These are truly exciting days to be in networking. Software Defined Infrastructure really encompasses two major revolutions – Software Defined Networking and Network Functions Virtualization. It’s exciting for anyone even remotely involved in networking because the industry had been largely dormant for over a decade. The last major breakthrough networking experienced was Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS), which was proposed in standards in 1997, and prevalent in most Service Provider networks by the early 2000s. Since then, the advancements seen in networking have been incremental: Ethernet standards evolved from 10 Megabits Per Second (Mbps) to 100 to 1000 (1 Gbps) to 10 Gbps to 40 Gbps and now most recently to 100 Gbps. Pure play networking vendors, such as Cisco and Juniper, have been pumping iron to come out with bigger, fatter routers and switches. Development on the software front was also incremental and  innovation was constrained to the capabilities of  the silicon on the switches. The bigger names to come out of software companies were the ones with network management products.

Around 2004 the networking community got it’s first sniff of what was to come. The three components of a data center are storage, compute, and networking. In 2004, EMC, the worldwide leader in storage, paid $625 million to acquire VMware, a Palo Alto-based company that had made considerable contributions to client virtualization software. VMware made headway in the data center with an enterprise-class bare metal hypervisor, ESX that helped enable server virtualization.  Of course, the other factor that played a major role in server virtualization was Moore’s Law and the continual rise in compute power of Intel x86 processors. Prior to server virtualization, IT administrators were realizing that the memory and CPU utilization of physical servers tended to remain extremely low (less than 10%). Server virtualization helps cut data center costs dramatically because multiple servers can be running on a single physical system and share resources, such as CPU and memory. All this time, networking vendors were still focused only on building bigger, faster switches.

However, you can’t run a data center without a network. Networking is known as the plumbing of the Internet. It runs silently in the background and you don’t appreciate it until there is a problem. And at that point it gets ugly.

The popularity of merchant silicon had also shifted the focus from hardware to software. No longer was innovation limited to the big names, such as Cisco and Juniper. Just as app developers have benefited from more robust computing power in mobile and server platforms, relatively new players in networking, such as Arista and Palo Alto Networks have been able to leverage off-the-shelf silicon, such as from Broadcom and Fulcrum, to build data center class networking equipment and derive value from software. For example, Arista was able to level the playing field by offering Cisco-like usability in its CLI, but built a modular and more efficient OS based on Linux.

Meanwhile, Amazon had launched the Cloud bandwagon by implementing ultra low cost Infrastructure as a Service (IAAS) solutions for customers, to complement their existing low cost model in the online retail industry. Amazon Web Services comprised several offerings that leverage server virtualization and allow customers to spin up Virtual Machines on demand seamlessly, thereby reducing their CapEx and relying more heavily on an OpEx model. Behind the scenes, however, there are many challenges for cloud providers because the network needs to be provisioned elastically and physical networking hadn’t been designed to solve those problems. By around 2007, however, a group of Stanford students tried to address that problem. They formed a startup called Nicira, and came up with the world’s first virtual switch – Open vSwitch, which was designed for campus networks. They also designed a framework and protocol for separating the control plane of the network from the data plane. In other words, because x86 chipsets had developed far better and more powerful packet processing capabilities, it was now becoming possible to offload the packet forwarding role (the data plane) entirely to a switch and devise a protocol for the switch to comunicate with a centralized controller (the control plane). Thus OpenFlow was created and the company that built OpenFlow was Nicira.

In 2012, the networking world received it’s first major shakeup when VMware acquired Nicira for $1.26 billion. This was a historic moment  in the networking industry. Software Defined Networking, which was born in the campus, had shown it could make a demonstrable impact in the data center as well. One of the most famous early use cases of Nicira’s Network Virtualization Platform was flipping the switch on data centers in Japan during rolling brownouts immediately after the Fukushima nuclear disaster. SDN offers high level orchestration and programmability to data centers that was previously not possible in a world where only physical networks existed. Moreover, it is the corollary of networking finally catching up to the server and storage industries.

Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) is a relatively new, but equally hot term, in which services usually offered by cloud providers, such as load balancing and firewalls, are bundled into the virtualization function. There is some slight overlap with SDN and the differences are covered well here.

The OPEN Forum panel on Software Defined Infrastructure will be fascinating because of the expertise as well as diversity of the panelists. It features excellent speakers from all corners of the Software Defined Infrastructure ecosystem:

Industry Analyst

Craig Matsumoto (West Coast Editor at Light Reading)

Craig Matsumoto covers software defined networking, routers, Ethernet, chips, and optical components for Light Reading, which he joined in late 2002. Craig brings a strong background in optical networking to the table and will bring the Service Provider and NFV perspectives to the discussion.

Independent Software Vendor (ISV) Startup

Awais Nemat (CEO of PLUMgrid)

PLUMgrid is one of the most talked about SDN startups in the Silicon Valley, even though they have been in stealth mode for over two years. Awais has previously worked at Cisco and D5 Networks, which he sold to Marvell Semiconductors.

Growth Startup

Howie Xu (VP of Engineering at Big Switch Networks)

Big Switch is a big proponent of the open source movement. They pioneered the most popular OpenFlow controller – Floodlight. Learn how Big Switch is affected by the new open source consortium, Daylight, which, incidentally, Big Switch is a member of. Apart from leading the engineering team at Big Switch, Howie also holds multiple patents in network virtualization and has worked at Cisco and VMware in the past.

VC

Luis Robles (Sequoia Capital)

Sequoia needs no introduction. Nor do Apple, Cisco, Google, LinkedIn, Yahoo!, and YouTube, who are all in Sequoia’s portfolio. Luis has been a Venture Capitalist with Sequoia since 2010. The added value that Luis will bring to the table is that he has worked in Product Management at VMware.

Large Enterprise Networking Vendor

Dominic Wilde (VP of Product Management at HP Networking)

Did you know that HP offers the most number of OpenFlow-enabled switches by any single vendor? Dominic has played an instrumental role in helping HP earn the #2 spot in overall networking market share  Many argue that SDN means the end of innovation in hardware. HP backs its own custom silicon for its SDN-ready switches and is a founding member of the Open Network Foundation.

It’s a star-studded lineup and promises to be an engaging discussion. I hope to meet many of you at the Santa Clara Convention Center on June 8th.

Osman Rashid

What: OPEN SV Mentorship Breakfast with Osman Rashid
When: 8:30-9:30AM, Friday, May 17th, 2013
Where: To be announced to registered attendees only – Santa Clara, CA
Registration: Required

• OPEN SV members – Free
• Non-members – $30

Click here to register

OPEN Silicon Valley Monthly Mentorship Breakfasts provide a terrific opportunity for entrepreneurs and industry professionals to meet with experts in their respective field, in a relaxed, informal setting, to build relationships and get valuable business and career feedback. Participants deliver an elevator pitch for 30 to 60 seconds, and the guest mentor provides immediate feedback, enabling fast, effective, accessible mentoring and relationship development.

This OPEN-SV Mentorship Breakfast event is hosted by Osman Rashid, Co-founder and CEO of Kno.

Osman, as co-founder of Chegg, knows something about textbook business. Chegg enabled cash-strapped college students to rent instead of buying textbooks. He is now changing how textbooks are delivered and used. He may have to go head -to-head with Apple who also wants to proliferate use of their iPad based textbooks.

Bloomberg TV Interviews Osman:
Osman Rashid, co-founder and chief executive officer of Kno Inc., talks about the market potential for the company’s new digital textbook and business outlook. Rashid speaks with Jon Erlichman on Bloomberg Television’s “InsideTrack.” (Source: Bloomberg)

http://www.bloomberg.com/video/62639038-kno-s-rashid-interview-on-digital-textbook.html

Osman serves as the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer at Kno, where he develops the company strategy and products that make learning engaging, effective and social for students. As a serial entrepreneur, Osman has started and held key positions at a number of successful companies include ATIO Corp, Gravitywell, Chordiant and Chegg. As the founding CEO of Chegg, an innovative textbook rental company that has saved college students more than $400 million dollars, Osman grew the company twenty-five fold since its launch and turned it into a scalable operation. Ernst & Young named Osman the 2009 Entrepreneur of the Year for the coveted Northern California region. Mike Maples, an early investor in Digg and Twitter, has said that Osman Rashid is a world-class entrepreneur with the courage to be non-consensus and the right Jedi moves to pull it all off.

Please review coverage of previously held OPEN SV Mentorship breakfasts at: http://www.opensiliconvalley.org/programs/mentorship/breakfasts/

What: Evening with Rayid Ghani
When: Wednesday, May 15, 2013, 6 PM
Where: SAP, 3410 Hillview Ave Palo Alto, CA 94304 (Southern Cross Room)

Registration
OPEN-SV members – FREE
OPEN Forum 2013 attendees - FREE
Non-members – $25

OPEN SV is proud to host an evening with Rayid Ghani, one of the world’s premier data scientists. Rayid is a Research Director at the Computation Institute at the University of Chicago & Argonne National Laboratory and the co-founder of Edgeflip, an analytics startup focused on helping non-profits and social good organizations better use social networks and analytics. Rayid was the Chief Scientist at Obama for America 2012 campaign focusing on analytics, technology, and data. His work in the campaign focused on improving different functions of the campaign including fundraising, volunteer, and voter mobilization using analytics, social media, and machine learning. In addition, Rayid serves as an adviser to several start-ups, non-profits, and corporations, is an active organizer of and participant in academic and industry analytics conferences, and publishes regularly in machine learning and data mining conferences and journals.

Seating is limited, so please register soon.

This year is the 15th anniversary of OPEN and the 10th edition of the Silicon Valley chapter’s flagship OPEN Forum, and it promises to be the biggest one yet.

Register today to save more than 40% off the onsite price. Offer expires on May 10!

• Salman Khan – Founder and CEO of Khan Academy
• Jerry Brown – Governor of California and former Mayor of Oakland
• Imran Khan – Former Pakistan cricket team captain, philanthropist, and politician
• Pervez Musharraf – Former President of Pakistan
• Mike Moritz – General Partner, Sequoia Capital
• Tom Campbell – Former Congressman and former Dean of the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley
• Hussain Haqqani – Former Pakistan Ambassador to the USA
• Wendy Chamberlin – Former US Ambassador to Pakistan
• John Morgridge, Former CEO and Chairman of Cisco
• Peter Levine – Partner at Andreessen-Horowitz
• Howard Dean – Former Governor of Vermont and former Chairman of DNC
• Sohaib Abbasi – CEO Informatica
• Steve Westly – Former Chief Financial Officer of California, and Managing Partner of The Westly Group

Highlights from Past OPEN Forums

Whether it’s your first OPEN Forum or your 10th, you don’t want to miss out on the marquee speakers, panels, workshops, and fantastic networking opportunities. Not many organizations can boast of hosting government officials, venture capitalists, serial entrepreneurs, corporate executives, Hollywood actors, and philanthropists for their events. Check out videos some of these past speakers on our YouTube site.

Don’t forget to register by May 10 to save over 40% off the regular price.

We appreciate your support over the years in getting us to 10 and we look forward to seeing you at OPEN Forum 2013 on June 8!

Careers have to be managed and smart professional chart their own path and direct their careers. What are the essential techniques that will help you accelerate your path to your desired outcome.

This 2-hour workshop provides you with a blue print on very specific techniques that were mastered that enabled our instructor to become a CEO starting from an entry-level engineer. If you are a mid-level manager, just starting out or at the VP level today, and wondering what is next for you, this workshop will provide specific techniques and perspective that will help you accelerate YOUR career.

What will you learn:
1. How to make the right first impression
2. How to get on the “right projects”
3. How to choose your managers
4. How to get a raise/promotion
5. How to chart a career path & use of mentors
6. How to work within a culturally diverse workforce
7. How to be effective and efficient within your work

Location: NestGSV Inc., 425 Broadway St., Redwood City, CA 94063
Time: 10:00 AM to 12:30 PM, Sunday, April 28th, 2013
A halwa puri brunch will be served at 10:00 AM

Registration: Required
OPEN SV members – Free
Non-members – $15

Instructor: Naeem Zafar is the co-founder and CEO of Bitzer Mobile and he also teaches entrepreneurship at the University of California Berkeley. He is a serial entrepreneur and has started or worked at six startups. He founded Startup-advisor.com to educate entrepreneurs with all aspects of starting and running a company. Naeem has published six books on entrepreneurship (www.NaeemZafar.com) and on iTunes app store and Amazon.com. Naeem served as the president and CEO of three venture backed technology companies as a board member/advisor to 35 companies. He holds degrees from Brown University and the University of Minnesota, both in electrical engineering. Naeem serves on the Board of OPEN Silicon Valley and served as its president from 2009-2011.

Maria Mohiuddin

What: OPEN SV Mentorship Breakfast with Maria Mohiuddin
When: 8:30-9:30AM, Friday, April 5th, 2013
Where: To Be Announced the day before the event to attendees only – San Francisco, CA
Registration: Required

• OPEN SV members – Free
• Non-members – $30

Click here to register

OPEN Silicon Valley Monthly Mentorship Breakfasts provide a terrific opportunity for entrepreneurs and industry professionals to meet with experts in their respective field, in a relaxed, informal setting, to build relationships and get valuable business and career feedback. Participants deliver an elevator pitch for 30 to 60 seconds, and the guest mentor provides immediate feedback, enabling fast, effective, accessible mentoring and relationship development.

This OPEN-SV Mentorship Breakfast event is hosted by Maria Mohiuddin, Co-founder and Partner, Johal & Mohiuddin.

Maria Mohiuddin Verjee is the co-founder and partner of Johal & Mohiuddin, LLP, a boutique law firm in downtown San Francisco. The firm was founded in 1996 and includes areas of practice in Corporate, Mortgage Banking, Immigration law and Litigation. Maria has lived in San Francisco since 1983 and graduated from Drew College Preparatory School in 1988. Maria earned a Bachelor’s of Science in Business Administration from the University of San Francisco in 1992 and a Juris Doctor degree in 1995 from University of San Francisco School of Law. She is an active member of the State Bar of California, the American Bar Association and the American Immigration Lawyers Association. She is admitted as Attorney and Counselor to practice before the Supreme Court of California, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and the United States District Court.

Her primary area of practice is immigration law. Maria has a diverse range of clients, including publicly traded companies, foreign companies, and businesses hiring foreign employees or obtaining greencards for their current employees; entrepreneurs seeking work or business visas; investors seeking greencards through the EB5 program; families sponsoring other family members; and individuals facing deportation or removal from the U.S.

Maria and her husband Tabreez are passionate about venture philanthropy and impact investing and have seed funded a dozen mission driven companies including Kiva, Novica, Purpose, ClassDojo, and Priya Living.

Maria is also on the Board of Directors of Operation USA, a privately-funded relief organization that helps alleviate the effects of disasters, disease and endemic poverty throughout the world by providing material and financial assistance and promoting sustainable development. Since 1979, Opusa has worked in 99 countries delivering over $350 million in relief and development projects. In 1997, Opusa received a Nobel Peace Prize in the International Campaign to Ban Landmines. Opusa is very active in Pakistan. In 2005, in response to the devastating earthquake in Pakistan, Opusa was one of the first to send an airlift of medical supplies; support to rebuild homes, a prosthetics clinic, a health clinic, and a community center. Since the earthquake, and through the 2010 flood disaster, Opusa has committed to the long term recovery process in the village of Moldhara, providing an ambulance service, as the maternal mortality rate peaked, and medical aid in support of maternal child health programming throughout Pakistan.

Maria is also on the Board of Trustees of Drew High School in San Francisco, founded in 1908.

Please review coverage of previously held OPEN SV Mentorship breakfasts at: http://www.opensiliconvalley.org/programs/mentorship/breakfasts/

WHAT YOU’LL DO:

We are seeking a VP of Engineering / Operations to lead part of our Software team and help drive the company to the next level. This is a high profile, high visibility position working with and being a part of our Executive Team.  You should be passionate about mentoring and growing engineering talent, delivering on customer commitments, and building beautifully designed web and mobile applications.
Specifically, you’ll be responsible for:

• Overseeing development and operations for part of Folio3
• Leading, motivating, mentoring and managing, a team of Developers, Quality Assurance staff and UI/UX Engineers – creating an environment where talented Software Engineers can thrive.
• Proactive management and best practices to exceed client expectations
• Provide technical guidance and leadership to the engineering team, encourage best practices, improve infrastructure and architecture, and provide solid leadership to set team goals for performance and technical excellence
• Grow the team at Folio3 by hiring the best talent available

WHO YOU ARE:

Ideally, you will have:

• Excellent communication and leadership skills. The ability to inspire, motivate and convince teams.
• Demonstrated ability to hire, and effectively manage engineering teams
• A Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or an Engineering discipline; or related work experience
• 10+ years software engineering experience (2+ years as an engineering executive within the mobile / web space)
• Proven leadership skills; Excellent understanding of web and mobile technologies
• Prior experience building and maintaining high performance software development teams
• Deep knowledge Web / Mobile software architecture and Project Management best practices
• Experience working with US and other international customers. US experience as a Developer or Development Manager will be a big plus.

To apply submit your CV along with a covering letter to jobs@opensiliconvalley.org (RE: Folo3 VPE)

We are pleased to announce the 2nd OPEN LaunchPad meetup on Thursday, March 28, 2013.

OPEN LaunchPad is an initiative catering to both budding and experienced entrepreneurs. OPEN LaunchPad is designed to bridge the gap between the entrepreneurs and potential investors. Whereby facilitating introductions between the two.

As an entrepreneur you have your pitch polished and the slide deck worked out, the next step is to get in front of the investors. Many entrepreneurs need mentorship and feedback, but every entrepreneur needs the feedback. OPEN LaunchPad will host bi-monthly meetings allowing entrepreneurs to present to VCs and seed investors who are actively engaged in making investments. The first pitch  meeting is being  planned for end of October.

Chair: Shoieb Yunus

Co-Chairs: AR Rafiq, Farrukh Shah Khan, Yasser Zaman Khan, Gulrukh Ahmad

When: Thursday, March 28th,  2013 at 6 pm

Where: Silicon Valley, CA (By Invite Only)

Submission Deadlines:

Business Pitch/Presentation submission: 2/26/2013 – 3/10/2013

Qualified entrepreneurs to be contacted: 3/11/2013 – 3/15/2013

OPEN LaunchPad is a platform available to OPEN members who qualify as an entrepreneur.  Pitches can be submitted via email to LaunchPad@opensiliconvalley.org.

For more information visit: www.opensiliconvalley.org/LaunchPad

Nazim Karimi

What: Mentorship Breakfast with Nazim Kareemi
When: 8:15AM, Friday, Nov 30th, 2012
Where: To Be Announced the day before the event to attendees only – Sunnyvale, CA

Nazim Karimi hosted his mentorship breakfast in Sunnyvale, CA for OPEN SV members. Being a seasoned, serial Silicon Valley entrepreneur, he shared with us nuggets on startups and options in their initial funding. He has guided OPEN SV members with their startups. Nazim’s experience encompasses starting, acquiring, managing and exiting several startups. (For a complete bio, please refer to OPEN SV’s website or Nazim Karimi’s LinkedIn profile).

Nazim told us about his experiences in his various ventures. He initially went on his own by a accepting a mere 10-week consulting contract. That contract turned into a two-year project. He then led several other successful ventures, such as, Penware, Canesta, Maximo, and his latest stealth startup.

The primary ideas of a startup are: to have deep understanding of technology, solve a pain point, and understand the market.

To get started, risk-taking is necessary. For someone wishing to do a startup, he advises to work at a startup to learn and gain experience.

Otherwise, starters with good idea can seek an experienced entrepreneur to lead the team. Not always, innovators are great executives. Experienced entrepreneur can convince investors and help secure funding.

Nazim says it is important to find people who can support the venture, especially co-founder(s) who complements skillset but get along (very) well. Founders end up interacting more with each other than their families on daily basis for years.

Like many other OPEN SV Mentor Breakfast hosts, Nazim also believes that founders must show their commitment and belief in the idea by working full-time on it, and especially before asking VCs money. VCs usually require need a formal (professional) business plan and deliverables. They also look at the team to assess if founders have capability to execute upon business plan and lead a growing team. They let founders manage the business or sometimes suggest bring a member to execute. At that time, founders need to contemplate if the purpose of venture is to make a profitable company or keep the executive title to self. With a good idea, formidable business plan, and experienced members, the team can attract multiple VCs. Almost always, VCs like to move fast on a good idea. After a formal meeting, if a VC assigns “homework” or suggests improvements in business plan more than couple of times, and doesn’t invite other partners to meet, it’s time to move on. Nazim also suggests not to approach many VCs at at once especially if there is no traction — as the word (“bad rep”) gets around in the valley. The idea, 90-second pitch, story and business plan — all need to be reviewed and refined.

Nazim expounded, there is no set formula for when and how much a company needs funding. Before approaching Venture Capital and investors, first incorporate the business. Remember how Andy Bechtolsheim wrote a $100,000 check to “Google, Inc.” after first meeting with Sergey Brin and Larry Paige. The only problem was, “Google, Inc.” did not exist when Sergey and Larry approached Bechtolsheim with their idea. It reportedly took them two weeks to deposit the check. That is, VC will only write check to a company.

Before incorporating the business, if there are multiple founders, relative ownership needs to be defined. The equity shares need to be allocated to founders, while leaving portion for investors and team. For a typical series A round of $4 to $6M, the allocation can be: 30% to 50% for the founders, about 20% for the team, and 30% to 50% to the investors. The exact allocation will depend on number of investors interested in funding the startup and the strength of the startup team. Usually, VCs will help select board and may even re-define allocation, of course, depending on negotiations. At that time, a “Term Sheet” will be offered by the VC that defines investment conditions in the company and the allocation of Preferred shares and Common shares.

VCs like to invest in growing market. They want investment to grow and yield back in few years. They’d like to see their “30%” becomes a $100M. Unless the team is experienced, often first-timers are asked about prototypes and even customers. VCs prefer to work with local companies where they can drive and meet personally at short notice, unless it’s an international fund.

When discussing expenses, Nazim mentioned law firms can work with a startup “pro bono” until Series A funding. They bill you but defer getting paid until after company gets funded, if ever.

We thanked Nazim for his valuable time and advices, and wished his current venture be more successful than his previous ones.

Ashar Aziz

Ashar Aziz invited OPEN-SV Mentorship breakfast at a restaurant near his Milpitas office on a crisp Friday morning. This event drew a lot of interest and was over-subscribed.

Ashar reminisced about his ventures starting with Sun Microsystems. At Sun Micro, Ashar worked on security and under Eric Schmidt. Ashar’s mentor had recommended to publish technical papers and file patents to establish credibility and to gain recognition. Ashar went back for a period to Pakistan where helped establish an office for Sun in Pakistan. 

Ashar said his goal was to be technical innovator and an entrepreneur. His role models are successful combinations of inventor, technologist and entrepreneur – the likes of Edison and Bill Joy. 

Before venturing out to do something, Ashar says, it is important to step back and look at the problem. Do not start with product or design. First, identify a technical problem that needs to be solved. Second, assess if and how others have attempted to solve that problem. If you have a better solution and there is a market, only then you have a viable product to be made and sold. The product should not be a mere incremental solution, but deliver a strong differentiation.

When at Sun, Ashar thought data infrastructure can be automated and efficient by virtualization. He met and discussed ideas with a former Sun VP who had become a VC. That meeting led to co-founding Terrraspring by “seed funding” from Mohr Davidow Ventures. Terraspring was later acquired by Sun Microsystems in 2002. There were lessons learned though about managing capital better and being lean until traction (proven by sales/revenues).

Ashar reminds us, at start-ups, the major risk is “Capital-Intensity”. The money is there but burning fast, and revenues are not necessarily flowing in at desired pace. So, when Ashar founded FireEye back in 2004, he vowed to keep it lean. He anticpated back in mid 2000′s malware to be a major problem. FireEye started with focusing on forensics of malware, cyber attacks, botnets using deep-packet inspection. 

Due to Ashar’s track record and credibility, FireEye has been successful to-date raising over $51 million from an array of investors (see Wikipedia for details). At the outset, Sequoia had funded FireEye, but another major VC decline due to perceived “execution risk.” Ashar says founders’ clear technical vision and management abilities are needed to address investor concerns. Ashar says the goal is not to seek or acquire funding from VCs, but to create and sell a viable product. At different stages of a company, a different set of skills and sometimes executive is needed to take the helms and be the front-face to investors and media. There comes a time when startup needs to go full-throttle to set itself apart from competition at higher pace than ever.

Start-up must learn to be lean. FireEye had good revenues for initial product, and then dry for years. He had to let go the entire sales team. At Yahoo, a demonstration in the infrastructure was enough to make the first big enterprise sale. FireEye started with selling to enterprise, but then also sought and acquired govt contracts after demonstrating products’ ability to profile and prevent attack and intrusion attempts. The company and products need to adapt to changing market. FireEye has extended into web-gateway, email, and antivirus.

Ashar says, start-ups need not to look up to VCs for validation of their vision, concepts and products. The company needs to be aware of the market. The objective should be to build product and business. Then, strive to get 5-10 companies to validate the product. Start-ups need to maintain good relations with customers who can vouch for the products. Proof-of-concept can win customer when product’s value is demonstrated. 

Responding to what type of people he hires, he said, he hires “smart, humble, culturally well-adjusted people” with passion for the work – those who adapt, are nimble, get along with team, and are not silos, with high ego, or chip on the shoulder. 

All attendees thanked Ashar Aziz for his precious time and advice. Some briefly chat after the event was formally over. At OPEN-SV, we wish FireEye a remarkable public debut and they be well-received by the markets.