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Successfully Navigating a Slow-Growth Healthcare IT Industry for 10 Years: Stan Nowak, CEO of Silverlink (Part 6)

Sramana: What did you accomplish over the next 18 months with the funds that you raised in your Series B?

Stan Nowak: We focused on customer growth and segment growth. We started spreading across the market a little differently. We understood the dynamics of the healthcare marketplace. Between 2003 and 2006, a significant element of healthcare reform occurred due to the Medicare Modernization Act which was passed in 2005 and implemented in 2006. The Medicare drug benefit was a national campaign and that became a terrific opportunity for Silverlink in a regulated, retail market to help the issues of helping seniors navigate a complicated healthcare benefit and move into a significant new era. >>>

Successfully Navigating a Slow-Growth Healthcare IT Industry for 10 Years: Stan Nowak, CEO of Silverlink (Part 5)

Sramana: You were raising money in 2003, which was not a great time in the technology industry. What was the reaction from industry?

Stan Nowak: We spent time in Boston, Connecticut, and New York. It was definitely not an easy time to raise money. Our first fundraising was with a firm we had a prior relationship with. They were a firm that focused on technology enabled services. They were very comfortable with the technology model although they were not a healthcare investor. We spent more than a year between our initial pitch and closing our funding. I was a first-time entrepreneur, and the markets were tough. >>>

Successfully Navigating a Slow-Growth Healthcare IT Industry for 10 Years: Stan Nowak, CEO of Silverlink (Part 4)

Sramana: When you signed your first $25,000 contract for that first 90 days of service, how many patients did that cover?

Stan Nowak: Our model was about 50 cents per target. That would have allowed that client to reach out to 50,000 patients at that time.

Sramana: That is a good business model that I presume generated a lot of cash into the system. Did that work out?

Stan Nowak: It did generate cash for the system. Healthcare is not as fast at technology adoption as some other markets, but it did allow us to get out there and sell. It allowed us to learn a lot about the market and the power of this service to our client. >>>

Successfully Navigating a Slow-Growth Healthcare IT Industry for 10 Years: Stan Nowak, CEO of Silverlink (Part 3)

Sramana: We have found that if you fail to get a validated idea going with whatever resources you have, it is very difficult to raise additional money.

Stan Nowak: I could not agree more. It was not just the money. It was the investment of sweat equity. During that angel-funded period, my partner and I did not take home the same paycheck two months in a row. We were very much investing on a monthly basis personally, knowing we needed to validate the idea based on the first tranche of that idea.

Sramana: Most people will go 18 months with a significantly reduced salary.

Stan Nowak: We started in 2001, incorporated in 2002, and our first venture round was in 2003. There was a substantial period of going with less than market salaries for the entire team. >>>

Successfully Navigating a Slow-Growth Healthcare IT Industry for 10 Years: Stan Nowak, CEO of Silverlink (Part 2)

Sramana: When you were starting Silverlink, did you envision it being a consumer-facing product?

Stan Nowak: Yes, we envisioned it being a consumer product that we could sell through channels. Unfortunately, at that time in the marketplace there were no well-developed channels. There were no social media channels, and consumer markets were very expensive to penetrate. We were looking for channels, and unfortunately for that product, the channels were not effective.

Sramana: How did you get this company off the ground?

Stan Nowak: We quickly changed product direction. In pursuit of this overall mission, we came into contact with family caregivers, assisted living companies, and whole healthcare entities. It really intersected with the problem of medication compliance among seniors. We networked our way to people who were aggregators in that business, such as big pharmacy companies and pharmacy benefit management companies. >>>

Successfully Navigating a Slow-Growth Healthcare IT Industry for 10 Years: Stan Nowak, CEO of Silverlink (Part 1)

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Stan Nowak is the founder and CEO of Silverlink, a healthcare consumer outreach company. Under Stan’s leadership, Silverlink has developed a flexible communications technology, proprietary analytics capabilities and a team with deep industry expertise. Stan’s background includes more than 22 years of general and executive management in technology services. Prior to founding Silverlink, he held executive roles with StorageNetworks, GTE, and InterGen (Bechtel). Stan holds a master’s degree from Harvard Business School and a bachelor’s degree from Harvard College.

Sramana: Stan, let’s start by looking into your background a bit. Where are you from, and where did your entrepreneurial passion develop?

Stan Nowak: I grew up in New England and was raised primarily in Rhode Island. I went to Harvard and spent time in the Boston area working in the energy business in my early career. I was overseas from 1993 to 1996 working in India, where I developed energy projects there as the country manager. I returned to the States in 1996, which was the birth of the commercial Internet. >>>

Built to Enjoy in Utah: Jana Francis, Founder, Steals.com (Part 7)

Sramana: I think what you have done is fantastic. Our ecosystem has created a talent war for the same people. There is talent everywhere and there are different niches and lifestyles. Being able to carve out a niche like you have is a fantastic HR strategy.

Jana: Two of employees had a goal of working part-time only, but they applied for a job here because they were interested in what we do. Suddenly, they had full benefits, which previously were only available [to them] through their husbands. That has in turn allowed their husbands to go chase their dreams of becoming entrepreneurs because their wives now have health insurance. It is hard to maintain when you are self-employed. >>>

Built to Enjoy in Utah: Jana Francis, Founder, Steals.com (Part 6)

Sramana: You said you have 70 people working on this project. Tell me a bit more about how you have built the team.

Jana: There was no pool of people that I could go hire from who had done this before. You have to find and curate an amazing product that has a story. Our buyers needed to have sales prowess and account management skills. Calling manufacturers and convincing them to give you a high volume of their product at a discount that they never would have considered selling at. They are essentially letting us compete against them for a day because they sell those products for full price on their website. It takes a skilled person to help a manufacturer understand that. Our buying team is full of talented women who are amazing at product selection and are in tune with their audience. I have found that people from media sells are great in this position. Perhaps that is because that was the career I came from, and I knew the skill sets they came from. >>>