Driven by Compassion, Fueled by Positivity | Peter Nguyen

Peter Nguyen: I think I was just born a goofball. But at the end of the day, you know, I think we’re all at work, right? And everybody has a rent or a mortgage to pay and everybody goes to work. And how we experience that I feel is entirely up to us. Why can’t we have a good time doing it? Why can’t we do something that we’re really proud of?

 

You know, is a plan of action that we’re putting together, is that truly the best that, like, our collective minds can put together? And is there anything that we’re not doing that could otherwise delight our client? And I’m always looking out for that because there’s smiles all along that road and at the end of that road.

 

And if it’s a good experience for everybody, we should always try to replicate it and increase our own skills and experience as we go about the process. And I think that it’s difficult to be a good partner to your client, you can’t smile at them.

 

 

Anderson Williams: Welcome to Everyday Heroes, a podcast from Shore Capital Partners that highlights the people who are building our companies from the inside, every day, often out of the spotlight.

 

With this series, we want to pull those heroes out of the shadows. We want to hear their stories. We want to share their stories. We want to understand what drives them, why they do what they do, how they might inspire and support others to become Everyday Heroes too.

 

In this episode, I talk with Peter Nguyen, the Director of Market Access at PRO-spectus. Peter is a dad and an entrepreneur who joined PRO-spectus when there were just 15 people at the company. Since then, he’s brought his entrepreneurial mindset and a relentless positivity to help define what it means to be a PRO. In almost eight years, he’s taken on numerous roles and done whatever the company needed, whenever it was needed, to help their patients and the company thrive.

 

Peter Nguyen: My name is Peter Nguyen. I’m Director of Market Access here at PRO-spectus.

 

Anderson Williams: And before we dive into your current work and role, Peter, is there anything interesting we should know about you? Something about your story, your background, hobbies, interests? Anything interesting that we can’t find on LinkedIn or a quick Google search?

 

Peter Nguyen: You might be able to find it on LinkedIn, but I’m approaching my 10th year anniversary with my wife. We have a three-year-old baby girl. We love going to the beach and cooking together. Southern California stuff, but as far as hobbies, I like to spend as much time at the beach as possible, go surfing if I can, and I enjoy playing music too.

 

So just tapping into a creative side of myself on the recreational side of things.

 

Anderson Williams: And three-year-old girl, after being married for seven years, I had a Similar story, what has being a dad taught you about your work or your business side?

 

Peter Nguyen: So much in the sense that there’s no pause. You can’t schedule the tantrum, right?

 

You just always need to be in a state of readiness to address any situation, take advantage of any opportunity. And that mindset has definitely carried over into my professional life where I’m just always. Eyes and ears on the ground of, okay, is somebody about to fall off the stairs? What’s the best way to support everybody and to make sure that, you know, they’ve got everything they would need to execute on their end, have a positive experience and have the right takeaway.

 

So it’s really weird, if I’m being honest, to just flip it through and really see how there’s such a link in between, you know, being a parent and also being a manager. It almost seems. Sometimes like ironic that the same skills that are needed to survive professionally are really the core ones that you need to have the best experience in your personal life as well.

 

And so that was a huge epiphany I had going both ways.

 

Anderson Williams: You can’t schedule a tantrum. Oh my, more simple yet more insightful words were never spoken. This is the perfect mantra to capture and merge parenting with entrepreneurship. With that in mind, I wanted to hear more about Peter’s journey at PRO-spectus as well as what brought him there in the first place.

 

So let’s talk a little bit more about your work, Peter, and tell us a little bit about what PRO-spectus does and then what it means to be the Director of Market Access there.

 

Peter Nguyen: PRO-spectus is a patient access company and we work with pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers to get lifesaving and life improving therapies to patients who need them.

 

We do this by creating stakeholder support programs to equip patients, doctors, hospitals, or any ancillary partners like a specialty pharmacy distributor to get through their day-to-day requirements to ultimately get the patient on therapy. And in the background of all of that, there’s actually the manufacturer and their strategy for commercialization as well.

 

And that’s where my role as Director of Market Access really comes into play. If you’re a pharmaceutical company or a medical device company, one of the first questions on your mind is, is Medicare going to cover our product? And if they did, would Blue Cross Blue Shield or UnitedHealthcare? And if they did, you know, how would they pay the physician or the hospital for it?

 

And would that lead to a really high out of pocket bill for the patient? And so if that’s kind of, you know, where you’re at, how would you avoid that for the benefit of the patient? And so all of that results in ultimately any patient who is. What they need and my role is really there to support the design and execution of the business strategy.

 

So our clients can ensure that we’re always able to deliver that therapy to their patient.

 

Anderson Williams: That’s incredible. And it’s one of those roles that probably never thought of unless you’ve done it. Been in that patient position or perhaps in that payer position or that manufacturer position. But it’s such a key connector. It sounds like among all of those things.

Anderson Williams: So Peter, your Everyday Hero nomination said that, and I quote, you started as a PRO as a part-time team member, moved to a Case Manager, then a Reimbursement Manager to Director of Reimbursement Management, and now Director of Market Access and all around utility player.

Can you share a little bit more about that journey and just how you’ve managed to grow through that journey?

 

Peter Nguyen: I am coming up on my eighth year at PRO-spectus. Before coming to PRO-spectus, I was working, you know, kind of like the circuit of local biotech companies around the area. And then my wife, who was also working with me at the time, encouraged me to go off on my own and launch my own billing company.

It seemed like there was a lot of money and it was pretty straightforward. So I endeavored for it and she really, really supported me throughout that process. And so I learned so much doing it. I became like a practice manager for a couple of clinics and surgery centers. But what I really found was that I absolutely hated the work.

The billing work is just tedious, and kind of soul crushing and I have such appreciation for the folks who like doing it. But at that point, the business was successful, but I was really looking for an off ramp. Owning a business was really all encompassing. It definitely is a different experience when there is no IT team, there is no tax accountant, and there is no secretary. And then on top of that, the work actually needs to be done. And then you actually have to, like, you know, manage the relationships.

And I was a one man show, and when my clients were needing things, I was always having to learn things on the fly. But that experience was incredibly relevant because in this day and age, there’s not anything that you can’t find. There’s always a way a place to tap into to find the answer or to start a push to engage a thought leader to arrive at the conclusion that you need. And so, it helps me to develop that sense that there is no situation out there that you can’t overcome.

And so as PRO-spectus was beginning its growth and to scale out, I was always attracted and always had an eye out for circumstances where I saw that we would have an ability to do something better than I had done, or maybe avoid a mistake that I had made myself in the past.

Or to bring a level of expertise that was not in house to the organization. And so, it absolutely was the perfect ramp psychologically for me to enter into a startup and really find as many ways as I could to be useful to the organization.

Anderson Williams: As a founder, especially in the early stages of a company, it’s really helpful to have someone join your team who has that early-stage experience and mindset.

No one knows this better or knows the value Peter brings better than Charmie Chirgwin, the founder and CEO at PRO-spectus. So, I asked Charmie to share from her own experience what makes Peter an Everyday Hero.

 

Charmie Chirgwin: When we think about what it means to be a member of Team PRO, as we affectionately call, it’s really somebody who is looking to do more than what’s ever asked or expected.

And when we think about what a hero is, then it’s somebody who could even exceed that, if that’s even imaginable. And from the time Peter joined us, to now Peter has just really embodied what it means to go to every length to get a patient access to care and that might mean working through complexities and obstacles that an insurance company is presenting.

It could mean trying to bring all the stakeholders together. It could be a provider, hospital, the patient themselves to really figure out how to get the hurdles moved and cleared so that the patient can get on service. And really that’s what we’re about. And that’s what we do every day. One of the reasons Peter came to the forefront with everybody is Peter’s answer, assuming it’s ethical and legal is always yes.

And then it’s always about how do we get to yes, because if we can get to yes, then that patient gets care and Peter is always the first to raise his hand. He has never given any indication that something is not his job or beneath him and whatever it is, Peter’s just always willing as long as it’s going to bring that patient closer to the care that they need.

And so that makes Peter our Everyday Hero.

 

Anderson Williams: Is there a specific story, something Peter has done within the team, something he’s done for you, something he’s done with a patient that really captures what it means for him to be an Everyday Hero at PRO-spectus?

 

Charmie Chirgwin: Oh boy, that’s a big question because Peter’s been with me since 2017 and in that time, he’s had various roles.

And in each of those roles, he’s just had great impact. And I think it’s going to be difficult to come up with one specific instance, but I can tell you that there was a point in time where we had a department whose long-time leader just quit. And this was a problem person that carried a tremendous amount of weight with our clients and was a content expert of which each of us had a little bit of that, but nobody had all of it.

And Peter was the first person to come to mind to kind of step into that role at least temporarily. But he definitely did not feel confident in doing that because it carried a huge weight. And a huge burden. And so, he was helping me and it was about two weeks into it. And he finally just said, you just kind of were tricking me. You just kind of want me to step into this. Right.

And I said, well, Peter, you know, I actually need you to, and I know that this is pushing you outside your comfort zone. I know that you do not want to do this, but you do have this understanding and knowledge, and I really need you to do this. I won’t keep you in this world full time, but I need you to get it stable so that I can find the right person.

And he put his head down and he looked up and he said, anything for PRO-spectus. And I tell you, Anderson, he stepped in and I know he wasn’t happy. This was not his long-term plan, but he stepped in and nobody, but I knew that every meeting, every person he encountered, it was with the smile and the can do. And I just don’t know if anybody, including me, could have done it with such passion and grace and really got it teed up for the person that ultimately did come in to take it over. And he is still a backup for that person. And that just is who Peter is.

Anderson Williams: I love and am inspired by listening to both Charmie and Peter talk about their work at PRO-spectus.

But it was honestly still a little confusing for me exactly what they do. So I asked Peter to give me a concrete example to try to help me better understand. And his example just made it that much clearer why he’s so passionate about his work.

 

Peter Nguyen: Let’s say your child needs a prescription, and it’s for a diagnosis that you just got. It’s a brand-new situation, and so the physician prescribes the medication that your child would need, and then when you try to go fill your script at the pharmacy, they say, oh, I’m sorry, we can’t give you that though, because the insurance denied it.

And so, from there, as a parent, your question is, why did it deny it? My kid needs this and so behind that, there is a set of stakeholders and decisions that are critical to getting the medication to the child. A lot of what we’re seeing is that the industry is more moving towards automated support. And so, prescriptions being routed and kind of everything being done behind the scenes.

It is creating gaps and potential risks where the patient experience isn’t fully attuned. And so that’s really just where the humanity of it comes into play of, okay, as a parent, what would you want your resource to be? Would you want a phone number? That’s an AI chat bot that kind of guides you through your next step. Or do you want to talk to somebody who is going to hear out your story and knows what next steps need to happen from the physician, from you, from the insurance? from the pharmacy and to begin to give insight into what that looks like next and to really help navigate you through that process so that you can resolve it.

And so that’s an area where our passion really comes into a play. And there’s people doing this work who care about people everywhere. But I think that at PRO-spectus, especially, we’re always so open to putting the patient’s needs and experience paramount above of our processes. That we’re always able to kind of meet them at their level of urgency. And that’s very unique.

 

Anderson Williams: What do you see when you look ahead for PRO-spectus? And when you look ahead in your own growth, you’ve obviously evolved a PRO-spectus over the years, but what excites you that’s on the horizon?

 

Peter Nguyen: I think what’s most exciting to me are all the new therapies and potential opportunities that are out there that I have no experience in.

To me that’s the most interesting thing is what’s this problem and how do we get around it, what’s the issue and what’s the most tactical but also efficient way to address any barrier. And so, when I just considered the unknowns and all of the patients within those unknowns that we could begin to engage with, I get very excited.

And especially as the healthcare landscape is changing so rapidly, just being able to be a source of truth and know that we’re in a position to always be forefront to the patients and to all the stakeholders in our industry. That’s one of the most exciting things to me is we’re all going to live in this country and try to seek medical treatment at one time or another. And so how much can PRO-spectus contribute to that as a whole, that excites me.

 

Anderson Williams: Yeah, and I love when we started the conversation, you talked about your creativity and your desire and need to create, and I can’t help but listen to you think about walking into the unknown or being excited about the unknown. To me, that’s the surefire definition of someone who’s a creative. It’s not everybody that gets excited about the unknown.

 

Peter Nguyen: You know, that was one of the transitions, right? Throughout all the roles is the transition from the SME to either the leader or the general manager. You really need to put yourself in that perspective where things that would have intimidated you, it’s ultimately your responsibility now. So how do you play those cards? And that’s definitely something that is a huge, I think, stepping stone for anybody who makes that transit from SME to a functional leader.

 

Anderson Williams: And really just being able to take advantage of the personal and professional growth opportunities that come along with being a part of a growing company, right?

That is part of the opportunity that’s presented in an environment like this, that you want people to get excited about and seize, not just because they have the opportunity to get a new title or to make more money, but to what you were describing before, to impact more patients, to impact an industry and so forth.

 

Peter Nguyen: I do actually say in my day to day, we’re doing this for the good of humanity, just to make it clear, right? To remind folks when needed that what our activities are small, but they have wide impacts and that we should never lose sight, motivation, and what we’re really doing here to help other people. And so, it’s incredibly motivating again, just it’s so easy to show up to work.

Anderson Williams: So, you’ve described a pretty dynamic career, including being an entrepreneur before joining PRO-spectus. You’ve had a number of jobs and roles and evolved to help build PRO-spectus into what it is today.

If you were to go back and give some advice to that version of you that was just starting at PRO-spectus about what was on the horizon, what advice would you give that version of yourself?

 

Peter Nguyen: I find that’s a hard question to answer because I am very content with how that person met the occasion. I would suggest that maybe the only advice I would have given myself was to lead in harder and quicker than I already did.

 

Anderson Williams: I love that answer, actually.

And I want to then ask you, how were you ready? Why were you so ready to meet that occasion?

 

Peter Nguyen: I guess it was in all my other roles, I felt like I was just trying to make a living. You know, trying to make ends meet. But when I got to PRO-spectus, I tapped into something a little bit more primal. And I wake up every day and see the task that I have as a writer.

Can this help somebody? And there’s really not anything more important almost than trying to deliver that as soon as you can so that, you know, a patient’s family doesn’t have to go through extra hours or a day of toil, if at all possible. And from day one at PRO-spectus, it kindled something in me and hasn’t gone out.

Anderson Williams: It’s amazing. So, I always find it interesting because I think about it myself. Coming back to where we started the conversation, you have a three-year-old daughter who is undoubtedly developing her personality and you’re starting to learn her personality and how to be her dad and getting better at that in the process as well.

I’m curious what if your daughter listens to this podcast five years from now? What you want her to know about your journey so far?

 

Peter Nguyen: Well, I think in order for her to be VP of Mermaids, I would highly recommend that she’s always open to changing what she thought was a plan based on the needs, based on the people that she’s working with.

And if she can to always, center herself on where I have and just follow what feels good. What’s best for people? If it’s not the best result for the client, is it the best thing that you can do for your contacts, internal or external? I think having a positive touch point across all your contacts, no matter how big or small, it’s where things go wrong all over the place.

And if you strive to always help people, you’ll find yourself in a good place.

 

Anderson Williams: What’s the job description of a VP of mermaids?

 

Peter Nguyen: Commercialization of sand, of course.

There’s sand on the bottom of the ocean. Land is running out. I mean, if you can totally disrupt the whole continent market.

 

Anderson Williams: Peter Nguyen is an Everyday Hero whose superpower is his spirit.

Peter’s creative spirit means he’ll figure it out, whatever it is. Peter’s entrepreneurial spirit means he’ll get it done, whatever needs to get done. His spirit for his work has helped define and sustain a company culture that is truly a differentiator. And his spirit, just for the sake of having a positive spirit, means he brings a smile and often a laugh to help sustain himself and his team, even on the most challenging days.

If you enjoyed this episode, check out our other Everyday Heroes at www.shorecp.university/podcasts. There, you will also find episodes from our Microcap Moments, as well as Bigger. Stronger. Faster. series, each highlighting the people and stories that make the microcap space unique.

This podcast was produced by Shore Capital Partners and recorded in the Andrew Malone podcast studio with story and narration by Anderson Williams. Recording and editing by Austin Johnson. Editing by Reel Audiobooks. Sound design mixing and mastering by Mark Galup of Reel Audiobooks.

Special thanks to Peter Nguyen and Charmie Chirgwin.

This podcast is the property of Shore Capital Partners, LLC. None of the content herein is investment advice, an offer of investment advisory services, nor a recommendation or offer relating to any security. See the terms of use page on the Shore Capital website for other important information.