Michael Hollis
Co-Founder & President

MICHAEL HOLLIS, co-founder and president of Nashville-based Optura Inc., says the startup has begun deploying its new "AI Enterprise Operating System," which helps management of healthcare plans achieve persistent accountability for return on investment in orchestration of workflows.

Hollis told VNC that Optura's emphasis on "AI for RoI" helps management teams conserve resources and reduce the operational friction associated with projects that are too-often undertaken in the interest of "innovation," but which in basic ways fail to contribute to earnings, operational efficiency and customer success.

In May, the company and parent Optura Holdings LLC announced it received a total $6.5MM through its unpriced Seed round which was co-led by two San Francisco VCs, Susa Ventures (represented by Chad Byers) and Matrix Technologies (represented by TJ Parker).

Yesterday, Hollis told VNC the total of the Seed round is expected to round-up to $7.5MM, due to late joiners.

Asked what length runway the Seed raise affords Optura, Hollis declined to comment for competitive reasons. Optura compares its traits on a grid here with those of unnamed entrants.

Optura's undisclosed first customer is in full production mode, and the company and five prospective customers are in earnest negotiations, Hollis said.

While the company's immediate priority is organic growth, Hollis said he has begun tracking potential acquisition or acquihire targets. Optura might well do one or more deals in the next 12 months.

ORIENTATION

Optura declares on its website that the company's solution can stem the tide of "AI paralysis" resulting from the "quiet epidemic" of disconnected AI pilot experiments, failed technology governance and little, if any ROI.

Hollis told VNC that Optura -- which is LLM Model-neutral -- offers a "dynamic value engine," creating visibility for individual value components at the level of tasks, actions or systems.

Optura and can track or project cost savings received, costs avoided, efficiencies gained, security, latency improved, revenue growth and more in an existing process, and help guide creation of new use cases.

A month ago, Susa Ventures's Byers explained online that Optura's platform components include:

• The Intent Engine - helping organizations define and align on what they want AI to achieve
• The Operator - tracking value, managing deployment, and ensuring visibility at scale
• The Librarian - a continuous learning system that understands the nuances of the healthcare enterprise: workflows, regulations, goals, and tradeoffs

by Copilot

Hollis told VNC flatly, "We don't do 'innovation'." Instead, Optura focuses on removing or reducings operating costs, reducing the administrative burden for health plans, and reducing the "experience burden" on the lives of health plans' members.

Now 46, Hollis is no stranger to technology and healthcare: During the past 18-plus years, he played central roles in growing one of Nashville's most successful healthtech companies, Emids Technologies (Specialist Resources Global Inc.). Emids, led by CEO Abhishek Shankar, serves payers, providers, healthtech and life sciences.

While in-houe with Emids, Hollis served as president (2008-10) of the Tennessee Chapter of Chicago-based nonprofit Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society Inc. (TN HIMSS), a global health advocate and thought leader. His Emids career began in 2007, stepping-away in 2024, but remains an advisor to the Emids board of directors. His LinkedIn.

Hollis told VNC that Optura is not a spin-out from Emids, but Emids is an Optura technology partner.

Hollis explained that during most of his 18-year tenure within Emids he served as the company's envoy to the healthcare sector.

During that span -- and well ahead of the chatGPT explosion of 2022-23 -- he learned to navigate the machine learning and artificial intelligence landscape, and came to appreciate the how deeply exhausted healthcare executives had become with software point solutions, each addressing specific, isolated problems or tasks.

Hollis emphasized that Optura welcomes opportunities to collaborate with point solutions, but is itself pursuing an integrative role.

He also underscored that he and much of his team have emerged from prior careers with "native" knowledge of healthcare workflows that he believes is immensely differentiating in the marketplace.

He added that, especially in the past two years, finance and technology executives who have set down the path toward experimenting with multiple pilot AI models have recognized their operations are often thwarted by lack of operational orchestration among proliferating AI models used across varied workflows.

Hollis emphasized that Optura doesn't aim to be on the "bleeding age" of AI deployment. Rather, his team is intent on producing fundamental business gains, rather than pursue innovations that are often proven non-accretive.

Emphatically, said Hollis, "Our 'North Star' is to help our clients find their North Star through the value our platform creates. We want to put value visibility back into the equation," in order to allow Optura adopters to decide whether to kill, holistically rethink, and-or invest in next steps.

He said such straight-line thinking may seem too "Blue Collar" or "Hard Hat" for some, but success across all phases of the AI Era requires halting the chase for "shiny objects," turning instead to hard questions about whether an tech or operational initiative will help the business or should be sunsetted.

Such thinking is imperative, given the "technical debt" inherent in claims systems throughout healthcare, he added.

THE TEAM

Co-founder and CEO Andy Fanning

Both Optura Inc. and Optura Holdings LLC were registered in Delaware in November 2024 by Jefferson City, Mo.-based Co-Founder and CEO Andy Fanning, alongside Hollis.

Fanning and Hollis together hold controlling interest in the company, Hollis confirmed.

Fanning was previously global leader for GenAI for St. Louis-based Evernorth and managing director for intelligent automation and business transformation for Connecticut-based Cigna, among other roles.

Optura has 10 FTE now, with perhaps five more hires likely this year, said Hollis. Its immediate priorities for new hires include Senior Solution Engineers and Head of Engineering.

Optura's SVP Solutions Engineering is Joel Thimsen of Raleigh. Its VP-Platform Growth is Gaurav Pandey, who was also previously with Emids, according to LinkedIn. Its SVP Platform and Chief Architect is Bogdan Blaga.

Nashville staff also include Emids alumnus Jerry Buchanan, who serves Optura as head of growth; and former Optum worker Clayton Kelly, director of brand and event programs.

Asked about advisors, Hollis said the company relies on attorney Mike Kuffner at Bass Berry & Sims.

Optura banks with Silicon Valley Bank, and handles accounting via platforms and advisors, as needed. Franklin-based Forrest.co's Brandon Triola supports brand, design and marketing.

BACKSTORY

The Hollis Family adventuring.

Hollis, 46, is a native of Ft. Payne, Alabama, and earned a degree in political science at Alabama's Troy University, located between Montgomery and Enterprise. His LinkedIn profile.

He and Ellen Baum Hollis reside in Williamson County with their son, Hunt Michael Hollis, age 15. Ellen Hollis operates Ellen Hollis Events LLC.

Hollis told VNC that, as is often the case among healthtech and healthcare entrepreneurs, during his career he has developed a deep sense of mission with respect to reducing healthcare systemic waste and improving outcomes for patients.

The founder says his sense of mission was sharpened in 2009 with the birth of his son, Hunt.

By age 16 months, Hunt Hollis was diagnosed with a genetic energy disorder known as "mitochondrial disease," which hampers cellular energy production and organ functioning. He was also subsequently diagnosed with ADHD and autism spectrum disorder.

In addition to their care of Hunt, the Hollises created The Hunt Michael Hollis Fund at the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee, to help support other families dealing with mitochondrial disease.

Then, during Hunt's seventh year, the Hollises created Team Hunt Adventure (THA), powered by the Hollises' insight -- informed by Hunt's response -- that "adventure is the best therapy."

Since 2011, Team Hunt has raised more than $750K to support initiatives locally and nationally.

POSTSCRIPT

The brand "Optura" was chosen for this Fanning-Hollis venture when, after the usual tortuous pondering, the co-founders dropped a prompt into chatGPT, asking it to generate a name for a venture in their industry.

Hollis said chatGPT produced "Optura." He and Fanning liked it -- and the brand passed muster among their wives and children -- so the founders adopted it.

Optura Holdings LLC applied to the USPTO for the Optura mark in December 2024. VNC

.last edited 1623 12 June 2025