Sramana Mitra: By the time you went to VCs, you had proof of concept, plenty of customer feedback, and you were a proven quantity as far as the VCs are concerned. I imagine raising money was not very difficult. Ron Bianchini: Right. I loved our Series A round. We basically went back to Menlo and
Ron Bianchini: Because of the incredible offload ratio, we’re able to build a clustering flash-based product that gives you some incredible performance levels. You can put that in front of a disk-based product, ideally a clustering disk-based product, and build out a system that gets the performance of flash with the cost point of disk. Sramana Mitra:
Sramana Mitra: So in 2004, you sold to NetApp. Did you work for NetApp? Ron Bianchini: I did. Sramana Mitra: For how long? Ron Bianchini: As part of the acquisition, we all had two-year golden handcuffs, but I stayed for four years. Sramana Mitra: To work for NetApp, did you have to move to Silicon
Sramana Mitra: That’s good. John Jarve is also an MIT grad by the way. Ron Bianchini: I know. Have you met him? Sramana Mitra: Yes, several times. Ron Bianchini: He’s on my Board in my third company now. Sramana Mitra: You raised a lot of money for Spinnaker. How long did it take you to
Sramana Mitra: So this is the story of your first company. What happens next? Ron Bianchini: I stayed at FORE for about four years. In three years’ time, we were acquired by Marconi Communications. They acquired us and I stayed there another year. In 2000, I left. Having been a professor in the past, intellectual distance
Sramana Mitra: We can go on and on about Computer Science, but what did you do after Carnegie Mellon? Ron Bianchini: I graduated in 1989. They asked me to stay on as a professor. So, I stayed on and taught. I very much enjoyed Computer Engineering. When my dad was at NYU and even when
Ron is a fellow MIT alumnus who went to Carnegie Mellon for his PhD, and subsequently has done three successful systems ventures. This story offers insights into his methodology. Sramana Mitra: Let’s go back to the very beginning of your story. Where were you born, raised, and in what kind of circumstances? Ron Bianchini: I