15 min
Bill Buchanan - Noyce, Moore and Grove — A Template for Spin-out/Start-up Success? ASecuritySite Podcast
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- Technology
Blog post: https://medium.com/asecuritysite-when-bob-met-alice/noyce-moore-and-grove-a-template-for-spin-out-start-up-success-b67d9795154a
Introduction
So, is there a formula for a successful start-up/spin-out — and if you followed it, you would be guaranteed success? For this, many people approach me and say, “I want to have a spin-out. What should I do?”. To me, this is a little like saying, “I want to fly, can you give me wings?”. So, let me lay out a few things that I have learned over the past two decades of being involved in spin-out companies.
Overall, we have been very lucky in our spin-outs, with three highly successful ones, and where two have been bought out (Zonefox and Symphonic), and the third is expanding fast within digital forensics (Cyacomb). But, as they say, “The Harder I Practice, the Luckier I Get”. We have had failures, but every time our team has licked their wounds and come back stronger. And the one thing, though, I’ve observed is that the leadership of an innovative company often needs to change as it evolves, and those leading it need to know when they need to move aside and let others take their place.
So, I’m going to define the three stages as: Visionary, Strategy and Grit, and where there are very different leaders at each stage. But, fundamentally, the first two stages set up the culture and approach of the company, and which are fundamental to its long-term beliefs and ideals. Overall, few companies in the third stage can turn their ship and travel in a different direction. The approach of IBM, for example, is still one of an engineering approach to their work and one built on rewarding innovation.
Forgive me, I’m technical And, so I am a cryptography professor, and not a business one, so please forgive me for not covering the core literature in the areas of business. I am also highly technical, and that is what I love. I would never want to be a cut-throat business person and would never want to be. I love inventing things and seeing ideas grow from seeds. And one thing I know is when my role is complete as part of the innovation process and when to move aside.
But, deeply technical people are at the core of creating a successful spin-out, along with people with a vision. And, so, I would like to lay out a basic template of my observations in creating a successful spin-out — and based on the ones we have produced. To me, also, a great technical company should have a core of theoretical work, and where the best work can come from academic collaborations. In academia, there is an attention to detail and theory, and which makes sense of the complex world of invention and discovery. But, the magic comes from practical implements, and where the best collaborations mix practice with theory.
So, my basic template for success is to get the right leadership team in place, and get the right leader for the right time. A core part of this is knowing when the leader should move aside and let someone else take over. For this, I’ll map it to the success of Intel and its first three employees: Robert Noyce, Gordon Moore and Andy Grove.
Stage 1: Robert Noyce — the Visionary (1968–1975) If there’s a superstar of our digital era, it must be Robert Noyce. Imagine inventing the one thing that now drives virtually everything in our digital age: the integrated circuit. It all started in the late 1950s with John Bardeen and Walter Brattain at Bell Labs and who first invented the transistor. William Shockley advanced the concept with the creation of the bipolar transistor. Bardeen and Brattain were a great research team and has a great balance of theoretical skills with practical ones. Brattain did the theory, and Bardeen did the practical work. All three eventually received a Nobel Prize for their work — with Brattain being one of the few people to ever get two Nobel Prizes.
While Bell Labs was a hub of innovation at the time, Shockley wanted to take a good deal of the cre
Blog post: https://medium.com/asecuritysite-when-bob-met-alice/noyce-moore-and-grove-a-template-for-spin-out-start-up-success-b67d9795154a
Introduction
So, is there a formula for a successful start-up/spin-out — and if you followed it, you would be guaranteed success? For this, many people approach me and say, “I want to have a spin-out. What should I do?”. To me, this is a little like saying, “I want to fly, can you give me wings?”. So, let me lay out a few things that I have learned over the past two decades of being involved in spin-out companies.
Overall, we have been very lucky in our spin-outs, with three highly successful ones, and where two have been bought out (Zonefox and Symphonic), and the third is expanding fast within digital forensics (Cyacomb). But, as they say, “The Harder I Practice, the Luckier I Get”. We have had failures, but every time our team has licked their wounds and come back stronger. And the one thing, though, I’ve observed is that the leadership of an innovative company often needs to change as it evolves, and those leading it need to know when they need to move aside and let others take their place.
So, I’m going to define the three stages as: Visionary, Strategy and Grit, and where there are very different leaders at each stage. But, fundamentally, the first two stages set up the culture and approach of the company, and which are fundamental to its long-term beliefs and ideals. Overall, few companies in the third stage can turn their ship and travel in a different direction. The approach of IBM, for example, is still one of an engineering approach to their work and one built on rewarding innovation.
Forgive me, I’m technical And, so I am a cryptography professor, and not a business one, so please forgive me for not covering the core literature in the areas of business. I am also highly technical, and that is what I love. I would never want to be a cut-throat business person and would never want to be. I love inventing things and seeing ideas grow from seeds. And one thing I know is when my role is complete as part of the innovation process and when to move aside.
But, deeply technical people are at the core of creating a successful spin-out, along with people with a vision. And, so, I would like to lay out a basic template of my observations in creating a successful spin-out — and based on the ones we have produced. To me, also, a great technical company should have a core of theoretical work, and where the best work can come from academic collaborations. In academia, there is an attention to detail and theory, and which makes sense of the complex world of invention and discovery. But, the magic comes from practical implements, and where the best collaborations mix practice with theory.
So, my basic template for success is to get the right leadership team in place, and get the right leader for the right time. A core part of this is knowing when the leader should move aside and let someone else take over. For this, I’ll map it to the success of Intel and its first three employees: Robert Noyce, Gordon Moore and Andy Grove.
Stage 1: Robert Noyce — the Visionary (1968–1975) If there’s a superstar of our digital era, it must be Robert Noyce. Imagine inventing the one thing that now drives virtually everything in our digital age: the integrated circuit. It all started in the late 1950s with John Bardeen and Walter Brattain at Bell Labs and who first invented the transistor. William Shockley advanced the concept with the creation of the bipolar transistor. Bardeen and Brattain were a great research team and has a great balance of theoretical skills with practical ones. Brattain did the theory, and Bardeen did the practical work. All three eventually received a Nobel Prize for their work — with Brattain being one of the few people to ever get two Nobel Prizes.
While Bell Labs was a hub of innovation at the time, Shockley wanted to take a good deal of the cre
15 min