Rachel Mertensmeyer, CEO, and Harlow Burgess, CTO, are co-founders of a Phoenix-based tech startup called RexPay. RexPay is a mobile app that helps patients understand, track, and pay all medical bills in one place. The RexPay team is on a mission to rescue patients from medical bill mayhem.
The RexPay Founding Story
In 2016, Rachel experienced a severe injury, which led to 38 medical bills across 11 providers and $10,000 dollars in medical debt. Nearly a year after her accident, Rachel was still sorting through her medical bills. She sat at her kitchen table with three stacks of medical bills in front of her labeled “paid”, “unpaid”, and “?.” She sat back in frustration and thought, “There must be a better way!” She then searched for a mobile app that could help her manage and pay her medical bills but couldn’t find one. This was the moment RexPay was born.
A few months later, Rachel applied to Launchpad Digital Health, an accelerator in San Francisco and was accepted into the 2018 Winter class. On her flight out of San Francisco, she sat next to Al Castino, now RexPay’s founding investor. He was moved by Rachel’s story as he had experienced the medical bill struggle firsthand. Al told Rachel on the flight that he believed in the RexPay concept and wanted to stay in touch. Later, after Rachel completed the accelerator program, it was Al’s initial investment that enabled RexPay to move ahead with momentum.
Shortly after founding the company in February 2018, Rachel met Harlow Burgess through a mutual friend. Harlow also immediately understood the mission of RexPay. His family had experienced medical bill trauma when his daughter was born prematurely. Rachel and Harlow felt an immediate synergy of values and vision; and shortly after meeting, Harlow joined Rachel as co-founder and CTO of RexPay.
About the Product
RexPay is the only mobile app for patients that consolidates all medical bills and payments in one place. Patients can pay all of their doctors with just a few taps in the RexPay app. Rex is the trusted medical bill rescue dog, who guides patients through every step of their medical bill pay experience. First, Rex helps patients understand their bill. Next, he guides patients through the payment process. Finally, Rex keeps track of all healthcare finances such as pending payments, remaining deductible, and health savings account balance. Patients can also ask Rex questions throughout the medical bill pay process via an in-app chat bot.
Why Phoenix?
Compared to startup hubs like San Francisco, Phoenix offers a more sustainable and low-stress lifestyle for our team members with lower living costs, shorter commutes, daily sunshine, delicious eats, and immediate access to nature. It’s also energizing to be part of the burgeoning tech startup scene, which has been encouraged by local government in Phoenix.
Advice & Best Practices
- Choose a problem that is personal to you and for which you are willing to commit all of your energy and resources to solving.
- Keep the “true north” guiding values of your company front and center and don’t allow yourself to get pulled in a different direction.
- Surround yourself with people smarter than you to point out your blind spots, such as a local incubator or accelerator and a connected local attorney who will be your advocate.
