Hartford-Based Digital Health Startup Silver Fern Healthcare

Silver Fern Healthcare Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer Colleen McGuire spoke with MetroHartford Alliance Content Manager Nan Price about bringing an innovative new concept to the digital health market.

NAN PRICE: Give us a little background about your career evolution.

COLLEEN MCGUIRE: My leadership experience in financial services and then later in academia continuously put me in environments where I contended with various leadership challenges. Those experiences gave me opportunities to hone skills—whether it was working to accomplish the company’s mission and vision at the highest strategic level; building strategy; or acquiring, retaining, and engaging talent.

NAN: Tell us more about developing the business concept for Silver Fern Healthcare.

COLLEEN: Silver Fern Healthcare is a mission-oriented social enterprise company. Our Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer, Garry Welch, PhD, has spent 20+ years developing a methodology whereby we could tackle and conquer the human and financial costs of chronic disease.

NAN: You have a lot of leadership experience, but this is your first startup. Did you connect with any Connecticut resources while you were starting out?

COLLEEN: One of the things we love about Hartford is that it’s a very manageable city in terms of size and we’ve made some great contacts between all of our networks. We leveraged those networks quite a bit in the area. We talked to a lot of the local stakeholders and visited with local hospitals and several insurance companies and provider groups, as well as partners and intermediaries, like the MetroHartford Alliance, the Connecticut Health Council, reSET, and the Connecticut Technology Council.

NAN: Earlier you mentioned talent engagement. Have your connections helped with that?

COLLEEN: Yes. Through our networks and working with the University of Connecticut and our advisory board, we’ve been able to identify and engage some serious local talent, which makes us very happy as a local company.

Read the complete interview at Innovation Destination Hartford