Meet Kevin Henry, the CEO and founder of Accountable, the “TurboTax” of HIPAA compliance training, and possibly the only TechStars accelerator alum in Fort Worth. Innovate Fort Worth podcast interviewed Kevin Henry and here is what you need to know!
But what is HIPAA, why is it important and how can you build a company around it?
“Basically it’s the law that governs protected health information. Anyone dealing in the healthcare space that might be touching protected health information has to comply with what is known as HIPAA. HIPAA stands for health insurance portability and accountability act and it’s really made up of several different laws.”
HIPAA compliance training for companies and employees can be a real obstacle. Making sure that they are covering and retaining the necessary information to handle private, personal health information.
“People really could use a software solution to help guide companies step by step through this process of becoming HIPAA compliant. Essentially we built TurboTax for HIPAA compliance. Our product really guides companies through this process, we made the thousand page law as simple and as intuitive as possible.”
Kevin is the only entrepreneur Techstars alumnus in Fort Worth as he was a part of their first accelerator program in Austin.
“We were very fortunate to get accepted into Techstars, and that was a real push for me on my entrepreneurial journey to start Accountable and to take that leap from the corporate world into entrepreneurship. It was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.”
His experience at the Techstars accelerator was invaluable and helped with the success of his company. Over the course of three months, Techstars connects entrepreneurs to mentors, investors, networking opportunities, education and advice.
“We applied to Techstars in 2013. This was the very first time they’d ever done a Techstars in Austin. I understood it was a three-month accelerator mentorship program that would give us some seed capital and access to some investors. They also provide you with mentorship and a number of folks all across Texas, to give you guidance and are happy to make introductions. That was really helpful, as we were just getting started to get that early feedback, connections and introductions and access to investors who could come alongside us and really help push Accountable to grow faster and launch the product.”
Entrepreneurship can help people give more of their time to the things and people they love, because they are working on their own time. Kevin has found a better work-life balance as an entrepreneur starting his own company.
“For me, it was more of a balance because…we had just had our son. It was more about utilizing entrepreneurship as a way to spend more time with my family. That’s one of the best things that I did instead of just throwing myself fully into my work, which I could have done, and a lot of entrepreneurs do. I’m so thankful that I sacrificed a little bit of growth for spending more time with family, especially in those early years, whenever we had little kids.”
Kevin Henry explains how Fort Worth can innovate and revolutionize the tech space with the resources available locally. Coming back from Austin, a tech hub in Texas, Henry has some ideas that can help Fort Worth compete with other startup leading cities.
“The way that Fort Worth is set up, it makes a lot of sense for us to have a really strong accelerator here. There is a young population, tons of talent moving in and the more people who come to Fort Worth, the more innovation is going to happen…Fort Worth will never be Silicon Valley, and we don’t want to be Silicon Valley. But we do have a unique opportunity to leverage the talent and financial capital that exists here in Fort worth to create a more thriving ecosystem. Our experience down in Austin, going through Techstars, it was immensely helpful. It would have been awesome if we could have done that here in Fort worth.”
If you are interested in Accountable HQ, you can visit here. Don’t forget to check out his full episode on Innovate Fort Worth podcast.
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