Stories indexed with the term ‘HealthMedia’

Health Media CEO: “Don’t Ever Give Up!”

Ted Dacko

Ted Dacko, CEO of HealthMedia, was named the 2008 Entrepreneur of the Year at the New Enterprise Forum's annual awards event Thursday night.

HealthMedia, says Ted Dacko, is “a company that shouldn’t be here.”

Just a few years ago, the Ann Arbor firm was left for dead. They had 85 employees, a burn rate of $685,000 a month, and very little revenue. Venture capital funding had dried up. Dacko was working there as vice president of sales and marketing when the previous CEO quit – two weeks before the firm would literally run out of money.

The board asked Dacko if he wanted the job. If he took it, he had two choices: Make a go of it, or lock the doors.

If you know the rest of the story, you know why Dacko was honored Thursday night with the New Enterprise Forum‘s Entrepreneur of the Year award. [Full Story]

Live at PJ’s: It’s HealthMedia!

HealthMedia got a boost in its nascent stages from a handshake deal.

HealthMedia got a boost in its nascent stages from a handshake understanding.

If you’ve just described your company as “the coolest damn company in the world,” how do you announce to your 150 employees – 95% of whom are shareholders – that the company has been acquired by Johnson & Johnson? If you’re Ted Dacko, president of HealthMedia, you take advantage of the venue you’ve selected for the mid-afternoon announcement. You’re at a nightclub with an excellent AV system (Live at PJ’s), so you cue up the company movie.

As the fast-paced … [Full Story]