Dan Wilson — Feb 11, 2026
Attendees: Thomas, Michael, Dan
1. THE BIG PROPOSAL: Merger / Co-Founding Opportunity
Dan floated something significant. He's been approached by Great Point Ventures (GPV) to start a UM company. They offered $15M ($5M first tranche, $10M second). He turned it down initially because he doesn't want to be full-time CEO. But pieces are lining up:
The pieces Dan has:
- Epic UM product lead who wants to leave Epic and join something
- Team of 5 who sold their last company to Change Healthcare. Built backend infrastructure for payers to generically connect to EHRs, pull data, put into payer formats, analyze it. They know HL7, ADT, legacy systems cold. One has started and sold ~5 companies. They have a commercial guy too.
- GPV capital: $15M offered. Dan's counter-thinking: start with $2M, then $5M tranche, then $8M. Valuation: GPV wanted 30-40% for $15M (loose, not negotiated).
- Dan himself: Would be executive chairman, very involved but not CEO. Doesn't want to set expectation of being single-tracked.
What Dan proposed:
- DaisyAI founders (Thomas/Michael) bring the founder DNA, the AI capability, and the client (Premera)
- The 5-person team brings decades of payer infrastructure expertise, HL7/ADT/EHR integration
- Dan brings the relationships, capital connection (GPV), and strategic oversight
- Combined: 7-8 people, funded, with both startup energy AND industry expertise
- Could position as authorizations broadly (not just concurrent review) — "platform for all authorization use cases"
Dan's assessment of the team of 5:
- Good engineers, work well together, communicate well
- But NOT founder DNA — they're looking for a "quick flip" ($50-100M exits)
- One guy is the serial acquirer type, doesn't need to work — should be in a diminished role
- The 3 core tech people haven't made their money yet and still want to play for something
- They "know too much" about UM — which makes them think it can't be solved. Need to calibrate between their cynicism and our optimism.
- Red flag: their first foray wasn't successful, they're looking for what's next
Dan's framing:
- "You guys desperately need to be partnered with somebody who intimately understands the state of the state and what's been tried over the last 20 years. I don't think you can learn it fast enough."
- "You can't pay someone to care that much" — referring to Thomas and Michael's founder persistence
- "Those people are not startup founders and they won't have the passion"
- Open to different structures — merger isn't the only option. (Note: the subcontracting alternative was Thomas/Michael's idea from their post-call debrief, not Dan's.)
Thomas & Michael post-call debrief:
- Interested but cautious. Questions about compensation, equity, how it shakes out economically.
- Read on Dan: "Sounds like a man who wants to do it but doesn't want to say it yet." He doesn't want to be CEO but he wants to be deeply involved in UM.
- Michael/Thomas proposed alternative: keep DaisyAI separate, subcontract the 5-person team for ADT/HL7 integration work we can't do. This was our idea, not Dan's.
- Need more info on who the 5 people actually are
2. PREMERA CONTRACT ADVICE (Critical)
Architecture & deployment:
- Get a full system map — all applications in play, benefit managers, where decisions are made, where medical policy info is held, how it's updated
- Think about dependencies upstream and downstream
- Architect with flexibility: "Don't put a load-bearing wall where you may have to put a door later"
- Don't get overly locked into one payer's infrastructure — think about transferability
- If you can get 2 payer design partners simultaneously, great. If not, don't sweat it — just know the tradeoffs you're making.
Commercial structure:
- Cost-plus model = lowest risk. Bill market rates + 40-50% margin. Problem: looks like work for hire.
- Better approach: Scope well enough to do milestone-based or project-based pricing. Harder to call work-for-hire.
- Frame as license/subscription to existing IP, not custom dev — even if they know the product isn't fully built yet
- Budget $30-50K for lawyers. Probably $10-15K minimum, could be $30-35K.
- Get their BAA early — it'll be their BAA no matter what, don't fight it
- Ask for their sample SaaS MSA (NOT professional services agreement). Work from SaaS language.
- You draft the master agreement, incorporate their terms where possible. Don't promise to edit from theirs.
- Protect background IP. Foreground IP / background IP / residuals definitions are critical. Lawyer needs to spend real time on this.
Warrants:
- Premera may want warrants (like Optum does). This would be a validation signal.
- Structure: first $X of annual spend doesn't earn warrants. Expansion spend or bringing other payers earns warrants. Aligns incentives.
Timeline reality:
- Even with full alignment: ~6 months from handshake to go-live. Dan's fastest was 3 months (Aetna), and that was extraordinary.
- Consider a lightweight services agreement as a bridge: confidentiality agreement + simple consulting engagement. Bill $150/hr + expenses. Deliverables are assessment documents (who cares about that IP). Gets you paid to scope instead of scoping for free.
- "Most SaaS companies would do all that for free. Why would you? Go back to how services firms do it."
Mindset for the call:
- Let them talk. Get them to describe what they're thinking.
- Steer toward "this is bigger than you think"
- Come with a clear idea of the people you'll need behind you
- The degree of integration vs. independence is an open question — more integration = more dependencies = slower
3. COMPETITIVE INTEL
Kevin Coloton / HURC:
- Dan knows Kevin from Curation Health / Advisory Board / Clinovations days
- "He's super well connected with the United crowd"
- "I would put him in your like... he is a good competitor. He's smart and he knows a lot of people."
- Validates the space, but creates a real competitor
- "The space you guys are playing in is not going to lack competitors. You're going to have to out-execute and move fast."
- "You do have to do this with the payers and with the providers. This is not a thing you can just build independently."