From Mrs. to CEO: Former BYU student has become a successful entrepreneur
In a little more than a decade since she started as an entrepreneur, she has raised more than $50 million in capital for various companies.
She's now chief executive officer of South Jordan-based MediConnect Global Inc., which last year ranked No. 311 among the 500 fastest-growing private companies in America, according to Inc. magazine. Rees Anderson works long hours at her company, whose employees in India and Utah digitize and save medical records. She also balances a family life with her work and is raising two children, ages 15 and 12.
It isn't the life she initially envisioned for herself back when she was attending Brigham Young University.
"I came to BYU to get my 'Mrs.' degree and managed to get that quite quickly," she says. "Typical Utah story."
She was engaged when she was 19, married by the time she was 20, had her first child by age 21, and her second by age 23.
"By the age of 29, I was divorced," she says. "I had two kids and was on my own. It was a scary thing. I had to start over."
And she did: She has gone on to become one of Utah's most notable entrepreneurs. In the past couple of years, she has been recognized as an entrepreneur by Ernst & Young, the Utah Chapter of the Association for Corporate Growth, vSpring Capital and MountainWest Capital Network. She sits on the board of the Governor's Office of Economic Development, Utah Valley University's Woodbury School of Business board, the University of Utah South's Asia Advisory Board, as well as the University of Utah Technology Commercialization board and the Salt Lake Chamber board.
When Rees Anderson was 24, she had two small children and wanted to work from home. She obtained the license to sell and install scheduling and records software in doctors' offices.
"Her entry into the venture world began in her provincial garage," said Tim Layton, managing partner with Sorenson Capital, at a recent gathering for the MountainWest Capital Network's Entrepreneur of the Year award, which Rees Anderson received. "She started with $23,000 and conviction."
As Rees Anderson sold the software, she became frustrated by its limitations. She tried to acquire the rights to change the software, but was unsuccessful, and then hired computer programmers to design a new Web-based software program.
She eventually moved from a house filled with programmers at kitchen tables and living room sofas to their own place after raising $12 million a few years later, Layton said.
She sold the company in 2002.
Rees Anderson says she learned about venture capital through the Internet. While she got her first $23,000 from family, the next round came from "e-blasting" anyone and everyone she found on the Internet. Since then, venture capital has come through networking.
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