Business Partners

The ValuePath business is consuming more and more time. It started out with Matt Leavitt and I scheming on our own and promising to include the other partners in the pathology practice in order to maintain goodwill. We spent about $20K on lawyers preparing a complicated operating agreement with different classes of shares in order for us to include them and still maintain control. Then one by one the other partners dropped out. I think they were concerned that this was a money pit without a bright future, and also concerned about the appearance of conflict of interest with Intermountain Health.

We have been determined to buy a slide scanner and learn how to best use it. But there is a big information technology piece that Matt and I have no idea how to manage. So Matt brought in a friend he knew from California, Shawn Hansen to be a potential partner.

I knew from my first conversation with Shawn that this business just went to a higher level. He grasped our ideas quicker than anyone else that we have approached. He is on track to be a partner at Microsoft and has started and sold several successful tech businesses. He immediately saw all the weaknesses in our business model and probed us on them. I felt like an MBA student talking to the professor after coming to class unprepared. Just by having Shawn involved I think our company's prospects brightened considerably.

I shouldn't minimize what Matt and I have done over the last 8 months. We took an idea through several iterations and turned it into a business that has a few clients, steady stream of work and accounts receivable, although no actual revenues yet. We spun our wheels and wasted money learning a few lessons but at least we built something that could attract the interest of a guy like Shawn.

Now we have a focus and discipline that was lacking before. In a way it's a little intimidating. I've always been the finance guy but now I'm going to held to performance targets, and I'm going to be expected to churn out reports and analyze them. I think I will be good at it eventually but there will be a learning curve, and it will be a lot of work. Where will this venture be in a year?