Handling Logistics for E-Commerce Vendors: Maria Haggerty, COO, and Bill Follett, CEO – Dotcom Logistics (Part 1)

Maria Haggerty and Bill Follett are the founders of Dotcom Logistics, the premier distribution partner for dot-com businesses. The company was founded in 1999 when online distribution was a significant challenge. Maria is a graduate of the University of Houston and spent five years at Arthur Andersen prior to founding Dotcom Logistics. Bill is a graduate of the Wharton School of Business and worked at GoodTime Home Video prior to founding Dotcom Logistics.

Sramana: Let’s start with a bit of your personal backgrounds. Where are you from, and what was your career journey like before Dotcom Logistics?

Bill Follet: I was born in Rye, New York. I have not gotten very far in life because I still live here. I left for 20 years and then returned. I graduated from the Wharton School [at the University of Pennsylvania] and have spent most of my business career in New York. I have been deeply involved in video distribution and I have been fortunate enough to learn about distribution and fulfillment in the video industry.

Maria Haggerty: I am the president, COO and CFO of Dotcom Logistics. I was born and raised in New York and have lived here my entire life, with exception of eight years I spent in Houston. I grew up in Long Island and went to the University of Houston. I graduated with a degree in business and immediately went to work for Arthur Andersen in the Houston office. I moved to New York after five years to be closer to my family when my daughter was born. I then started working with a client, GoodTimes Home Video, where I served as the controller and CFO. That is where Bill and I met. We did distribution, production, and had a lot of content. We had a good background in the manufacturing and content creation side of that business as well as licensing and distribution.

The owners wanted to sell GoodTimes, and we initially intended to buy the company. We went out and raised money, and later when the owners of GoodTimes decided they could get more money for the company, they pulled the deal from us. Bill and I then decided that we could take the distribution piece of this. We put together a business plan and raised some money.

Sramana: What year was that?

Maria Haggerty: That was in 1999. We put together the business plan and closed our first transaction from a series of angel investors on December 30 of that year. We like to say that we started the company at the turn of the century.

Sramana: What did you intend to do with this company when you raised the money to get it started?

Maria Haggerty: Our initial goal was to be the premier distribution company for companies starting on the Internet. In 1999 the Internet was really in its infancy. People were starting to buy things online, and distribution was a challenge. That was the first year that Toys ‘R Us did not get their toys out on time. Bill and I saw that as the opportunity for our company because we knew distribution very well. We were delivering 50,000 orders per day for Richard Simmons [exercise] videos sold through infomercials.

This segment is part 1 in the series : Handling Logistics for E-Commerce Vendors: Maria Haggerty, COO, and Bill Follett, CEO - Dotcom Logistics
1 2 3 4 5 6 7