Domain Knowledge Wins: Larry Goldenhersh, CEO of Enviance (Part 3)

Sramana: What assets or processes did you have in 1999 when you started the company? How did you get the company off the ground?

Larry Goldenhersh: In 1999 everybody had a twinkle in their eye and $10 million from a venture capitalist. Enviance did not start that way. I viewed the Internet as being important because it was a delivery mechanism. It changed the way I allowed customers to access computing.

I did raise some money in the beginning. I was fortunate in that regard because I had represented very sophisticated individuals and entities for 16 years. When I left the practice of law, several of these entities wanted to follow me and be involved with what I did next. They supported me financially. In 1999 I had access to some very powerful people for whom I had delivered very valuable services for a very long time. They trusted me with their money.

Sramana: Did they invest as angel financers?

Larry Goldenhersh: They were very large angels. I opened the company with $1 million that was transferred to me on a handshake.

Sramana: What did you do with that million dollars?

Larry Goldenhersh: I built the team that possessed the domain experience to deliver the business process automation solution for the compliance challenge. The mission was to transform the way that environmental compliance is done. I knew that I needed someone who understood exactly what the challenges were in compliance management where the rubber hits the road such as in government organizations. One of my first hires was the former assistant secretary of the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality who ran the air division for eight years and had issued some of the largest fines in the history of the state.

Sramana: How did you find that person?

Larry Goldenhersh: Serendipity played a huge role in my locating and hiring four of the first critical hires. I had engaged a consultant to help me frame out the compliance challenge. I had located that consultant through my law firm. The consultant knew of this person and knew what a zealot he was and introduced us. I talked to him on the phone in late 1999 and explained the vision. Our visions matched, so he got on a plane. Two weeks later he joined us.

Sramana: Where were you based?

Larry Goldenhersh: I was based in San Diego. I had moved down there after I left my law firm. All of my business connections were up in Los Angeles and outside of California.

Sramana: What other key assets did you bring into the team in that very first phase?

Larry Goldenhersh: The best living salesperson in North America. I am dead serious about that. I feel that you make your own luck in life. If you press hard enough and act in a linear fashion, the stars do align. Another consultant that I engaged knew another guy who was the head of the sales and marketing group for Corian at the DuPont Corporation. I called him on the phone out of the blue and explained the vision. I told him that this was going to be an Internet company to transform compliance. He was excited so he flew out to meet. Two weeks later he was a part of the company.

This segment is part 3 in the series : Domain Knowledge Wins: Larry Goldenhersh, CEO of Enviance
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