Please join me in welcoming our
steam guest really to Larry thank

you thanks Caro.

Thank you all.

So excited to be here it's been
a long time fifteen years since

sitting out there and
watching all the presenters.

And thank you for
taking the time to listen to my story.

Hopefully you gain just
a little bit from it.

So the topics for today I'll just
cover you know my background.

You know what I did in creating
the healthcare technology company and

a little bit about how I did it and you'll
hear that throughout the presentation.

And what I'm doing now with all
the riches from selling the company.

So I was born in North Carolina.

Born in North Carolina grew up with my
grandparents and you know they were two

business owners in fact my grandparents
start of a concrete company

with a sixth grade education and I can
remember thinking back always wanting

to run that business of course
they never let me run it.

But they were quick to give me a shovel
and pay me five bucks an hour if I was

lucky so I knew there had to
be a better way than that.

But I had a passion for computers and
electronics and I always wanted to know

how they work and I just felt that I could
maybe invent something or start a company

and build it if I you know
pursued electronics and

that led me to electrical
engineering right.

Went to met some smart folks there and was
constantly asking you know how did up up.

I you know this class or
what I'm learning in you know this field

to starting a business it was hard to
get my peers to join the bandwagon

you know most people want to go to school
which is good too and go at the right way

get a degree and then start you know
start working gain some knowledge and

then start a business versus what
you would see outside of the norm

I can Silicon Valley a lot of younger
folks I think I was like twenty two

twenty three years old trying to start a
company or out of school so that led me to

getting a Boeing scholarship so I was
able to go in turn with Boeing in Seattle

and pretty much learn
what I didn't want to do.

Which is also helpful so
knowing what you don't want to do and

what you want to do lets
you focus in there and.

You know your goals and
then George attack the Boeing

scholarship transferred over
to a Boeing fellowship and

again a lot of smart people it's hard
to get people to take that risk and

start a company but two people actually
decided to jump on the bandwagon and

we wrote Dr of ever we wrote
our first business plan and

met with Terry in a few others
I think our business plan and.

Out of the entire group who could
guess like what we ranked out of ten

I think it was ten I think we got
the last last place out of ten.

And thing is the business folks didn't
want to partner with the engineering

folks and I was hurt my feelings
a little bit we got last place but

it didn't stop us you know we ended up
finding some way to get into the A.T.C.

In fact once we got into the eighty's
we thought we succeeded I raised C.

capital we succeeded after
raising seed capital and

I'll get into all the details
of that process too so the.

You know you can learn a little bit but.

Just imagine you know starting off as
a student not knowing anything about

business or sales or technology or

raising capital or even hiring and
firing employees and

people believing that you can be that
leader is extremely difficult so

what about about fifteen years ago after
graduating I started sleeping on couches

and as my co-founder
who is still in school.

And started neural star solutions.

We set goals made sure we
reached out to people that were

knowledgeable in the filled I had
at least ten twenty ideas and

think a back now one thousand
of those ideas were terrible but

I wanted to protect each
one such that enough.

But getting feedback from experienced
people in the industry whether it was

health care or outside of health care or
even at school with Terry.

Below I was able to again
set small targets and

hit these goals and build confidence
with the relationships I've built and

over time you know six months
to twelve months later

we were raised our first round
up to half a million dollars.

We built the products it was more of a.

Basic system to let doctors view
images on line with a browser and

we landed our first client Piedmont
Hospital and I was really excited and

happy our first check from the mine guess
what how much it was Hospitals only pay

like ten twenty fifty thousand dollars for
for technology they paid

us two hundred eighty three dollars and
I showed Terry and I was excited to

see lashes like what can you do with
that you know it doesn't last long but

I knew if I can get a hospital to buy
a product that we built we can get the.

Pay us more and they're still a client to
this day and they ended up paying us ten

thousand a month so you know we
persevered through and found our way but

we evolved from neural
start to excel Arad.

Which is a technology that
connects hospitals patients and

doctors to share and
exchange all types of medical images X.

rays M R I C T's ultrasounds.

As opposed to burning C.D.'s and

shipping film makes life so much easier
for patients doctors to get quicker and

easier access to these
images in the timely manner.

Nuance all value in that and bought.

So today who are over two thousand
facilities across the U.S.

You can go to Piedmont today you can go
to Northside Kaiser here in Georgia and

if you want your images online if you
want to see them with your i Pad or

i Phone You can see your C T's or

in our eyes on your mobile device instead
of taking a CD to a specialist for

a second opinion you can simply
share it's in them an invitation and

share it with them online so they can
see it so that was something that was.

Completely different than the norm in
health care because they're used to

older technologies health
care moves extremely slow.

We reach over one hundred
fifty thousand physicians

millions of patients benefit from it.

Big time institutions Nuance
Communications is a major you know I think

multi billion dollar
company across the U.S..

The reason why they saw value in our
technology even though I built it from

zero to somewhere around six or
so six to ten million revenue and

they saw value in that one point
three billion opportunity and

was willing to pay up for it so
they paid over six times that amount.

So whether it's small hospitals
mid-size hospitals or

even consumers you assess that market and
you determine.

How much runways left to capitalize and
get a return on that investment.

And so the product works in a way where
someone's like a viral growth hub and

spoke so hospital sign up and

send out invitations to other hospitals
to connect with other doctors and

patients just like Linked IN JUST IMAGINE
flicker or Facebook or for

medical imaging that makes sense.

And again you know we had in a FIDE some
major challenges in healthcare that were

significant in terms of costs
whether it was through wastes.

Coordination of care or
fraud and abuse with

overutilization repeat exams.

And just clinical inefficiencies.

And so there's like a quick timeline
of sort of the events over the past

fifteen years and to me it's almost like
a blur happened like I've graduated and

all of a sudden you start a company and
you set these goals and

there's all these challenges
you know in between.

And then fifteen years
later what do you have.

I thought I'd be retired and.

You know at the Bahamas of something but
when you get acquired there's things that

you have to do you have to transition
the company over to the new company help

them understand the technology and then
when they pay you a certain amount to stay

it's hard to say no rightly so so
then they start working harder so

before two thousand and
six going back to our first product.

The challenges that we face again
not knowing a lot about business and

how to sell and how to support a client
we had learned the hard way and

was able to get through you know
nine eleven or the dot com.

Bubble burst.

Again we raised seed round capital and
that lasted like a year and

a half so what do you do if you have
employees and you have payroll and

there's negative ten thousand in the bank
so those are the types of challenges and

unfortunately we've never missed a payroll
I found ways to either raise more capital

or ultimately what you really want is to
get the clients to pay you enough to cover

your costs that gives you a longer
run runway instead of raising capital

a lot of companies do this but they raise
capital and raise more capital which.

In effect you lose equity so the more
cow do you raise the more cost it is for

you personally.

But that ultimately doesn't make a
business what makes a business is you have

to make more than you and you spend you
know spent right so you have a profit and

someone back back in school you know
what makes you think you can start

a company it's as simple as you got to
sell more than you then you spend you've

got to make more money you've got to make
a profit it's keep it that simple but

in between I thought I would have known
I probably would have taken at leat But

now that I succeeded.

I would trade it for the world because
you learn so much in the process and

so we went through building
a product you know two years

no one buying it you know our engineers
build the best thing you know out

there what is think of like why are they
buying a product knocking on doors

no one wanted to buy a product so
we had to learn the hard way how to sell

there's a complex process and if you're
in business school you'll you'll probably

learn that certain environments there's
different people that make decisions.

We It took us a while
to figure that out so

once you figure out how to sell
then how do you solve you know.

All ability problems how do you you know
get your price point to a point where

you are profitable with your
cost of goods so many things.

That was a challenge from year two
thousand up to two thousand and six but

we found a way to find a niche build
the niche solution Intel already ology

and looked at how we could help them
generate more revenue how we could help

them make more money and with that as they
grew we grew with them organically and

so we rode that wave from two thousand and
two up to two thousand and

six and then I decided to raise
institutional capital raise about

six million dollars And then after that
there was another challenge we thought

we won after that every milestone
that you know we thought we hit.

To a point where you think you
succeed it's another challenge and

that challenge was going from
twenty employees to sixty so

what that meant was I was spending maybe
two million a year now I'm spending

over six million a year so I have to
bring bring in revenue to cover that cost

Well guess what the next challenge was the
market hit a peak the market saturated so

I'm here with six million in
capital six million expense and

three million in revenue so how long
do I have before we run out of cash and

then in two thousand and eight Guess what
happened the recession hit this is like

problem after problem after problem are
you kidding me like what's going on and

so you know I lost a lot of equity I had
about fifty percent at that time so.

Some equity to raise the capital
got down to thirty or so percent.

And had to make a decision to shift or

stay the course and we made this pivotal
decision back in two thousand and

seven to reposition
the company which is almost.

We're saying layoffs we
have to cut our staff and

have to drop our burn or
burn rate is your expenses.

To breakeven and then we had to figure
out where the market was going and

build on our existing platform
a technology that had a bigger

market runway attack and that's what we're
Excel or I came from in two thousand and

seven and so we went from a teller
ideology based application to a cloud

based application to solve a different
challenge got into Ohio State Medical

back in two thousand and eight two
thousand and nine as a pick pilot so

I made sure the product worked
made sure the value proposition

was there for the clients and
then started to scale up and

landed other large institutions
in two thousand and ten and

saw that we had something but then I
thought OK the same way you know Linked In

are all these other companies work
where you build a cloud technology and

everyone just joins and
it's fastening girls you know.

Really quickly this should happen in
health care so we launched it and

assumed that all the hospitals which
is immediately jump on start using

it start connecting and
of course it didn't happen that way so

there were still more workers more
work to educate the hospitals on

how to get connected how to send out
invitations how to upload and share and

view since these exams online but once the
fire was lit then it started to expand and

that's where you know you use us all that
showed you that slide with the states

with the hub and spoke type diagram so
it was a viral once we looked the fire and

one institution then the others joined but
then we had to sell those

sites on the value for them so
just a quick example on the use cases.

Hospitals would use of.

To exchange images for trauma transfer so
if you were in Georgia and

you got an accident and you went to a
hospital that didn't have the specialists

to treat this particular case they would
take these exams through our system and

the doctors at Grady would have
access to those exams in minutes and

they can remotely get you
know provide treatment or

they would hello back the patients
over to Grady and the doctors and

the care care team would be ready before
the patients arrive versus not knowing

you know what was happening with this
patient having the patient arrive and

not being prepared is a matter of
minutes that can save lives and

we do this every single day.

So in two thousand and twelve two thousand
and thirteen we started to hone in

on the message hone in on the product and
then as as we grew and

the market recognize you know
the opportunity you get lucky and

you find a way to get bought for forty
million dollars That's a start I mean that

said I don't know anything
else beyond that.

But know there's other challenges to.

System issues billet he
issues we had I can remember.

Times where we knew we had it and
figured it out and

this was going to be a home run and
then we would have a two hour downtime

where the system just failed
Oracle cracked on this or

we would put out a release and
the release just didn't work and

you've got thousands of users
out there and it's just down and

then I think all that money has gone so
over you know this is ups and

downs of swings but you know when I think
back you learn so much in the process

I could take this anywhere right and
I am going to take it to the next.

Company the next and

the next that have about I don't know
maybe three more companies than me.

Honestly I didn't think it would take
Terry I didn't think it would take fifteen

years.

The first five years Terry Terry and
John Lou they took a risk.

Of I should share it or not but.

They took a risk with us.

Twenty something and not going on her
door trying to get advice trying to raise

capital they introduced me to
alumni that were wealthy that

took a risk with us and put in C. capital
and they ended up putting putting in C.

capital as well it's a little bit but
it was a nice return in so

didn't it did anyone think it could
happen probably not you know but

we were determined and we found a way and
I'm just happy to be able to at least tell

the story and let you all know that it can
happen it's just things that you have to

do you know and process is that you
have to take hard work dedication all

the stuff that you hear people tell you
in a little bit in between getting advice

is one of the best advice is like.

So that just the product will know where
we are what time it happens the product in

general we talked about just the use
cases routing images you as a patient you

could go online and create an account if
you had an X. ray you could upload it and

share it with a doctor share it with
a hospital instead of taking it you know

it should be that easy and health care
should not be that complex and it is and

there's always opportunities
when you have areas or

markets that you know do
things the old way or

make things difficult you can find
ways to do things quicker and better.

So we went through this quite a bit

collaborative it's like Linked In Facebook
but for medical imaging.

Mobility in fact you can if you have an i
Phone i Pad you can go to the app store

and download the app and
look at images right now for free and

just get an idea of how it all works.

Nuance is extremely happy with the
acquisition that was the other thing that

I had to struggle with you know do I
sell now and take chips off the table or

do you keep going further and
try to do more and

get more and
I mean this stuff so you have.

Money on the table so
you either turn it down and

think that you can make it or.

You take the money and then you start
something else right so I took it.

Not as bold to who was it that turned
down a billion because Facebook.

Mark.

The next one I might do
that because who is that.

Yeah the next one I could do that because
I have a nest egg that I can back

you know.

Go back to right I'm not touching it
it's in a diversified portfolio so

I can take more risks but as a thirty
something year old why not make sure that

I'm secure financially with all the hard
work that was put in fifteen years.

So it works either way but I just didn't
think my market was that if it also

depends on your market right if
the hospitals actually did explode and

adopted it really quick I would held
back but I saw it slowly picking up in

fifteen years I was going to wait another
fifteen years before we had market

dominance when I can I can
create the next Instagram right.

So we had we had good growth.

For consumer and physician reach.

Good client site girls.

And.

Again I talked about how did it
throughout the presentation but

some of the key things is I think you
always have to start with your idea

if you have a good idea if
you have good vision and

then you surround yourself
with smart people and

get rid of the people that you know
either don't believe in the vision or

negative then it's easier to easier
to work through challenges and

hit the next targets as a collective
unit than doing it by yourself but

think about it this whole brain that's
the brain power of all of us in here if we

were to just focus all of our attention on
one thing there's no way but you know no

other way but success right and also the
way I saw it if I just focus my attention

on the goal I had no option but
to succeed I just did not see failure and

people would always tell me stories
you know ninety eight percent of all

small businesses fail after two years so
well where that one percent you know

still see that just didn't even register
it never crossed my mind until we have

that two hour down time than that.

When setting goals in a solid plan so
good business plan small incremental

goals right you don't think
you know this big daunting

task that you might have down the road
that you have to accomplish immediately

small increments that build up to it and
it allows you to navigate and

make changes and
adjustments along the way.

I think is also key to be aware of you
know your surrounding market awareness

if if I would have been more aware of
you know the teller idiology market I

probably wouldn't a race that six million.

You know knowing if I knew that the market
two years later would hit a speak so

I didn't have any runway so
I wasted equity had this huge expense and.

In ended up hiring some
operations people thinking that

you know these people are experience
they should be able to help us grow and

they wanted to spend more money
to chase more dollars and in my

mind I thought wait a minute that's how
the dot com folks did it in the past and

that's why they they didn't succeed we
need to cut costs find another market

niche and get to profitability
quickly in order to sustain and

so I had to let that person go and
that was that was a tough decision.

And then people look at failures I
look at talk about small failures and

big successes people look at failures
as something that's a bad thing and

I think you should look at the opposite
feller is a good thing because if you fail

you actually learn more by
selling then you do by six in

my opinion than you do by succeeding but
there are small fires almost like betting

you know in Vegas if they're small and
you could absorb it and

make it through it then you can learn
from it and focus on what's needed for

success you get feedback on it right
you you've It hurts it's painful

you understand why you fell and
then you fix it and that's why if you have

small failures with small increments you
can navigate through the process and

get to a point where you figure it
out you hone in on what's working and

it took us it took us ten ten
years to get to that point but

once we hit it we were on our way and
it was fun so

it was a challenge in the beginning
you live in the dream raise

the money thinking you make it and
then we wait to hone in on what was needed

after all those successes and failures and
then it started to get real fun in fact we

were taking employees to let near for
a week in vacation.

Planning the Vegas trip
to take them to the.

Beach houses.

Not to the extent that you would see in
what was that movie Leonardo Dicaprio.

As well as that movie.

Right right we didn't get we
didn't get there yet but we're on

our way I was working towards it I want
to have that much fun over the next one.

And then knowing your strengths and
weaknesses I think is also key so

I like not good at you know
socializing and communication and

sales and all that but
you know I had to do it.

And finance if you're not if
you're not an expert in the area

find someone who knows what you don't
know and let them complement your skill I

was an idea I was I was one who
found the next big thing and

made it happen and other people are good
at marketing we were terrible at

marketing and it showed it was
our business plan it was worse.

But once up figured out you
know let's not waste time

trying to be the you know marketing genius
it's not going to happen I could study

as much as I want I mean it's not the same
it's either within you or it's not and

if you recognize that then you can sort of
fix that by bringing in the right people.

And then there's so much more throughout
the process so just last what it what I do

now so nuance bought us there's
a transition when a company

buys a company they don't know unless
it's like a product that you can just.

Package and sell our solution as a
platform so they don't know our technology

better than we do so we go through
a transition process helping their team

understand marketing sells how to run our
platform how to develop on our platform

and so on I'll say this there's a big
difference and you'll probably know this

an entrepreneurial environment is totally
different than a corporate culture right

and so some companies figured out they may
have good entrepreneurs at the top that.

Visionaries.

And versus others who are more
corporate who you know have the same

structured approach that for
me is is a struggle because I like to

be creative I like to invent I like
to find new ways and you know.

Break out of the norm where as

big corporations they have to have
structure in order to run and operate but

the ones that I think when you have
both they can stay number and have this

innovative you know entrepreneurial
environment along with the structure.

So those are things in a more and
more things that you learn

throughout the process right and so I'm
just taking this as a learning experience

again what I can do and
what I should do and what I should.

Personally investments
diversified portfolios

make your money make money for use of
it you don't have to work ever again.

And then a choir to know the bit
acquired a new business.

So I'll be building building that up
quite a bit and looking at the next tech

start of I can't tell you what that idea
is I always have to protect the ideas.

But really excited about these new
ideas there's a lot of companies that

I admire like over and and
like Open Table companies like that that

bring people together and there's value
that people are willing to pay for.

And then that the you know the end of it
all that you know the only thing that

really truly matters is your
you know staying healthy and

just your life your way of.

Experiencing the day to day with family
friends just enjoying whatever you

do whether starting a business or working
for someone if you're not happy and

if you don't enjoy your life and
if you don't take care of your health

it's hard to succeed and
I went through periods where it was so.

Stressful and difficult and
I had you know health issues.

And it wasn't until I focus on fixing that
first I could solve all the other problems

there's been a healthy How
can you consciously think and

be clear minded enough to.

You know get through tough
times of business or

relationship or anything that you did.

All right I think best said Thanks a lot.

Thank.

You.

Questions thank.

You.

You've mentioned that there were many
things that you have learned the hard

way and for people like us will
be graduating in a year or

two and who want to go into
business site what would you do it.

Should be good and.

Helpful is it should we do it like
you to learn things the hard way

what's your stand.

So are you pursuing a startup or.

OK.

It depends on your
preference you know you can

you can go either way I think having an
M.B.A. definitely helps because I had to

learn how to learn things that
folks were taught in school and

they don't teach you everything in school.

But you know I don't think it
would hurt that's your path right

minored in business in fact.

I think I got my first C.

was a year class Terry can't remember
there was a better business plan.

There was one of those classes I think it
was accounting I didn't like accounting

and my professor didn't think I could
make it in business if I couldn't vote.

Didn't pass accounting Anyways I
figure the numbers figure that out.

And I can count I can count what's
in my bank account but I think.

I think you know getting a business
agrees definitely helpful

people succeed if they
drop out you know people.

Dropped out of undergrad and
grad school and still succeeded.

But I think you can't deny the value that
you again from getting an education and

the networks that she would build So
if you go to school and

get an M.B.A. The people that
you meet that you can work with

to help you with your business the people
that they know the networks that they have

that you could tap into this
where a lot of value was.

As opposed to trying to start
it what I did I had to tap into.

You know our alumni network in the A.T.C.
incubate or.

Took a little bit longer.

And raising capital significant
amounts of capital was a bit harder

because I didn't know
you know a lot about.

Just business sells marketing finance

you know that would have helped I do
engineering so technically I was.

Spot on but people don't just
buy products you have to be

sort of well rounded right so I think
really again it just depends on you

if your ideas are good then start
the idea and don't look back.

But if you want to build a network
of folks that you can learn from and

that the Alp you through
the process get that M.B.A..

Chip was willing.

You got a great product and
what was some of the rejection that

you got from the hospitals it sounds
like you say hey we can do this so

much better by not sending C.D.'s in
do it through the cloud What were some

of the objections that the hospitals had
to say hey we're not going to buy the.

Technology or product.

Well when you're smaller company
the first thing they'll say

is we don't know if we're going
to be in business next year.

And the next would would be.

How can you support it with such a small
staff if we call you at two A.M.

in the morning.

Is it secure healthcare's is
really conscious of privacy

you know patients data.

If we send it to your cloud system is
that a private or public cloud you know

they don't want to push anything
to like an Amazon cloud.

Can we get it cheaper that was one of.

The one of the biggest and main questions
asked and then you come back and say well

if if it's too cheap then I can't afford
enough people to support it so do you want

to go product do you want more innovation
and you want quality service and

support or do you want something is really
cheap that may not be around next year you

ask if we're going to be around to give
you a price that will allow severe around.

And so those are the main things trust and
confidence.

And security.

You know.

You have a question like What is what are
the biggest challenges second yours coming

on now facing and.

I going to feel like.

I couldn't hear so and so it's just like
what are the biggest challenges like

you know communications facing you
know the biggest challenges for

what like the company's facing now
like the company is facing now and

wants you know how do you
feel how do you face it.

Good question.

Well the nice thing with a big company
there's a lot more resources so

things that we weren't strong.

In like marketing and
in cells they had a mass of cells.

They have tons of people helping with
marketing and getting the word out so

our presence is much bigger
we have more credibility

I think some of the biggest challenges is
when you have thousands of employees that

knowledge transfer just trying to get
everyone ramped up to where we are and

we've been living it for years so

it's sort of inherent I can solve problems
in my sleep when it comes to this type

of solution in this market whereas you
take it for granted because we know it so

much I assume that it's easy for everyone
else understand it in this corporation and

it's not the case so you know staying with
them helping them understand the products

where it's going and then for me.

I have an idea of where I think
the company should go but

there's another C.E.O. as I don't have
his job so I can't tell him what to do

even though that's how I work
elected tell people what to do.

And they don't listen so

let's me that's personal That's my
challenge I can't I can't get them where I

think they should go.

So you mentioned that you went to
school for a little engineering but

your ideas seemed to be like very computer
science based How exactly did you go about

educating yourself so
you could turn your idea into a product.

And probably now I can't.

Seen so many.

So it's doubly I did take some
computer science classes and

my co-founder is he was more electrical in
computer engineering was more electrical

engineering specializing in
telecommunications and D.S.P. we.

We had to build prototypes funny story
the first of the first product so I had.

The idea but
we didn't have a prototype but

I needed to to show the investors that
we had something that made sense and

I had to show the hospitals
people that you know this

idea is real so I took a different
product that I found online put our

name on it just to demonstrate you know
this is what it is it wasn't built yet but

it worked to help them see what
we're trying to work towards and

then it bought us time you always look at
always talked about buying more time it

bought us time to build a prototype and
the way I was able to do that

was I went to the I went to
the computer sciences building and

put up flyers and said free pizza for
coders seriously free pizza and

coke and we got our first five developers.

Given free lunch and.

It works we don't have the money
to pay him so he's his bottom.

So you said you didn't have the skills to
socialize of his kids in marketing and

see it's how you go about
learning those kids.

The marketing and sales Yeah well
you said early on when you just

started you wouldn't you know particularly
great at socializing and going out and

marketing a product idea so
what do you do to develop those kids.

Again it was the hard way when we went and
knocked on doors I would go to

you know different hospital
set up appointments.

And ask questions wide wide Did
you reject our offer our proposal.

The other things that I did
was I sought out A.T.C.

helped a lot I sought out
folks who came to help

start companies in certain areas like so
like marketing.

You know they charge a fee sometimes but
you know with that reading certain

books strategic selling
books all that together and

all the rejection again the hardest part
was everyone saying no the first two

years I think we had one client that's
why we ran out of capital so quick and

then the reason why I was able to stay in
business at the last minute sold it so in

the countdown in Savannah Georgia thirty
thousand dollars a kept the lights on for

two or three more months you know and
I would do that every three months I would

call I will close the next client
that would bring in a chunk just

to buy us more time to get enough
recurring revenue to cover our costs and

so it was a process it
wasn't just one thing.

But the rejection was was huge
because I learned from that

learned from our competitors
what they did right.

Reading books and seeking advice
from people who were experienced

in that particular area you know.

I thank you for coming today and so you
kind of spoke to being the kind of person

you like to tell people what you think so
I'm curious what would you say your

biggest strength in weakness and how have
you either like to use those or tried to.

Adjust to be more successful.

And knew that was coming.

I think the biggest strength is.

No fear of pursuing what
I think is right and

making it happen I can I can
imagine something and for

me it feels like it's already there
it's real I knew I was driving for

a Ferrari I don't drive I'm not going to
waste that money but I knew I was driving

and even though I didn't have it I knew
I was a millionaire even though I.

Isn't there I just I just
knew it was already real and

others would you know ask how do you know
I mean how do you know it's going to work

it's just that confidence I don't
know where that comes from but.

My weakness I think would be maybe it's

hard to that's up to some of that but.

You know I think I could be
a little bit more collaborative and

find you know better ways to.

Get collective you know
participation it's not my way or

the highway all the time even though right
like ninety percent of the time it's not

it's not always my way.

And so if I could do a little bit
better with that in communicating.

And I know if this is
something with tech people or

what but
like to stay in our own little world and

don't don't bother me I'll use a go in
my office and keep my headphones on and

shut the door even though I was a really
good boss you know everybody really liked

working in our environment was a real fun
environment when things were humming.

So yeah I would say that
you know those are the two.

So how do i just that you know I'm
conscious of it I'm aware of it.

And I'm better than I was it used to be
ninety nine percent always right and so

now I write it down this is a lot of
people have so many good ideas so

just being open to you know
other folks opinions and ideas.

Can help you get further along.

What protection did you face and
especially were competitive or

going to as you had or your competitors
in you the competitive What

wouldn't go on but if you did you face
in the existing like it and what do.

Was your competitive
advantage our advantage.

Early on you know I had to recognize

we were trying to sell this technology
called Pax this picture archiving and

communication system you know these
systems would sell to hospitals for

two million dollars each and
so we had a team of three or

five people and a lot of developers.

Getting fed pizza.

Trying to go up against G.E.
or Siemens and

so how do you compete with of G.E.
or Siemens is wasn't working so

you know once you find a niche and you
hone in on that niche if the market isn't

saturated you can build features or
pieces of the product

that's a differentiator you always have to
look at what's a differentiator compared

to what's in the market how is it
quicker faster better cheaper.

Today we were able to build the first

cloud platform in medical imaging and
it took.

You know all of that experience from
two thousand up until this point so

there's a lot of IP there and our
competitors started back in two thousand

and eight so they have more time to
they need more time to ramp up so

we were we were able to build
a solution in the segment faster

fix the little you know minute issues
they weren't these are major issues

we're talking millions of exams right that
in health care quality is really key so

we have lost less compression you know
the integrity of the data has to be one

hundred percent because if you're looking
at a patients exam that patient has cancer

for example and you don't want your
doctor to look at it and image that's not

one hundred percent you know good quality
right so so building an infrastructure.

Just think like with Amazon building
that infrastructure who could do

that the same way they can and
cheaper than eight of us or so

we built this infrastructure over
time which gave us the ability

to build features on top of it
that makes it more difficult for

our competitors to catch up that quickly
they don't have the platform so that's why

I mean nuance bought us because of the IP
but because of the infrastructure.

And so

it's not easy to get that all of the other
things that you could do is get to market

faster if you don't have a technical
competitive advantage on the technology.

And so in a so a race that means you
have to raise more capital quickly

to get market share real facts is that you
can take advantage of the network effect

the first to market and
that works to some times.

But if it's a hot market and crowded
it's really hard to differentiate and

then you get into having to reduce your
costs and that doesn't look good for long.

Because if you or it is your cost you
lose a margin and it's hard to sustain

the start of same business.

Did you have your idea and
he did what was that process like.

That I have did I have with you patent
your idea that patent yeah we looked at so

it's difficult with software
to patent software and

it's hard to protect it but we pursued.

It was professional patents but anyone
could build you know another program

that's similar it's hard to prove
a similar could perform same function but

use a different you know Kobe's whatever.

So it depends on your product if this.

Mechanical in nature is easier to protect
but software you don't get a lot of

you don't get it you don't get a lot
of patents protection software

there's a company that built
a product almost similar to ours and

they want to patent on it but
they can't they can't defend it.

So hard it's just this it wasn't
worth the dollars we would have to

spend I think fifty thousand dollars on
the power and we invested like ten but

it wasn't going to get it was going to
gain me anything upon the exit nuance of

the companies were looking at us to
acquire something that had the pat.

But again a different product might be
the case with software you don't find that

much.

Like you were mentioning that you had
to learn the hard way and through

the experience of starting up a knee and
one of the things that you would or

did was noticed was that you weren't
you guys were not great marketing So

now like if you were to start a company
again from scratch what do you think would

be some other features of a defect as
you were before starting a company

like one of them being having a good
marketing team what as what as and

what a defect is would you keep in mind.

So again once you do it and you succeed
you know exactly what to do the next time.

And so there is that I would
sort of help that I would.

Bring on to help us succeed obviously
would be marketing I would I would

I would either outsource marketing
to a really solid firm or

hire a chief marketing officer.

Cells is also key I would
make sure our cells a leader

is really strong you've
got to have a good C.F.O..

And all these people these are like
hundred hundred fifty thousand

dollars a year to.

You know employees and so capital you have
to have a capital to cover those costs.

And then you've got to you've
got to have good developers

in a technology company so software so
the next tech startup is going to be

a software company the business that
are quired is not a software company and

for me that's this
business is kind of easy.

You know you have services in
you you provide the services and

you collect the money you know it was
easy to understand what to focus on in

this business that are acquired
by focus area was get more

leads get more sales and
collect on a R. and

then and that's important in any business
but this business that's the only real

main focus once you set the goal
you set the target then it's just.

The blocks of blocking and
tackling whereas the tech start up it's

the marketing is so key and sales this
a life blood of the company you get your

leaves you get your deal flow you get your
revenue from that but then if your product

doesn't support it if the clients
are happy then all that effort.

Bills is wasted right so.

You know I would know exactly
how much I can raise or

if I put in my own investment I know
exactly where to go to get talent because

I've been there.

So I think their product safety is
one of the very important thing and

so how what are you doing
to make it secured and

what is special at least your database
is getting bigger and bigger How do you

convince your customer database hundred
percent secured to use your product.

My question.

That's part of the sales.

Process and sometimes that works.

But now we have to be hipper compliant.

So every user that signs into the product
they have a secure username password

we're in a secure data center everything
every exam this into our cloud is

encrypted through S.S.L.
so there's possibles go through

a checklist a security check list to
make sure we're in compliance and

that helps knowing that other hospitals
other big institutions H.C.A.

peeve all these others are using it all
these hospitals know that if it Piedmont

is using it then they went through
the rigor of the security.

You know checklist the same
way all the other vendors that

you know have software and
healthcare had to go through so

that helps getting the first one
was key without the first one and

getting the stamp of approval it's harder
to convince them exactly right but

once you once you have critical mass
that's not the the biggest issue in

their decision making process because they
know that we have all the answers and

that we've we've been vetted right.

Will you ever tempted to take your show
out to the Silicon Valley Road stayed

here in Atlanta and try to I did though
the fifty or so times that I went out to

try and raise capital it's harder to raise
capital in the south because there's not

as much you know investors are.

So I mean that would have been
there would have been a challenge

the other thing is they normally don't
invest in health care technologies.

So because they just don't grow
as fast and less as biotech.

The next company maybe in Austin and
maybe in Silicon Valley I

really would rather keep it here because
there's a lot of talent here and

you know from my experience it
will be nice to see even more.

Folks like me back in two
thousand take that chance because

when I started everything that I own
in the backseat of my car and so

I really didn't have much to lose.

I think that's what about a five
thousand dollar loan from the school.

And use it to invest in a company and
pay myself a thousand dollars a month

while sleeping on the couch and
all that for the first year.

Stinking that I should live the dream
you know I don't know what I was

when you're naive you could take chances
like that right because as you just don't

know any better and that's the best thing
if you don't know how hard it is then

you try it and you learn along the way.

The devil Algeria's the better for you but

I think your investor has the final
question so Terry do you know.

You know I actually wondered you know
you were coming out just as the bubble

burst and there was no V.C. money and
I wonder if that wasn't a blessing and

unintended blessing in the sense
that if you had gotten

early venture money you would have gotten
past like everybody else they would have.

You know it would have been closed so

you had to do it the old fashioned way
with their earnings and we did that and.

You know that's not a bad way to go even
though that might not have been your

choice but my question has to
do with the acquisition of.

Buy now by nuance and
remember you're on tape.

I wonder if you know when you get acquired
How much do they want the technology

versus how much do they want you
an arm and you know how what kinds of.

Cufflinks do they have you know on you in
terms of tying you to them and in terms

of non compete in terms of what you're
going to be able to do in the future.

They make sure they protect their
investment they take a very serious.

We can't build a like product for
ten years.

They they.

Focused mostly on the technology and

trying to you know they focus on
trying to retain enough talent so

we had to go through and recognize within
the company all the key employees and

they would put together good incentive
packages to make sure we all stayed.

Because again they just if they invest
that much they have to make sure

we're going to be there for the knowledge
transfer and allow them to have

it integrated within their system so they
can capitalize on it and start to sell and

get that return on that investment and
then they're seeing it they this

it's that from what they they say
the future of their health care division

is one of the hottest platforms and
why I kick myself I should've kept it but

it's one of the hottest platforms
within their their business unit.

So again this is the IP number one once
they figure all that out we're gone and

they they can't pay us enough to stay and
they know that this is so

so we're not built to be employees and
less and

less they would be willing to you
know work with us on creating

an entrepreneurial environment within
the company which is at their core I don't

think this is their culture.

And back to Georgia Tech like to think
you really are coming down speaker and

thank you.