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Building a Healthcare IT Company to $100 Million: Dr. Rob Langdon, Co-Founder of T-System (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: You would make copies and distribute them?

Rob Langdon: Right. They were blank forms and we would supply a shelving unit that made the selecting of correct form easy and fast for both nurses and doctors.

Sramana Mitra: How long did this paper business go on? >>>

Building a New Online Fashion Brand: Combatant Gentlemen CEO Vishaal Melwani (Part 7)

Sramana Mitra: What about team? What size is your team?

Vishaal Melwani: We’ve grown from a humble three to 22 now. The team is focused on three prongs: development and engineering, creative, and production. On the development side, we really focus on leading the cutting-edge on user interface. On our site, we focus on Fit Tech. A lot of guys don’t know their suit size so we’ve done stuff where we matched BMI to suit size. >>>

Building a Silicon Valley Style Company from Australia: ROKT CEO Bruce Buchanan (Part 3)

Sramana: Can you give me a use case for your product?

Bruce Buchanan: Let’s assume you are on eBay and you have done a transaction. We will present you with what we call an engagement asset which is past the transaction. Typically, it is something that the business partner is trying to promote. It could be as simple as inviting the user to sign up for an eBay Rewards account and if they do, they will get a special discount on their next purchase. It is a value add for the consumer and they have to opt in to engage that merchant. We use that opportunity to present them two or three other relevant offers. >>>

Building a Healthcare IT Company to $100 Million: Dr. Rob Langdon, Co-Founder of T-System (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: You built this as a startup company?

Rob Langdon: Yes, we started out of our garage.

Sramana Mitra: What year are we talking about?

Rob Langdon: 1995.
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Building a New Online Fashion Brand: Combatant Gentlemen CEO Vishaal Melwani (Part 6)

Vishal Melwani: That’s what a lot of people take for granted. You go up and you pitch your business. You focus on metrics and what you want to disrupt. Really, everyone’s a human being. Every human being that I know of, especially in business, loves stories. If you can’t tell a good story, you’re not going to get anything out of it. We went up there and said, “I’m a third-generation tailor. This is what I grew up in and we wanted to create a business for the guys that we know. Our guys are party animals. They’re business minded. They want to have a great time and pay a lot. They want to look great. We’re unapologetic about it.” Luckily enough, we took home first place. From there, we got our first seed check from Dapples for $500,000.

Sramana Mitra: How much did you raise?

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Building a Silicon Valley Style Company from Australia: ROKT CEO Bruce Buchanan (Part 2)

Sramana: What did you do after Jetstar?

Bruce Buchanan: I stepped down from my position at Jetstar in 2012. I ran across two individuals who had founded the company that is now known as ROKT. I fell in love with the business. At the time, they did not really know what the business was, but when I saw it I fell in love with it.

Sramana: Were they based in Australia?

Bruce Buchanan: They were. One was the second employee of Google in Australia. He left that position to create this company. At Google, he worked on pioneering new product ideas. >>>

Building a Healthcare IT Company to $100 Million: Dr. Rob Langdon, Co-Founder of T-System (Part 1)

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A technology company that first built a $30 million business selling a paper product? You got to be kidding! No, I am not. Read T-System’s story doing just that!

Sramana Mitra: Rob, let’s start with the beginning of your personal journey. Where are you from? Where did you grow up and in what kind of background?

Rob Langdon: I was born and raised in Canada. I’m still Canadian although I’m a US resident. I initially attended Engineering School – Electrical Engineering – after being fascinated my whole life with technology, electronics, and music. During the course of my studies, I was somewhat disillusioned with Electrical Engineering – that was in the 70s – because Electrical Engineering at >>>

Building a New Online Fashion Brand: Combatant Gentlemen CEO Vishaal Melwani (Part 5)

Sramana Mitra: The first $700,000 of revenue, did that come from any of these cohorts?

Vishaal Melwani: Yes, all these cohorts really converted well for us. We noticed it right away. Word of mouth also became really big for us. One investment banker would get a white shirt and he would then spread that through his office. We would get inundated with orders because we serve a purpose for this guy. Every other guy that he knows has to go through the same thing. He has to wear white shirts. Garnering that user on the first acquisition and then letting him be that brand architect for us after that was huge. It’s something that we really didn’t expect.

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