a treasure trove of healthcare information, and figuring out how to turn that information into better care, we’re looking for the best engineers in the world to go do that, and we’re looking for the best product designers and product managers to help custom-fit a solution to a healthcare space that hasn’t really embraced technology as fast as the rest of the world has.”
Accolade is looking for people driven by the mission of transforming healthcare. “You better want to change the world, because if you don’t, this will tire you out,” Singh says.
Singh and Hilton have brought to Accolade at least eight other executives from Concur, in addition to making other high-profile leadership hires from the Seattle technology and medical community. These include chief medical officer Ivor Horn, formerly medical director of the Center for Diversity and Health Equity at Seattle Children’s Hospital, and chief technology officer Harish Naidu, a Microsoft alumnus who lately has advised a series of healthcare and tech companies.
Accolade-Limeade Alliance
Bellevue, WA-based Limeade, which provides software to help companies guide their employees toward wellness through goal-setting and fitness challenges, is the first company to formally partner with Accolade as part of the latter’s strategy of building an “ecosystem” of third-party healthcare and benefits services, integrated with its own software.
Corporations are adding healthcare services for their employees including telemedicine, on-site clinics, and second-opinion services. “We should enable all of that,” Singh says, adding that new partnerships are in the offing and will be coming “one after the other.”
Singh says wellness software is one of the biggest categories its customers are buying to help keep employees from entering the healthcare system, and that Limeade is “one of the great companies in that space.”
Through the alliance, Accolade health assistants will be able to remind the people they advise of the Limeade benefit—provided that their employer offers it—and how it may fit into the context of other health benefits.
Accolade marketing vice president Samantha Steinwinder says Accolade and Limeade currently have one customer in common, but there are opportunities for growth. “We see a lot of consistencies in our customer base and theirs,” she says.
