"In those first moments after the accident, there’s no doubt I was in intense pain—but even more overwhelming was the gratitude I felt for being alive, for the rescuers, for my family, and for the chance to move forward with new purpose."
December 8, 2023, started like any other ideal jump day: clear skies, optimal conditions, and a calm, steady focus as I put on my wingsuit. I had completed hundreds of jumps before—methodically checking my equipment, thinking through contingency plans, and approaching each flight with full awareness. Every factor mattered.
But that day, things didn’t go exactly to plan.
Mid-flight, a problem with my parachute required me to land on the side of the mountain. I relied on my years of experience to navigate the situation to the best of my ability, but within the 14 seconds between my parachute opening and landing in a boulder field, I ended up seriously injured.
I activated my emergency beacon, unable to get myself out of this situation.
The injuries were life-threatening if not treated quickly. But everyone involved acted with incredible haste and precision. Within minutes, the rhythmic chop of helicopter blades cut through the still air. The rescue team arrived, assessed the situation, and moved swiftly to stabilize me and get me out of there.
In the end, I had severely broken my leg, fractured multiple ribs and vertebrae, and punctured both of my lungs. It was clear I was in for a long recovery—but even as I lay there in pain, I was overwhelmed by a profound sense of gratitude: for the team that reached me, for the chance to heal, for the support of my family, and for the opportunity to reimagine my path forward.
That accident wasn’t just a detour. It was a spark. It led me to build a passionate team to address a critical problem in healthcare—one that impacts millions of providers and patients every single day.
Hospital rooms have a way of clarifying what matters. Confined to a bed, dependent on others for the most basic needs, you gain perspective. As I lay there, being poked and prodded, I was again overcome by gratitude. Not just for being alive, but for the incredible healthcare workers who made that possible.
During those long weeks of recovery and months of physical therapy that followed, I found myself asking questions of my care providers. Not just about my condition, but about their challenges. What made their jobs harder? What took them away from patient care? I felt deeply out of balance, in "debt" to medicine and the people who had saved my life.
One conversation changed everything. Brian Cronin, one of my physical therapists and the owner of U-District, called credentialing "a constant headache" that took valuable time away from providers and patient care. As he described the tedious, redundant processes required to maintain practice privileges, something clicked. With my near decade-long background in digitizing credentials, I realized I might be uniquely positioned to address this pain point for the very people who had saved my life.
The more I asked, the more I heard the same frustrations. Healthcare professionals drowning in paperwork. Duplicate processes across different facilities or Insurance companies. Time delays affecting patient care. The exasperation in their voices was unmistakable.
One locum tenen who had spent eight years working across nearly a dozen states told me they loved being a traveling physician but were planning to stop altogether because they couldn't fathom going through another tedious credentialing process. "Sometimes I feel like I spend more time proving I can do my job than actually doing it," they said. Another described spending dozens of hours gathering and submitting the same information to different hospitals. A Nurse Practitioner recounted waiting months for credentialing approval while patients who needed her specialty care were put on waiting lists.
Each story reinforced what was becoming clear: this was a problem I could help solve. When I floated initial ideas about digitizing and streamlining these processes, the shocked reactions confirmed I was onto something meaningful.
“I’ve made a tremendous network of people I care about in this space—surgeons, reps, coordinators. I’ve heard their frustration over and over again. I’m doing this to make their lives easier. They deserve that.”
— Jeff Falconer
Great missions require great teams. My first call was to Jeff Falconer—someone I'd worked with before and trusted implicitly.
Jeff's credentials were impressive: 25 years in sales, 18 of which were in medical software. But what really made Jeff the perfect co-founder wasn't his resume—it was his heart. I saw it during my recovery when he drove hours out of his way just to get a cot, bedding, and a Roku for my fiancée Allie so she could stay comfortably by my side in the hospital.
Jeff's natural ability to care for people and his authentic extrovert nature complimented my more analytical approach. Where I see systems and solutions, Jeff sees people and possibilities. We balance each other perfectly.
“I tried everything to make the process smoother for my team. But the tools just weren’t there. We were constantly fighting against outdated systems. When I saw Credential Network, I knew right away—it’s the solution I spent years looking for.”
— Angela Schultz
We needed someone who had lived the problem we were trying to solve. Enter Angela Schultz—with eight years as a credentialing specialist, manager, and operations leader, she became our reality check and our compass.
Angela had tried everything to make credentialing smoother for her previous team. When she first heard about Credential Network, she immediately recognized it as the solution she'd been searching for. "This is exactly what I wished existed when I was managing a team of credential specialists," she told us.
Our product isn’t just built for clients. It is built with them. From the very beginning, our earliest Beta partners have helped shape every feature, workflow, and decision. Their insights, frustrations, and aspirations aren’t data points. They are our blueprint.
Each week, we sit down with people in the field: credentialing specialists, healthcare providers, physicians, administrators, and business owners. These conversations ground us. They remind us why we started. We are here to give time back to those who give everything to others.
Angela, our internal voice of the customer, ensures their stories and needs are present in every team discussion. And we don’t just talk about being client-first. We work to prove it in every decision we make.
Our clients inspire the tools we build, the problems we solve, and the standard we hold ourselves to. We are here to make their lives easier, their days smoother, and their work more meaningful. When they thrive, patients do too.
If you want to be part of shaping what we build next, or if you have insights from the field you think we should hear, we would love to learn from you. Join us for a quick conversation. Your voice can help guide what comes next.
A second chance at life comes with responsibility. I'm not interested in disrupting credentialing for disruption's sake. I'm building something better because I've felt the need firsthand.
Every physical therapy session reminds me why this matters. Every time I feel the hardware in my back or notice my limited range of motion, I remember the healthcare professionals who gave me back my life—and recommit to giving them back their time.
We're empowering healthcare professionals to focus on what they do best: saving lives. Just like they saved mine.
My journey from a hospital bed to building Credential Network isn't just a founder's story—it's a testament to how personal experience shapes mission.
We have a dual purpose: creating a solution that shows credentialing specialists, nurses, and doctors that we're building for them, and attracting team members who share our passion for this mission.
If you're a healthcare professional with credentialing challenges, we want to hear from you. Connect with me on LinkedIn, schedule a demo with our team, or email us.
Whoever you are, if our Heart, Mind, and Hustle approach resonates with you, we would love to hear from you too.
Because some missions are too important to tackle alone.
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