CLEVELAND, Ohio—Matt Buder Shapiro and Nathan Spoden saw a gap in the billing process in the medical industry — communication. 

• MedPilot allows patients to easily pay their bills online, set up payment plans and ask questions
• When they left New York, the company had 5 employees, but since moving to Cleveland they have more than 30
• The founders say it’s important to show people in the tech industry that Cleveland is a great place to set up shop

So, they created a solution. 

“I teamed up with Matt to essentially tackle that gap in the market and build a solution that’s technology driven, but also has a service component to it that allows us to go and work with health care providers to give them a more robust patient billing experience,” said Nathan Spoden, co-founder, MedPilot. 

The web app allows patients to easily pay their bills online, set up payment plans and ask questions.

MedPilot uses technology to customize the experience for each patient. 

With medical bills and insurance complications, Spoden and Buder Shapiro say the current way of doing things is outdated and ineffective. 

“You probably received it in a paper statement, maybe you’ve gotten a phone call. That’s not really how any of us communicate across any of the spectrum of our lives and, for some reason, health care is still at that point, so MedPilot is here to change that,” said Buder Shapiro.

They started the company in New York, but decided to move to Cleveland a few years ago to allow the company to grow. 

“People respect Cleveland for the Cleveland Clinic and respect it as a health care market, so we really thought it was a great opportunity, not only for the access to talent here, but also the access to the health systems… and then lastly just the fact that we get to build something in our hometown,” said Spoden.

“I think moving to Cleveland was the single best decision we’ve made as a company,” said Buder Shapiro.

When they left New York, they had just 5 employees. Today they have more than 30 and are hoping to grow. 

They also say it’s important for them to show people in the tech industry that Cleveland is a great place to set up shop. 

“Cleveland needs success stories like us so that more people do turn back around and come back to Cleveland, right? What’s happening is... the talent’s leaving and people do have a fear of coming here because of access to capital or access to a start-up ecosystem and you have to have companies like us that show that there can be success,” said Spoden. 

They say they want to continue to grow in Cleveland. 

“I think our favorite stat is— we’ve worked with close to half a million patients and we have a 97% patient satisfaction rating... there are not a lot of things across the board that get 97 percent,” said Buder Shapiro.