Bootstrapping to $80 Million from Canada: Rob Purdy, CEO of Power2Motivate (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: What happened in 2008?

Rob Purdy: There was a turning point in 2007. We went to our first ever trade show and unveiled the product in April. At that show, we had more international people asking about the product. There were a lot of companies that wanted to resell the product in their countries. We were pretty quick to realize that we had something in terms of a product and its appeal.

What was interesting is these companies wanted to take this into their country and resell it. We actually closed a contract at that show with an Australian whose family had started an employment law firm. They had over 18,000 companies in Australia that they provided employment legal services for. They were branching out into >>>

10 Founder CEOs Discuss Building Tech Startups Worth Millions in Podcasts

Entrepreneurs working to get their ventures across the million-dollar revenue mark and beyond can learn how other successful founders were able to get there in this series of 30-minute podcast interviews.

Bhavin Parikh, Founder CEO of Magoosh – Has built an incredibly capital efficient venture, and we discuss his philosophy, strategy, and tactics.
>>>

Bootstrapping to $80 Million from Canada: Rob Purdy, CEO of Power2Motivate (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: How long did it take you to get a first version of this product out?

Rob Purdy: We started development for the Power2Motivate platform in late 2005. It took all of 2006 to complete the first phase. Phase one was the employee engagement component. That was enough to allow us to take that to market in April of 2007. By the end of 2007, we had probably 30 customers on the platform.

Sramana Mitra: What were you charging them? >>>

Bootstrapping to $80 Million from Canada: Rob Purdy, CEO of Power2Motivate (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: In 1989, you launched this company. What happened between 1989 and 2006? Did the business succeed? Were you able to get clients? What scale were you operating at?

Rob Purdy: The business did okay. Unless marketing services companies have a very solid unique point of difference, it’s really challenging to continually grow the business. You are falling prey to the next big idea that the company falls in love with. If it’s not yours, you can lose those clients fairly quickly. The clients aren’t as sticky as they would be in a technology environment.

In those years, we had lots of successes. We landed a lot of different clients and we did a lot of interesting projects, but they >>>

Thought Leaders in Healthcare IT: Inder Singh, CEO of Kinsa Health (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: You are a venture-funded company?

Inder Singh: We are. We’ve raised $25 million. We’re backed by a number of great investors including Kleiner Perkins who, as you know, is the earliest investor in Amazon and Google and has done a bunch of work in life sciences. We’ve also got some support from some international investors including GSR, Founder Collective, and a number of wonderful angels who have supported us even in the early days.

Sramana Mitra: What metrics can you share in terms of adoption? How many thermometers are in use? How >>>

Bootstrapping to $80 Million from Canada: Rob Purdy, CEO of Power2Motivate (Part 1)

If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page. 

Adding to our incredible roster of stories of entrepreneurs who have bootstrapped decisively, Rob’s is an incredible journey of a precise execution.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the very beginning of your journey. Where are you from? Where were you born, raised, and what kind of background?

Rob Purdy: I was born in Ontario, Canada. Our family is very blue collar. I grew up in an environment centered around a steady 7 in the morning and home at 3:30 kind of routine. We were in an area of the city where General Motors dominated the local >>>

Thought Leaders in Healthcare IT: Inder Singh, CEO of Kinsa Health (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: When somebody is buying the thermometer, alongside the thermometer, you’re asking them to register on your app and start using the social platform as well to get into this kind of a network.

Inder Singh: Yes. You buy the product at a store. We sell it as a better and smarter version of a thermometer. It’s comparable in price. It works with the app. Our stick thermometer is wired into the headphone jack and you can’t use it without the app. The ear thermometer is Bluetooth. You can use that one independently but we encourage you to use the app.

We’ve got some other products that are coming up that are wireless as well. The app is used for the basic temperature-taking >>>

Thought Leaders in Healthcare IT: Inder Singh, CEO of Kinsa Health (Part 2)

Inder Singh: People like our product because it makes it easier to take a sick child’s temperature. We’ve gamified the temperature-taking process. You can record your symptoms and track them for yourself or for your doctor. You can show the doctor the full history. We provide them coaching in the app itself. If you go online and you look for specific symptoms or illnesses, you often get an encyclopedia of information.

We provide very targeted and personalized information. If your child is very young and has a temperature of over a certain level, you may need to see the doctor. Based on the symptoms, we provide more nuanced coaching and feedback. That product has won a >>>