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When ose Herrera and his co-founders first surveyed the customer support landscape, they noticed something troubling: outsourced partners weren't prioritizing employees or truly embodying their clients' brand values. This gap between what brands needed and what traditional BPOs offered sparked the creation of Horatio, a revolutionary approach to customer experience that's now serving hundreds of U.S. clients from operations in the Dominican Republic and Colombia.
Drawing from his background in finance at Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, Jose built Horatio with a fundamentally different philosophy: put employees first, and they'll naturally deliver exceptional service to clients. This isn't just a platitude painted on office walls—it's embedded in everything from their bright, open workspaces (nicknamed "the Google of Latin America") to on-site amenities like daycare, gyms with personal trainers, and yoga rooms. Regular employee surveys and informal conversations ensure this people-first culture evolves with their team's needs.
What truly distinguishes Horatio is their dedicated team model, where resources aren't shared between clients. Each team functions as a genuine extension of the client's organization, authentically representing their brand voice while benefiting from Horatio's technological expertise. This approach has proven particularly valuable in healthcare, where "compliance and compassion" must coexist. By providing both HIPAA-compliant processes and extensive emotional intelligence training, Horatio's agents deliver the empathetic support patients need during vulnerable moments.
Perhaps most remarkably, Horatio achieved this growth without raising outside capital, instead reinvesting profits into operations and talent. As they expand deeper into healthcare and financial services while exploring new Latin American markets, Jose remains committed to the vision that technology should augment human capabilities rather than replace them. In his words, "AI serves as a co-pilot for our agents, not a replacement"—a refreshing perspective in an industry often fixated on automation at the expense of the human touch.
Ready to see how a purpose-driven approach to customer experience could transform your business? Discover what's possible when empathy, technology, and operational excellence converge.
More at https://linktr.ee/EvanKirstel
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hey everybody, fascinating chat today with a
purpose-driven VX Powerhouse, acompany that's really on a
mission at Horatio Jose.
How are you Doing great, evan,how are you Very good, thanks
Great to be here with Irmatalking all things customer
service, customer experience andbeyond and you're a true
(00:25):
entrepreneur and innovator inthis space.
Before we dive in, maybeintroduce yourself a little bit
about your fascinating journeyas an entrepreneur and founder,
co-founder, and the visionbehind Horatio.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Definitely so.
My name is Jose.
I'm the co-founder and CEO ofHoratio.
We are a near-shore outsourcingprovider offering customer
support, back-office solutionsand trust and safety services
across e-commerce, fintech andhealthcare.
We have operations in theDominican Republic and in
Colombia, and we currentlyservice about 100 clients out of
(01:03):
the US and we currently serviceabout 100 clients out of the US
.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Well, fantastic, and you know, bpo is the term of art
in the industry.
But I think you do so much morethan that.
Maybe what got you interestedin the customer service industry
and why did you think this sortof industry needed reinvention
or differentiation?
Speaker 2 (01:29):
So I started my career in finance I worked at
Goldman Sachs and I worked atMorgan Stanley for the vast
majority of my career Decided totake a break and pursue my MBA
at Columbia Business School,which is where I met my
co-founders, jared and Alex, andwe thought that we were going
to become VC entrepreneursinvesting in e-commerce retail
brands, and we quickly realizedthat one of the biggest pain
(01:51):
points that these brands havewhen scaling is finding reliable
, incredible talent on thecustomer support and back office
side of things and in lookingat the competitive landscape of
BPOs.
The majority of the BPOs at thetime were catering
traditionally to biggerenterprise clients.
They were not catering tosmaller direct-to-consumer
(02:14):
brands, and also one of thebiggest concerns of these
companies was how can a partnerthat is outsourced understand my
brand voice and my values?
That is outsourced understandmy brand voice and my values?
And we really saw anopportunity there to transform
the way BPOs are perceived inthe industry and also build a
different type of BPO that iscentered around human connection
(02:35):
while incorporating the latesttechnologies into our offering.
And so we started working withsome of our direct-to-consumer
brands, building out dedicatedteams for every client that
actually acts as a trueextension of the organization
that can replicate their brandvoice and that can really foster
(02:56):
that environment ofcollaboration that is expected
from an in-house team member.
And that is exactly what wedecided to do.
Member.
And that is exactly what wedecided to do.
And the other thing that we'vedone, as the business has
continued to evolve, isincorporate best-in-class
technologies.
We are fully technognostic.
That allows us to provide thebest tech stack for all of our
clients, depending on theirparticular use case, and so, as
(03:20):
I mentioned earlier, we workwith e-commerce brands.
We also work with fintech andfinancial services companies.
We also work with differenthealthcare companies.
All of them have nuances, allof them have different
requirements.
So it's not a one-size-fits-alltechnology stack that we can
recommend to all of our clients,and so we have a very strong
customer success andimplementations team that is
(03:40):
constantly doing a deep dive onthe latest technological
advancements and what are thebest in-class tools that we can
recommend and implement onbehalf of our clients.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
That's a great overview, jose.
Now I'm particularly interestedin healthcare.
That's what I focus in day inand day out.
So you've served high-growthbrands across multiple sectors,
as you've just told us, and Iwant to dive deeper into
healthcare in particular.
How is customer experienceevolving in the healthcare
(04:12):
industry?
Speaker 2 (04:14):
Yes, it is very interesting because, as you know
, it is a very regulatedindustry and we have to take an
individualized approach to eachcompany that we work with.
So we service differenthealthcare types of clients, and
so we have to obviously beHIPAA compliant which we are and
(04:35):
then also understand what arewe going to be doing for each
healthcare company and how canwe best position ourselves in
terms of AI, automation andhuman in the loop components.
Some of the services that weprovide include the traditional
support services likeappointment scheduling, regular
billing questions, onboarding,provider access authorization,
(05:01):
insurance verification, and thenthe traditional back office
services like RCM work, and sowhat we're doing with all of our
clients is obviously comingwith a combined approach that is
digital first, but also humanbacked, of course, understanding
that we have to be empathetic,that it is an industry that
(05:21):
still requires a lot of empathy,and that is what matters most
to us at the end of the day isproviding these personalized
experiences.
So how can we continue toprovide a patient-centric CX
experience while alsoincorporating the latest
technological advancements andthat's something that we're
working very closely with ourclients is to understand how we
can continue to adapt and evolveand continue to not miss out on
(05:45):
that human touch as we continueto see technological
advancements in healthcare.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
Fantastic.
I'm glad you brought up empathyand you mentioned how important
it is in healthcare, becausesupporting a customer buying a
product is one thing, butsupporting somebody dealing with
a very personal and emotionalissue, like a medical condition,
is something else.
(06:12):
How do you train your agentsfor that kind of sensitivity?
Speaker 2 (06:19):
Yes, I call it compliance and compassion, and
so I think it's understandingthe regulatory framework that we
have to comply with inhealthcare and also conduct very
strong emotional intelligenceand soft skills seminars so that
we can train the team membersto maintain that empathy
throughout every interaction, nomatter how small it is.
(06:42):
Re interaction no matter howsmall it is, we always have to
remind ourselves that, as youmentioned, it is a very delicate
interaction when it ishealthcare related.
So providing proactive support,training the team to continue
to rely on empathy and usebest-in-class tools to dissuade
(07:04):
difficult conversations, issomething that we pride
ourselves in.
So, as part of our onboardingprocess and continuous education
process, we work very closelywith our team members and our
training team to provide thosecontinuous education seminars to
all of our agents.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
Wow, amazing Well done.
That's not the industry norm,let's say to say the least.
Let's talk about your facility,your offices.
You built almost sort of techcampuses that look rather
different from traditionalcontact centers.
You know daycare and yoga roomsand you know amazing employee
(07:42):
experience.
I mean, how do you justifythose investments when it comes
to the environment and what doesit mean in terms of mental,
physical, wellness for agents oremployees?
Basically, yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
So when we started the company, we went and checked
out what was out there in termsof our competitive landscape
and we noticed that theemployees were not front and
center in terms of prioritiesfor these companies.
And we aim to do the completeopposite, because my whole
thesis is if you take care ofyour employees, they'll take
care of your clients, andobviously it's obvious, but one
(08:15):
thing is saying it in a valuesboard and the other thing is
executing it, and so, unlike thetraditional BPO model, where
employees feel confined anddisconnected, horatio fosters an
open, collaborative andengaging work environment.
Our offices, as you saw, aredesigned to reflect a similar
startup culture environment thatyou would see in the US startup
(08:42):
culture environment that youwould see in the US, and some of
our clients call our campushere in the VR the Google of
Latin America, because it is abright, open workspace that
encourages teamwork andcommunication.
As you mentioned, we provideon-site daycare for working
parents, we have a gym withpersonal trainers, yoga room, we
have an outdoor terrace tosupport work-life balance, and
we've built a company culturethat is built on empowerment,
(09:04):
career growth and innovation,and it starts with the design of
our facilities how bright andopen they are to foster that
collaboration.
And then it also translatesinto what we do day in and day
out for our clients.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
Wonderful.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
That's great to see that kind of approach to
industry that historically hadseen high burnout rate and, of
course, burnout is a word youhear a lot in healthcare.
Healthcare support teamsoverall, including physicians
and all the support staff, facehigh stress and burnout.
(09:44):
So obviously, being in thissupportive environment
surrounded by light, and havingthis culture that you've
described as goes a long way tohelp that.
So tell us more in terms ofadvice, maybe for other startups
(10:04):
how can they learn from Horatioin terms of reimagining this
agent experience?
Speaker 2 (10:12):
Yeah, my recommendation would be to build
your values and your culturearound your employees.
I mean, they are the mostimportant asset of your
organization.
Even with technology, they arestill going to remain the most
important asset of yourorganization.
So my advice to anyentrepreneur thinking of
building a people centeredorganization and business is to
(10:34):
really make sure that you aredoing what your values are
saying and what they'redisplaying, and making sure that
you measure that.
So something that we'reconstantly doing is ENPS and
quarterly business surveys withall of our employees to
understand, like, what is itthat is lacking, what are they
lacking?
(10:54):
What can we do to improve?
And a lot can come out of thoseconversations.
And it's also, you know,walking the halls and having
conversations informally withemployees and understanding,
like, what is it that they careabout and how can we support
them for that growth?
Speaker 1 (11:11):
Brilliant and I've heard, I've seen many of your
customers, big blue chip names,I won't call them out, but
well-known brands here inMassachusetts, even in finance
and healthcare.
How do you deal with their veryparticular, unique demands
around privacy and complianceand trust and security and all
these kinds of issues?
Speaker 2 (11:32):
Yeah, so every client has a very unique way of doing
things and we pride ourselves onbuilding dedicated teams.
That means that we don't shareany resources between clients.
So whenever you work withHoratio, we build a dedicated
team that is just working foryou 100%.
And so compliance and securityis top and center and front and
center for us, and we work veryclosely with our clients to
(11:55):
understand during the onboardingprocess, what is it that we
need from a security standpointto have the best setup.
We are SOC 2, type 2 certified.
We are PCI compliant, we areHIPAA compliant and it's
understanding that each nuanceis to your point of what we need
to get to make sure that theyhave the right level of comfort.
(12:17):
A lot of our clients travel tothe DRM to Columbia to meet our
sites and do their directsecurity checks.
We've passed with flying colors.
We have a very strong data andsecurity team here at the
company that is working veryclosely with the internal teams
at our client sites as well.
Speaker 3 (12:38):
Jose, what I find interesting is that you've been
able to scale without raisingoutside capital, and that is not
something you see frequently intechnology or in healthcare.
So I'm curious how did thatinfluence your ability to build
this long-term, value-alignedstrategy for your company and
that culture you've talked about?
Speaker 2 (13:01):
Yeah, I think we have a very unique background in the
sense that the threeco-founders come from the
finance industry, and so weprioritize building a profitable
business that is focused aroundour customers.
We reinvested all of ourprofits directly into operations
, directly into hiring best inclass talent, and I guess we
(13:26):
were very disciplined in the waythat we do things.
So operational efficiency forus is critical, understanding
how to streamline the rightworkflows to make our teams more
efficient and avoid bloatedorganizational structures.
I think that's something thathas benefited us from the fact
that we haven't raised outsidecapital.
That is, that we have to getcreative with that, figuring out
(13:49):
what we can do in terms ofbuilding out repeatable
processes, making sure that wehave built a strong brand.
So from the beginning, I havebeen very involved in all of our
client relationships.
We haven't spent, up untilrecently, any capital on
(14:11):
marketing and sales initiatives.
Most of our clients come fromreferrals, which speaks volumes
to the kind of work that we'redoing.
So we've sort of like created,sort of like a reputation within
the industry and even withinour tech partnerships as well.
We got a lot of referrals fromour tech partners because they
know that we can deliver fortheir clients, and so that is
something that we have done interms of like bootstrapping up
(14:36):
until this point and stillbecoming a profitable enterprise
.
And, as I mentioned earlier,it's about getting creative.
So, obviously, having creativepartnerships with tech platforms
, companies that arecomplementary to what we do so
partnering with companies likeSendDesk, for example, or AI
(14:56):
platforms and solutions anddoing cross-selling with that
has also helped us in terms oflike building out an
infrastructure that has notrequired outside capital to this
point.
Well done.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
Not so easy to do.
So you have 3,000 agents andgrowing.
I believe this must be a commonquestion.
What do you see the role for AIbeing in the business, both on
the agent side customerexperience and beyond?
What's your thinking at themoment?
Speaker 2 (15:30):
Yeah, so internally, we've been using AI and I think
the word AI is new for the pasttwo years, but since we started
working at Horatio, we've reliedon tools like RPA to handle
repetitive, rule-based work.
That includes data entry, formprocessing, order tracking,
invoice management.
We've done that since westarted the company.
None of that is new.
That has freed up agents tofocus on higher-end tasks.
(15:54):
We've used chatbots.
We've used virtual assistants.
We've also used sentimentanalysis.
All of these that we're seeingnow is something that we've
always used and we've alwaysincorporated, and the role that
we continue to see with AI is toserve as a co-pilot for our
agents, not a replacement.
I think that the narrative hascontinued to change.
I think when the worlddiscovered AI, the narrative was
(16:21):
around replacement of agents,but I think what people are
starting to realize that it isabout how can we co-live with AI
, how can we take advantage ofthese technological advancements
to make our teams moreefficient and to have that
combination of human in the loopAI augmenting humans which
(16:46):
ultimately is a win-win foreveryone.
Speaker 3 (16:49):
Most definitely.
It sounds like human plus AI isthe winning formula.
Yes, and there's untoldbenefits to be gained looking
into the future Speaking of that.
So what's next for Horatio?
More countries, more serviceservice lines, maybe deeper into
certain industries?
And also, what's keeping youinspired right now?
Speaker 2 (17:13):
we're getting deeper into definitely getting deeper
into health care and financialservices, so that's super
exciting for us.
We're we're launching new linesof businesses there, also
exploring other lines ofbusinesses there, also exploring
other lines of businesseswithin the trust and safety
space, and, as we continue toexplore expansion and growth, we
(17:33):
are excited about going intoother countries within Latin
America.
I think that we've created avery strong name for ourselves
in the nearshore space and weprovided that quality that is
expected from our clients and sosuper excited to continue
growing, not only in the DR, inColombia, but also some
countries in the region as well.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
Amazing.
So you recently had a big openhouse.
We were invited to that.
Unfortunately we had a conflict, but I hope that becomes an
annual tradition.
How did it go?
And what other events travel orotherwise are you excited about
the rest of the year.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
It went great.
Hopefully you guys can comeevery year.
This was our third time doingour client summit.
We had 120 attendees.
It was a fun week where ourclients and even prospects came
down and were able to interactwith each other, exchange ideas.
We wanted to build thatinformal setting so that they
can all share best practices andalso have a good time with
(18:31):
their team members.
A lot of them were super happyto be here with their team.
As I mentioned, our clients comehere all the time.
We're super close to the US.
It's less than two hours fromMiami, around three hours from
New York, so a lot of ourclients come all the time.
But it was a special time ofthe year obviously February,
pretty cold in the US, so a lotof people enjoyed escaping the
(18:51):
cold weather for a couple ofdays.
We were in San Descrimate inVegas a couple of weeks ago that
was great as well.
In San Francisco with one ofour AI partners meeting some
very exciting companies that areexploring joint partnerships
with us.
And for the next couple ofweeks we're also hitting the
(19:14):
road being New York early Mayfor another summit that we're
attending and we're speaking atand then hosting a dinner with
clients as well.
We have a lot of clients in NewYork, so it's always good to
catch up with everyone beforethe summer starts.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
Amazing.
Well, congratulations on allthe success, onwards and upwards
.
We're rooting for you, givenyour philosophy and
mission-driven culture.
And congratulations, lookforward to seeing you when
you're next here inMassachusetts.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
Thank you so much, and thank you for having me, for
having me have a good day.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
Thank you and thanks everyone for listening and
watching.
Take care.
Hey everybody, fascinating chat today with a
purpose-driven VX Powerhouse, acompany that's really on a
mission at Horatio Jose.
How are you Doing great, evan,how are you Very good, thanks
Great to be here with Irmatalking all things customer
service, customer experience andbeyond and you're a true
(00:25):
entrepreneur and innovator inthis space.
Before we dive in, maybeintroduce yourself a little bit
about your fascinating journeyas an entrepreneur and founder,
co-founder, and the visionbehind Horatio.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Definitely so.
My name is Jose.
I'm the co-founder and CEO ofHoratio.
We are a near-shore outsourcingprovider offering customer
support, back-office solutionsand trust and safety services
across e-commerce, fintech andhealthcare.
We have operations in theDominican Republic and in
Colombia, and we currentlyservice about 100 clients out of
(01:03):
the US and we currently serviceabout 100 clients out of the US
.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Well, fantastic, and you know, bpo is the term of art
in the industry.
But I think you do so much morethan that.
Maybe what got you interestedin the customer service industry
and why did you think this sortof industry needed reinvention
or differentiation?
Speaker 2 (01:29):
So I started my career in finance I worked at
Goldman Sachs and I worked atMorgan Stanley for the vast
majority of my career Decided totake a break and pursue my MBA
at Columbia Business School,which is where I met my
co-founders, jared and Alex, andwe thought that we were going
to become VC entrepreneursinvesting in e-commerce retail
brands, and we quickly realizedthat one of the biggest pain
(01:51):
points that these brands havewhen scaling is finding reliable
, incredible talent on thecustomer support and back office
side of things and in lookingat the competitive landscape of
BPOs.
The majority of the BPOs at thetime were catering
traditionally to biggerenterprise clients.
They were not catering tosmaller direct-to-consumer
(02:14):
brands, and also one of thebiggest concerns of these
companies was how can a partnerthat is outsourced understand my
brand voice and my values?
That is outsourced understandmy brand voice and my values?
And we really saw anopportunity there to transform
the way BPOs are perceived inthe industry and also build a
different type of BPO that iscentered around human connection
(02:35):
while incorporating the latesttechnologies into our offering.
And so we started working withsome of our direct-to-consumer
brands, building out dedicatedteams for every client that
actually acts as a trueextension of the organization
that can replicate their brandvoice and that can really foster
(02:56):
that environment ofcollaboration that is expected
from an in-house team member.
And that is exactly what wedecided to do.
Member.
And that is exactly what wedecided to do.
And the other thing that we'vedone, as the business has
continued to evolve, isincorporate best-in-class
technologies.
We are fully technognostic.
That allows us to provide thebest tech stack for all of our
clients, depending on theirparticular use case, and so, as
(03:20):
I mentioned earlier, we workwith e-commerce brands.
We also work with fintech andfinancial services companies.
We also work with differenthealthcare companies.
All of them have nuances, allof them have different
requirements.
So it's not a one-size-fits-alltechnology stack that we can
recommend to all of our clients,and so we have a very strong
customer success andimplementations team that is
(03:40):
constantly doing a deep dive onthe latest technological
advancements and what are thebest in-class tools that we can
recommend and implement onbehalf of our clients.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
That's a great overview, jose.
Now I'm particularly interestedin healthcare.
That's what I focus in day inand day out.
So you've served high-growthbrands across multiple sectors,
as you've just told us, and Iwant to dive deeper into
healthcare in particular.
How is customer experienceevolving in the healthcare
(04:12):
industry?
Speaker 2 (04:14):
Yes, it is very interesting because, as you know
, it is a very regulatedindustry and we have to take an
individualized approach to eachcompany that we work with.
So we service differenthealthcare types of clients, and
so we have to obviously beHIPAA compliant which we are and
(04:35):
then also understand what arewe going to be doing for each
healthcare company and how canwe best position ourselves in
terms of AI, automation andhuman in the loop components.
Some of the services that weprovide include the traditional
support services likeappointment scheduling, regular
billing questions, onboarding,provider access authorization,
(05:01):
insurance verification, and thenthe traditional back office
services like RCM work, and sowhat we're doing with all of our
clients is obviously comingwith a combined approach that is
digital first, but also humanbacked, of course, understanding
that we have to be empathetic,that it is an industry that
(05:21):
still requires a lot of empathy,and that is what matters most
to us at the end of the day isproviding these personalized
experiences.
So how can we continue toprovide a patient-centric CX
experience while alsoincorporating the latest
technological advancements andthat's something that we're
working very closely with ourclients is to understand how we
can continue to adapt and evolveand continue to not miss out on
(05:45):
that human touch as we continueto see technological
advancements in healthcare.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
Fantastic.
I'm glad you brought up empathyand you mentioned how important
it is in healthcare, becausesupporting a customer buying a
product is one thing, butsupporting somebody dealing with
a very personal and emotionalissue, like a medical condition,
is something else.
(06:12):
How do you train your agentsfor that kind of sensitivity?
Speaker 2 (06:19):
Yes, I call it compliance and compassion, and
so I think it's understandingthe regulatory framework that we
have to comply with inhealthcare and also conduct very
strong emotional intelligenceand soft skills seminars so that
we can train the team membersto maintain that empathy
throughout every interaction, nomatter how small it is.
(06:42):
Re interaction no matter howsmall it is, we always have to
remind ourselves that, as youmentioned, it is a very delicate
interaction when it ishealthcare related.
So providing proactive support,training the team to continue
to rely on empathy and usebest-in-class tools to dissuade
(07:04):
difficult conversations, issomething that we pride
ourselves in.
So, as part of our onboardingprocess and continuous education
process, we work very closelywith our team members and our
training team to provide thosecontinuous education seminars to
all of our agents.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
Wow, amazing Well done.
That's not the industry norm,let's say to say the least.
Let's talk about your facility,your offices.
You built almost sort of techcampuses that look rather
different from traditionalcontact centers.
You know daycare and yoga roomsand you know amazing employee
(07:42):
experience.
I mean, how do you justifythose investments when it comes
to the environment and what doesit mean in terms of mental,
physical, wellness for agents oremployees?
Basically, yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
So when we started the company, we went and checked
out what was out there in termsof our competitive landscape
and we noticed that theemployees were not front and
center in terms of prioritiesfor these companies.
And we aim to do the completeopposite, because my whole
thesis is if you take care ofyour employees, they'll take
care of your clients, andobviously it's obvious, but one
(08:15):
thing is saying it in a valuesboard and the other thing is
executing it, and so, unlike thetraditional BPO model, where
employees feel confined anddisconnected, horatio fosters an
open, collaborative andengaging work environment.
Our offices, as you saw, aredesigned to reflect a similar
startup culture environment thatyou would see in the US startup
(08:42):
culture environment that youwould see in the US, and some of
our clients call our campushere in the VR the Google of
Latin America, because it is abright, open workspace that
encourages teamwork andcommunication.
As you mentioned, we provideon-site daycare for working
parents, we have a gym withpersonal trainers, yoga room, we
have an outdoor terrace tosupport work-life balance, and
we've built a company culturethat is built on empowerment,
(09:04):
career growth and innovation,and it starts with the design of
our facilities how bright andopen they are to foster that
collaboration.
And then it also translatesinto what we do day in and day
out for our clients.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
Wonderful.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
That's great to see that kind of approach to
industry that historically hadseen high burnout rate and, of
course, burnout is a word youhear a lot in healthcare.
Healthcare support teamsoverall, including physicians
and all the support staff, facehigh stress and burnout.
(09:44):
So obviously, being in thissupportive environment
surrounded by light, and havingthis culture that you've
described as goes a long way tohelp that.
So tell us more in terms ofadvice, maybe for other startups
(10:04):
how can they learn from Horatioin terms of reimagining this
agent experience?
Speaker 2 (10:12):
Yeah, my recommendation would be to build
your values and your culturearound your employees.
I mean, they are the mostimportant asset of your
organization.
Even with technology, they arestill going to remain the most
important asset of yourorganization.
So my advice to anyentrepreneur thinking of
building a people centeredorganization and business is to
(10:34):
really make sure that you aredoing what your values are
saying and what they'redisplaying, and making sure that
you measure that.
So something that we'reconstantly doing is ENPS and
quarterly business surveys withall of our employees to
understand, like, what is itthat is lacking, what are they
lacking?
(10:54):
What can we do to improve?
And a lot can come out of thoseconversations.
And it's also, you know,walking the halls and having
conversations informally withemployees and understanding,
like, what is it that they careabout and how can we support
them for that growth?
Speaker 1 (11:11):
Brilliant and I've heard, I've seen many of your
customers, big blue chip names,I won't call them out, but
well-known brands here inMassachusetts, even in finance
and healthcare.
How do you deal with their veryparticular, unique demands
around privacy and complianceand trust and security and all
these kinds of issues?
Speaker 2 (11:32):
Yeah, so every client has a very unique way of doing
things and we pride ourselves onbuilding dedicated teams.
That means that we don't shareany resources between clients.
So whenever you work withHoratio, we build a dedicated
team that is just working foryou 100%.
And so compliance and securityis top and center and front and
center for us, and we work veryclosely with our clients to
(11:55):
understand during the onboardingprocess, what is it that we
need from a security standpointto have the best setup.
We are SOC 2, type 2 certified.
We are PCI compliant, we areHIPAA compliant and it's
understanding that each nuanceis to your point of what we need
to get to make sure that theyhave the right level of comfort.
(12:17):
A lot of our clients travel tothe DRM to Columbia to meet our
sites and do their directsecurity checks.
We've passed with flying colors.
We have a very strong data andsecurity team here at the
company that is working veryclosely with the internal teams
at our client sites as well.
Speaker 3 (12:38):
Jose, what I find interesting is that you've been
able to scale without raisingoutside capital, and that is not
something you see frequently intechnology or in healthcare.
So I'm curious how did thatinfluence your ability to build
this long-term, value-alignedstrategy for your company and
that culture you've talked about?
Speaker 2 (13:01):
Yeah, I think we have a very unique background in the
sense that the threeco-founders come from the
finance industry, and so weprioritize building a profitable
business that is focused aroundour customers.
We reinvested all of ourprofits directly into operations
, directly into hiring best inclass talent, and I guess we
(13:26):
were very disciplined in the waythat we do things.
So operational efficiency forus is critical, understanding
how to streamline the rightworkflows to make our teams more
efficient and avoid bloatedorganizational structures.
I think that's something thathas benefited us from the fact
that we haven't raised outsidecapital.
That is, that we have to getcreative with that, figuring out
(13:49):
what we can do in terms ofbuilding out repeatable
processes, making sure that wehave built a strong brand.
So from the beginning, I havebeen very involved in all of our
client relationships.
We haven't spent, up untilrecently, any capital on
(14:11):
marketing and sales initiatives.
Most of our clients come fromreferrals, which speaks volumes
to the kind of work that we'redoing.
So we've sort of like created,sort of like a reputation within
the industry and even withinour tech partnerships as well.
We got a lot of referrals fromour tech partners because they
know that we can deliver fortheir clients, and so that is
something that we have done interms of like bootstrapping up
(14:36):
until this point and stillbecoming a profitable enterprise
.
And, as I mentioned earlier,it's about getting creative.
So, obviously, having creativepartnerships with tech platforms
, companies that arecomplementary to what we do so
partnering with companies likeSendDesk, for example, or AI
(14:56):
platforms and solutions anddoing cross-selling with that
has also helped us in terms oflike building out an
infrastructure that has notrequired outside capital to this
point.
Well done.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
Not so easy to do.
So you have 3,000 agents andgrowing.
I believe this must be a commonquestion.
What do you see the role for AIbeing in the business, both on
the agent side customerexperience and beyond?
What's your thinking at themoment?
Speaker 2 (15:30):
Yeah, so internally, we've been using AI and I think
the word AI is new for the pasttwo years, but since we started
working at Horatio, we've reliedon tools like RPA to handle
repetitive, rule-based work.
That includes data entry, formprocessing, order tracking,
invoice management.
We've done that since westarted the company.
None of that is new.
That has freed up agents tofocus on higher-end tasks.
(15:54):
We've used chatbots.
We've used virtual assistants.
We've also used sentimentanalysis.
All of these that we're seeingnow is something that we've
always used and we've alwaysincorporated, and the role that
we continue to see with AI is toserve as a co-pilot for our
agents, not a replacement.
I think that the narrative hascontinued to change.
I think when the worlddiscovered AI, the narrative was
(16:21):
around replacement of agents,but I think what people are
starting to realize that it isabout how can we co-live with AI
, how can we take advantage ofthese technological advancements
to make our teams moreefficient and to have that
combination of human in the loopAI augmenting humans which
(16:46):
ultimately is a win-win foreveryone.
Speaker 3 (16:49):
Most definitely.
It sounds like human plus AI isthe winning formula.
Yes, and there's untoldbenefits to be gained looking
into the future Speaking of that.
So what's next for Horatio?
More countries, more serviceservice lines, maybe deeper into
certain industries?
And also, what's keeping youinspired right now?
Speaker 2 (17:13):
we're getting deeper into definitely getting deeper
into health care and financialservices, so that's super
exciting for us.
We're we're launching new linesof businesses there, also
exploring other lines ofbusinesses there, also exploring
other lines of businesseswithin the trust and safety
space, and, as we continue toexplore expansion and growth, we
(17:33):
are excited about going intoother countries within Latin
America.
I think that we've created avery strong name for ourselves
in the nearshore space and weprovided that quality that is
expected from our clients and sosuper excited to continue
growing, not only in the DR, inColombia, but also some
countries in the region as well.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
Amazing.
So you recently had a big openhouse.
We were invited to that.
Unfortunately we had a conflict, but I hope that becomes an
annual tradition.
How did it go?
And what other events travel orotherwise are you excited about
the rest of the year.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
It went great.
Hopefully you guys can comeevery year.
This was our third time doingour client summit.
We had 120 attendees.
It was a fun week where ourclients and even prospects came
down and were able to interactwith each other, exchange ideas.
We wanted to build thatinformal setting so that they
can all share best practices andalso have a good time with
(18:31):
their team members.
A lot of them were super happyto be here with their team.
As I mentioned, our clients comehere all the time.
We're super close to the US.
It's less than two hours fromMiami, around three hours from
New York, so a lot of ourclients come all the time.
But it was a special time ofthe year obviously February,
pretty cold in the US, so a lotof people enjoyed escaping the
(18:51):
cold weather for a couple ofdays.
We were in San Descrimate inVegas a couple of weeks ago that
was great as well.
In San Francisco with one ofour AI partners meeting some
very exciting companies that areexploring joint partnerships
with us.
And for the next couple ofweeks we're also hitting the
(19:14):
road being New York early Mayfor another summit that we're
attending and we're speaking atand then hosting a dinner with
clients as well.
We have a lot of clients in NewYork, so it's always good to
catch up with everyone beforethe summer starts.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
Amazing.
Well, congratulations on allthe success, onwards and upwards
.
We're rooting for you, givenyour philosophy and
mission-driven culture.
And congratulations, lookforward to seeing you when
you're next here inMassachusetts.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
Thank you so much, and thank you for having me, for
having me have a good day.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
Thank you and thanks everyone for listening and
watching.
Take care.
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