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HOT TOPICS
- The Accelerator Conundrum
- The Startup Velocity Question
- Platform as a Service
- Man and Superman
- Web 3.0 = (4C + P + VS)
- The Future: End of Capitalism
- Capitalism 2.0
fiber optics
Turn Around Series: Jerry Rawls, Finisar (Part 7)
Dramatic changes in the market had forced major fiber optic giants like Lucent into tough decisions. The market also proved to be volitile and unpredictable. Nortel, in desperation, offered Finisar its optics business. SM: Nortel had interest in survival. JR: Yes. We spent two weeks in Ottawa trying to figure out how we could assume
Turn Around Series: Jerry Rawls, Finisar (Part 6)
A very interesting discussion of the dramatic times during the late 90’s and the early 2000 timeframe. Read on. SM: What were your sales pre-IPO? JR: I think in the ’98 period they were probably $30M. Our fiscal year 2000, which is when we went public, was $67M. In January of 1999 the IPO market
Turn Around Series: Jerry Rawls, Finisar (Part 4)
A key strategic victory for Finisar was facilitating the fiber channel stadard to utilize multimode fiber and shorter wavelengths. Here Jerry discusses how Finisar was able to do this, a feat which leading experts at the time said was impossible.
Turn Around Series: Jerry Rawls, Finisar (Part 3)
To support the company initially, Finisar relied on providing consulting services. It’s a very common way that companies bootstrap themselves. I have done it myself. SM: What kind of Consulting did you provide? Like System Integrators? JR: Well, actually, the first customer would be Raynet themselves, but we would have to get others soon enough.
Turn Around Series: Jerry Rawls, Finisar (Part 2)
After discussing his background, Jerry talks about the decision he and Frank Levinson made to go out on their own and create Finisar. SM: What year does that bring us to, when you left Raychem? JR: That will get us to about 1986 I would guess. In 1986 I was the general manager of a
Online Video Beneficiaries: Introduction
Last night, I started publishing an interview with Jerry Rawls, CoFounder and CEO of Finisar (FNSR), an fiber optics components leader that has gone through tremendous turmoil in its relatively long history. Remember, fiber optics, at one time, was a very hot market. Numerous startups got funded, massive amounts of venture money went down those
