Darik Volpa, Founder & CEO Understand.com

What kind of person works up to 60 hours a week for nearly a decade to reach the peak of his profession, and then packs it all in ... for an idea? Someone like Darik Volpa, who climbed from an entry-level position out of college to become global marketing manager for Stryker Corporation, a $4 billion orthopedic device manufacturer.

Volpa’s previous job took him to doctors’ offices, where he watched overworked surgeons and confused patients trying to communicate. Many patients were scared and bewildered as they approached surgery, and physicians, often overwhelmed with demands on their time, were unable to communicate clearly what the surgeries would entail.

Patients were being sent home with pamphlets and brochures that did little to allay their fears, nor did they help them better understand the whole process. Volpa thought there had to be a better solution beyond jargon-laden marketing collateral.

While he was thinking of these solutions, Volpa realized he was getting burned out with his position at Stryker, where he had worked for nine years.

“I didn’t enjoy my job for the first time in my life,” he says. “I started looking at the clock. I didn’t have that passion. That kind of unrest, coupled with an opportunity I had seen, was kind of the perfect storm.”

So, in 2003, Volpa liquidated his savings and stock options, sold his home in Boston, Mass., and moved to Reno to start Understand.com, a company that creates online healthcare content for physicians to use in patient education. Volpa, who grew up in Fresno, was confident his business would immediately take off.

But, by the end of 2003, he had just seven customers for his medical education tools. It was gut-check time. Volpa kept his nerve and worked to make his products better.

Worldwide customers

In February 2004, he found the catalyst he needed to grow his business when his former employer, Stryker, became his first major client. Today, Understand.com is in its third year of triple-digit growth, with 2007 sales projected at nearly $5 million. Its clients include more than 1,000 surgeons worldwide, along with companies such as GE, Johnson & Johnson and Allergan. Volpa, who picked Reno for its tax benefits and proximity to Tahoe and California, is confident his company can pick up “a nice slice” of the $12 billion he says healthcare and pharmaceutical companies spend marketing to and educating patients.

“Business is booming, great things are happening,” he says. “In regards to the next step for the company, we recently presented at the Silver and Gold Venture Capital Conference in Reno and won best of show. That has opened up a lot of doors.”

For Volpa, the question now is: whether to ramp up the business through raising funds or to continue to grow organically?

“We are unique in the sense that we are a startup in many ways, but we’ve been in business for three years; we are profitable,” he says. “How big do I see us getting? As time progresses, if you stub your toe, if you get the flu, if you have a heart attack — if you think about a healthcare disease, condition or procedure, I want you to think of Understand.com.”

Currently, Understand.com has products in two key healthcare specialties: orthopedics and plastic surgery. But Volpa says there are at least 50 other specialties the company could branch into.

“So, it’s just a matter of identifying the right opportunities and taking full advantage of them. To take this company to the next level, we need to execute what we have flawlessly. We can’t fumble the ball here, and we’re not going to.”

Not all Volpa’s challenges are of the business variety. He has two daughters, one who is 2-1⁄2 and the newest who is 3 months old. On this particular day, he’d had a 2:30 a.m. feeding.

“I started thinking about work and couldn’t go back to sleep, so I came in to work at four in the morning,” he says. “Which is why I have the Red Bull back there,” he says with a laugh.

Judges comments: “Darik has overcome great adversity through start-up and has been up against gigantic competition. His company has filled a unique niche and he has stuck with it.”