Mail-Order Medical Supplier

Bruce M. Rothenberg '84

In 1996 Bruce Rothenberg and his wife, Judy, started a mail-order business providing medical supplies to diabetic patients throughout the United States. To publicize the business, called NetGroup, they bought a scrolling ad on the weather channel in Peoria, Illinois.

It played in Peoria and was soon playing elsewhere. "Nine months later we had three employees and a ton of boxes in our living room," says Rothenberg. Static television ads in local markets and then full-fledged commercials on national satellite channels replaced scrolling weather channel crawlers. The enterprise soon moved out of the house; it's now located in an old post office building the Rothenbergs purchased.

NetGroup addresses the complex, red-tape-bound world of health-care insurance on behalf of patients. "We send supplies to Mrs. Smith and bill her insurance company," Rothenberg explains. When Mrs. Smith calls NetGroup, a friendly voice greets her. "There's no automated 'press this.'"

While the organization is primarily telephone-based, it does have an Internet-sounding name. It was the name that the Rothenbergs had used for their boutique consulting firm for small and medium enterprises back in 1994, to capitalize on the growing 'Net trend. Shortly thereafter, a client called them in to help with a start-up that provided medical supplies to diabetic patients. The Rothenbergs offered to buy the company, but the client refused to show them the books. As there had been no nondisclosure agreement, the Rothenbergs started up their own business along similar lines and found they had brand equity built in to the NetGroup name.

Rothenberg says most of his knowledge comes from his ten-year association with a prominent businessman and philanthropist for whom he began working as a first-year Johnson School intern. On the first day of the internship, Rothenberg's new boss greeted him and told him to sit at the end of the conference table in his office. "I was to listen to his conversations and read his correspondence," says Rothenberg. "There I was, learning from this great entrepreneur with business ventures all over the world."

After graduating, Rothenberg continued to work with the same businessman, turning down a plum position with a premier investment bank. He worked on various business ventures, mostly start-ups, liquidations, and turnarounds, learning the ins and outs of operating small businesses. He put that knowledge to work to realize his personal vision. "Our own business is up and running and growing, and my wife and best friend is my partner," he says. "We always knew we could do it."

In addition, twenty years after graduating from the Johnson School, Rothenberg will have the pleasure of watching his son, Michael, do the same. Active supporters of the Johnson School and Cornell, the Rothenbergs are zealously campaigning for the class of 1984 and expect to break all records for participation and contributions for the class's twentieth reunion.

The family landed in Florida when Rothenberg was brought in by a group of venture capitalists to fix one of its investments. Having lived in twenty-eight different places in the past thirty years, the Rothenbergs decided to settle down. They've now been in Florida for ten years. However, they still like to travel, especially to Ithaca. In addition to visiting their son, daughter-in-law, and grandchild, they come to see the many friends they've made over the years. "I love the Johnson School," says Rothenberg, "and Cornell is one of the world's great institutions."

One thing they don't miss is the central New York weather. "When we rolled into town with a U-Haul holding everything we had on August 20, 1982, it was thirty-two degrees," says Rothenberg. They left Ithaca on June 5, 1984, amidst snow flurries. "Because I'd interned the year before, we'd seen nothing of the summer," he says. "The joke was that it had stayed winter for two whole years."