Healthy-living firm Wellco creates 5 new jobs in Royal Oak

Overnight success stories are the sort of things entrepreneurs snicker at when they hear the term. One in particular, Scott Foster of healthy-living firm Wellco, knowns building a healthy business is a lot like maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Both are something that take years to do.

"Wellco is a 15 year overnight success story," says Foster, tongue planted firmly in his cheek.

The Royal Oak-based business develops software and programs for companies to document and track the health of their employees. The idea is to create a healthier, more productive workforce that ultimately saves significant sums of money in medical costs, both in the short- and long-term.

That business model has allowed Wellco to grow its revenue by 20-25 percent in each of the last three years and its on track to notch another 25-percent growth year in 2012. That has allowed it to add three people over the last year, expanding its staff to 15. It also has a job opening for a software developer and another position for health educator.

Driving a lot of that growth are small-to-medium sized business that are struggling with health-insurance premium costs and slackening productivity. "Just under 70 percent of our clients are in Michigan," Foster says. "The remainder are spread across the country."

Source: Scott Foster, president of Wellco
Writer: Jon Zemke

Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.