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Mark Richer Hi tech: A half-life 12-May-2006

Mark Richer Hi tech: A half-life 12-May-2006. Oh dear…. “Nobody knows anything” William Goldman. The numbers. 26 years 1 misspent youth 1m air miles 3 startups founded 1 receivership 1 NASDAQ IPO 1 Cisco acquisition 0 days of work. Care, but not too much. Overview. Cambridge 82-85

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Mark Richer Hi tech: A half-life 12-May-2006

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  1. Mark Richer Hi tech: A half-life 12-May-2006

  2. Oh dear… • “Nobody knows anything”William Goldman

  3. The numbers • 26 years • 1 misspent youth • 1m air miles • 3 startups founded • 1 receivership • 1 NASDAQ IPO • 1 Cisco acquisition • 0 days of work Care, but not too much

  4. Overview • Cambridge 82-85 • 24/20+ • work somehow • Intelligent Software 85 • Madge Networks 86-94 • Calista 95-00 • Codian 02->

  5. Intelligent Software 85 • 6 months programming then… • … a transit van at midnight • Surprisingly, this was good You can’t really tell if something is good or bad until much, much later. So chill.

  6. Madge Networks 86-94 • Token Ring LAN Adapters • 5 people -> peak of 1,500 • NASDAQ IPO in 1993 • Only external financing 3Com in 89 Recruitment. Excellence. Patience.

  7. Madge Networks aside #1 • Early target was to clone IBM • -> we supported IBM PC LAN • -> first customer wanted NetWare… • …and we were useless Don’t argue with the customers.It is normally less work to just fix it.

  8. Madge Networks aside #2 128k DRAM MAC & PHY 9900016-bit μP LAN System Interface PC

  9. Calista 95-00 • Interfacing to proprietary PBXs • 12 people to 4.5 to 25 • 50/50 Partnership and not • Market creation: good or bad? Market creation – just say no

  10. Calista aside • Voice mail interfaces 5/10 • Telecommuting 3/10 or 10/10 • Voice recording interfaces 9/10 Listen to the customers.

  11. Codian 02- • Video Conferencing infrastructure • 12 people to 60 • $0m, $1m, $10m No reruns.

  12. Themes • UK ex-Cambridge R&D • Global Sales • Never be a UK/European company • Start small, think big, believe • Ownership • No market creation • Incremental development • Incremental product lines

  13. Recipe • Team • Product • Quick, cheap α/β • Try to sell • Listen. If near fix; goto 4 else goto 2 • When saleable: recruit sales force, marketing, production etc

  14. Thank you • Whatever you do… shake the world a little and have fun • mark.richer@codian.com • recruitment@codian.com

  15. Thank You

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