Employee Spotlight – Amwell

Name: Craig Bagley

Title: Director, Sales Engineering

Department: Sales

Start Date: July, 2009

Amwell is in a unique position to continue to drive the [healthcare] industry forward and deliver on the change that patients want and need.  It gives me a tremendous amount of satisfaction to be involved with that.

What attracted you to Amwell?

When I interviewed for my first position at Amwell, which was in Hosting, I was just a kid coming out of college looking for a job related to my degree. I hadn’t really defined what I wanted to do professionally beyond that. But during the interview process, I became really enthusiastic about the company’s product and potential. I also felt the enthusiasm that others had within the company. And once I really understood that energy and its power, I knew I wanted to become a part of it – I was hooked. Seven years later, I’m still here and I love this place.

What were you doing before you came on board?

My focus in college was computer and electrical engineering, so most of my experience was in hardware and electronics design, though I’d done some software engineering work. I’ve worked in three different departments at Amwell, and I’ve really appreciated the opportunity that’s given me to expand my knowledge base and try out different roles.

What other positions have you held here? Tell us a little bit about your Amwell journey.

I think the better question is, What positions haven’t you held here? When I was first hired at Amwell I worked in Hosting. That gave me a great opportunity to learn about the architecture of the application, how it’s built and deployed, and how it’s supported behind the scenes. Also, getting to work under the VP of Hosting was great; he’s one of my mentors at Amwell.

From there I moved to Technical Services (TS). This was a dramatic change because I went from working on the systems that support the application to actually configuring the application for our customers. We were frequently warping the different configurable parts of the application to perform in ways they weren’t designed, so it was always an exercise in “thinking outside of the box.” While in TS I was given the opportunity to travel to Australia to work as a consultant with a new customer, so my girlfriend, now my awesome wife, traveled with me. During my time in Australia, in addition to supporting them with the hardware, I was able to become familiar with the front-end of the product and what the deployment is like from our customer’s point of view. From both a career and life perspective, going to Australia is the best learning experience I’ve ever had.

My current position is in Sales Engineering. This position has been challenging, but also satisfying and rewarding. I love having the opportunity to work with talented people like our VP of Product on a daily basis. When I first spoke with our CEO about the position he told me about “evangelizing for the product.” That’s a phrase I’ll never forget. Evangelizing for the product is something that I truly enjoy doing and something I strive to get better at every day.

What does a day in the life of a Sales Engineer look like?

My days can be focused on many different things. From a prospective customer standpoint, I’m usually speaking about the technical aspects of our product. This could involve the hosting of our application for large clients, the security in place to protect those assets, or the different ways in which our product can work with a client’s patient portal, mobile applications, and integrate with their electronic medical record software. When I’m not doing that, I’m usually answering technical questions in RFPs, working with other departments on internal projects, or trying to pry information from people in Product, Marketing, and the Online Care Group, just for my own knowledge.

At the end of every day, it remains an undying effort of mine to understand this business and this company from every angle that I can. There’s a lot of intrigue for me in understanding where we see this product going over the next few years, learning how we can convey that to customers and prospects in an effective way, and seeing how all of that is sustained on the business side.

What are your hobbies outside of work?

I’m huge into volleyball. I’ve played for about 15 years. I met my wife playing volleyball, and I’ll always maintain some schedule of indoor and beach volleyball in my life. Travel is next on the list. My wife and I love going to locations that are off the beaten path. Part of our honeymoon was a visit to Myanmar, which was a dream of mine! I’m also a rabid fan of the New England Patriots, Conor McGregor, and reading historical non-fiction.

Have you used Amwell’s direct-to-consumer app, Amwell?

I’ve used Amwell tens of times. The most interesting story happened about a year ago. I was playing tennis ball with my sister’s golden retriever, Tucker. He’s a tank. He brought the ball back to me, but it was still about 5 feet away. As it bounced toward me, I attempted to kick it and Tucker lunged forward to push it closer to me. I kicked him square in the mouth. He took it like the champ that he is, but my foot was split open with a really deep gash. He stood over me as if to say, “Hey man, why aren’t you throwing it anymore?” So, I threw the ball and then called Amwell. Teresa Myers, my favorite Amwell doctor, saved me from the hassle of sitting around an urgent care clinic on a Saturday afternoon.

What are your thoughts on the ways healthcare is changing and what we can expect to see in the future?

One of the awesome aspects of my job is that I get to travel around and speak with health systems and health plans about intentions and ability to deliver healthcare to their patients. Every prospective customer that I speak with articulates the fact that they want to deliver quality healthcare to their patients in a convenient way. While the definition of convenient quality care is changing and will continue to change, I think Amwell is in a unique position to continue to drive the industry forward and deliver on the change that patients want and need. It gives me a tremendous amount of satisfaction to be involved with that.

When you talk about telehealth and your role here with friends and family, what do you say?

When I talk to family and friends about my role here, I like to talk about our products as a whole. I think people see or use Amwell and they think that’s all that our company does. In reality, there is so much more behind our product than just direct-to-consumer telehealth. Sure, DTC telehealth is part of it, but we’re working with some of the most prestigious health systems and health plans in the country to find new and innovative ways to deliver care to patients using our technology. That’s the part I like to talk about, and people seem very interested in learning about that.

Interested in a career at Amwell? View open positions.