Wayne McVicker
Starting Over
August 6, 2007 | by noah | Permalink
Wayne McVicker knew what he wanted to be an architect early in his life, even in the face of sever colorblindness. Yet when he finally realized his dream, at least partially as a runner for an architecture firm, he found himself disillusioned by the lack of technological openness in the workplace. As he embraced technology in the architecture world, he realized that it was not in fact commercial or residential architecture that captivated him, but rather the architecture of technology and its limitless capacity to change and connect the world.
Wayne took his love for technology to the corporate world, working ten years before stumbling upon a goldmine opportunity in the healthcare industry. Neoforma, Wayne’s startup company, would become the sixteenth most successful IPO on record. It was the first healthcare-dotcom-B2B-ecommerce company, founded in 1996, before the birth of the dotcom boom.
After one of the most successful IPO’s on record, Wayne learned that money quickly earned is just as easily lost. One quote in his book “Starting Something” reads, “I made a few hundred million…I lost a few hundred million.”
But that did not deter him from his goals. In the end, he found a way to learn from his mistakes, rather then dwell on his failures. In 2001, Wayne founded Attainia, a company dedicated to ease the burden of capital medical equipment management on hospitals and other healthcare related industries. The business helps to ensure the equipment need of many service providers, as to allow better care to more efficiently reach the consumer, or patient.
Many people, having lost “a few hundred million dollars,” would probably be inclined to hold that against the world; Wayne used it as an opportunity to start over, helping many more people along the way, and constantly learning from past mistakes.
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THERE ARE 2 RESPONSES TO THIS INTERVIEW
kelly G Says:
August 7th, 2007
This story reminds me of a man I was working with recently. He has a similar story to Wayne in that he has made a lot of money, lost alot of money, and made alot of money. His attitude is that “there is always money to be made out there”! “If it isn’t this deal, it will be the next”!
brett Says:
August 7th, 2007
Wayne is the man. I’m really enjoying reading his book, Starting Something.
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