Brendan Ford and Shawn Parker are no strangers to creating highly successful companies. Their experience took Sonus USA Inc.’s franchise model from 0 to 700 clinics seemingly overnight. Ford brought Audigy from its inception to the Inc. Magazine Fortune 500 list in just four years. Compiling their combined experience in the specialty medical management industry, they have broken off on their own, taking Camas-based Fuel Medical from zero-to-3.3 million dollars in revenue in just their first two years of business.
“We’re creative problem solvers,” Ford explains, sharing insight into their success. The highly competitive duo have been friends since their high school days. Ford lured Parker into the hearing center industry and their paths zigged and zagged for several years before they both landed at Vancouver-based Audigy Group.
Citing the desire to create something themselves and develop their own culture, Ford and Parker decided to branch out on their own. Noting their prior success, Ford fueled the pitch with Parker, “Let’s do this one more time, for ourselves”.
Fuel Medical was founded in 2010 and currently have 32 employees. Specializing in ENT (ear, nose and throat), audiology, aesthetics and allergy clinics, Fuel provides everything from marketing, personnel services, operational streamlining to mergers and acquisitions for their clients. Parker shares that they are able to handle most of their clients’ needs in house, but they also benefit from a massive network to bring in ancillary providers when necessary. “We see so much out there in the marketplace, we are able to make links that clinics on their own just can’t,” Parker adds.
When pushed harder about their uncanny success, Ford cites naturally competitive employees and a good culture – open door, success and service oriented. “No one comes in with a problem without some sort of solution offered first,” Ford says. Fuel caps their “pods” (service teams) with a maximum panel of businesses they can own, this maintains their ability to provide their clients with the best experience. They grow as their clients’ businesses grow.
Growth has become Fuel’s own issue to grapple. Their current office bursting at the seams, Parker excitedly flips plans for their newest investment – Westlie Ford’s Service Center building in downtown Camas. Walking through the redesign, he shows room for offices and private workspaces, with modular features to accommodate future growth. A massive “bullpen” area allows for the creative teams to collaborate and a mezzanine provides a fun employee getaway space. “We hope to repurpose as much original material as we can,” Ford states. They even have plans to keep (though greatly modify) the massive garage doors and even the jack stands.
With all of their success, Parker and Ford find ways to give back to their community. From donating and personally assembling bikes for the Carol Project to sponsoring Little League baseball teams, Fuel Medical is as much about family as they are business. Their philanthropy extends beyond Washington to the areas they serve around the country, often finding themselves excited to support charities and projects their clients are involved in.
Parker sums up the Fuel experience, “We have a lot of fun. We have built our company and culture employing the best of what we have learned along the way.”
