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HOT TOPICS
- The Startup Velocity Question
- Platform as a Service
- Man and Superman
- Web 3.0 = (4C + P + VS)
- The Future: End of Capitalism
- Capitalism 2.0
Niche E-Commerce to $5M: Dan Dillon, CEO of CleanItSupply.com (Part 3)
Sramana: How much volume were you able to generate with search engine optimization as your primary customer acquisition strategy? Dan Dillon: From October 2006 through the end of the year, we did a whopping $30,000 of business. In 2007 we did $300,000 of business. In 2008 we did $600,000 of business, and in 2009 we
Niche E-Commerce to $5M: Dan Dillon, CEO of CleanItSupply.com (Part 2)
Sramana: Was the premise of CleanItSupply.com to sell cleaning supplies to companies like your family business? Dan Dillon: Yes, we wanted to sell to janitorial services companies as well as the suppliers of janitorial services companies. The experience I had in the trenches let me know my space and my vertical very well. I had
Niche E-Commerce to $5M: Dan Dillon, CEO of CleanItSupply.com (Part 1)
Dan Dillon is the founder and CEO of CleanItSupply.com. He was born and raised in the suburbs of Philadelphia. After completing his studies, he worked in his father’s janitorial supply business and helped grow it from 18 employees to 150 employees before the company was sold. Today his niche e-commerce site, CleanItSupply.com, has revenues in
How to Sharpen Focus and Own a Market: Imprivata CEO Omar Hussain (Part 7)
Sramana: Your goal is to become a billion-dollar company. It sounds like one of your primary strategies for reaching that goal is the introduction of new products. Omar Hussain: Absolutely. There are a lot of problem areas in healthcare right now. Things like secure printing, secure electronic information exchange, electronic prescription authentication, and patient identification
How to Sharpen Focus and Own a Market: Imprivata CEO Omar Hussain (Part 6)
Sramana: Did you take a major hit in 2008 that drove this decision? Omar Hussain: We slowed down on growth. In 2008 we ended at $18 million, and in 2009 we only grew 10% to $20 million. The market had shifted slightly. We did not raise money because we already had capital. Once we decided
How to Sharpen Focus and Own a Market: Imprivata CEO Omar Hussain (Part 5)
Sramana: Who was your competition? Omar Hussain: We had a lot of other software-only competitors that were directory centric. We were the only solution that was packaged as an appliance that did not require a directory service, so from that perspective we had no direct competitors. We had an application profile generator which was a
How to Sharpen Focus and Own a Market: Imprivata CEO Omar Hussain (Part 4)
Sramana: What steps did you take in terms of process to achieve that rocket in sales? Omar Hussain: Philosophically, I have always believed that people ask the wrong questions when they talk to customers. They always try to sell them the idea. Most human beings who are being sold something based on an idea will
How to Sharpen Focus and Own a Market: Imprivata CEO Omar Hussain (Part 3)
Sramana: The terms for accepting the term sheet involved your joining the company. Did the founders stick around after you came on board? Omar Hussain: There were originally two co-founders. One left and the other, David, remained. He is still here today, and he is essentially my partner. We got funded and within four months