Charlie Crystle is passionate about music, nonprofit institutions and entrepreneurism. He has founded several companies including his current effort, CircleDog. His past ventures include ChiliSoft, which was purchased by Sun. He focuses on product usability, economics and policy, all of which are themes which can be found in each of his successful ventures. SM: Let’s
SM: With 23 people employed, how do you target revenues? PK: My goal is $4 million per employee annually. That is what we have been shooting for long-term as we build things.
SM: What do your IP licensing structures look like? PK: My favorite is to go to someone who is losing a ton of money. We only get paid if we solve their problem. Customers like that because it is a no-risk proposition for them and they clearly know what their problem is.
SM: You can gage a key from power consumption? PK: Yes. This is one of our biggest business areas. At the lowest level you have transistors, which are just voltage-controlled gates.
SM: What kinds of people come to you, and how do they find you? PK: Hiring is our most difficult problem. If I were to pick the thing that most limits us in doing the things we want, it would be finding people who simultaneously meet our three criteria: we want people who are technically
SM: You developed this technology as part of your consulting company’s business model? PK: This is some technology I came up with, and it was not something we were in position to monetize. Chini Krishnan used this technology as the start for Valicert. We started that company.
SM: What was the business model for your new company? PK: It was clear that the consulting model was good for stability, but I like to shake things up. I started putting all the extra money we could into R&D and patents.
Paul founded Cryptography Research, where he now serves as president and chief scientist. He has held positions at RSA Security and was a founding member of Valicert, Inc. (Tumbleweed). Among his notable accomplishments are his work on SSL 3.0, the DES Key Search machine, and discovering timing attacks and Differential Power Analysis. He holds a