Podcast

Unpacking Healthcare IT M&A with William Blair’s Joe Schauenberg

April 16, 2026

THL’s Healthcare in Action, Season 2, Episode 4

As healthcare IT evolves at a breakneck pace, the right partnerships, technologies, and go-to-market strategies can define success. In this episode, Jon Lange speaks with Joe Schauenberg, Managing Director and Head of Healthcare IT Investment Banking at William Blair, to explore the current healthcare IT landscape and the outlook for continued innovation and investment. Joe shares insights from advising some of the sector’s most transformative companies, discusses how AI is reshaping everything from provider workflows to revenue cycle management, and explains why distribution – and not just product quality – has an outsized impact on success in the market. From mentorship in banking to what makes a compelling M&A story, this episode offers a front-row view of the trends, challenges, and opportunities shaping the future of healthcare IT.

Key Takeaways

AI is driving significant impact across provider workflows, revenue cycle, and documentation
Investment bankers play a key advisory role beyond transactions—leveraging objectivity, data, and sector expertise to guide strategic decisions.
Mentorship and apprenticeship are critical components of the investment banking business.
Growth, AI strategy, and ability to upsell existing customers are key factors that influence buyer interest and deal valuations.

[00:00:00] Joe Schauenberg What continues to separate the great companies from those that are good and maybe trying to be great is distribution, distribution, distribution. Healthcare, strictly healthcare software, tends to be very sticky. Healthcare end users tend not to rip and replace systems. It is hard to go from 20 million of revenue to 80, 100 million of revenue with just a good mousetrap. You have to have distribution. You have to be able to sell it. And those that have been very effective at selling are brands that you and I know about today.

[00:00:38] Josh Nelson That’s Joe Schauenberg, the Head of Healthcare IT Investment Banking at William Blair, and I’m Josh Nelson, the Head of Healthcare at THL Partners. And this is Healthcare in Action. It’s a podcast that explores the latest developments and innovations transforming the U.S. healthcare sector, from cutting-edge technology to thoughtful approaches to patient care. I’m here with my colleague, Jon Lange, who will lead us in a conversation about key trends in healthcare IT, including recent AI-driven innovations and key considerations that will drive the M&A market for healthcare IT companies in the coming years. Jon, take it away.

[00:01:16] Jon Lange Thanks, Josh. Today we’ll take a closer look at a dynamic part of the healthcare ecosystem, healthcare IT, and the capital markets that fuel it. It’s a sector where innovation, consolidation, and investment intersect, and where technology is reshaping how care is delivered. Few people have a better vantage point on these trends than Joe Schauenberg, Managing Director and Head of Healthcare IT Investment Banking at William Blair. In this episode, I spoke with Joe about the evolution of the HCIT landscape, what strong advisory partnerships look like, and how mentorship and apprenticeship can shape the next generation of healthcare and finance leaders. We discussed the technologies driving the most excitement today, from virtual care to AI-enabled revenue cycle and practice management tools, as well as the challenges of selling into healthcare organizations, and why distribution is a critical and often overlooked component of success. Joe also shared his perspectives on the M&A market, why top-tier assets continue to draw strong interest, how buyers are evaluating growth and profitability, and what management teams can do to position themselves for the best M&A outcomes. We talked about where healthcare IT is headed, why capital continues to flow into the sector, and what it takes to build winning companies in a rapidly evolving market. So let’s get into it. Joe, thanks so much for joining me.

[00:02:34] Joe Schauenberg Jon, thanks for having me. Looking forward to the conversation.

[00:02:36] Jon Lange Joe, maybe to start out, for those who aren’t familiar, would you just tell us a bit about William Blair and the healthcare IT franchise?

[00:02:44] Joe Schauenberg William Blair is a global investment banking and asset management firm, 25 offices across the globe, been in business for nearly 100 years, headquarters in Chicago, lines of business being investment banking, private wealth management, and more institutional asset management. Investment banking is about half of our firm’s revenue. In banking, we cover just about every industry vertical. Healthcare and technology are our two largest industry verticals, Healthcare IT sits at that intersection. And within healthcare IT, we like to think we cover the landscape of the category. We’re organized into three different coverage lanes, one, provider, two, payer and employer, and three, life sciences and pharmacy. We have 25 bankers in healthcare IT that cover those three lanes, five MDs that are, in my opinion, superstars of what they do, and have been a very active group. Healthcare IT has a William Blair for a number of years, even before I started 19 years ago, but one of the most active sector teams at our firm.

[00:03:45] Jon Lange Great. And I imagine most people watching or listening into this podcast will have a sense of what investment bankers do. But of course, there is a wide range of services and advice that you guys provide. And also, you know, those relationships with clients look different depending on the situation, depending on a banker. And so from your perspective, what does a good partnership with a client look like?

[00:04:11] Joe Schauenberg It’s a great question, and frankly, one that we’re not asked that often. You know, I’d say, when people hear of an investment banker or investment banking, you tend to very quickly correlate that with a transaction, some sort of deal, some capital raise, and that’s by and large true, but as I think of a great investment banker, it’s more of an advisor, more of an advisory hat that someone is wearing where you’re working with typically a very sophisticated audience to talk through a complex situation. Could be in the context of an M&A deal, could be in a context of raising capital to pursue some growth opportunity, could be the context of how to create or maximize shareholder value by way of three different paths that a board may be considering. But ultimately that that advisory hat where that advisor is leveraging data and objectivity and experience from their past and the areas that they cover or focus on, and applying that objectivity to the situation to, again, help that sophisticated audience think through a complex issue or problem or challenge in front of them that very well could lead to a deal that oftentimes does, oftentimes our incentives are linked to a deal or linked to an outcome. But again, I think the best bankers are those that are more advisors. And I think about some of my best relationships in the market, it’s those that were, yes, I have advised or our team has advised on a situation, but that experience has led to a personal relationship where we enjoy each other outside of the confines of a deal, or outside of confines of healthcare technology. So much more of an advisor versus a, say, transaction specialist. There’s many of those out there, but the advisory capability and, you know, success in that capacity, I feel like drives the best relationships between banker and client.

[00:06:18] Jon Lange Joe, you have such an interesting vantage point as the head of HCIT. What are some of the most exciting areas that you see coming down the pike in healthcare and healthcare IT?

[00:06:29] Joe Schauenberg I would say in answering that question, it kind of depends on who you’re talking to, meaning at our firm, in terms of our coverage of provider, payer, and life sciences, if you ask the MDs across the different coverage lines, you probably get different answers as to what’s exciting or what’s coming down the pike or what excites them about their respective category. I tend to spend a lot of my time in the provider space, so software businesses that are selling into hospitals, physician groups, post-acute facilities, rev cycle capabilities into those facilities, tends to be where I spend a lot of my time. And I think about what’s interesting or what I think is exciting in the space or what’s coming down the pike. Certainly, certainly concepts or models in the virtual category that can drive better outcomes, better patient care, and do so with technology, and without the brick-and-mortar, without the high cost of facility-based care. I think there’s a lot going on in that space certainly in different specialties that I think we’ll be reading more about in the years to come. But I also think more tried and true categories like practice management software, depending on what market you’re serving. We’ve seen a number of models in the last few years really drive efficiency and differentiated customer satisfaction, both provider and patient satisfaction, drive better patient care, push more AI into their end users or customer facilities, and a lot of capital interest from outside of that category wanting to get into specialty practice management businesses, but a lot going on in the practice management space, again, to drive more efficiency and better outcomes, more satisfaction. Also think the post-acute space, you know, continues to evolve with the demographic movement in the U.S. in terms of aging populations, there’s a number of… Solutions that have been financed over the last five or seven years that have scaled that are doing really well. We advise on a business called Metalogics that effectively helps the home care provider go into the home with more intelligence on that individual patient, how best to treat them, what their trajectory looks like, what they need to watch out for in terms of risks, clinical risks with that patient and that concept of enabling the provider to be more efficient, to be smarter, to have more intelligence in his or her hand when they’re walking into the door. I think that’s a really exciting area of the post-acute space. And even rev cycle another area in the provider category where you’re seeing a lot of investment around AI and automation. So again, kind of depends on who you’re asking and where they focus. The reality is there isn’t necessarily an area in healthcare IT where there isn’t interest or where the capital interest is not there. It kind of depends on the business, the business model, the team, the idiosyncrasies with that individual business as there continues to be a lot of capital on the sidelines that’s looking to deploy in its space.

[00:09:33] Jon Lange Got it. And you mentioned AI a couple of times. That’s obviously a really hot topic, not only within healthcare, not only with healthcare IT, but really across the world economy. How are you seeing AI make an impact today already at healthcare IT companies, and what are you excited about that’s on the horizon?

[00:09:53] Joe Schauenberg In healthcare, I feel like there’s been an overhang for a number of years that healthcare from a technology standpoint is way behind technology and other industries. I think by and large that still is true, but I feel healthcare is catching up. And I think AI is one aspect of technology that is testament to that. There was a report that I read recently from Menlo Ventures or they published it on their site that talked about the adoption of AI, the pace of that adoption in healthcare is greater than that of many other industries. I do see it a lot and probably mostly from my perspective in the provider space where application software companies have either developed or in certain cases, acqui-hired their way to bringing in more expertise that has developed certain AI-based capabilities to, let’s say, drive documentation for practice management, software platforms or providers that are using PM software platforms. So automating the capture of what’s being talked about in that exam room or what’s been dictated in certain cases by the physician, but capturing that in a incredibly more efficient way than that provider would otherwise likely spend an hour or two every night. You know, typing up what transpired in the exam room with that patient, capturing that in a much more efficient way. We’re seeing AI really move the needle there. I’m seeing AI move the needle from a billing standpoint in the back end in terms of driving cleaner claims, getting out the door to payers. In certain cases, managing the denials that might be coming back from health plans and prioritizing which claims to put labor to to go after to drive incremental reimbursement back to that provider. But we’re certainly seeing in a lot of different use cases, and I’m sure will continue to evolve over the coming years.

[00:11:56] Jon Lange So Joe, you mentioned the impact that AI is having, and that some of these HCIT companies are bringing to bear for their customers, whether that’s providers or pharma companies or ultimately patients, but is AI also changing the way that some of these HCIT companies are operating themselves?

[00:12:13] Joe Schauenberg It’s a great question, Jon. I think it’s early to conclude or to identify companies that are well out ahead of others. However, I think that’s coming. What I would say, though, is what continues to separate the great companies from those that are good and maybe trying to be great is distribution, distribution, distribution, healthcare, particularly healthcare software, tends to be very sticky. Healthcare end users tend not to rip and replace systems. It is hard to go from 20 million of revenue to 80, 100 million of revenue with just a good mousetrap. You have to have distribution. So to your question, I think certainly AI is driving more efficiency and faster go to market, faster decision-making at certain companies, but would I continue to fall back on is distribution being, you know, the biggest differentiator in terms of scale and ultimately would drive success. You have to be able to sell your capability to that end user who doesn’t want to rip and replace, who may not be open-minded to the next technology capability. You have to be able sell it. And those that have been very effective at selling are brands that you and I know about. Today, they may not have the best mousetrap. There may be better mousetracks out there that have been developed in recent years, but it’s hard to win the distribution game if you’re a lower scale business.

[00:13:49] Jon Lange It’s really interesting and it’s certainly consistent with things we see in the market all the time, where I think someone who isn’t super close to the HCIT market, or really probably any software market, might just assume that the best product always wins. And one thing we see over and over again is that hopefully that does happen, and I think that does in a variety of cases, but that go to market is so important. Distribution is so important. And there are some of these capabilities that regardless of the specific sub-sector you’re in, are really helpful to companies. And we like to think we bring some of these capabilities to bear through our own strategic resource group, but particularly in healthcare IT, where you’re selling to end markets that are notoriously difficult to sell into, that are notoriously averse to change, it becomes even more relevant. And you have to focus on these things outside of just product to really make your company successful.

[00:14:50] Joe Schauenberg I agree, Jon. I think that’s a good point. I mean, if you look at some of the more legacy areas, if you will, of, let’s say, the provider space, like RevCycle, there are a variety of really interesting capabilities, solutions, automated capabilities that have popped up over the last five or so years, but it’s hard to crack into the hospital when they have a partner like a Waystar, or an Ensemble, or an R1, or Change, now Optum, as their primary healthcare or revenue cycle partner. It’s hard to wedge into that relationship. So distribution, footprint, legacy relationship with that provider in healthcare is very hard to overcome.

[00:15:35] Jon Lange Joe, you have a great vantage point on the M&A market generally, and of course, specifically in HCIT. What advice would you give to management teams or to sellers to package their company, to tell the story, to get the best outcome?

[00:15:52] Joe Schauenberg Every story is a little bit different, of course, but if I think about a bigger picture, what drives both interest and valuation multiples for nearly any company in our category, what’s most correlated with that interest in multiple continues to be revenue growth. So driving a believable and data-driven, very defensible growth strategy that’s focused on one to three years post-acquisition, ideally more organic than inorganic, but can be a combination. That growth story, I would say, is critical for, frankly, any business. Again, market segments are a little bit different, dynamics, TAMs a little different, but the growth story continues to be most correlated to interest and multiple. Number two, I’d say the concept of selling additional solutions into the existing base. Kind of a mom and apple pie concept, but where we have seen a lot of success in the provider category, particularly with application software names are those where they’ve developed those customer relationships. They’re very sticky, retention is quite high. If you can develop more tools in the toolkit to push to those end customers, from a buyer standpoint, that’s the easiest way to drive more revenue as opposed to winning that new logo or pursuing that new market opportunity. We’re acquiring a transformational business to add to the story. If you can sell more to that existing sticky relationship that’s viewed, I would say, very favorably. I think AI also factors in, maybe number three, to this conversation. Having a game plan, a playbook on AI, you don’t necessarily need to be generating millions of dollars from AI-related solutions today. But having a tight story on what you’re doing today in AI, how it’s going to affect your existing solutions, how it is going to effect your customers’ workflows, how are you going to monetize the capability that you might be developing. All things AI, I would say, are certainly more important today than they were just a couple of years ago. And I might close with the EBITDA line much more in focus today than it might have been three, four years ago when the growth at all costs mentality was more in vogue, and certainly what was driving the NASDAQ, you know, right around the pandemic or on the heels of the pandemic. EBITDA rule of statistics, much more in focus and more correlated to valuation multiple. When I go back to growth, growth continues to be, from my perspective, what, when I’m having conversations with potential buyers of the business, it drives interest. It drives engagement. It drives that buyer to say, you know what, I wanna learn more, I want to meet the CEO. And it’s very much correlated in the math that we run on our end with valuation multiple. So I’d push that one as maybe one A, B and C before the other two or three points.

[00:18:54] Jon Lange And for companies that are at least considering or maybe hoping to sell to a strategic buyer, are there any different considerations or are those dynamics still about the same?

[00:19:06] Joe Schauenberg You have to have a customized story specific to that buyer to enable that, whether it’s an operator, whether it is a corporate development person, whether it’s someone else within the organization, equip that person to be punchy and compelling and influential in their internal conversations with a customized stories to how this target is going to move the needle within their organization. I think too often, but when I’m on the buy side, I see situations where bankers are just lobbing over content that looks the same for every party, thinking that it will stick with some, and you only need one party to ultimately engage to get a deal done. That may have worked years ago, where you could press play and run a process in six months, you have an outcome. You have to be more customized today. So with strategics, if that is a likely counterparty in a transaction certainly engaging early, understanding they’re going to be selective, customizing that story, giving them content that’s specific to their business that they can spread internally to drive that internal buy-in. Those are, I would say, critical aspects to consider if that type of buyer is relevant in your situation.

[00:20:23] Jon Lange I want to switch gears a little bit, and talk about the importance of mentorship, and I know that’s something that you really emphasize and is really important to you. How do you think about mentorship and apprenticeship and investment banking? And what do you do to develop your team to make sure that they’re not only getting exposure, but really developing the skills to ultimately be great bankers themselves?

[00:20:48] Joe Schauenberg Yeah, great point. Very much an apprenticeship model in investment banking. You don’t learn by a textbook, you don’t learn by reading case studies, you don’t learn by being off camera or off mic. It’s very much an apprentice model. And as a partner of our firm, so much of our future success as a firm at William Blair is predicated on our VPs, our directors, our more junior managing directors continuing to develop and being productive as they as they climb the ranks and become more senior. As a senior banker at William Blair, I’m very much judged on at the end of the year how much time and how effective I am in a mentorship capacity. And there’s different ways we go about that throughout the year, some formal, some informal, but in terms of the sort of ethos that we carry with our, certainly our director level bankers, we are trying to get them as visible, as vocal. In the context of a deal, we want them to be the vortex of information flow. We want them to be the go-to person for the CEO. We would love for them to be the go to person for the managing director or partner at the private equity firm or somebody in the c-suite at the public company, if that’s the context. Sometimes that’s challenging. Sometimes the relationship is strongest with somebody like me, but we do a lot to try and push that person out into the traffic and give them the opportunity to spread their wings, give them the opportunity at times to make mistakes. If you’re not out in traffic, if you’re not out speaking up, if you are not out giving your thoughts and sometimes failing or being vulnerable where you may not always be right, but you’re developing and learning, that’s the only way, frankly, in my view, the more junior folks are going to succeed longer term. But big picture very much an apprenticeship model and trying to get our folks out into the traffic, if you will, as much as we can.

[00:22:45] Jon Lange And as you think back to your own mentors, is there one piece of advice that stands out that you found really helpful in your development as a banker?

[00:22:53] Joe Schauenberg One thing that I say to the folks that I mentor in certain situations where I’m speaking to our directors, I like to say people that walk out into traffic tend to get hit by cars. And that’s a little bit of a morbid thought, but I think the more you’re willing to get your neck out there, the more you’re willing to speak up, the more willing to take on that next meeting or go to that conference, and fill up your calendar with conversations. The more of that you engage in, the more likely it is to lead to some sort of opportunity. May not be a mandate for a multi-billion dollar transaction, but it could be a buy side for a small situation where you’re helping a principal or a VP at a private equity firm, get up the curve and be thoughtful in the context of their team and ultimately be successful with an acquisition. It could be in a variety of use cases, but get out into traffic, you know, raise your voice, speak your mind, offer your thoughts. Do so diplomatically, but offer your perspective. Don’t be afraid to speak up and engage in the conversation. And I feel like that’s how, when I started 19 years ago, that was the push that was put on me was not to lock yourself in a room and do Excel work or create slides, but really get into the conversation. Everybody here tends to be a high IQ, did well in school, academically strong individual. So the tools, the fundamentals are there, put them to work. Get into the conversation, get into the game, get into traffic.

[00:24:24] Jon Lange That really resonates, and it reminds me of some of the things I say to RVPs as well. And what I find interesting about that is, as you say, these are real high achievers at organizations like yours and mine. And they nailed all the analytics, and they’ve nailed all of the tests in school, and sometimes it’s not natural for them to just go out and hit the road and see what happens. And sometimes that can be really daunting. It’s such a big world, and they don’t really have any relationships yet, and how do they even begin? And so I have a number of conversations quite often. Just start out, just hit the road. You’re gonna meet more people at a conference than you would sitting alone in your office. And so it sounds like that’s consistent across both of our organizations.

[00:25:10] Joe Schauenberg Well said.

[00:25:11] Jon Lange Looking ahead, what excites you most about the healthcare IT landscape?

[00:25:16] Joe Schauenberg Well, we talked about innovation, we’ve talked about new capabilities, and I think all that is very exciting. I think from a, from an advisor standpoint, investment banking standpoint, there’s so much capital that has entered the healthcare IT category. And there’s a lot of capital still on the sidelines that wants to enter the category. There’s also a number of companies that need to find capital or liquidity for the value that they’ve created over the last many years. There’s going to continue to be a lot of activity. And as an advisor who is in the middle of a lot of that activity, I think it’s an incredibly exciting place to be. It’s an incredibly exciting place to learn. If I could rewind the clock 20 plus years, I think its a great space to grow up in professionally given that activity, and the different business models that one’s going to see, the different challenges that these companies are facing and solving. So I’d say big picture of the amount of capital in the space and amount of capital again on the sidelines that’s looking to deploy in some way, shape or form in the category. I think it’s gonna continue to drive substantial activity from a transaction standpoint over many, many years to come.

[00:26:26] Jon Lange Joe, thanks so much for joining me. It’s always a pleasure. Really appreciate it.

[00:26:30] Joe Schauenberg You bet, Jon. Enjoyed the conversation. Look forward to talking soon.

[00:26:36] Jon Lange As we wrap this episode, I’m joined by my colleague, Pete McClelland, Director in the Healthcare Vertical at THL and a leader of our business development effort. Pete, as you look across the different sub-sectors of healthcare, what stands out about healthcare IT that seems to be attracting so much capital to the space?

[00:26:55] Peter McClelland Yeah. It has been, and I think it will continue to be just such an attractive sector. It’s got great market structure and many of the different sub-pockets within it. Customers are looking for products that can help serve immediate needs. But they’re they’re looking to stick with those products. They’re not looking to move every year. They’re looking to put something in that they can stay with for many years to come. That’s going to serve the need that they’re trying to fill. So all those things appeal to investors that want to invest in the segment. And I think we’ll continue to make it attractive for private equity investors here in 2026.

[00:27:33] Jon Lange And one thing Joe and I talked about was how he thinks about the ideal relationship between banker, advisor, and CEO. From a sponsor’s perspective, how do you think about that? What does good look like in terms of the banker-sponsor relationship? And I know you’ve worked personally with Joe, how did that play out in practice?

[00:27:57] Peter McClelland Yeah, I’ve known Joe for about 10 years now, and he actually, in my prior life, he actually helped me sell a business called MatrixCare to ResMed a number of years ago. Joe, I think, is a really good example of what you’re looking for in advisors when you go through this process. You need someone that’s trusted, someone that is knowledgeable, has really demonstrated in the segment that they know all the potential buyers for a business. And that is just going to be so crucial when you look to go through a process. So, trust being the key word in there. There’s also a big part of chemistry that I think matters a lot. You know, you can, it’s sometimes hard to find advisors, and I would apply this elsewhere as well, but these are intensive processes, so you need to find advisers that you think you can work with in a really productive manner across what will be a very intensive process that requires a lot of work and thought.

[00:28:54] Jon Lange Maybe finally, reflecting on the conversation with Joe and what you see on the ground, what makes you most excited about the HCIT landscape going forward?

[00:29:03] Peter McClelland Yeah, I think, Jon, it all comes back to better patient care at a lower cost for the system and taking strains off the provider. Healthcare IT is just one of the best areas to invest behind this theme. And we’ve seen that across investments we’ve made in the space, IMO, Qventus, Next Tech, others. So that’s what I think gets others excited in the area as well.

[00:29:26] Jon Lange Pete, thanks so much for joining me. Really appreciate it and look forward to continuing the conversation with you and with Joe very soon.

[00:29:34] Peter McClelland Thanks, Jon.

[00:29:35] Jon Lange Thank you for listening to Healthcare in Action, brought to you by THL. To help Healthcare in Action reach more listeners like you, either share this episode with a colleague, subscribe to the show, or rate or review us on Apple Podcasts. And for more background on THL’s Healthcare vertical, visit thl.com/verticals/healthcare.