In this issue of "The Entrepreneur's Corner", we are proud to bring you EYSB’s interview of ScanCafe’s Founder, Mr. Sam Allen. We hope that you learn as much from him as we did, and we want to thank Sam for sharing with us.  

EYSB: Please tell our members about yourself, as an entrepreneur.  

Sam: I am the CEO and co-founder of ScanCafe.com, the leading analog preservation company in the world.   

I founded the company with three study group mates from the Wharton School of Business.  Prior to attending Wharton, I spent 10 years in the high tech sector in both start ups and Fortune 100 companies such as Cisco Systems.  I started my career as an Officer of US Marines and spent six years on active duty. 

I was compelled to become an entrepreneur because I saw a lot of flaws in big and small companies.  I also wanted to provide a service that helped people – and ScanCafe does just that by restoring cherished memories.  You can read more about the ScanCafe story at www.scancafe.com. 

EYSB: Tell us more about your business.  

Sam: ScanCafe breathes new life into old memories by digitizing and restoring legacy prints, slides and negative film.  The revolutionary service provides the digitized images in a secure image gallery where they can be shared and also provides high resolution files on a DVD. 

ScanCafe provides the capability for people to take their analog archive and update it for the 21^st century digital lifestyle.  My cofounders and I wanted to provide a revolutionary experience and we wanted to make it easy to drag your past life into your digital present.  So we came up with the industry’s only “pay for what you want” model that provides phenomenal freedom of choice.   

Customers simply send us their entire image archive without having to spend entire weekends pre-sorting their imagery.  We scan and restore the images and then place them online in a secure gallery.  The customer then reviews and selects images to keep and discards the ones he or she doesn’t want.  Customers are not required to pay for discarded images.  We believe a service is supposed to be just that – so we want to take the burden of work from the shoulder of the consumer. 

 
EYSB: Please tell us your biggest obstacles that were overcome in the past to "elevate your business"? 

Sam: The biggest obstacle to overcome is the customer fear of releasing irreplaceable images into the hands of others.  We have overcome that by spending millions of dollars on internal control mechanisms.  Our logistics processes are world class and patent pending.  We are fully integrated with the UPS world ship system and every order is bar code driven.  We are the only scanning service to offer any kind of shipping guarantee ($1,000) and we have successfully scanned over 10,000,000 images without losing a single order.  Our track record is unblemished.

EYSB: Who is your target market/ideal client or customer? 

Sam: This is the great thing about our business, but also a challenge.  Our customers range from the 25 year old early tech adopter who is trying to digitize the life of his parents, to the high end professional photographer, to the grandparents that want to insure they preserve their legacy for their grandchildren in a usable and shareable format.

EYSB: How do you currently attract your prospect clients or customers? 

Sam: Mostly through paid search on platforms such as Google and Yahoo.  We also have a robust PR campaign.  Word of mouth is big as well.  We won the CNN-Money Magazine Award for most outstanding scanning service with 4 out of 4 stars.

EYSB: How do you get your customers or clients to come back? 

Sam: We provide such an emotional experience for our customers that getting them to come back is not an issue.  Once we have scanned their entire archive, they are great evangelists to get their extended family and friends to use the service.  We believe that ScanCafe will be a fantastic success through the network effect.

EYSB:  Currently, what is your biggest challenge in taking your business to new heights? 

Sam: As with any consumer business, the challenge is always cost efficient customer acquisition. 

EYSB: How do you balance your personal life with your business life? 

Sam: Tough one – I believe that in order to be successful in any endeavor that you need a strong support system.  Having a healthy and robust family life is critical to having a strong professional career.  I am lucky that my wife is very supportive.  I make small rules such as no work until after the kids are in bed.  It helps quite a bit to have small wins like that.  I do believe that it is your family, not your career, that makes the difference in your life so it is important for entrepreneurs to invest in that space as well. 

EYSB: What do you attribute your business success? 

Sam: Hard, hard, hard work.  Absolute diligence to a strong and focused vision.  Disciplined execution and a fantastic team. 

EYSB: What advice would you offer other business owners to take their business to new heights? 

Sam: Surround yourself with people that are smarter than you and that work harder than you. 

EYSB: What is your essential business philosophy and/or guiding principle? 

Sam: Integrity.  And take care of your customers and employees. 

EYSB: What is your most important lesson learned?   

Sam: Always take responsibility for your actions. 

EYSB: What is your favorite book and/or movie? 

Sam: My favorite books are Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas, and A Bridge Too Far by Cornelius Ryan.  My favorite movies are beyond counting. 

EYSB: Who are your heroes today? Who were your heroes when you were growing up?  

Sam: Of course I am biased but men and women who lay their lives on the line every day in defense of our way of life have always been my heroes.  They are the reason I became a US Marine.  My heroes are also people who stand up to do what is right. 

EYSB: When you look back on your life, what one experience do you say “changed” your life and why?   

Sam: Bootcamp, US Marines, 1988.  It turned me from an uncertain and weak boy into a strong willed and resilient young man with a clear vision. 

EYSB: What has been your best business decision? 

Sam: Starting my own company. 

EYSB: What has been your worst business decision? 

Sam: Starting my own company.  Just kidding – my worst business decision was making a key hire without conducting enough back door reference checks.  It turned out to be a huge mistake that had adverse downstream impacts. 

EYSB: Is there anything else you’d like to add? 

Sam: Enjoy life’s challenges.  And define the moment, don’t let the moment define you. 

Once again, we’d like to thank Mr. Allen for his self-less insight. We know that we learned a lot from him, and hope that you have received some great ideas that you can incorporate into your life and your business. 

If you’d like to be featured in future issues of "The Entrepreneur's Corner" or if you know of someone that you believe that should be featured, you may apply by emailing us at PaulAndCharles@MerchantSupport.com.  

Thank you.