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| COMPANY CONTACT Judy Estrin Packet Design, Inc 650.739.1850 info@packetdesign.com |
AGENCY CONTACT Janis Ulevich Ulevich & Orrange, Inc. 650.329.1590 info@u-o.com |
FOURTH ESTRIN-CARRICO STARTUP WILL DEVELOP
SOFTWARE FOR SCALING INTERNET INFRASTRUCTURE
Former Cisco CTO’s Business Model Calls for Developing Key Technologies, Then Spinning Them Out As Product Companies
MENLO PARK, Calif., June 12, 2000 -- Judy Estrin and Bill Carrico, the husband-and-wife entrepreneurs who have started three successful high-tech ventures in the past two decades, have announced the formation of their fourth company, Packet Design.
Estrin, who until April was chief technology officer at Cisco Systems, said Packet Design is chartered with developing IP technologies that enhance the performance, scalability, provisioning and ease-of-use properties of the existing Internet infrastructure. The company’s solutions will address problems brought about by sea changes occurring in the Internet, such as the advent of optical networking, the blurring of voice and data network distinctions, increased user mobility and unprecedented growth in user numbers.
Rather than selling its technologies in the form of branded products, the company will spin out separate businesses to market those products to service providers and enterprises.
Estrin, 45, is the new company’s president and CEO; Carrico, 50, is chairman of the board. Van Jacobson, most recently Cisco chief scientist and best known for his work at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratories on TCP congestion control, IP operations tools (e.g., traceroute and pathchar) and the Internet Multicast Backbone (MBONE), is Packet Design’s chief scientist. Douglas Klein, formerly president and chief operating officer at NuvoMedia, is the company’s vice president of business development.
Members of Packet Design’s Technical Advisory Board are Vint Cerf, senior vice president of Internet architecture and technology at MCI WorldCom and widely recognized as a "father of the Internet" for his pioneering work on the TCP/IP protocols; Scott Bradner, senior technical consultant at Harvard University and a founder of the Harvard Network Device Test Lab; and Deborah Estrin, professor of computer science at the University of California-Los Angeles and a co-designer of the PIM and BGMP routing protocols.
TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENTS TO BE SPUN OFF, LEAVING FOCUS ON LONG-TERM SOLUTIONS
"No one denies the Internet has outgrown its original design in terms of its ability to support huge numbers of users and new application types," Estrin said. "But established companies and startups alike are compelled by market forces to move so fast that they tend to just plug in point solutions, hoping to extend the existing design. The long-term answer isn’t to keep sticking new boxes into the mix, but to evolve the fundamental design to match new requirements and technologies. "However, even when a startup does develop an innovative new technology to address a critical problem, two issues arise," she added. "One, a large portion of the company’s resources must be plowed into marketing and selling the initial product. Two, future projects must necessarily be based at least partly on the company’s original technology -- few second or third products are created by taking a completely fresh look at a problem. Packet Design, by spinning out technology efforts into individual venture-backed product companies, can reduce this overhead and keep our focus on crafting new solutions that take a long-term, whole-network view."
DEPARTURE FROM USUAL QUICK-TURN STARTUP BUSINESS MODEL
Packet Design’s initial funding of $24 million has been provided by Foundation Capital, Carrico, Estrin and a number of individual investors, including James Barksdale, former CEO of Netscape; and Bill Joy, chief scientist at Sun Microsystems. "Our business model differs significantly from those of so many venture-funded startups today that are geared toward quick-turn product development with the goal of an early acquisition or initial public offering," Carrico said. "Because we have accepted only those investors who buy into our long-term approach, we won’t be constrained by the usual time-to-market rules: revenue expected in 12 months and an IPO maybe even earlier. Our shareholders’ return on equity will come from the success of our spin-out companies, all of which Packet Design will invest in." In addition to spin-outs -- the first of which is expected to be formed within two years -- Packet Design will consider technology licensing arrangements as well as open-source distribution of some of its software. Packet Design’s board of directors includes Estrin, Carrico, Bill Elmore of Foundation Capital and Frank Quattrone of Credit Suisse First Boston.
ESTRIN-CARRICO TEAM’S STARTUP HISTORY
Estrin and Carrico founded router vendor Bridge Communications in 1981, which went public in 1985 and merged with 3Com in 1987; Network Computing Devices in 1988; and Precept Software in 1995. When Precept was acquired by Cisco Systems in 1998, Estrin became Cisco’s chief technology officer; Carrico spent a year as senior vice president of Cisco’s small and medium line of business. During her two years as Cisco CTO, Estrin was twice named to Fortune Magazine’s list of the 50 most powerful women in American business. She sits on the boards of directors of The Walt Disney Company, The Federal Express Corporation and Sun Microsystems.
Packet Design, is located at 3400 Hillview Avenue, Palo Alto, CA 94304-1346, Telephone 650.739.1850. More information can be found at http://www.packetdesign.com.
© 2005. Packet Design Inc.
