Making Something From Nothing: Scott Carson Of Powered by MRP On How To Go From Idea To Launch

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Be bold and proud — Don’t apologize or cower when changing the world. There is no higher calling than making dents in the universe. Continue to work hard and forge the path for change.

As a part of our series called “Making Something From Nothing”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Scott Carson.

With more than three decades of leadership in healthcare marketing and business development, Scott Carson continues to be a visionary. He is passionate about disrupting the industry’s trajectory by focusing on bringing efficiency to supply chains through true transparency and trust.

As part of the team that built Ebay’s healthcare marketplace, he was also the founder of US Medical, Inc, the first online distributor of new and pre-owned capital medical equipment. Named as a 2x finalist to Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year Award, Carson’s other awards span over three decades, including the Entrepreneur Hot 100, The Inc. 500, as well as being named a Micro-Enterprise Hall of Fame recipient and has been featured at the “Great Entrepreneur Speaker Series.”

Known for taking healthcare companies from small to extraordinary, his reputation, drive, and business acumen are well-known in healthcare and beyond. His most recent company, mrp.io, empowers aesthetic professionals to run their practices more profitably and efficiently.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a bit about your “childhood backstory”?

I was born in Glendale, CA, a suburb of Los Angeles. My father was an LA Mad Man, and my mother was immersed in the California arts and music scene in the ’60s. While in California, my mother showed me all that the beautiful state had to offer. I spent much of my time at museums, beaches, going to the Dodgers and Rams games, etc. My summers, however, were spent in the mountains of Colorado (where my parents were raised) fishing, hiking, and watching my father and grandfather drink snakebite medicine. My love for nature was developed in my youth through those experiences and ultimately led me to operate Powered by MRP out of Park City, UT. I have raised four wonderful children here with my beautiful wife and couldn’t be happier.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

I can’t pick between my two favorites, so I’ll share both.

• “Success has many fathers, but failure is an orphan.”
• “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

In moments of defeat, you may feel desperately alone. You may not see the reasons you needed to learn that lesson. Defeats are simply lessons for the next obstacle. No matter how difficult the situation you are in — it’s always been my truth. When you fail, it’s simply that you needed to be redirected or taught something new.

Is there a particular book, podcast, or film that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?

Patrick Henry Hansen’s book “The DNA Selling Method.” Nothing matters more to customers than solving their problems. This book helped teach me that you can change the world when you solve a customer’s problem with your matched solution.

Ok super. Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion. There is no shortage of good ideas out there. Many people have good ideas all the time. But people seem to struggle in taking a good idea and translating it into an actual business. Can you share a few ideas from your experience about how to overcome this challenge?

While good ideas are the start of a business, I believe it’s the work ethic and determination that translate into the success of a business. Grit and grind 24/7 is bound to set you apart from other good ideas and businesses, so just keep at it.

Often when people think of a new idea, they dismiss it saying someone else must have thought of it before. How would you recommend that someone go about researching whether or not their idea has already been created?

There are very few original ideas out there nowadays. I think the research should fall in taking an idea or concept and repositioning it to fit the puzzle or solve a problem in an ever changing and emerging world.

For the benefit of our readers, can you outline the steps one has to go through, from when they think of the idea, until it finally lands in a customer’s hands? In particular, we’d love to hear about how to file a patent, how to source a good manufacturer, and how to find a retailer to distribute it.

Much of this process is learning how not to micromanage. Employees and team members will come to a company with skills you desire and skills to refine. The environment of taking an idea to execution needs to be to micro-coach through the good and bad. I have found this to be true for any contractor and vendor. To get a rocket off of its launch pad, the one leading needs to be the coach and show leadership, and be a fully vested player in the game.

What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Started Leading My Company” and why? (Please share a story or example for each.)

1. It is so, so hard — No one prepared me for how difficult it would be. All the obstacles you would face from staffing to implementation.

2. Don’t quit. Ever. — The reward of creating something that is so much bigger than you outweighs any difficulty I’ve faced when starting Powered by MRP.

3. There are haters everywhere- often right next to you. — Everything that is happening outside of your control is just noise. Stay humble and focused.

4. Be nice always — Kindness is the best policy for just about everything. A smile or kind words can go so far in the world of business.

5. Be bold and proud — Don’t apologize or cower when changing the world. There is no higher calling than making dents in the universe. Continue to work hard and forge the path for change.

Let’s imagine that a reader reading this interview has an idea for a product that they would like to invent. What are the first few steps that you would recommend that they take?

Plan or map the process out as far as you can. Don’t focus so much on the logistics of the business plan but create a road map. Sticky Notes have created some of my best business plans or ideas for myself and my company. It gives you a space to dump your ideas down, and the details can get sorted out later.

There are many invention development consultants. Would you recommend that a person with a new idea hire such a consultant, or should they try to strike out on their own?

Consultants should be used like designated hitters in baseball. When you have a short- or medium-term need, put them in the game to change the trajectory. They may strike out, but once in a while, they will hit a home run. Most often, though, they will get you on a base which is exactly what you want.

What are your thoughts about bootstrapping vs looking for venture capital? What is the best way to decide if you should do either one?

From my personal experience, I believe bootstrapping is always the way to go. Protect your equity like it’s your heart.

Ok. We are nearly done. Here are our final questions. How have you used your success to make the world a better place?

There is no other way to use success, in my opinion, than to change lives and make the world a better place. At MRP, we are modifying and creating a fair market for physicians to access biomedical energy-based devices at GPO- level pricing to lower physicians’ overhead costs. This in turn is generating more access to care for patients which has always been the goal of Powered by MRP. The healthcare supply chains are riddled with huge profit margins driven by a lack of transparency and greed. We want to change all of that. We have a life-changing philosophy at our core by increasing access to patient care.

You are an inspiration to a great many people. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.

I believe what we are doing at Powered by MRP is just that — the start of a movement. Our mission is to change the way products and services are distributed in healthcare clinics. Our marketplace provides a space for ethical business practices to transpire and open and honest conversations about products and devices. This enables patients to receive the best energy-based device experience possible. MRP is dedicated to lowering the cost for clinicians and increasing the quality and access to healthcare for all.

We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US, with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.

Rather than spend my time with someone who has already proven to be successful, I would rather sit down with a new founder. Listening and helping create a path for change is an essential way of giving back once you’ve proven to be successful at something. I hope to continue to do just that!

Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.