Feb 19, 2025
Lorne Brown—prominent Edison Director Network member and Founder of Lenora Health—is a trailblazer in every sense of the word. He not only built and scaled successful companies; he built an entire category.
As co-founder of former Edison portfolio company Operative, Lorne shaped the digital advertising infrastructure that media companies rely on today. After selling the company, he launched Frontstage Ventures, a venture studio designed to build companies using a strategic model that aligns business incentives with real results. Now, with Lenora Health, he’s applying that playbook to corporate healthcare.
So, what does it take to create a market and actually win? In this week's conversation on Electrifying Growth, Lorne shared his approach.
- Define the Problem Before Selling the Solution
When Lorne built Operative, it wasn’t about selling software, it was about solving inefficiencies in digital advertising. At Lenora Health, the same principle applies.
“The reason corporate healthcare is broken is because nobody actually owns it,” Lorne explains. “It gets delegated to the CFO, and the CFO delegates it to HR, and HR spreads it across their team and hires a Benefits Manager. It's like this hot potato that no one actually touches..." and when no one owns a problem, it doesn’t get fixed.
By starting with the problem, Lorne ensures his companies aren’t just selling a product. They’re creating a new standard for how things should work.
2. Focus on the Fast-Moving River
Lorne’s companies succeed because they tap into industries where money moves quickly but efficiency lags. In digital advertising, that meant automating the manual, high-touch ad operations process. In healthcare, it means giving employers control over their spending.
What do these industries have in common?
-
-
Inefficiency: A system that isn’t optimized for its users
-
High transaction volume: Billions of dollars move through them but with little accountability
-
Disruptable supply chains: The “middle” is too powerful, and buyers lack control
-
For founders, finding the fast-moving river means looking for industries where demand is high but frustration is even higher.
3. Drive Change From the Top
Most industries don’t change from the inside. Lorne has learned that real disruption comes from taking control of the budget.
At Lenora Health, that means working directly with employers—not just the vendors selling them healthcare services. “If you want to fix healthcare, you don’t sell to the system—you step in front of it.”
This is the “strategic insertion” approach that Lorne and his partner, Al Subbloie, have built into Frontstage Ventures. It’s about becoming the customer of record, controlling the supply chain, and aligning incentives so that savings and results drive the business model.
Whether in ad tech, healthcare, or any other complex market, the playbook remains the same: fix what’s broken, define the category, and own the space.
Tune in to my full conversation with Lorne Brown on Electrifying Growth!
Interested in guest starring on Electrifying Growth? Apply Here to be a guest!
