Year of the Startup

Today was a day of meetings.  In the morning, we chatted about improving our company’s formal documents, since we now have a few people who might want to fund us, and in the afternoon, one of our fab reps came to visit.  As expected, they didn’t offer better pricing or better terms.  We’re just too small for them now.  The only way to get better pricing or terms is to put more wafers through their fab.  Their policies, which are extremely rigid, won’t allow any flexibility for startups.  They can’t/won’t work with us, thanks to an iron-fisted CFO.  Still, I was excited about the visit because it was my first time meeting one of my main vendor contacts.  I had been doing business with her for the last twelve years; and across three companies (it’s only been in the last few years that she has been able to travel from China, and I still have never been to their facility… as layout people and vendor manager people rarely travel).  If she were at all able to help me, I know without a doubt that she would have.

I got an email in the middle of my day today asking if I could switch to acoustic for tonight’s band practice and have my son take over on bass.  It sounded fun to me, as I rarely get to play acoustic anymore.  It would however mean some quick practice for both my son and I just prior to the evening’s rehearsal.  I was up to the challenge, but since I was formerly on bass this week, I knew that this week’s set was pretty challenging on bass, and my son is a beginner.  Well, he did a lot better than I would have thought.  I can already see how fast he is picking up the notes and the patterns.  If only he would practice; he would be really good by now!  Rhythm is still an issue for him, but like me, he can sure pick up a tune and memorize it fast.  By rehearsal time, he was doing great!  Heck, we did so well practicing beforehand that we had time to cook a full Mexican dinner before we left for rehearsal (we like cooking together – it’s fun!).  This was definitely a quality evening spent with my son.

My Wednesday work-at-home day wasn’t really spent at home.  A few of us got to meet with a potential adviser/mentor who was recommended to us by a friend of mine.  The guy we met was awesome.  Will he join our current group of mentors?  Probably not.  He felt that others had more experience in semiconductor startups than he had.  I actually appreciate guys like him who know their limitations and aren’t afraid to admit it.  He may even have a guy in mind.  I still think he would make a good mentor, but he’s probably right; there are people out there who could help us even more.  When looking for a mentor, we desire that they: 1. have expertise in an area we lack; 2. have semiconductor and/or startup experience; 3. have money to invest and/or have many contacts with money who could invest.

Yeah!  Happy tax day.

Most people don’t celebrate this, but I do.  I’m willing to pay taxes for good roads and good education and the like.  It’s not a terrible deal at all.  It helps that I’m getting money back again this year.   Actually, in 30+ years of donating to the government, I have only failed to get a refund twice.  Not too bad!

I must admit that I was really worried about this year because this tax year was the year that my former company let me go.  And while it might sound like I spent the year penniless, nothing could be further from the truth: I actually parted with three month’s salary and a boat load of stock options that I had to cash out.  I also didn’t do too bad on the consulting front.  I set a new (never to be repeated) record for income in 2011.

2012 should be very different from 2011.  Four months into the year so far and I have $0 for income.  I will get a small amount of cash for a chip I did earlier this year, and I’ll get this tax return, but that could be it for the year unless my startup gets some funding.  Will all consulting dry up?  Will my startup fold?  I don’t see that happening.  Too many people are interested in us; though most seem to want to take over the company as part of their funding strategy.  I continue to be interested in the outcome of all this.  I’m hoping that cash will present itself and that we’ll be able to run this startup first to profitability and then to IPO.

It seems to me that so many of these posts are about work.  I don’t mean for it to be that way, but since I’m in a startup, work sort of consumes me.  This doesn’t mean that I ignore my family however; I spend plenty of quality time with them, I just usually spend that time with them after I write my daily blog… shortly after work.  The result is that my family interaction doesn’t get recorded.  They are all happy and well-adjusted.

My weekend was fun.  I was invited to a car show on Saturday.  I got to see all kinds of exotic cars, some costing up to $1M.  It was nice to see that my car was represented in the collection of cars.  Yeah!  I own an exotic… barely.

On Sunday, I taught a class on Jonah that I thought went very well.  In the afternoon, a bunch of us went up into the hills to shoot ground squirrels.  Right now, there are too many in and around the park area.  We got eight total; I got three.  That evening, we went to Pho Noodles with friends.  Soup was the perfect thing to have after the blustery afternoon up on the hill.

Today was just long – so much to do in so little time.  After looking over our newest chip for a couple of hours, I began to do many management-type tasks that were needed.  It wasn’t exciting work, but I did “progress the company” and I learned some stuff in the process.  I’m now that much better rounded.

Also, my wife is still sick.

Nothing much to see here – move along.

What an interesting start to my day.  My wife had been up all last night with stomach cramps.  I was going to take her to the hospital, but the advice nurse said that bed rest was probably all she needed… and that she had food poisoning.  At work, John’s computer suddenly quit for two hours… and then began to work normally.  This slowed the progress of the chip by about two hours.

My wife asked me to get some groceries for her illness (bread, crackers, applesauce) and dinner for the kids.  I got them Burger King, complete with paper crowns.  As it turned out, this meal was “breakfast” for them.  They’ve only had coffee today.  Oh ya, they’re all off this week for Spring Break.

Now back at home, I can pamper my wife.

I skipped another week because so much was going on.  It was Holy Week (Easter), so when I wasn’t at work, I was pretty much guaranteed to be at church.  Work also ran long this week because we are trying to get the chip taped out and that always requires a “push” (read: longer hours).  Even now (on a Saturday) I’m working on the chip.  We’ll get the first version out early next week.  The other thing that happened this week was a significant meeting.  I’m hoping it will lead to corporate cash.  Wish us luck!

I spent much of the day creating a really big spreadsheet for my company’s operations.  It’s much like doing bills at home, but much, much bigger.  Hey, at least I can see where we need to push things along.  Currently, our sales are taking off.  This is a good thing, but to achieve the sales we currently have, we need to start a whole bunch of new material now, which means more operating cash… and maybe two more months between May and June to meet our schedule/demand.