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HOT TOPICS
- The Accelerator Conundrum
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- Platform as a Service
- Man and Superman
- Web 3.0 = (4C + P + VS)
- The Future: End of Capitalism
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Paul Cook
Lessons for CleanTech Entrepreneurs: Raychem CEO Paul Cook (Part 12)
SM: Do you wish Raychem was around as an independent company today? PC: Yes, yes I do. SM: Why did you make the choices you did regarding Raychem? PC: I made the decision to retire at 66 because I believe the CEO has to be young and vigorous. When I retired I decided the best
Lessons for CleanTech Entrepreneurs: Raychem CEO Paul Cook (Part 11)
SM: When it comes to selling, what kinds of customers do you look to sell to? PC: In our business it was all industrial customers, we didn’t have any consumer products. SM: When you are looking at a customer’s problem and finding solutions, you are essentially selling concepts. You don’t always have the product ready
Lessons for CleanTech Entrepreneurs: Raychem CEO Paul Cook (Part 10)
SM: We talked about the organization, pricing strategy and how to scope out the technology and market. Anything else? PC: The other principle I think is critical is to hire outstanding people. That is the absolute key; those are the people who are going to make it. You have to spend time recruiting the best
Lessons for CleanTech Entrepreneurs: Raychem CEO Paul Cook (Part 9)
SM: The core research remains with the central development team? PC: The basic technology is being developed by a research group which is trying to solve problems for the divisions. The divisions in turn focus on solving the customer’s problem. The sales problem is typical sales except you have to learn what the customer’s problems
Lessons for CleanTech Entrepreneurs: Raychem CEO Paul Cook (Part 8)
SM: So, for a startup, the cleaning up of the dirty energy is a more viable problem to solve for the next 50 years. If you were running a company which was going to go after that market, what process would you follow? PC: First you have to figure out what you can do that
Lessons for CleanTech Entrepreneurs: Raychem CEO Paul Cook (Part 7)
SM: When you look around today, around us here in the Valley, are you involved in any of these clean tech / energy companies? PC: I have some friends who are involved in the clean tech, and that is interesting. I love and follow carefully the development of clean energy, or cleaning up dirty energy
Lessons for CleanTech Entrepreneurs: Raychem CEO Paul Cook (Part 6)
SM: You were dealing with this constantly at Raychem, right? You were bringing new products to market, you identified the markets well, but how did you bridge the technology development and the market? Take for example the first five products you mentioned; three worked and two failed – over the larger scope of Raychem what
Lessons for CleanTech Entrepreneurs: Raychem CEO Paul Cook (Part 5)
SM: Can you walk me through the process behind the thinking? Was it the problem regarding the weight of the wire which came first, or did you have a technical solution first? PC: You have to know the market, and I knew the market. I knew that if we could make a light weight wire
