SM: The day 9/11 happened I was at your office working on a consulting engagement. That seemed like the worst time in history. You did the whole Net6 story in the middle of that crazy time. MT: The more I think about it, in one sense it was. We started the company after the dot
Since the last catching up list on April 26, you may have accumulated more backlog. What’s with the Yahoo-Microsoft frenzy? Here’s a quick cache of the articles since then that you may want to make sure you read:
SM: What year did you sell? MT: We sold it in 2005. Today the business is number two in revenue behind Juniper in the SSL VPN market. When we started we were probably the 30th company to enter that space. We were definitely not early to market, we were very late to the market. However,
My new Forbes column, Hydro-Alchemy, discusses the world’s upcoming water crisis and an entrepreneurial venture, Energy Recovery Inc., that is tackling the problem with a Sea Water Reverse Osmosis technology for water desalination. You may have read my interview with Hans Peter Michelet last year. ERI has recently filed to go public.
SM: What was the idea of Net6. MT: The original premise is very straight forward. We launched during the peak of the dot com boom. Back then it was all about grabbing eyeballs, and the next class of eyeballs to be grabbed was mobile eyeballs. Most companies founded in that timeframe focused on building middleware.
TiEcon 2008 is coming up, and one of the programs they offer for entrepreneurs looking for funding is EBazaar.
Timing is an essential aspect of any successful venture. Attempt to launch the venture too soon and the market may not exist or be mature enough to sustain your venture. Enter the market too late and you are bound to be fighting competition. Murli Thirumale has repeatedly brought high technology to the market, and recounts
SM: You have market potential to build a pretty big business. Is that what you want to do? FW: I want to build a profitable and sustainable business. We do not want to grow too fast. Our strategy is to have the right technology, the right architecture and the right product mix in the right