Caryn Seidman Becker impressed me in twenty minutes. Knowing what I’ve now learned about her absolute commitment to productivity, it is no surprise to me that her charm was as disarming as it was efficient.
Seidman Becker is the CEO of CLEAR, a company that many of us know from watching passengers blaze past us in their fast, streamlined journeys through airport security. The company has announced that they are bringing their friction-free and secure experiences to health systems. CLEAR recently announced partnerships with University of Miami Health System, Wellstar Health System, and Health Gorilla and the Puerto Rico Department of Health.
After learning more about CLEAR’s entrance into healthcare from David Bardan, CLEAR’s Head of Healthcare, I sat down with both David and Caryn from their office in New York to talk about their inspiration.
Caryn, what was your initial motivation to make experiences safer and easier?
Caryn: As a working mom of three, I try to pack 36 hours in a 24-hour day – I’m always looking for ways to be more productive, more efficient, and to eliminate hassle.
I was 29 at the time of the September 11th attacks, and like for so many others, it was a life-changing experience for me. I had taken a flight out to LA the night before, and when I landed back in New York a few days later, I felt a responsibility to be a difference-maker and to do what I could to make the world a better place.
In the aftermath of 9/11, we saw the travel experience become safer, but it understandably also became much, much harder. At CELAR, we believed back then – and we still believe today – that experiences like travel could be safer AND easier, two benefits that had become all but mutually exclusive.
I’ve always believed that biometrics and identity would be the unlock to creating a safer, more trusted and economically efficient world. That belief, combined with my drive to build something that makes the world a better place, as well as my previous investments in businesses like Apple and Amazon that turned products into platforms focused on transforming the customer experience – everything converged with CLEAR.
So in 2010, we had the opportunity to build CLEAR in airports – we helped make the travel experience easier and we put smiles on people’s faces while doing it. Members verify their identity without ever taking out an identification card. That opportunity and technology is portable far beyond travel.
How did you plan to bring that experience to healthcare?
Caryn: It has been part of our vision for CLEAR since the very beginning. We are a secure identity company obsessed with the customer experience, and we want members to use CLEAR in all aspects of everyday life where identity matters.
The same experiences that we see in airports – people waiting in long lines to hand over different cards in their wallets to prove who they are and what they have access to – we also see in hospitals. I was with my daughter at the ER the other week: there were people in a long line waiting to give someone their driver’s license, to print it out on a sticker, to put it on a badge to go up an elevator to visit their loved ones. They waited in line for 30 minutes when visiting hours ended in 90 minutes. That doesn’t make sense to me.
Given the sensitive nature of health information and our success driving friction-free experiences in highly regulated environments like the airport, we at CLEAR are uniquely positioned to bring our expertise to the healthcare space.
Our goal in healthcare is to replace the clipboard. As a patient and a consumer, I fill out clipboards with the same forms about my medical history and insurance information every time I visit the doctor. Does my relative have glaucoma? I don’t know. I think I put a different answer every time. You hand over your insurance card to be xeroxed, and then you are always getting new insurance cards.
The solution starts with creating a universal health identity – connecting you to all the things that make you, you: your insurance information, your copay, your credit card, and your electronic medical records so that patients are in control of their healthcare information. Your medical scans are your records and they should be easily accessible to you with just your face. No more waiting on hold and relying on fax machines. This is an opportunity to drive better outcomes, better patient experiences and better cost efficiency, and it’s free for patients.
David, what motivated you to lead CLEAR’s healthcare initiatives?
I have been in healthcare for over 10 years. I spent the first part of my career at Deloitte, consulting primarily in ways of optimizing efficiencies across a broad range of verticals. In my most recent role before CLEAR, I led the commercialization of a revolutionary telehealth device at TytoCare. I was itching toward building again. CLEAR presented a unique opportunity. Identity in healthcare hasn’t been innovated in so many years, yet identity is so foundational to every healthcare experience, and I knew there was an opportunity to drive impact. We are improving productivity and reducing costs in the ecosystem.
What’s your vision and end goal for what CLEAR can achieve in healthcare?
Caryn: What is powerful about CLEAR is that we are starting with a large embedded base of over 17 members from our product in airports. That will always help drive adoption. There has been a strong shift toward consumerization of healthcare, and CLEAR is a consumer-facing brand. We started in one of the hardest and most highly regulated spaces – aviation security – and we’ve built and earned the trust of our members. Trust is so important in healthcare. I think we are really aligned with the mission of medical administrators, Chief Information Officers, doctors, nurses, and front-office staff who want to provide the best patient care while reducing the burden of paperwork and expenses.
David: Identity has been a long-term problem in healthcare, and we can help solve it. The industry relies on paper and fax machines. A quarter of healthcare dollars is spent on administration. Not to mention that medical identity theft remains a large problem, and costs over $40B. As we work toward our mission in healthcare of replacing the clipboard, we’re excited to see it improve patient and provider experiences holistically.
What drives each of you?
Caryn: I tell my kids every morning to make the world a better place. And that is what I want them to have every day. The word is indefatigable. I wear it on my bracelet. Be passionate about your vision and execute every day.
David: Being able to make an impact – to track and drive value. My whole family is in healthcare. I was the only one to join the business world and think about healthcare in a different way. I look at how to make the healthcare experience better.
Caryn, you are a celebrity. However, there is surprisingly very little about you as a person out there. Your Twitter profile says that you are a proud mom of three. Talk to me about the best part of being a mom and leading a $4B publicly traded company at the same time?
Caryn: You are going to make me teary-eyed. My kids are 20, 18, and 15. My son was 2 when we started CLEAR. Watching them become great humans and difference-makers is incredibly gratifying. I am in awe of the people that they are and what they undertake every day. I feel like I am leaving a legacy that can multiply. The best part of doing it at the same time as building a company is that they are a part of making a vision a reality. For example, my middle daughter helped create the CLEAR logo. She deconstructed a helix – because DNA is what makes you, YOU – and then put on a blazer and pitched it to the advertising company that was advising us. She learned early on that good things are hard, but she can turn no’s into yes’s. When I left my kids each day to go to work when they were little, I remember hearing them cry when I went down the elevator. But they are so proud of what we have built at CLEAR, and it makes them stronger, more motivated people. So I tell others to remember that on really hard days.
Have you ever had challenges where your career ambitions have come in conflict with your family life?
Caryn: I have an incredible husband. It is very 50/50. I have never felt that they are in conflict, because I feel like we are one team all together. There are times where I am on the soccer field, and I am on my airpods on a work call. My eyes and my ears can both be working. I have given up some other things in life, for example I don’t play golf for hours. I have made choices, and my choices are my family and work and those make me happy. I don’t talk about work-life balance; no one talks about party-school balance in college. At 6 in the morning I may be up with my son helping him study for a test and at 8 AM I’m in the office on an earnings call.
What tips do you have for other career moms and dads? Life hacks? Work hacks?
Caryn: Coffee in the morning, a little wine at night sometimes. You have to drive efficiency. You have to be productive, you have to figure out how to have an hour-long meeting in 30 minutes, you have to create blocks in your calendar for things that are important to you. Missing my daughter’s soccer game when she was a senior and captain of the varsity soccer team was a non-negotiable. It’s about taking ownership of your calendar and priorities. Finally, you have to be with well-wishers. You don’t have time to be with people who don’t bring joy into your life.
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