Dave Morin: Starting Cielo Med Solutions

Cielo Med Solutions focused on the small to midsize primary healthcare facilities, realizing this important and apparently underfilled niche market. Cielo is also effectively using the most powerful form of marketing, word of mouth, and from what Morin says it seems to be paying off. I feel that the presentation of the slides, during the interview helped us watching see exactly what you were trying to explain about the healthcare file management system. Mike Sullivan Eastern Michigan University

David Morin has presented a very compelling story given his layoff situation. He took it upon himself to achieve success through his entrepreneurial spirit and careful selection of his friend Jim Price. It was interesting to see how David was able to analyze the health care field in terms software for electronic medical records and focus his efforts on primary care medicine. Although many companies already existed in the industry, he was able to find the "white space", which was the small to mid-sized doctors that were essentially being ignored at the time. It seems like the best move David ever made was speaking with the U of M tech transfer, which supplied him with the technology he had been looking for. I believe another smart move was selling to health systems which allowed the company to avoid costly door to door sales. In addition, they were able to sell to health care clinics who were already utilizing an EMR system since Cielo was able to work in collaboration with those existing systems. In conclusion, I feel David found a space in the industry, built a company to for fill that space and executed what needed to be done in order to be successful. - James Godre

Mr. Morin’s story of how his company, Cielo Med Solutions, came to be starts where many entrepreneurial ventures begin: he was laid off of his full-time job. He got together with his friend, Jim Price, and they decided to team up to create a company. They found a product that had initially been created by three doctors to help their small office track Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) for their patients. The new product, named Clinfotracker, was developed under a grant through the University of Michigan Health System. After the product was developed, the grant expired, and the University of Michigan was ready to sell the product to someone to develop and market. This was the opportunity Mr. Morin had been looking for. He and his partner researched the market to see if this was something they would be able to sell and found that the customers they would be selling to, small to mid-sized physician offices, was being ignored by the large EMR developers. These large EMR developers were focusing their business on the large health systems; their product was not suitable for small physician offices. In March, 2006, Mr. Morin and his partner purchased the product from the University of Michigan and licensed the product. They renamed the product Cielo Med Solutions and started showing it to doctors. They had some doctors try the product to see if there were any changes that needed to be made before releasing it to the public. They quickly learned there was a market for the product, and they needed to find a way to sell the product that didn’t involve going door-to-door to sell to each doctor individually, which would have made the cost of selling the product so much that the company would never become profitable. They found that doctors belong to one or more medical associations, which research products and solutions and make recommendations to their members. Once Cielo Med Solutions began marketing to these associations, their business took off. Mr. Morin states that Cielo Med Solutions works in the small physician’s office, and it complements the large EMRs large medical systems use. The first adopter of the system was St. John’s Health System. Mr. Morin’s story is very inspiring. He was looking for work…and found an opportunity. I usually think of entrepreneurs taking their own idea and then marketing that idea. But Mr. Morin took someone else’s idea and product, purchased it, and developed a company. By his innovative approach, he was able to help doctors meet their EMR needs, while also meeting his own needs. Mr. Morin used a systematic plan of starting up his business. He followed the plan step by step, which enabled him to start a successful new company. The plan started with the idea to start a new company. Research was next. Then more research. And more research. Then purchasing the rights to the product, and developing the marketing plan. Mr. Morin was taking huge risks, but he was in control the whole time. He does not seem like a huge risk-taker, and his research and sticking to his organized plan kept him focused and prevented him from taking unnecessary risks. At any time, he could have pulled back and gone looking for some other venture. I think his example of a rational plan is what all entrepreneurs should consider before starting their own new company. I imagine Mr. Morin would tell us how much more he enjoys working for himself rather than working for his previous employer. I am sure he has more stress than he had working for someone else. That stress and his accomplishments, though, are what also empower him and give him wonderful feelings about himself. He is living the entrepreneurial dream.