Wednesday, November 12, 2003
Framing Success
Yesterday I had the pleasure to meet Nick Corfield. Who is Nick? Well, if you're my age, (see below), you'll remember a publishing/word processing system called FrameMaker. That's was Nick's little brainchild and very successful it was too; he sold the company (Frame Technology) in the mid-90's to a growing outfit you may know called Adobe.
We had a very productive round-table session at the Judge, mostly of questions and answers, after his introduction. He's an ex-Cambridge man, having read maths tripos in the early eighties. He then shot off to Sillicon Valley, as at the time there really wasn't much in the way of start-up city in Cambridge. Fair enough. Nice bloke - he once climbed Mount Everest. You see? You only get that kind of person at Cambridge. 'S what I've been telling you all along!
Some gems from Nick:
1. Networking is crucial, if only to get your first customers.
2. While he didn't start off to build a million or billion dollar company, it was somewhere in-between. He wasn't thinking small!
3. The English accent works wonders in silicon valley! Instant credibility.
Actually I knew the last one, but it's worth repeating, as is my cheerful annecdote. I once got into a recursive loop with a motel clerk outside San Fran:
I said 'thank you' for the coffee,
she (yelled) 'no problem!!',
to which I replied automatically 'Er, thanks',
which brought on another, similarly knee-jerk 'no problem!!'.
This pattern, needless to say, continued for quite a while. Worthy of Monty Python, or at least Benny Hill.
____________
We had a very productive round-table session at the Judge, mostly of questions and answers, after his introduction. He's an ex-Cambridge man, having read maths tripos in the early eighties. He then shot off to Sillicon Valley, as at the time there really wasn't much in the way of start-up city in Cambridge. Fair enough. Nice bloke - he once climbed Mount Everest. You see? You only get that kind of person at Cambridge. 'S what I've been telling you all along!
Some gems from Nick:
1. Networking is crucial, if only to get your first customers.
2. While he didn't start off to build a million or billion dollar company, it was somewhere in-between. He wasn't thinking small!
3. The English accent works wonders in silicon valley! Instant credibility.
Actually I knew the last one, but it's worth repeating, as is my cheerful annecdote. I once got into a recursive loop with a motel clerk outside San Fran:
I said 'thank you' for the coffee,
she (yelled) 'no problem!!',
to which I replied automatically 'Er, thanks',
which brought on another, similarly knee-jerk 'no problem!!'.
This pattern, needless to say, continued for quite a while. Worthy of Monty Python, or at least Benny Hill.
____________
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