Have Faith in Your Vision and Have a Mission to Succeed … Go Innovate
Have Faith in Your Vision and Have a Mission to Succeed
Go Innovate
At the present time, it is often difficult for those in tech to get investment, but there are still some companies who are flying high. And, so, this week has been a good week, and where our spin-out company (Cyacomb) received new investment [here]:
From the days of defining the research problem to their growth around the world, we can now just sit back and watch as our fledglings become might eagles. Overall, Cyacomb was our third of four successful spin-outs, where Zonefox was acquired in 2018 and Symphonic in 2020. It is our hope that Cyacomb will become a tech unicorn in Scotland, but it may get pick-off for acquisition before it can get there. I suppose that’s the problem with innovation .. can you run fast enough so that you are not picked off at an early stage?
Running faster … cisco
One company that ran so fast was Cisco. They began with Len Bosack and Sandy Lerner at Stanford University creating the first router in the early 1980s. While ARPNET had shown the potential of the packet-switched network, BBN failed to advance their IMP (Interface Message Processor) devices to encapsulate the TCP/IP protocol (as outlined by Vint Cerf). Stanford University also failed to see the potential of the router, and it was left to Len and Sandy to start up their own company: cisco Systems. Around the same time, the university Univesity also did not see the potential of SUN (Stanford University Network), which became Sun Microsystems.
In fact, Cisco was initially named cisco, which used a lowercase ‘c’ at the start (just as in San Francisco), and where Len designed the original Cisco logo based on the Golden Gate Bridge.
Overall, 75 Venture Capital companies then rejected cisco, and finally, Don Valentine provided $2.5 million. In fact, it was never actually required as the money just flowed in. The $2.5 million investment soon was worth $10 billion when they were floated. The company grew from there with a key focus on TCP/IP, and in creating routers and switches — and replaced “No one ever got sacked in buying IBM” with “No one ever got sacked in buying Cisco”.
But, when you become large, you lose the innovative spirit, and everything becomes focused on processes and procedures, and then the bureaucracy kicks in. Xerox is a perfect example of this, and where their R&D lab created Ethernet, the mouse, the GUI, and many other things, but they failed to take it forward. And, Bell Labs invented the transistor, but it was left to others to advance it.
Cisco, perhaps, did not see the rise of cybersecurity and was late to the market — but has now caught up. And they missed the SIEM/SOC market but are now back with the acquisition of Splunk. It is always a worry, though, when a company, rather than innovating new ideas, has to rely on aquistions to keep it ahead in the market.
And, so, Cisco provides a road map of the development of a company, and where they were just so far ahead of everyone in the market and had the vision and expertise to take them there. But, as they grew, they missed markets.
Conclusions
So go innovate and disrupt. These days you are likely to need significant investment as you are competing with companies which have R&D budgets that are measured in the billions of dollars. But, vision and a mission to succeed will take you there. BBN had the chance to be as mighty as cisco, but they lost their way … not through a lack of technical leadership, but a lack of business strategy and vision.
And my message for investors? Please help our next generation of ideas, as there may be a cisco or Sun Microsystems amongst them. Get onto university campuses and/or go along to Meetups — and see the true disruptors and support those who will lead our future.
Postscript
Universities are great places to find amazing talent and the latest ideas, so get involved, and go parter with an academic team. For us, if you want to partner, we have co-funded PhD students and which could invent the future. If you are interested, please contact me.