Healthcare shouldn't be where good care goes to get bogged down in billing.

Steven Yamamoto didn't come from healthcare, and that turned out to be exactly the point. After more than two decades building and leading businesses, he kept encountering the same story from doctors, patients, and families: brilliant medical care being undermined by a billing system that was slow, opaque, and exhausting for everyone involved.

Providers were spending hours chasing reimbursements instead of treating patients. Patients were receiving confusing bills long after their appointments, often with no idea what they owed or why. Steven saw a fixable problem hiding inside a broken process - and founded Pono to fix it.

Two decades of operational instinct

Before Pono, Steven spent over twenty years as the CEO of TY Realty, Inc., where he grew the company from the ground up. That experience gave him a deep instinct for where friction hides and how to eliminate it: managing operations, building client relationships, and driving results in a high-stakes industry.

Earlier, his career began at Mutual of New York as a financial planner, where he learned to translate complex financial systems into clear, actionable guidance for everyday people. That same drive to simplify the complicated sits at the heart of Pono.

Foundations in service and systems

A graduate of Brigham Young University with a degree in Political Science, Steven developed a strong foundation in how systems - institutional, economic, and human - function and fail. Before that, he served a two-year mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Tokyo, Japan, an experience that sharpened his ability to connect across cultures, communicate under pressure, and lead with empathy.

Those years taught him something no classroom can: that trust is built through consistent, selfless service.

Off the clock

Outside of work, Steven is most at home on a trail. Whether he's running ridgelines, mountain biking with his kids' school team, snowboarding, or planning the next family adventure abroad, he approaches everything with the same energy he brings to Pono: committed, curious, and always moving forward. He is deeply rooted in his faith and community, and believes genuine service to others is both a personal calling and a professional standard.

Steven built Pono because he believes that when doctors can focus on medicine and patients can trust the process, everyone wins. That's not an abstract mission. It's the standard he holds himself and his team to every single day.