A Conversation with Jeremy Miller, Founder and CEO of FSAstore.com and HSAstore.com
Tell us what you all do!
Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA) and Health Savings Accounts (HSA) are two distinct savings tools that allow you to set aside thousands pre-tax dollars to help you save on your direct medical costs, dependent childcare expenses, and even transportation to and from work. Not a lot of people are aware of these accounts and the potential up to 40% on the dollar a year in your income taxes. Also, since FSAs are use it or lose it accounts, people leave millions of tax free dollars on the table because they fail to spend down their accounts in time.
In 2010, we launched FSAstore.com and in 2015 we launched HSAstore.com, these two sites are the only ecommerce sites exclusively focused on FSA- and HSA-eligible products, services, and consumer tools. Our mission is to make it simple and convenient for the 30 million US consumers with FSAs and 20 million people with HSAs to spend, use, and manage their accounts. Our ecommerce sites offer only account-eligible products, and provide hands-on tools and education to help people optimize these important saving and spending decisions as healthcare expenses continue to consume an increasingly large portion of Americans’ household income.
We take a very consumer-centric approach to everything we do. We think about the pain points people experience in regard to paying for healthcare. Our sites aim to eliminate the guesswork of using your spending account by creating a one-stop shop for only HSA- and FSA-eligible products, and make healthcare convenient by offering features like debit card processing, our proprietary Rx Process, planning and tracking tools, and account education.
What inspired you to create a company focused in this area?
I started my career managing and growing small businesses, the last being the technological division of Frank Gehry’s architectural practice. During this time, I saw firsthand the confusion and inconvenience surrounding FSAs and how that produced frustration and, ultimately, led to the forfeiture of employee’s tax-free income.
Most people have no idea that their spending accounts can be used for things other than co-pays and deductibles and even fewer people understand the tax and long-term savings implications. And even if they do know exactly how their account works, it’s sometimes very difficult to determine what expenses are actually eligible. Our mission is to make it as simple as possible for people to spend, manage, and use their FSA and HSA accounts.
Did you always know that you wanted to be a Founder?
I always wanted to start my own business. Not only did I come from a family of entrepreneurs, but in all the startups I worked at, I had a big impact on growing their business.
Columbia Business School gave me the option to start something in a supportive setting. I immediately grasped on to as many classes, projects, and competitions that I could, including relying on the Lang Center and my entrepreneurship professors to get this business off the ground.
What were your first steps once you decided to take this business on?
The biggest step was going from a lot of ideation to taking concrete steps to launch a real business. In doing so there was also a leap that had to be made to understand, and be comfortable with, the fact that not everything is certain and laid out.
Knowing what kind of company I wanted to create, aside from the relentless focus on product and customer experience, didn’t really take place until we were comfortable with the business model, our clients, and our customers. Now we can focus on building a great company where people get along and work together on creating something larger. Evidence of this working is us being one of the best places to work in NYC by Crain’s.
What has the building process been like for you the last 7 years?
We’re a little different from most start-ups in that we didn’t take a lot of money initially to get the business off the ground. We took a very conservative approach in the early years and kept expenses to a minimum. We became a self-sustaining business fairly early on and avoided the need to raise several rounds of funding.
We’re always looking for ways to grow the business and address consumer demand. The healthcare products we currently sell comprise a modest portion of the overall spend on tax advantaged accounts (15–20% for FSAs). The lion’s share of spend still goes to fees for medical services. Our goal is to make it easier for consumers to use their spending accounts wisely and conveniently for such expenses.
At this stage in our life cycle, we continue to focus on consumer awareness and growth, and I feel we’re just beginning to scratch the surface with where we think the business can go. We remain laser-focused on getting more FSA and HSA holders to our site to realize the full potential and the true tax benefits of these accounts. Our focus on consumer convenience, lifestyles, and education have helped us build an extremely loyal following in a short time.
What has been the most valuable piece of advice you’ve received?
We missed the Columbia graduation as we had a potential new client for the business on a call. But at the business school graduation I sat next to Arden Miller (Miller being the closest to Miller in alphabetical order). Anyways, Arden was a VC before school. As I was telling him all the things and businesses I wanted to do, he gave me a piece of advice that I still think about, “make this one work, then focus on the others.” It’s the focus that has enabled us to be a top ten ecommerce growth company.
My professors also gave advice when we were in ideation and were stuck on a point. Brendan Burns and Cliff Schorer said, you can’t picture the technology and product as a perfect version 1. You will have many more versions. It seems simple but so true. We had to get through a lot of bugs and a lot of versions to get to where we are now. The first one will never be the ONE.
I also have learned to celebrate successes along the way. We as a company celebrate successes and it isn’t always monetary. It involves a more personal story and everyone has a different one and a different meaning.
Lastly, we constantly give back to the community. We support several healthcare causes.
Is there anything else you would like us to know about?
FSAstore.com/HSAstore.com is a “Made in NY” company and employs 50 people in New York City. We have been recognized by the Business Ambassadors for Youth program for mentoring and hiring young professionals. In 2016, we were named to Crain’s Best Places to Work in New York City list, as well as being ranked #156 on Deloitte’s Fast 500 list. We’re particularly proud of this recognition, being that FSAstore.com/HSAstore.com was the only company included from the retail drugs and health products sector.
And, while we’ve seen year-over-year revenue growth we are exceedingly proud of the fact that we consistently receive a high consumer approval rating (9.3/10 on TrustPilot), with 99% of customers saying they would shop at FSAstore.com again, and 98% saying FSAstore.com helped them understand what is eligible.
Thank you for sharing your experiences with the community. Best of luck to you and your team as you continue to build!
