THE TOLAN GROUP
Our Founder Story
In my early 20’s I started my professional sales career in healthcare software.
I spent my formative professional years selling software to physician offices,
hospitals, dialysis units and labs. I built a sales team and traveled extensively
throughout the US visiting a total of 49 states (missing Idaho). Later I joined Healtheon just before we merged with WebMD and went public. My final stop before becoming an entrepreneur was leading sales and account management teams for one of the largest clearing houses for physician claims in the US. I learned a lot but also knew I needed a change.
I’m from a large Irish family (my father came to the US from Belfast) and have 7 brothers, so keeping us busy was always the goal in our crowded home (emphasis on the word crowded). My dad was a salesman and as a result I started selling at a very young age, first at college football games. Eventually at the ripe ‘ole age of 13, I began selling Fuller Brush door-to-door after school and on Saturday mornings. I learned a lot about cold calling, persistence, and rejection. Lots of rejection. Lessons that served me well.
I was burning out quickly and becoming bored.
My quest to become an entrepreneur was always there but like many, I was nervous about taking the risk. Finally, one day I knew it was time. It all started after reaching a combined total of 2M air miles on Delta, USAir, United, and other regional carriers. I had enough, and following the tragic events of September 11th, travel became so much more difficult. I was done! Working for others had lost its appeal and was no longer of interest to me, and there was plenty of stress owning the revenue responsibility for multiple publicly traded companies. Finally, I decided to start my own executive search firm and began planning in the summer of 2004. I wanted to leverage my decades of contacts, maintain my income while minimizing the out-of-town travel as spending 4-5 nights a week had totally lost its appeal.
So, it all began on Monday September 12, 2005, just outside of Atlanta. It was me, myself, and I. Daunting for sure. Scary – without a doubt. Initially, I bought an executive search franchise because I wanted the structure and business process a franchise could give me. So, I walked into my home office armed with a database, a phone, a great attitude, and a very supportive wife and family. One must have the support at home as without that the risk of failure becomes very real.
I quickly began making placements. Lots of placements! I was even surprising myself with how the search business was a perfect fit for me. It energized me in so many ways – still does today after all these years! A year after I started, my wife and I moved to Charleston, SC, where I always wanted to eventually move to and retire from. That lasted about 6 years and after recovering from the financial crisis of 2007-2008 - I nearly went out of business. No employers were hiring—none at all! I stayed in Charleston 4 more years, and realized it was time to find another historic city to call home. In the spring of 2013, we made the move to St. Augustine, Florida and have never looked back. I adore this little historic town and the people that live here. It’s been wonderful.
The Tolan Group began to grow and soon I found that it was almost impossible to scale the business leading sales, client delivery, finance, and marketing, so I invested in building a team of search professionals and leaders across multiple states. Today, TTG is a Hunt Scanlon Top 40 Healthcare Executive Search Firm, in healthcare services, behavioral health, and health tech sectors. We have a national team focused on portfolio hiring for private equity backed companies and non-profits.
It’s been an amazing journey for me personally as I look back to that day in September of 2005 and realize what we’ve built. That is my story.
-Tim Tolan, Founder & Managing Partner