Building a Healthcare IT Company to $100 Million: Dr. Rob Langdon, Co-Founder of T-System (Part 5)

Sramana Mitra: Do you have a sales channel that was selling the paper product into the hospitals and physician groups then switched over to selling this software product?

Rob Langdon: We tried different configurations with the sales group. For a while, paper and electronics were separate. Then they were combined. Then we tried regions. Since the company has grown, we have other services – billing and consulting. That sales force, they’re tasked with opening up more opportunities and grow our customer base, which is close to 35% of the hospitals in United States.

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Building a Healthcare IT Company to $100 Million: Dr. Rob Langdon, Co-Founder of T-System (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: You earned $30 to $40 million just licensing the paper product?

Rob Langdon: Yes. The paper product continues to this day.

Sramana Mitra: Obviously, you built the software using the revenue of the paper product, right? >>>

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 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 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 >>>

Bootstrapping to $20 Million in Charleston, South Carolina: eGroup CEO Mike Carter (Part 6)

Sramana Mitra: You seem to have a regional emphasis. Does that mean that your sales cycle has been an in-person sales cycle?

Mike Carter: Yes. Traditionally, our sales process has been person to person. We have invested quite a bit in our digital presence and we are doing things from creating ourselves as an inbound type of destination. We have clients that are national and global and spend time on the West Coast. We will travel to where they require us to be.

Sramana Mitra: These are however clients headquartered in Carolinas mostly?

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Bootstrapping to $20 Million in Charleston, South Carolina: eGroup CEO Mike Carter (Part 5)

Sramana Mitra: How did revenue track in that timeframe?

Mike Carter: The first 10 years, we were very immature from a strategy standpoint. It’s only been in the last five years that we evolved in what we’re doing, in terms of investing, and saw a much more strategic approach emerge. Quite honestly, there’s an aspect of not only attracting but developing talent. The Southeast isn’t always known for being at the forefront of the technology industry. I think that’s beginning to change somewhat in the recent years. Being able to emulate success elsewhere has delayed us because we’re always following behind. >>>

Bootstrapping to $20 Million in Charleston, South Carolina: eGroup CEO Mike Carter (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: It sounds like what you used in the beginning is a technique that we see repeatedly. I’ve written a book on this particular technique – Bootstrapping Using Services. The advantage of having services in the bootstrapping stage is that cash starts coming in early. You don’t’ have to take a long, red-ink faith to develop a product before cash starts coming in. It’s a very popular bootstrapping technique. It’s tried and true for generations.

Mike Carter: Absolutely.

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