Yesterday I was reading an article offering tips to entrepreneurs who want to grow their startup companies while maintaining ownership of their equity. The article, entitled “Who needs VC Money? Not this profitable startup,” was written by Ryan Shank, co-founder and COO of Mhelpdesk, who opted to focus his company’s limited resources on product development and customer service rather than vying for venture capital.
Shanks’ success in growing his business without venture capital brought to mind one of our agency’s newest clients, Summit Imaging. Like Mhelpdesk, Summit Imaging has experienced significant growth without taking the traditional path of pursuing outside investment. Another similarity between the two companies is an uncompromising dedication to delivering the best quality customer service and a reliance on satisfied customers to help champion the company through word of mouth recommendations.
Summit Imaging is a privately owned ultrasound medical equipment support company that just last month was driven to relocate its headquarters to a 32,000 square-foot facility in Woodinville, Washington. The move marked the company’s fourth relocation due to growth in the past eight years, and while this growth is certainly inspiring, it’s how the company has grown that I find really interesting.
Summit Imaging has grown from an operation of one in 2006, to a profitable and innovative 34-person operation today. It was surprising to learn that with such consistent growth over the years, the company does not have a dedicated sales and marketing team. Rather, Summit Imaging’s success has been realized through positive word of mouth and referrals from customers.
Like so many entrepreneurs before him, Larry Nguyen built his small business out of a humble garage. The solo engineer began refurbishing and selling parts for ultrasound systems and quickly came to realize that there was a growing market for his services. Almost immediately, he invested in further developing skills that would allow him to repair complicated devices down to the component level. This expertise, along with an equally important decision to develop an error database in order to achieve unparalleled customer satisfaction, soon resulted in a reputation for outstanding quality and customer support.
Modeling itself after “urgent care” in the medical field, Summit Imaging strives to offer customers the fastest turnaround times for customer support, rapid repair and parts replacement. The company offers an innovative and highly efficient end-to-end customer service process that minimizes costly downtime and aims to exceed the expectations of biomedical engineers who are responsible for servicing equipment from a variety of manufacturers, and hospital administrators at every point of contact.
Nguyen’s emphasis on core values including innovation, reliability, outstanding quality and customer satisfaction has paid off with word of mouth referrals that have grown Summit Imaging into what it is today: a profitable operation with a 60 percent growth rate year-over-year and a 93 percent customer-retention rate.
Not one to rest on his laurels, Nguyen’s next mission for Summit Imaging is to set a new industry standard for supporting and repairing ultrasound equipment, wherein no matter which company a hospital works with, it will receive the highest quality customer service, minimizing downtimes for healthcare providers and patients, alike. Ambitious? Indeed. But ambition is one of an entrepreneur’s strongest qualities, and given Nguyen’s track record, I’m inclined to believe that he and his highly-trained team at Summit Imaging are well-positioned to inspire others in the industry.
For more about lean startup strategies, see Shank’s article in The Upstart Business Journal . For thoughts on PR’s role in relation to startup business, see “PR and the Lean Start-Up,” or “When Should a Start-up Business Hire a PR Firm?” on the Communiqué PR blog.