Be all-in on implementing innovative change. Be Bold and underwrite failure. At VIGILINT, we challenge our physicians, nurses, support staff, and administrators to always be thinking about how we can be better, bolder, faster, and more effective. Our teams will always be the means to make an audacious idea reality. They do it with confidence, knowing we solve the hardest problems, for people who cannot fail.
In today’s rapidly evolving business landscape, purpose-driven models are at the forefront of innovation. These businesses are not just focused on profit, but are also committed to making a positive impact on society and the environment. In this interview series, we are speaking with visionary leaders, entrepreneurs, and innovators who are pioneering purpose driven businesses. I had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Sean Siler.
Dr. Sean Siler, VIGILINT CEO, has created a diversified portfolio of medical solutions for commercial and government sectors thereby growing the company sevenfold during his tenure. He is an emergency physician and business leader with broad experience in the corporate and government sectors. His diverse business background includes executive roles in startup and mature biotech companies, and corporate medical consulting. Dr. Siler has practiced emergency medicine in clinical, academic and leadership roles, across the spectrum from small community hospitals to large academic medical centers, as well as concierge care for patients. His government experience at the national level includes managing crucial elements of the federal response to numerous natural disasters and Nation Special Security Events (NSSE). With a military career that includes conventional and special operations roles and numerous command positions across an ongoing 28-year career with four combat deployments, he currently commands the 803rd Hospital Center as a Colonel in the US Army Reserve. Siler holds a B.A. from California State Polytechnic University at Pomona, an M.B.A. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and his D.O. from Western University of Health Sciences, Pomona, and conducted emergency medicine residency in San Antonio, TX.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Our readers would love to get to know you a bit better. Can you share a bit about your background and what has led you to your current role?
I enlisted in the Army Reserve at 19, aspiring to be a helicopter pilot. Things took an unexpected turn during the summer of my junior year, however, when I was involved in a serious car accident that changed the trajectory of my life. I couldn’t complete my Army ROTC program on time, which meant that I was no longer able to pursue my goal of flying in the Army. I was under the care of several physicians who encouraged me to consider medicine as an option. I completed my degree and excelled at my pre-med requirements and got into medical school.
After earning a medical school scholarship from the Army, I completed my Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine degree, became a Flight Surgeon, and earned a residency training spot at the premiere Emergency Medicine training program at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas. That led me to become an Army Emergency Medicine physician, a role that has included clinical, administrative and leadership positions, in multiple Special Operations units, and placed me in command four times from the Company level to most recently the Brigade level. One of my most challenging roles included serving on 4-person rucksack based surgical teams supporting the most elite special operations units in the world, which were the predicate for VIGILINT’s mobile surgical teams.
Can you share your professional journey and what led you to focus on impact-centered initiatives?
My Army medical career gave me deep experience in emergency medicine in some of the most challenging and remote environments, including multiple combat zones. My unique perspective on healthcare was shaped by this experience, which reinforced the idea that we need to get the right care to the right places at the right time, even when traditional healthcare infrastructure isn’t available.
After more than 33 years, I still serve in the Army Reserve which has helped me appreciate how the blend of military and civilian experience can create a unique approach. I earned my MBA from Kenan-Flagler Business School at UNC Chapel Hill, NC and started a series of entrepreneurial efforts. While I experienced some failures early on, I used my military resiliency and ‘grit’ to keep at it and eventually was introduced to VIGILINT in 2016, after which I became the majority owner in the company and redefined the company’s focus. While we started with five employees, we now have over 250, earning over $35 million in annual revenue. We’ve succeeded enough to secure contracts with numerous large corporations such as FedEx, as well as multiple U.S. government agencies.
What pivotal moments or experiences shaped your vision for transformative change within your organization?
Transformation often comes by experience, struggles and setbacks. Building VIGILINT into what it is today was challenging since our team was small and we had no capital with which to work. I sometimes spent time working shifts in the ER to make payroll, but we grew, creating structure and capability that enabled a bigger team, better solutions, and more work.
My military and business experience has helped me recognize, however, that you can’t rest on today’s solutions. Medicine is a rapidly changing field, and remaining relevant requires full time dedication to the profession. Business, like medicine, is constantly changing and demands that you remain relevant. I’ve learned the importance of remaining cognizant of evolving technologies and daily changes in markets in which we compete.
What does “audacious impact” mean to you, and how is your organization embodying this vision?
From my perspective, audacious impact is all about creating large-scale positive change that might seem impossible or unrealistic. It’s something we not only aspire to every day at VIGILINT but is required if we’re to deliver on our mission. “So, you are gonna do surgical procedures, in the back of moving aircraft or austere buildings, working out of backpacks, with only the most basic equipment, in an environment where your safety is always in question?” “Yes. That’s what we do. If not us, then who is going to save them?” That is blasphemy within most medical circles, yet it is what we successfully do every day.
Audacious impact means we use our unique experience in combat medicine and high-pressure environments to boldly deliver high-quality emergency care and telemedicine services in the most challenging conditions, where others cannot go. In short, we take the trauma center to the patient, rather than the patient to the trauma center, because that’s what’s necessary to save lives and deliver quality care. Many might see the obstacles; we see the solutions and find a way to create positive impact.
Can you give an example of a key initiative your organization has led that significantly impacted the communities you serve?
We feel strongly about supporting the military community where we come from. We actively teach, coach, and support transition programs assisting veterans move from military life to the corporate world, through both the Honor Foundation and the Care Coalition Skill Bridge programs. The Honor Foundation is a special operations transition organization with the mission to assist all U.S. military special operations personnel transition from military to civilian life. VIGILINT has supported The Honor Foundation’s efforts for over two years, providing mentorship to transitioning military personnel and supporting networking and job seeking events, and has recruited and hired three graduates to support our administrative operations and government contract. The United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) Warrior Care Program / Care Coalition provides non-medical advocacy and assistance to wounded, ill, and injured Special Operations Forces (SOF) service members and their families. Care Coalition also provides Skill Bridge services to transitioning service members, which VIGILINT has supported in the form of corporate internships. Through this program, VIGILINT hired 3 graduates into full-time positions as well. Our dedication to this special community is a core aspect of our culture, and a key strategy for giving back.
What are some of the challenges you’ve faced while driving these transformative programs, and how did you overcome them?
Success only comes by facing setbacks and challenges head on, and problems don’t just go away, nor do they get easier with time. Every challenge creates an opportunity to hone and improve personal skills and develop teams. I faced the most challenging medical cases possible during my combat deployments. Those experiences helped make me the best Emergency Physician I could be and pushed me well beyond my perceived limits. They also introduced me to many current colleagues at VIGILINT, which created the team that powered our growth and transformation. I’ve failed a lot because it was expected of me, even encouraged. An axiom within the SOF community says, “you don’t train until you get it right; you train until you cannot get it wrong”. Thousands of training and work hours, multiple repetitions, and several failed business ventures have taught me that the fundamentals are the key to ultimate success. This is true in a hospital, at a rifle range, or in a board room. Be the best in the world at the simple stuff, and you can create truly meaningful and magnificent change.
How do you balance creating measurable impact with the business’s need to grow and remain sustainable?
Moving from concept to sustainable business is rarely a straight line. We discovered this firsthand with our medical support service for traveling executives, which typically makes sense after you have had a problem, but not before. Convincing companies to pay for a service they don’t think they will ever need is incredibly hard. Each pitch, each contract negotiation is a battle of persistence and persuasion. We quickly proved our worth with large and small companies and secured more opportunities and contracts. Our growth has been like a flywheel; slow to start but steadily speeding up. Like every startup, surviving long enough to reach the self-sustainment point is the challenging part. The most important part for us is to remember as an organization that every patient or client is not a spreadsheet, or a statistic, or a customer number. Rather, they are an individual, with real problems today; they are scared or worried and not feeling well, and as we solve their problems, we build our business and brand one person at a time.
What are your “5 Things You Need to Bring An Audacious Idea to Fruition”? If you can, please share a story or example for each.
1 . Be all-in on implementing innovative change. Be Bold and underwrite failure. At VIGILINT, we challenge our physicians, nurses, support staff, and administrators to always be thinking about how we can be better, bolder, faster, and more effective. Our teams will always be the means to make an audacious idea reality. They do it with confidence, knowing we solve the hardest problems, for people who cannot fail.
2. Put the human experience front and center. Commit to viewing each case as its own, whether in a combat zone, in business, or in a healthcare setting. Eat your own cooking and use your own products and services. Explore and intimately understand the experience customers have with your company. Every person in our care chain is reminded that our patients and clients are more than symptoms and diagnoses. How we interact with them and how we make them feel is a huge part of our long-term success.
3 . Precision with compassion. While people can receive well-timed care no matter their location, delivering effectively and with compassion is a guiding principle. VIGILINT has strengthened its ability to deliver unparalleled emergency and specialty care with compassion by having two operations analysts on each call. One focuses on communicating with the patient, while the other analyst coordinates support from our emergency physicians and 140+ subspecialties from Cleveland Clinic. The patient only sees our seamless support.
4 . Medicine is not transactional. VIGILINT is committed to providing holistic support that matches patient’s or client’s need with the right service. We don’t take work for work’s sake, rather we ensure we have the right person, in the right place, at the right time, and that we are the right solution for that client. Sometimes we are not a fit for that job, but long-term, we are the place people go to get their hard problems solved.
5 . Perseverance and a refusal to accept limitations. My career has been powered by resilience, purpose, success, and failure, all pushing me beyond limits I thought I had. Adaptability and continuous learning are essential to fueling a visionary approach to medicine, grounded by values that prioritize people and purpose over profits. It’s an approach that’s consistently powered VIGILINT’s success and growth, and one that makes our work meaningful.
Can you share a story of someone who has inspired your commitment to creating positive change?
Dr. Jim Czarnik is a fellow emergency physician who trained me in residency, was my boss a couple of times, and a dear friend. We spent a career in special operations medicine, and if you ask me to identify the most memorable thing or inspirational situation about him, I simply can’t. This is exceptional, because every single day, every talk, every mission was so influential that they all blend together. He was such a force for good, who lived every day as if it was the only one, and made me feel like I was special, important, valued, and worthy, even when I screwed up. Leaders like that are rare, because it can’t be an act for that long. Positive change, creating good, and developing others were simply his basic nature, and he is the most memorable example of an authentic leader I’ve ever seen.
How do you envision the future of impact-driven businesses, and what role will your organization play in that future?
Several trends will shape the rapidly changing fields of healthcare and telemedicine. Increased integration of technology, including artificial intelligence (AI), into healthcare delivery is perhaps the most significant trend. AI has the potential to transform telemedicine by improving diagnostic accuracy, predicting patient needs, and enhancing patient care. However, it’s a double-edged sword, as it also takes the “human out of the loop”, which has the potential to change the healthcare experience. At VIGILINT, we are constantly evaluating new tools to see when and where they can be used, but we remain dedicated to delivering the best experience while providing the best patient care.
We also see an increase in workforce mobility and an increased need for remote medical solutions. Business and leisure travelers will continue to work and travel away from their medical home, where they have easy care solutions. We will use technology and our global experience to give them confidence and keep them safe as they travel. This support will empower every business to be more powerful, more successful, grow, and make their own kind of difference.
VIGILINT will continue to be a leader in adapting, innovating, and delivering the best care, anywhere and everywhere around the globe, no matter the challenge.
How can our readers further follow your work or your company online?
VIGILINT is easily accessible across several social platforms:
Website: https://vigilint.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VIGILINTMED
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCowA3QXBr2-OQgodl5rTR2w
This was great. Thanks for taking time for us to learn more about you and your business. We wish you continued success!