The Moment That Matters

I've been in healthcare technology long enough to know that the beginning of a vendor relationship tells you almost nothing about how it's going to end.
The demo is always good. The kickoff call is always energized. The first quarter results always feel like validation. Everyone shakes hands and says the right things.
Then the novelty wears off. The results normalize. The weekly calls become biweekly, then monthly, then optional. The vendor's A-team moves on to the next new logo. The ops team at the practice starts figuring things out on their own. And somewhere around month 14, the relationship is running on autopilot.
I know this pattern because I've lived it from every angle. I've been the vendor who showed up strong in quarter one and let things drift by quarter four. I've been the buyer who sat through QBRs that told me nothing I didn't already know. And I've been the leader trying to figure out why a partnership that started with so much promise ended with a quiet non-renewal.
Every one of those experiences taught me the same lesson. The relationships that last aren't the ones that start the strongest. They're the ones that get stronger over time. And that only happens when the people behind the platform keep showing up like they have something to prove.

What Showing Up Actually Looks Like

I want to be specific here, because "showing up" is the kind of thing that sounds good in a blog post but means nothing without context.
Showing up means being in the data before your client asks you about it. It means noticing that a campaign is underperforming at three locations and having a theory about why before the ops team flags it. It means understanding the practice well enough to know that a provider template change last Tuesday is the reason bookings dipped on Wednesday.
It means sitting in a quarterly review and leading with what didn't work, not burying it on slide 12. The clients who trust us most at Parakeet are the ones we've been most honest with when results fell short. I've watched what happens when you walk into a room and say "this didn't go the way we expected, here's why, and here's what we're changing." It's uncomfortable in the moment. But it builds something that no demo or pilot can replicate.
It also means having people on the team who understand the operational reality of running a healthcare practice. Not people who learned healthcare from a training deck. People who've actually managed scheduling workflows, navigated EHR integrations, and felt the pressure of a schedule that isn't full enough.
When a winter storm cancels 5,000 appointments in a single day, showing up means your team is already watching the same data the ops team is watching. Not waiting for a ticket. Not scheduling a call for Monday. Watching it in real time and making sure the outreach is working.
That moment happened. And it didn't happen because of a feature in the platform. It happened because the people behind it cared about the outcome as much as the client did.

Why I Think About This Constantly

I'll be honest. This is the thing I think about more than anything else in my role.
I've been part of three exits in healthcare technology. Epocrates, WebMD, Jumo Health. Each one taught me something different about building commercial relationships. But the through-line across all of them was the same: the deals that turned into real partnerships were the ones where we never stopped earning it.
At Epocrates, I was in the President's Club eight years in a row. Not because I was the best closer. Because I stayed close to my clients long after the contract was signed. I learned their business. I understood their pain points. I showed up when it wasn't required. And when renewal time came, the conversation was never about whether to continue. It was about what to add.
That's the standard I brought to Parakeet, and it's the standard our team operates by. We price on performance because we believe the relationship should be built on what we produce, not what we promise. If we don't deliver, we don't deserve the business. And if we do deliver, the results speak louder than any sales pitch.
I realize that sounds simple. It's not. It requires a level of operational depth, intellectual honesty, and genuine care for the client's outcomes that is harder to maintain than most people realize. Especially as you scale. Especially as you add clients. Especially when the pressure to grow makes it tempting to shift attention to the next new logo instead of doubling down on the partnerships you already have.
But every time I've seen a company choose growth over depth, I've watched the churn follow. And every time I've seen a company choose depth over growth, I've watched the expansion follow.

The Question I'd Ask

If you're running a healthcare practice or overseeing operations, think about the last time your AI vendor surprised you.
Not with a product update. Not with a new feature announcement. Surprised you by knowing something about your operations that you hadn't told them. By catching a problem before you saw it. By showing up with an insight that made your business better.
If that's happening regularly, you've got a partner. Hold onto them.
If it's not, it might be worth asking what you're actually paying for.

Rick Scorzetti is the Chief Commercial Officer at Parakeet Health, an AI-powered patient access platform for large specialty practices. He has 25 years of experience in healthcare technology sales leadership, including roles at Epocrates, WebMD/Medscape, and Jumo Health. Connect with him on LinkedIn.