004: Donated Blood? This B2B Company SOLVES the transit PROBLEM with Bad Blood. The Jarie Bolander Story…

Background:

Jarie Bolander is the Co-Founder & COO of Lab Sensor Solutions, a digital health company that is applying sensor technology to track the temperature and location of clinical samples to prevent spoilage. He's an engineer by training and an entrepreneur by nature with over 20 years of bringing innovative solutions to market such as Bluetooth, USB, RFID, and Semiconductor DNA sequencing.

Time-Stamped Show Notes:

[0:48] Introduction about what they do – “Sensor as a Service Platform for Health & Safety” blood, urine, tissue, etcetera samples, they make sure right temperature, right place, at right time or else the test is bad. Also deals with food side & health side.
- [2:00] How they used to store blood samples via ice-coolers & they used to BBQ monitors.
- [2:30] If transporters were given warning before blood went bad, then that would significantly help in the “bad blood” samples that could no longer be used because the temperature changed too much.
[3:40] No one wants to get pricked twice, so these samples are important for a number of reasons.
[4:28] Preventable medical error accounts for 250-400k deaths per year in the US. Therefore, huge incentive to make sure they get rid of these bad deaths. So huge incentive to make things more efficient and transparent.
[5:48] His first company failed.
[6:05] The 3 Factors that people look for in a startup: (1) The Team, (2) The Market, & (3) The Technology. Those 3 things a founder is always grappling with. If you’re going to raise money, you need to mitigate 2 of the 3.
[6:24] You can’t have two of the three piled against you and his old company he had all 3 against him. They had innovative technology that would solve a problem but would have had a lot friction for people to implement it.
[10:13] Graduated San Jose State University and background leading up to his current company, Lab Sensor Solutions.
[14:40] Actually had negatives sales with a previous company (Cypress Semiconductors). People were returning orders and cancelling sales.
- [15:20] Went through 3 rounds of layoffs because of the dot.com bust.
[15:55] It’s good to work for a big company to learn how to do it he right way. So when you go to a startup you know where to “cheat”.
[16:30] “You gotta know the rules in order to break them.”
[16:36] Learned a lot about process in a big company which is key in your startup.
[16:50] What is a release process? Need a process to make sure an app or program does not release.
[17:33] A lot of startups make the mistake of releasing a product too early. Jaire has made it plenty of times.
- For example, did a release at Lab Sensor Solutions and had a database error for their clients.
[18:39] Lots of ups & downs in the startup world. Gotta enjoy the journey.
[19:27] Positive Story – Ion Torrent (a startup that does DNA sequencing), closed a deal that got them bought by Life Technologies for $750 million!
[20:30] Tough Times – At one of his startups. Was always struggling to raise money.
- Had to pull everyone in a room and tell co-workers that they’re going to have to be laid off.
- It’s the worst feeling in the world.
[23:44] Took pause when talking about being a millionaire.
[24:09] Being a millionaire was a key metric at some point & affected his personal life because he was too obsessed with it. Lead to divorce.
[25:19] Learned that you have to have balance in life.
[26:06] His second wife (Jane) passed away two months before the interview.
[26:33] Why are you working so hard? To have fun later in life?
[28:00] Time is the most valuable asset that you have.
[28:50] You work for the love. Make sure you’re moving the world forward. You need that solid, “Why?”
[30:28] His wife Jane wanted him do interviews like this. There will be plenty of times that you’ll wonder why you are doing what you’re doing.

Fabulous 4 Questions:

📖 📚 Favorite Book(s)? The War of Art & The Warrior Ethos by Steven Pressfield
🙌😎 Favorite Amazon.com purchase? Underwear for Hurricane Irma Victims
🌱💸 Favorite Tool that's GROWN your Business? PolyMail & Scrivener
💭💡 BIGGEST Challenge keeping your Business from GROWING? Sales, we have a great product but the sales cycle is just too long.

Key Points from the Interview:

A lot of startups make the mistake of releasing a product too early.
The 3 Factors that people look for in a startup: (1) The Team, (2) The Market, & (3) The Technology.
TIME is the MOST Valuable asset that you have.