CEO Greg Stein at Connect San Diego

Meet Shadowbox

Shadowbox is a ground-breaking, patented, no-code integration and automation platform. By powering a browser with security, AI, and user-driven cross-application connections, Shadowbox offers instant integration at the click of a button. We launched our MVP in late 2018, solving interoperability in healthcare. We earned our first patent in mid-2019. As of early 2021, We have over 25 customers, over $1.5M in booked contracts, and an MRR of over $25K.

Why is your company the best option to solve the problem you’re solving?

Unlike other integration platforms, Shadowbox is cost-effective, fast, simple, secure, and flexible. Our platform securely integrates multiple applications without requiring APIs. Interoperability in healthcare is currently dominated by Electronic Healthcare Record (“EHR”) vendors, who charge monopoly fees and take several months to implement. These applications are well-known for being clunky and difficult to use. Usability is so challenging that terms like “click fatigue” have become a hot topic for clinicians. Shadowbox not only improves productivity and speed, but our platform also increases profit margins for our customers by both increasing revenue and lowering cost. Shadowbox reduces insurance claim denials (80% fewer claims with missing billing information), lowers integration costs (70% lower costs in a customer case study) while increasing sales velocity (same day install means orders in days instead of months, increasing annual volume by 25%).

What nuggets of info make you interesting? Why do people care about what you’re doing?

Shadowbox presents a completely new approach to integration that can be applied to ANY web application without relying on IT or APIs. Shadowbox taps into each application’s user interface (UI) enabling rapid no-API integrations. At scale, Shadowbox will completely eliminate application-specific solutions, and instead use AI to link like-for-like fields, suggesting connections to the user. Once created, Shadowbox remembers the connections and learns. An end-user can open their applications in Shadowbox and move data across applications seamlessly and securely, all in an instant.

What else do you want us to know?

Shadowbox has a strong leadership team with great depth and breadth of skills and experience. Founder Jack Samatov is a full-stack developer with several patents to his name and long history in tech. CEO and co-founder Greg Stein has over 25 years’ experience that extends from public policy to investment banking to healthcare. He is a visionary leader, with a solid history of scaling fast-growth companies. CFO, Beth Crocker, has spent her career working in Silicon Valley, where she took 2 tech companies from start-up to IPO and led dozens of acquisitions from deal through integration. In addition, the leadership team believes it is critical to give back to the San Diego community. Greg Stein served as Chairman of the Board of the San Diego County Taxpayers Association. He also co-founded and served as Executive Director of the Safe Homes Coalition, which is dedicated to reducing harm associated with prescription drug misuse and abuse. Beth Crocker served as a board member and CFO for the Solana Beach Schools Foundation, responsible for funding STREAM programs for the seven district elementary schools, and as Board Member for the Academy of Integrative Health & Medicine (AIHM), a global inter-professional integrative health association headquartered in San Diego, working to transform health care – body, mind, spirit, community, & planet.

Behind the company with CEO/Founder Gregory Stein

What one book, podcast, newsletter, etc. do you recommend to other entrepreneurs? Why?

I believe in constant learning and as a result, can’t recommend just one book or podcast. Instead, my recommendation is for entrepreneurs to commit to reading at least one book a quarter. Some of the books along this pathway that I found valuable include, “Lean Start-up” (minimum viable product tested by customers), “Zero to One” (build something that changes everything), “Mindset” (know you can grow, then do it), “Mistakes were made” (cognitive dissonance destroys teams), “The Goal” (prioritize constraints & fix them), “Crossing the Chasm” (leverage the niche) and “Good to great” (focus, the right people in the right seats). Each addresses different and sometimes contradictory aspects of business strategy.

What is your company’s secret sauce?

While the rest of the industry attempts to build thousands of APIs by throwing bodies at the problem, Shadowbox patented the use of the browser rendering engine as an already existing “infinite API.” This approach eliminates hosting, storage, development, maintenance, vendor-vendor contracts, and fees, and as a result, disrupts the entire multi-billion “Automation and Integration” industry.

What inspired you to start/run this company?

Jack Samatov invented a technology that represents a fundamentally different and more efficient approach to solving the universal challenge of connecting disparate data. I recognized the power of Jack’s invention and matched it to my passion for helping people. Together, we landed on healthcare as the industry with the most severe interoperability challenges, that when solved, would have a profound impact; not only in terms of reach but also in terms of improving patient care and saving lives.

What’s the best entrepreneurial advice you’ve received?

Celebrate the wins, no matter how small. It is not just a marathon – it’s an ultra marathon, a decathlon, and an iron-man rolled into one. Celebrating the wins ensures that the big goal is broken down and recognized as achievable milestones along the way. Also, avoid comparing yourself to what you read in the trade press. Your path is your own.

What’s the worst entrepreneurial advice you’ve received?

At Shadowbox, we’ve learned to appreciate any advice as long as the intent is to enhance the success of the company. Not all advice is powerful, useful, or actionable. But sometimes what appears on its face to be the worst advice ever, upon reflection may contain a kernel of wisdom that opens a new way of looking at a challenge and lead to extreme value.

What sets your company culture apart?

On Day 1, Founder Jack Samatov and co-founder Greg Stein crafted a set of ground rules to guide and grow our company culture. The primary tenants are extreme integrity, player/manager work ethic, growing the pie, success through measured accomplishments, along with work-life balance.