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THE INTERVIEWS - PART 4 - Angels

8/1/2018

 
This is the fourth in a series of 11 videos produced by the Smeal College of Business at The Pennsylvania State University. This one focuses on the value provided by angel investors.

THE INTERVIEWS - PART 3 - Your Money, My Life

6/26/2017

 
This is the third in a series of 11 videos produced by the Smeal College of Business at The Pennsylvania State University. This one focuses on the pros and cons of bootstrapping.

September 1999 - The Ramp - Part 3

2/11/2015

 
More fun pre-IPO drama...

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November 1998 - Make-up and Hair

1/20/2015

 
The Web Hotlist—Web sites worth checking out
Neoforma provides a Web-based community for healthcare professionals that showcases panoramic, 3-D photographic
technology.

InfoWorld, November 23, 1998
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Forget Disintermediation, Portals: There’s a New Buzzword in Town
Another emerging vortex site is Neoforma.com, a Santa Clara, Calif., purveyor of health-care technology and equipment information online . . .

The Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition, November 24, 1998
One-Stop Shop
Billed as the world’s largest resource on medical products, services and information, Neoforma.com . . . provides online access to an inventory of 13,000 suppliers in 8,000 different product categories . . .

Healthcare Informatics, November 1998
As our audience grew, we had to put our best face before the cameras.

Two months earlier, in September, Junglee, which had been founded three months after Neoforma, was sold to Amazon.com for nearly two hundred million dollars in stock...

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May 1998 - Public Relations

1/8/2015

 
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A million bucks was just an entry fee.

Now it was time to play the real game—time to get some real money from a top-tier venture firm and the prestige that goes along with it...
Board Meeting Minutes
Fundraising: The Board reviewed the terms sheet for the Venrock-led investment totaling $3.65 million at a pre-investment fully diluted valuation of $11 million. The Board approved of the terms sheet and the investment, subject to passing a formal resolution when the papers are drawn up . . .

Neoforma Board Meeting, May 5, 1998

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January 1998 - The Screenplay

1/2/2015

 
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Microsoft Buys Hotmail
Microsoft (MSFT) said Wednesday it is buying Hotmail to make free email a feature of the Microsoft Network . . . The stock deal for the two-year-old company has been estimated in the hun- dreds of millions of dollars, according to industry sources . . .

CNET News.com, January 3, 1998
Board Meeting Minutes
New Investors and Board Members: Moved: Dr. Denis Coleman and Wally Buch, M.D., each invest $100,000 and join the Board of Directors of Neoforma according to the conditions
in the stock purchase agreements and letter agreement prepared by Jack. Passed.

Officers: Moved: Denis Coleman be appointed vice-chairman and keep the minutes of meetings. Jack continues to be secretary. Jeff continues in his role as chairman and CEO. Wayne continues in his role as President. Passed.

Neoforma Board Meeting, January 20, 1998
In the rare moments of calm between nearly unrelenting stretches of tumultuous rapids, we would sometimes, just for a moment, relax our control over things. Seldom did this respite prove to be beneficial.

Jeff and I had been putting increasing amounts of money into Neoforma—first, our own money; then borrowed money. By the end of 1997, we were running into dangerous territory...

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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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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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    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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