Healthcare burns through more than 800 billion dollars every year just figuring out who pays for what. That is roughly the size of the U.S. Defense Department budget, yet it does not fund care. It funds the administrative maze of billing and claims.
For Mike Desjadon, CEO, Anomaly, that inefficiency is personal. In a recent appearance on the Category Visionaries podcast with Brett Stapper, Desjadon explained how Anomaly is building a healthcare payments platform that scales through depth, not speed. The company focuses on customer trust, engineering excellence, and healthcare’s real-world pace instead of the typical startup rush for growth.
Many healthcare AI startups chase short-term “curiosity” contracts based on hype. Desjadon calls this “annual curiosity revenue” because it lasts only until the novelty fades. Anomaly took a different path by targeting only select anchor customers and investing everything in their success. Engineers are embedded with clients, and leaders stay involved from start to finish.
“We wanted a smaller number of very deep relationships,” Desjadon said. “Even if it was one customer, we wanted to be sticky as all get-out.”
Healthcare sales cycles average 12 to 14 months. Instead of trying to force faster growth, Anomaly structured its business to address that reality.
“If you know it’s a 14-month cycle, maybe you can get it to 12, but you are not going to make it three,” Desjadon explained.
This honesty influences everything from budgeting to investor conversations. Anomaly’s burn rate and goals are aligned with the realistic industry timeline.
Desjadon learned to classify potential customers as either transformation-ready or focused on simple automation. The message and partnership model differ completely between the two. With healthcare executives fielding constant vendor pitches, focus is critical. “Find ten of the right conversations, not a hundred shallow ones,” Desjadon advises.
Instead of hiring sales teams too early, Anomaly leads with engineering. “Good salespeople need something proven to sell,” Desjadon said. “It is the founding team’s job to figure out product-market fit.”
By embedding engineers with customer success teams and pairing them with consultative growth leaders, Anomaly ensures each deployment is valuable from day one.
In healthcare, success stories close more deals than investor names. “What you need in healthcare is to put six case studies on the desk,” Desjadon said. Demonstrating outcomes for known health systems builds the trust that fuels real growth.
Anomaly’s growth strategy rejects the chase for speed in favor of relationships and endurance. By aligning with healthcare’s pace, investing deeply in each relationship, and proving results through evidence, the company is showing that lasting success comes from patience, precision, and partnership.
