How Questions Led ClinicNote to Find Solutions + Success

ClinicNote started after three ISU students heard about the Global Insurance Accelerator, got accepted and soon began building a minimal viable product (MVP). The problem? Note-taking for speech pathologists and clinicians was not standardize and wasn't routed effectively for patients and insurance carriers. Today, ClinicNotes's CEO and President, Lana Fox, uses her entrepreneurial skills to grow the company — years after her (now) husband was a co-founder and graduating from ISU. When Fox stepped in in 2016, she used a background in industrial design and her experience running a franchise to cold call for customer discovery and further the ClinicNote customer base. She asked questions of the clinicians she called to determine what they needed. These first questions included:

• What’s your day as a clinician like?
• What’s it like to run your business?
• What do you struggle with?
• What would you like optimized?
• What does that look like?
• What features would you need?

Through that process, she learned that university clinics were underserved, tracked the requests and pivoted the company from serving only private practice clinics to also serving universities in 2017. Today, ClinicNote is serving more than 6,000 users and in over 105 university programs with four full-time employees. Fox wears many different hats within the company and utilizes tools like Slack for communication and Airtable for project management.

In her role as CEO at ClinicNote, Fox focuses on teambuilding and employee happiness for her all-remote team working across the country. Customers are also located across the country, so Zoom meetings and video collaboration are key for communicating across time zones.

As the company grows, Fox is excited to look back in 10 years and see how things have evolved. When she first came on the scene, she says she suffered from imposter syndrome, wondering if she would find a likeminded group of people. In Greater Des Moines (DSM), she has felt welcomed. There are so many opportunities to meet other entrepreneurs, it feels supportive rather than competitive, which is a standout thing about the region. It’s about working together, helping each other and growing together.

About ClinicNote

Headquartered in Des Moines, Iowa, ClinicNote is an electronic medical record system that helps improve the lives of clinicians across the country by streamlining mandatory documentation, reporting and billing.

Founder: Lana Fox

Industry: Health/Teaching Technology | DSM County Location: Polk County

Contact

@LanaJoyFox | lana@clinicnote.com | clinicnote.com

Entrepreneurs Who Have Served as Mentors

Mike Colwell, Tej Dhawan and Sheldon Ohringer

Entrepreneur Book Recommendations

• “Good to Great” and “Great by Choice” by Jim Collins
• “How to Win Friends and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie
• “The Minimalist Entrepreneur: How Great Founders Do More with Less” by Sahil Lavingia
• “Mindset” by Carol S. Dweck
• “Outliers” by Malcolm Gladwell

The Greater Des Moines Partnership celebrates the Greater Des Moines (DSM) entrepreneur community and helps small businesses succeed with one-of-a-kind resources and opportunities for networking. Find out how other entrepreneurs have found success by reading their stories and attending local small business events in the region.