Domain Knowledge Wins: Larry Goldenhersh, CEO of Enviance (Part 4)

Sramana: Whom did you find to come on board and actually build the product?

Larry Goldenhersh: I live in San Diego, which has a ton of high-tech entrepreneurs, some of whom were my neighbors. I believe that the domain and presentation are the most critical elements of executing on a vision. Technology is very important but is not the first stuff. This was in 1999, before Web services existed. People felt the Internet was a good B2C device but that it could not be used for core projects because of security issues. My third stop was to get a CTO, which was fairly easy. I reached out to my friends who were CEOs of technical companies. I was introduced to several people and I chose one.

Sramana: Did you outsource actual development?

Larry Goldenhersh: No, the CTO I hired lived in San Diego. He introduced me to a bunch of other technologist that he wanted to hire to build the team which we did. He introduced me to a graphic designer and artist who is still with us today to be the brand steward. He is a tremendously creative person. That gave us a team of six people. We had massive domain expertise in our key sectors.

Sramana: How long did it take you to deliver a first product?

Larry Goldenhersh: We opened the doors formally in March of 2000. In July of 2000, Winston Hickox, the Secretary of the CalEPA at the time, issued a press release congratulating us for having filed the first electronic compliance form in the history of California. In three and a half months I was able to get to the technologies czar of the California administration, introduce the concept of using the Internet for data collection. That individual introduced me to the CalEPA, which sent me to the regional director of storm water, who agreed to let me file the first storm water discharge report online. We built a little system that achieved that filing in four months.

Sramana: What you are talking about is a minimum viable product. What was involved in that product, and how did you define it?

Larry Goldenhersh: It is a minimal viable product as well as a credible stick in the ground. We had deep domain expertise in air, water and waste. Storm water is part of water reporting, so I sat our domain expert down with the individual who is responsible for the statewide reporting system. They developed the requirements that needed to be met in order for regulated entities to file the data that the state wanted to collect in electronic form.

Sramana: Did the specs come from your internal domain expertise?

Larry Goldenhersh: They came from the regulators since they were the ones receiving a report that had specificity driven by regulation. You could look at the paper report any time and see what needs to be on the report, but there is a lot happening behind those numbers. We understood the deliverable and the science behind producing credible deliverables. We had the technical expertise to honor our promise to deliver an electronic filing in three months, which we did.

This segment is part 4 in the series : Domain Knowledge Wins: Larry Goldenhersh, CEO of Enviance
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