Member Spotlight: Valerie Health
At Society of Work our members are the heartbeat of our community so we enjoy sharing their stories. This month we connected with member Lauren Coile to learn a little bit more about Valerie Health, their work, and what they do.
1. Tell us about Valerie Health—what do you do, and what brought you from San Francisco to Chattanooga?
Valerie Health helps independent practices by taking the load off their front office teams. We use AI to handle a lot of the repetitive admin work - things like referrals, prior auths, and fax processing - so staff spend less time doing data entry and more time actually helping patients.
We started in San Francisco, but most of our customers are in Eastern or Central time zones. So building an operations hub here just made sense - closer to the people and practices we support every day.
2. What's the vision behind expanding to Chattanooga, and what role do you see Valerie Health playing in the community here?
Our Head of Ops and I both worked at Bellhop years ago, and we saw firsthand how much talent is here. It’s such a connected city with great people.
Our hope is to create really meaningful roles with room to grow - the kind of work you usually only find at fast-paced startups in bigger markets. It’s exciting to bring those opportunities to Chattanooga.
3. Can you describe your company culture? What values drive how your team works together, especially as you're building in a new market?
We work hard and hold a high bar for ourselves. “Mastering your craft” comes up a lot - doing great work, sweating the details, and supporting each other so our practices (including providers, staff, and patients) get the very best.
And this may sound silly, but it’s also really important we genuinely enjoy each other’s company. That comes in the form of after-work happy hours, curated playlists during an afternoon lull, and celebrating each other’s wins. Doing hard things with people you enjoy and can learn from makes the whole ride way more fun.
4. What's the most rewarding part of the work your team does, and how does that show up day-to-day?
Seeing how much faster and smoother things can move in healthcare. When we can shorten the time between a referral being sent and a patient actually getting in to see a specialist - sometimes by days or weeks - that’s huge! Everyone has their own story of dealing with slow follow-up or insurance red tape. It feels good to help fix some of that.
5.What were you looking for in a workspace during this transition phase, and how has that evolved as you've settled into Society of Work?
We wanted a collaborative, welcoming place while we got our team off the ground. Society of Work checked every box. The people (and the dogs!) have been so friendly, and the space itself is beautiful.
As we’ve grown, we’ve added more rooms and somehow made it all work. It’s been fun watching the team grow in head count and room count, ha!
6. What about working at Society of Work has been a perfect match for the transitional phase you are in as your establish your Chattanooga presence and team?
Honestly, the flexibility has been huge. We’re in that “building the plane while flying it” stage, and SOW has let us grow, rearrange, and figure things out without any stress (s/o Lauren!). Being around other teams and individuals who are also building just adds to the energy.
6. What's on the horizon for Valerie Health that you're excited about? Any milestones, launches, or news you want the community to know about?
A lot! We’re continuing to go deeper in the front office space and grow our Chattanooga team. We’re laying the foundation for what we hope is many years of building, learning, and growing here — both as a company and within the community.
