About Stratos Edge

We built the companywe already were.

Micah Laughlin made technology decisions inside healthcare organizations. Jeff Hardman evaluated the companies building and supporting them. Their clients needed both judgments in the room.

How it began

The work took both of them.

Micah’s work began inside the business. As a health-system CIO, he chose the EMR, built its budget with the CFO, asked the board to fund it, and returned each quarter to account for the result. Acquisitions, service-line decisions, and vendor releases changed the plan while his team carried the consequences through adoption. That experience taught him to define the operating result before money moves and measure whether the work changed.

Jeff Hardman

Jeff’s work began across the technology channel. Over three decades, he built relationships with the companies and people building and supporting technology. He learned which teams understood a problem and would remain accountable after the contract. Years spent coaching athletes shaped the patience he brings to long working relationships.

The work got a name

FlightPlan™ came later.

Micah and Jeff worked this way by hand for years. The engagement got a name, FlightPlan™, and the research behind it became a full-time discipline. Neither half works without the other.

Inside the business

FlightPlan™

Organizes how the business works today, the work worth changing, and the reasoning behind the recommended starting point.

Across the partner field

Radar™

The full-time research and hands-on evaluation Stratos Edge uses to decide which companies belong in the conversation and why.

Summer 1956The field gets its nameThe Dartmouth Summer Research Project establishes artificial intelligence as a field of research.May 11, 1997Deep Blue wins the matchA computer defeats a reigning world chess champion in a match for the first time.March 2016AlphaGo defeats Lee SedolThe 4–1 match is watched by more than 200 million people worldwide.November 30, 2022Generative AI reaches the publicChatGPT opens conversational generative AI as a free public research preview.July 2025700 million weekly usersChatGPT reaches roughly 10% of the world’s adult population each week.July 2026AI becomes routine at work52% of U.S. employees report using AI in their role; 30% use it frequently.

AI needs both views.

AI companies release tools faster than mid‑market leaders can evaluate them, while a poor decision can take years to unwind. Micah determines where a tool belongs in the operation; Jeff evaluates the company behind it and the people accountable after the contract.

Why workforce

The workforce is the lever.

A health system cannot reprice Medicare or reopen the subsidy window. It can change what its workforce produces.

Our healthcare work starts with the labor line, vacancies, and hours trapped in work nobody gets paid for. We price the problem before discussing technology. What it frees is what growth runs on.

Find the room to grow.

Thirty minutes of operating context is enough to name the problem we’d go after first, and why.

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