Seven Small Jewels, 2011: Vynamic

He was at a point of his life where he had to sit back and take stock, and decide what he wanted to do—and how he wanted to do it. "I did enjoy consulting, but wanted to do it in a more enjoyable way," says Calista, the firm's founder and CEO. "We started Vynamic with the idea that there is a better way, and that's what drives us every day."

Once he decided to give it a go on his own, he contacted a client that he had a great relationship with and pitched him some of his ideas. The client wasn't biting. "This is one of my best relationships, if I can't sell him a project now then I might be in the wrong business," Calista says.

So, Calista did what at the time seemed like his best and only option. "Let me work for free for three months," he told the client. "I'll observe and take notes and report back to you what I'm hearing." At the end of those three months, the client said he wanted to hire Calista to help expand the business. That was February 2003, and that was Vynamic's first paying client.

The rest, as they say, is history.

Well, sort of. About six months later, Calista got a call from a former client who asked if he could lead a project in the Philadelphia area. It was at that time the he brought former colleagues Scott Shohen and Jeff Dill on board. "We started slowly. The first four years of the business was really just seeking to hone in on just what the firm wanted to be," he says. "The last four years we've really been able to build on that foundation and grow the business."

In the beginning, Vynamic was doing mostly large system integrations and implementation work across multiple industries but was starting to do more healthcare work in the Philadelphia area. "We really loved that work and felt like it was important work," Calista says. "It was already 85 percent of our revenue so we decided in 2008 that we were going to move the company to Philadelphia and focus only on healthcare."

At that time, the firm was less than 20 people. Today, the firm employs 48 full-time consultants and will finish the year with 70 consultants and over 40 percent compound annual growth to about $15 million in revenue. Calista says the firm can grow about 30 percent over the next three to five years. At that rate, Vynamic would be a $60 million firm by 2016.

And that success hasn't gone unnoticed. Vynamic has been recognized by the Philadelphia Business Journal as one of the city's Best Places to Work both in 2009 and 2010.

"As long as we're growing for our people, and not at the expense of our people, we're going to keep growing," Calista says. "If it ever feels like Vynamic's growing too fast and it feels disjointed and we're not treating our people the right away, we'll stop immediately." Part of that, he says, is Vynamic's promise to employees that they don't have to travel if they don't want to.

Vynamic's business model is focused on five key inter-connected sectors of the healthcare industry—health plans, life sciences, providers, public health and services & technology. "We see it as five sectors that need to work together to provide optimal patient outcomes," Calista says. "With that unique perspective, we believe we can drive change at a higher level. And we think all five sectors in the industry are going to be going through incredible change over the next three to five years."

—Joseph Kornik