I had my first post-departure networking meeting earlier this week. It was with Ben Vigoda, co-founder and former CEO of Lyric Semiconductor. I say former CEO because Analog Devices – the company I just left, acquired Lyric two years ago. So, despite the fact that this meeting was with someone who is employed by my former employer it’s value was in speaking with a successful entrepreneur who has great insights into the startup process as well as valuable contacts in Boston’s startup community.
I won’t go into detail as to Ben’s thoughts about technology startups other than to say he had some very firm ideas of what works and what doesn’t which made a lot of sense to me. These revolved around a central theme of maintaining strong development focus while establishing a close link with customers. The purpose of this link is to enable frequent iteration of the technology and of strategy. Of special significance to me were Ben’s comments about the difficulty of finding the right marketing person who can drive to this theme. What is needed is someone who understands the technology, understands the technology development process, communicates effectively with customers, distills customer feedback to the technical team, and adjusts strategy based on new learnings – a rare combination of skills!
It was clear that Ben had much more to say about startups and we agreed to meet again in January. Ben also offered to refer me to others in the local startup community for further exploration. This was exactly what I was hoping for and was not surprised to find Ben very open and helpful along these lines.
What I was surprised about was that Ben saw some benefits for Lyric Labs in developing a relationship with me. These emanated from the fact that Ben and his team are relatively new to ADI and are working to introduce new technologies into ADI’s business. One benefit Ben saw was that I could provide useful insights and advice as to how to navigate my former employer’s organization and drive the adoption of Lyric’s technology. A second derived from the fact that that I had led the successful development of a new business within ADI based on new technology (iCoupler® isolation). Ben felt that by sharing my experience with his team I could help them extract learnings they could apply to their efforts going forward.
So, the bottom line is that with Ben Vigoda I have a very unique situation where I can both benefit from his experience and contacts yet also help him and my former company bring new technology to market. Excellent! I can’t wait until we meet again in January.