SM: How has the competitive landscape changed over time? RL: Pyxis was a Street darling before they were acquired by our big competitor. They are a division of Cardinal now. They are a great company and I wanted to mimic them so much.
SM: You are now at the $250 million range in revenue. That has taken you approximately 15 years. What is it about you that lets you grow to the next level? RL: Every couple of years I have to reinvent my management style and business philosophies. Most entrepreneurs don’t last with their companies because they
SM: What timeframe was it when you developed your first prototype? RL: It was 1992–1993. Sequoia Hospital quickly bought a contingent of products afterwards.
SM: You identified broken processes during your free consulting work. Was that the genesis of your company? RL: It was. I went to a friend who was a venture capitalist and told him I had an idea of how to automate the deficient manual processes.
SM: How did you address the culture issues at your new company? RL: I struggled with it for about a year and then brought in some folks from American to help out. Ultimately the business got built up very nicely, and then the company was sold.
SM: Start out with your background. Where are you from and where does your story start? RL: I grew up in Texas and Louisiana. My father was a chemical engineer who ran research at a large minerals and gold development company. I came from a very engineering-oriented family.
SM: What about Iran? What is happening there and what is your relationship with Iran today? SP: There is so much talent there. Sharif University is like MIT, and they send a lot of their students to Stanford. We are blocks away from Stanford, so I am recruiting students who have grown up in Iran
SM: I recently watched a program on 60 Minutes about lions being poisoned in Africa. Over the holiday, we were in a forest which is the home of the Royal Bengal tiger. In that forest there are 274 tigers left. The idea of doing social causes with your gaming networks is very interesting. SP: If