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Saying Something

December 1997 - East Meets West

12/19/2014

 
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As we were becoming increasingly immersed in the aura of the Valley’s start-up culture, it became more difficult to imagine a company being any other way. The precarious edge seemed a natural place to perch. Occasionally, I was forced to face the fact that our way was not the only way...

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November 1997 - Tweening

12/18/2014

 
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Seller, Beware: The Buyers Rule E-Commerce
The laws of E-commerce are being written by buyers, not sellers. The future won’t be pretty for companies that don’t start paying attention now . . . Some cutting-edge companies will find ways to leverage this new buyer-centric environment to their advantage . . .

Fortune, November 10, 1997
The moments we felt strongest always seemed to coincide with the moments we were most vulnerable.

In addition to the difficulty of filling in our technology team, we had other new challenges to meet. Compared to the nearly infinite data available on the Internet, our previously deep and robust product catalog on CD flattened to a shallow, sparse database.

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October 1997 - The Web

12/17/2014

 
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Who would have thought that the medium could become the message?

We were still basically giving away CDs loaded with catalog information and calculational tools to help hospitals and architects. I know that sounds kind of dry. But it was the size and scope of it that was exciting...

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September 1997 - Top Billing

12/12/2014

 
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New Rules for the New Economy
Twelve dependable principles for thriving in a turbulent world . . . 12: The Law of Inefficiencies . . . In the Network Economy, don’t solve problems, seek opportunities.

Wired - September 1997
It made sense at the time. We made practical decisions and underwent simple transitions. I’m not sure it could have gone any other way.

I was getting frustrated, and a little bit insecure. Thousands of people — the keepers of the world’s health — were telling us that we were helping them...

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August 1997 - The Producers

12/11/2014

 
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Microsoft Completes Acquisition of WebTV Networks
Microsoft Corp. and WebTV Networks Inc. today announced the completion of Microsoft’s acquisition of WebTV for approximately $425 million in cash and stock.

Microsoft Press Release - August 1, 1997
The Red Herring
We at The Herring are convinced that highly focused and quietly successful niche companies that fit into the convergence applications model will redefine corporate computing, changing companies’ transaction approaches from task orientation to process orientation . . .

The Red Herring - August 1997
Every big industry has them. They supply the nutrients required for abundant growth.

Alexander and JP were players. Builders of buzz. They had been involved in rapidly building the valuations of several local companies — companies vibrating with potential to make it big — companies to be pursued...

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July 1997 - A Square Peg

12/10/2014

 
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Being unique is great. Except when you’re not like everyone else.

Even when it was looking likely that angels like Shawn and Wally would fund us, Jack insisted that we keep exploring other paths. He said he knew consultants who specialized in helping small companies get big funding. And then there were also the venture capitalists (VCs)...

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June 1997 - The Audience

12/9/2014

 
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The unsatisfied customer is the most important customer.

One day, I was at home showing off the Neoforma website to my father-in-law. At the time, he was a dentist, computer-illiterate, impatient and prone to doing things the old, familiar way, unless the new way was unequivocally proven to be vastly more efficient...

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May 1997 - Angels

12/8/2014

 
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Amazon.com IPO skyrockets
Silencing any doubts about its chances on the public market, Amazon.com (AMZN) ended the day $54 million richer as its long-awaited initial public offering soared 30 percent above its opening price . . . The IPO raised $54 million for Amazon, giving the company a market value of $438 million . . .

CNET News.com - May 15, 1997
Businesses Find the Web a Friendly Mall
For all the hype over online commerce, cyberspace has yet
to prove the retailing miracle many hoped it would be . . . What’s missing? The answers seem to be everything . . . value, a great experience and added convenience . . . But business- to-business is another story . . . Forrester Research Inc. predicts business-to-business trade online will swell to more than $65 billion by 2000 from about $600 million in 1996 . . .

Investor’s Business Daily - May 19, 1997
Our first taste of outside investment created an almost instantaneous craving for more.

When Jack made good on his promise to connect us with potential investors, we scrambled to produce a short business plan and slide presentation. The business plan would be sent to several angels...

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April 1997 - The Mentor

12/5/2014

 
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Jack Russo
When we entered this new society — the world of the technology start-up — we felt quite lost in some ways. It was difficult to know how to navigate the many established, yet unfamiliar channels of communication without a guide. Jeff and I were lucky.

We were referred to Jack by the large law firm he had left to start his own practice. We didn’t think that a relationship with an attorney was a big deal. We just wanted someone who could help us set up a new corporation and negotiate a good agreement with Varian, that was all...

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March 1997 - Word of Mouth

12/4/2014

 
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We hadn’t really expected to be in the business of helping to ease the discomfort of rats, but once things got going, there was really no way of knowing where they might lead.

In 1996, at the request of the local Varian salesmen, I had traveled to Australia to show off the software Jeff and I had written. One of the venues I had gone to was a prestigious teaching hospital...

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February 1997 - The Contract

12/3/2014

 
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Sometimes a shove from the nest leads to flight. Sometimes it doesn’t. Time would tell.

As my confidence in Neoforma increased, my situation at Varian continued to decay...

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January 1997 - The Majors - Part One

12/2/2014

 
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Zona Research Indicates Microsoft Internet Explorer Share Now 28 Percent
. . . A Zona Research study released today reports that use of Microsoft Internet Explorer in corporations has more than tripled to 28 percent of total use in the past three months . . . Independent studies confirm corporations moving to Microsoft Internet Explorer from Netscape Navigator . . .

Microsoft Press Release - Jan. 28, 1997
We meant well. We were focused on making things better in our little corner of the world. How could we have imagined that we were causing such a fuss?

When we started Neoforma, Jeff and I considered ourselves, in part, to be champions of the small company...

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November 1996 - Confidence

12/1/2014

 
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Department Toolkit Now Available
Neoforma Inc., in collaboration with Varian Oncology Systems (VOS), has developed a software-based planning tool and product catalog for radiotherapy departments . . . Eventually, there will be a Department Toolkit for the entire hospital . . .

Centerline Fall ‘96
We were going to change the world. All we had to do was let the world know.

The largest U.S. trade show for medical equipment is held every November in Chicago. I had attended, and dreaded, this show for many years...

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    About Me

    I am an architect, writer, and serial entrepreneur. 

    I'm also a dichromatic tritan, which means I'm one of between 150 and 1,500 people in the US with this rather extreme form of colorblindness. I write about how colorblindness has profoundly affected my life's path on my other blog: dichromat.com

    My surreal journey as co-founder of Neoforma (formally NASDAQ: NEOF, later acquired by GHX) is the basis for Starting Something, a multiple award-winning book, used in many biz school entrepreneurship classes:

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