“Frankly, I think this is an ideal time for new start-ups to capture significant market share.” Bob Cowan, founder of American Teleconferencing Services, Ltd. (ATS)
The Rich Niche Group blog interviews and enables you to hear directly from successful entrepreneurs and product managers about the steps they took to grow their businesses/products and how they were able to create, penetrate, and/or dominate their niche. This week we interview Bob Cowan:
Interviewee: Bob Cowan, started ATS as a 1st-time entrepreneur.
Why Selected: With no previous business experience, Bob started ATS from scratch by borrowing $35,000 from friends, family and a second mortgage on his house. Defying the odds, he grew the business and sold it, 13 years later, for approximately $60M. I had the pleasure of working with Bob and ATS and I can tell you it was one of the most rewarding and formative times of my career.
In the following interview, Bob provides you with some insights on how he and ATS were able to enter a market dominated by AT&T, carve out their niche and grow the company before selling it to Premiere Global Services (NYSE: PGI) in 1998. During the interview, Bob brought up many relevant points about what it took to start, persevere and grow ATS and three key aspects kept jumping out to me:
1. Focus on solving your prospect’s and client’s pain by constantly talking to them and getting to know their business
2. Continually innovate
3. Get to know your employees as they may have additional talents that can help your clients and your business.
