Lessons learned…
Robert Solomon
Copyright ©2012
Robert Solomon
• 25+ years building technology organizations,
products and companies.
Member/leader of the teams that created:
– RDB one of the 1st commercial relational dbms’
– AIS/NET 1 (SaaS in 1981!)
– PRO350 one of the first personal computers
Member/leader of the teams that created:
– Vistagate, the first multiprotocol communications
gateway (computer to LAN to WAN to COMPUTER
communications) – Before CISCO
– MINX, the first video conferencing personal
computer
– Dynamic software update for distributed systems
Member/leader of the teams that created:
– High performance distributed gaming systems
– Video Lottery Systems – advanced gaming systems
– One of the first bioinformatics systems
– OmniReplicator, the first heterogeneous database
replicator
Member/leader of the teams that
Created:
– OmniWarehouse, the first data warehouse engine
– Reality, the first business rule driven search engine
– One of the first internet ticketing companies
– One of the first ecommerce web social ecosystems (1999)
– Veracity of Internet information
• All were great technologies
• But they were not all market successes
• We learned a lot, but…
Understand
Listen/
Learn
Engage
Deliver
Listen/
Learn
Listen/
Learn
Motivate
Understand
A problem cannot be solved if it is not
understood
Engage
You and your team must be engaged/focused on
solving the problem
Listen/Learn
The team must be constantly learning and
validating what it has learned
Listen/Learn REPEAT
Motivate
It is essential for the team to be constantly
motivated
You must be passionate!
Expect/challenge
Execute
Make it happen
Set goals/expectations
Measure
Repeat
Deliver
The customer accepts what you have built and
pays you!
Unless this happens, you have not succeeded.
Iterate
Repeat the cycle using what you have learned
and validated
Doing just one thing right is not
enough
• Technology + Marketing + Sales/Distribution +
Support
• All functions must work together
• All functions must constantly be learning and
validating what they have learned (e.g.,
progress against measureable goals)
• NO SILOS!!!
People
• People People People People
• Without them nothing is possible
• But remember: ANYBODY is NOT better than
NOBODY
Culture
• Culture, Culture, Culture
Communicate
• Communicate Communicate
IP
• And lately, Intellectual Property
Learn/Validate
Never stop
Customers Competitors
Let paranoia prevail