When Erik Wissig recalls his early years as a founder, one moment still stands out. The team had met its growth goals and earned their bonuses—but the company’s cash flow hadn’t caught up. “You need the cash to make those payments,” he tells us. That hard-won lesson reshaped how Wissig approached finance from that day forward: plan ahead, balance ambition with liquidity, and bring the wider leadership team into that awareness.
Before that turning point, Wissig had spent a decade in investment banking, advising hundreds of middle-market companies on transactions. Eventually, the advisor wanted to build. In 2013, he co-founded Hixme to give employers a new way to fund individual health insurance—an idea born from the Affordable Care Act’s reshaping of the market. When regulatory realities slowed progress, Wissig stayed the course. Hixme’s platform and team were acquired by SureCo in 2020, where he now serves as CFO and COO.
Read MoreAt SureCo, Wissig’s banking discipline meets an operator’s pragmatism. He focuses on two levers—raising revenue per customer and scaling efficiencies—and on hiring into his weaknesses, surrounding himself with strong CPAs. His leadership style mirrors his philosophy on failure: persistence is progress. “If the game is still being played, then you haven’t failed,” he tells us.
Twelve years into his pursuit of the ICHRA model, Wissig remains motivated by one conviction: lasting change in healthcare begins by putting individuals—not institutions—at the center of the system.
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CFOTL: So, tell us about this opportunity SureCo is pursuing. Tell us about SureCo.
Wissig: The business we were developing was—and still is—tied closely to the regulatory market. Early on, we realized the model we were pursuing didn’t yet have the right regulatory framework to allow it to operate on a pre-tax basis, like traditional group health plans. So, we had to do two things in parallel: build a technology platform to help employers enable this model and work directly with regulatory agencies to align the laws and regulations that would make it possible.
During that time, we moved through multiple administrations—from Obama to an anticipated Clinton presidency to President Trump’s first term—which ultimately helped push forward the regulation that our model now relies on. It’s called ICHRA, or Individual Coverage Health Reimbursement Arrangement. Essentially, it allows companies to reimburse employees on a pre-tax basis for buying their own health insurance and, in some cases, other medical expenses.
Read MoreHixme, the company I co-founded, ran into limited capital opportunities as we pursued this model. That’s when I met the SureCo team. In 2020, SureCo acquired Hixme’s assets, and we brought over key team members from operations and technology just as the ICHRA regulation was coming online.
CFOTL: You joined as COO and CFO in 2020. What have been some of the key inflection points where the startup mindset had to give way to more formal financial systems or controls?
Wissig: Joining SureCo was interesting because the company was already established—it had been around since 2015 or 2016 and built profitable businesses administering third-party health insurance plans. When I came on board, the team was eager to explore the ICHRA opportunity, but we hadn’t yet executed on it.
At that time, SureCo was fully bootstrapped. We needed to balance managing the cash flow from our legacy businesses while funding and scaling the new ICHRA operation. Over time, that balance shifted—we began sunsetting the legacy lines and doubling down on ICHRA. The opportunity became so compelling that it no longer made sense to split our focus. That strategic shift ultimately led to raising our first round of outside capital, a major milestone for a company that had been self-funded for years.
CFOTL: As an ICHRA pioneer, how do you differentiate SureCo from traditional benefits administrators?
Wissig: Traditional employer health benefits have worked the same way for decades. A company partners with a broker, selects one or two group plans from a carrier, and offers those limited options to employees. In that setup, the employer is at the center—essentially choosing the healthcare experience for their workforce.
ICHRA flips that structure. It moves the employer out of the middle and instead lets them provide a defined dollar amount—similar to a 401(k) contribution—that employees use to buy their own individual health plans. Employees suddenly have real choice. In most markets, they can choose from several insurers offering multiple plans, so they can align their healthcare decisions and budgets with their own needs and those of their families.
For employers, this creates cost predictability—they set a fixed contribution and control spending growth. For employees, it delivers flexibility and empowerment. Overall, the model promotes cost control and better outcomes for both sides.
SureCo | www.sureco.com | Santa Ana, CA