Last year, when I interviewed Jerry Rawls, CEO of Finisar, he shared with me Finisar’s strategy going forward: “The biggest new thing for us is our exposure in the telecommunications market. In the early days we did not want to enter that market because it was dominated by AT&T, Lucent, Nortel, but none of those
My new Forbes column Bootstrap Yourself highlights Silicon Valley’s hottest new trend, Bootstrapping. Great bootstrapping case studies I have covered are Sridhar Vembu, Frank Levinson and Jerry Rawls, Cree Lawson, and Beatrice Tarka. Sridhar, Frank and Jerry did it almost without any outside money, while Cree and Beatrice have done it with very small rounds
By Frank Levinson, Guest Author [Frank Levinson shares his experience bootstrapping Finisar, which became a public company later. Last year, we spoke with Jerry Rawls about Finisar’s Turnaround story, also a worthwhile read.]
Over the last few months, I have done a series of interviews with leaders – CEOs, Entrepreneurs, Innovators, Technologists, Academics, and Social Entrepreneurs – which offer insights to young and old alike about key choices – in business, in career, in life. * Jerry Rawls, CoFounder & CEO of Finisar * Philippe Courtot, Founder and
In the conclusion of the interview, I find it very interesting how Jerry was able to remain motivated and energized throughout the entire process, even after he had made (as Frank calls it) ridiculous amounts of money. SM: That sounds like a great story, congratulations for being able to navigate your ship through all of
Here we see some of the philosophical lessons learned by Jerry throughout this entire process. Words of wisdom if you will. SM: This is a great, great story. Personally what is your philosophical analysis or gains out of this experience? You have gone up and down and hit highs and lows, what is your take
Jerry now discusses the future of Finisar, given the altered landscape. JDSU just bought Picolight, a leading designer and manufacturer of optical pluggable transceivers for $125 Million. Infinera, which integrates optical and electronic functions in its proprietary InP-based photonic ICs, intends to raise $150 million through an IPO filed on February 26, 2007. The number
After undertaking significant changes, cost cutting and other strategic moves, Finisar has emerged as a company poised for increased market growth. SM: And your stock went from under a dollar to quite a bit higher now? JR: Our stock is quite volatile, and always has been. It went from less than a dollar to, I