A conversation with Michael Ricciardi, Co-Founder/Managing Partner, Innovare Medical Media.
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Q: What was your path to Innovare?
Prior to co-founding Innovare Medical Media, I held various roles at Pfizer across sales, training, and marketing. Through a mutual friend, I was introduced to my now business partners, Mark, and Nick Lieberman.
Mark and his family owned and operated Interspace Airport Advertising, an airport media services company, which had concessions in over
200 airports worldwide – with about 150 airports here in North America and the rest positioned throughout Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and Central America. Interspace was a successful small media business and was sold to Clear Channel in 2006. Mark had stayed on for a few years, and meanwhile as I was finishing up my MBA and looking to explore new opportunities, our paths crossed.
A mutual friend introduced me to Mark and his son, Nick. They were looking to utilize the successful proprietary airport media model in another sector. Even though we didn’t previously know each other, we had similar interests and backgrounds. We began to pursue opportunities within the healthcare space (Hospital Placed Media) and in 2010, we started Innovare Medical Media (Innovare).
Q: What has driven your recent company success?
When we started in 2010, the initial months were extremely challenging. This entrepreneurial concept was new to hospitals. Nick and I were seeking to find the first hospital to give Innovare a chance and help pioneer this platform. In the beginning there were only three of us and Hospital Placed Media didn’t really exist, but in March of 2011, Winthrop-University Hospital in NY (now NYU Langone Hospital – Long Island) became Innovare’s first hospital partner. Two hospitals chose to partner with Innovare in 2011, then we grew to add five in 2012, slowly growing to 20 in 2013, paving the way to what is now 165 hospital partners and more than 400 digital screens across the country.