How It Started
Epic was founded in 1979 by Judy Faulkner in a basement in Madison, Wisconsin, with a $70,000 investment. Faulkner, who holds a master's degree in computer science from the University of Wisconsin, started the company with a single product for a single medical practice. She has run Epic as a privately held company for over four decades, never taking the company public and never selling equity to outside investors. Cerner was founded in 1979 as well, by Neal Patterson, Paul Gorup, and Cliff Illig in Kansas City, Missouri. Cerner went public in 1986 and was acquired by Oracle for $28.3 billion in 2022, one of the largest healthcare technology acquisitions in history.
Unknown Fact
Judy Faulkner is one of America's few self-made female billionaires and has signed the Giving Pledge, committing to donate 99 percent of her wealth to charity. Despite Epic being worth an estimated $38 billion, Faulkner is known for her frugal corporate culture. Epic's headquarters in Verona, Wisconsin is famously eccentric, featuring themed buildings including a wizard tower, a treehouse, and an underground auditorium. Visitors who arrive for the annual Users Group Meeting, which draws over 65,000 attendees, often describe the campus as resembling a theme park more than a healthcare software company. Faulkner has resisted all acquisition offers and has said publicly that Epic will never be sold.