Where great stories in the audio visual industry go, I have to say that I consider this among the best I have personally been involved with. As a sales person whose career in AV and computers began in the early 90’s, and whose experiences mirrored some of what I read in an article I recently found on LinkedIn, I was determined to not only find out more, but to talk to the man himself who wrote it. And I have to admit how very lucky I was to have gotten this opportunity to do so.

Jeff Rodman with the Radio Shack book “Building Speaker Enclosures.”

Entitled “How I Founded a $2 Billion Company with a 95 Cent Book from RadioShack,” Jeff Rodman, Co-Founder/Chief Technical Evangelist at Polycom talks about a day in 1991 that ultimately changed his life with a purchase of a book at that once famous ultimate electronics store, or as he called it an “inspirational stomping ground,” that led to the creation of a well-known audio conferencing device and eventually the company we know today as a leader in the UCC industry.

 

The Polycom SoundStation

Watch this short video from October 2015 as Jeff Rodman reflects on his vision past, present and future on Polycom’s 25th anniversary year.

Jeff and I got together to talk about his background, the story of the book and the SoundStation, the video side of Polycom at the time, as well as his thoughts about the present and future of collaboration. Hope you enjoy it.

Source: Wired’s Backchannel How I Founded a $2 Billion Company with a 95 Cent Book from RadioShack.

For more information on Jeff Rodman go here on LinkedIn.