In 1996, when architect/designer/visionary hipster Wayne McVicker and a partner launched the healthcare website, Neoforma.com, he just wanted to live the life of a creative entrepreneur while helping make the world a better place. He soon realized that he’d climbed aboard a careening, billion-dollar roller coaster ride.This is a story of survival in the Silicon Valley fast lane, told with honesty, warmth and humor. As the Neoforma database of healthcare products and services grew, so did their e-commerce traffic and business potential - but they were tapped out. Thus began a parade of mentors, “angel” investors, and venture capitalists who expected tenfold pay-offs. Still insisting on playing by their own rules, the partners were slow to warm up to Valley start-up culture. McVicker says it took a long time to find making money an acceptable pursuit unto itself. But these were heady times. In 1998, they received a two million-dollar cash infusion, and were being called the “Amazon and Yahoo of healthcare.” There was no backing out now.
Trapped in the role of an aggressive, ultra-competent entrepreneur, McVicker weathered every investor, customer and employee crisis as it arose. He struggled to balance his work and family life, while the business grew at breakneck speed. He began to compartmentalize the stress, lost the ability to communicate with his partner and his wife, and luckily, found help before his marriage failed and the company he’d so proudly nurtured was wrenched away from him.
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