King Makers under Cloudy Skies
We’ve been waiting for solid rain here in Silicon Valley for quite some time now, but the blue screen of drought continues to shine bright and brittle overhead. We need rain. The hills need rain, the streams and reservoirs need rain; the livestock and crops need rain, the valley needs rain. So it was a joyful thing to drive down 280 en route to a press event Friday morning and be able to look west to the crest of the low-lying coastal hills and see real clouds there. It’s true there were scattered clouds overhead and large roiling masses of them out to the east; but it was the ones to the west that looked most promising. For a few minutes, those of us speeding south at 75 mph even had to use our wipers. A joyful thing. As I turned off at Sand Hill Road and found my way into the parking lot of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, my mind was on the promise of rain; you could smell it in the air. Then I went inside and forgot all about it straightaway. The offices of "KP," as it’s affectionately known, are expansive, subtly decorated, and laid out not unlike a place of worship. Each layer of the office rises up a few additional steps, until just past the narthex, you enter the real sanctuary. There the ceiling soars in a great gable overhead and a mighty table spans the length of the room. At one end, the gable plays out to a massive window overlooking stately trees to the north blowing in the wind. At the other end, an equally massive window plays out into the interior of the building and the reception area where people can be seen coming and going, making appointments, waiting for appointments, examining their souls (and their business plans), and undoubtedly awaiting their turn in the sanctuary – or perhaps at times, and more ominously, their turn in the confessional. Now I didn’t actually see any confessionals on the premises, but I’m betting there are a few discretely placed offices around the perimeter of that building where more than one wayward CEO of a struggling young start-up has had to fess up on bended knee to poor earnings, bumbling business strategies, or shamefully high burn rates, and as a result has had to turn over the keys to his/her kingdom to those who’d invested in it and lost. KP is a VC – possibly the most famous in the Valley – and their successes are the stuff of legend; America Online, Amazon, Compaq, Google, Genentech, Sun – and now eASIC. In fact, we were all called to KP on Friday morning – those of us in the press – to hear that KP has just invested $5 million in eASIC. Now I’m remodeling my kitchen and $5 million would definitely do a lot to enhance that particular effort. But in the realm of business and business investment, I can’t honestly say that $5 million is much to write home about. In fact, had I know in advance that it was only $5 million, I might not have even come. But then, there was that offer of a free lunch – and more importantly a chance to see the sanctuary. And, I’d never been to KP before, so the trip was definitely well worth the time. This is the part where I’m supposed to tell you about the great future the lies ahead for eASIC. How their technology is so cutting edge, so revolutionary, that it’s going to set both the ASIC and FPGA paradigms on their respective ears. Thanks to eASIC, there will be an extraordinarily lower cost of entry for small innovative firms wanting to design and manufacture marvelous next-generation chips. Thanks to eASIC, there will be answers to the horrific problems posed by shrinking geometries, denser on-chip real estate, shockingly high mask costs, NRE horrors, diminishing ASIC starts, burgeoning/unwieldy design teams, ponderous fab costs, time-to-market nightmares, and – I kid you not – that most fearsome of fearsomes, off-shore outsourcing of design and manufacturing. And I did not make all of this up. It may be a little overstated, but I’m telling you that over the course of the hour that we were in the sanctuary at KP, the 50 or so of us who were there, heard all of these promises and more. Perhaps not specifically from the folks at KP or eASIC – but from many of the journalists and industry analysts who were sitting around the mighty table, visibly excited, honored, and relieved to be hearing what they were hearing. It was a hoot, and I enjoyed every minute of it. But the very best part, the part that made the trip overwhelmingly worthwhile, was leaning back in one of those sumptuous gray leather chairs at that mighty table and watching the dynamics and interplay of those who position themselves as King Makers in this Valley of Silicon. Vinod Khosla is a Partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. He was our host on Friday morning. Zvi Or-Bach, as CEO of eASIC, may have extended the invitation to all of us, but Vinod Khosla was definitely our host. For the bulk of the hour, Khosla stood in the center of the room as he talked – all of the rest of us were sitting. Khosla walked us through his PowerPoint defense of eASIC’s "breakthrough structured ASIC" technology, he thanked various players in the room for their support – Zvi Or-Bach for inventing the technology, EETimes’ Ron Wilson for inventing the term "structured ASIC" to describe the technology, Synplicity’s Bernie Aronson for his angel-investor support of the technology, and Applied Materials’ Dan Maydan for his endorsement of the technology. In the opening scenes of the hour, Or-Bach had also expressed thanks to these individuals, but it seemed somehow so much more regal coming from Khosla. And then, Khosla delivered his sermon. He tutored us on the importance of a technical and financial climate where innovation can be maintained. Khosla admonished us to use investment dollars more wisely and more sparingly than had become the norm at the height of the fabled boom. Khosla instructed us as to why things have gone south in the semiconductor world of late and how we can fix it. Khosla taught us how technologies such as eASIC’s can help foster hope for the future of Silicon Valley, and therefore all of mankind. And most of all, through his body language, Khosla demonstrated to us how he has come to be one of the premier King Makers in the realm. He’s lean, he’s articulate, he’s fast, he’s very, very smart – and he wields power like few I’ve ever faced across a mighty table in a gabled room overlooking tall stately trees blowing in the wind. Khosla is a King Maker. He stood while he talked; he never sat down. He fielded questions, he smiled knowingly at the discussion, he reassured and he anointed. Most importantly, he drew us all in with his confidence and his bearing. It was quite the performance, and I’m here to tell you, that there’s a lot in that man that folks like Cardinal Richileu would have understood and admired. Then quite suddenly, the hour and my reverie were over. The service ended with a benediction and a round of applause, although it’s not really clear who we were all applauding for, the Kings or the King Makers. I took an extra cookie and walked out to my car. As I pulled out of the parking lot, it was disappointing to see that the skies were clearing. The promise of real rain had come and gone again, distinctly unfulfilled. I thought to turn back and seek out the King Makers of KP. I thought to ask them if instead of seeding technology, they could begin to seed the clouds. I thought, it’s more than King Makers that we need here these days in Silicon Valley in this time of drought. What we really need are Rain Makers. But where their sanctuary resides, I have yet to learn.
May 30, 2004 Peggy Aycinena owns and operates EDA Confidential. She can be reached at peggy@aycinena.com
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