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A Life of Its Own
Neoforma was founded in 1996 in Silicon Valley, several months before the unofficial birth of the dotcom boom.
Starting Something chronicles a five-year personal and corporate roller-coaster ride that ended in 2001 with
the author stepping aside from the company he had co-founded.
The title, Starting Something, has a double meaning. The first meaning hints at the noble naiveté of taking on
industry giants armed only with personal ideals and a great product. The second meaning reflects the universal
experience of giving oneself over to the creative process, of starting something that eventually takes on a
life of its own.
And what a life! Neoforma's IPO was the 16th most successful IPO in history. As the first healthcare-dotcom-B2B-ecommerce
company, it had no competitors, only giant investors like GE and Dell. Its customers were happy, its employees were happy.
It ended up confronting over one hundred competitors and two industry coalitions founded by companies valued at nearly $1
trillion. Neoforma grew from one employee in 1996 to over 230 by its IPO in January, 2000. But there was trouble ahead, and
some warning signs that serve as valuable lessons for anyone caught up in corporate change.
McVicker deftly describes the impact of growth: fighting off huge competitors, hiring the "wrong people for the wrong reasons"
(but also the right people for the right reasons), bridging rifts between old hands and new blood, and dealing with corporate
partners trying to swallow them whole. Four months after the IPO, the company was in deep trouble, laying off good people
and watching its stock value plummet.
But this isn't a dot bust book. At no time was the company in its death throes. Today Neoforma is alive and well. "Jeff and
I started Neoforma in a fit of idealistic frenzy," writes the author. "It grew into something much more than we had planned,
though much less than we had hoped. Several hundred families now derive their sustenance from Neoforma. That, on its own,
should be enough."
For McVicker, the company had "found its own destiny." But as the book ends, it becomes clear that the drive to create
usually resurfaces. Even as he was separating himself mind and body from his now independent creation, he was spinning off
a new company, happy to be getting on with the joys and challenges of Starting Something.
Wayne McVicker is an architect and entrepreneur. Having co-founded Attania, he has served as President there since
its inception in 2001. He has 25 years of experience in the design, healthcare and IT industries. McVicker's five-year-long
wild ride as co-founder, board member, and president of Neoforma (NASDAQ: NEOF) is the basis for this book.
He lives with his wife and two sons in Silicon Valley, California.
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Kirkus has given our upcoming publication, The Big AHA!, a glowing review, months before its publication in February 2006.
Brad Feld, a Managing Director at Mobius Venture Capital has written an astute (and complimentary) review of Starting Something, on his blog. His numbers on Neoforma are inaccurately negative (which he acknowledged to me were based on a rushed analysis), but his thoughtful discourse is poetry as are many of his other entries.
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