1141: The Long Game of Resilient Finance Leadership | Erik Wissig, CFO, SureCo

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. At 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.