Saket Vora

An early start had us (meaning Win) waking up at 5:45am. We got ready in successive fashion, and piled in the van to head to Adobe Systems at 7:00am. Adobe Systems was a short distance away in downtown San Jose. Their lobby reflects the multimedia products they make. Grant Williard, NC State alum and father of Mary Williard (a Park in my class who is now at Stanford), greeted us and took the group to breakfast at the company cafeteria. Grant created a company more than 20 years ago called i Cubed, and they were among the first to create sophisticated CAD tools for mechanical engineering. He was able to bootstrap the whole operation, but meant greater control but slow growth. In 2000 or 2001, he started to explore a side issue with CAD drawings: how do you keep your files secure in a rapidly globalizing economy. You don’t want to invest $100,000 in designing a part, email it to your factory in China, then see the schematic copied and fabricated by others illegally. They created very good software for this, and it caught the attention of Adobe who was looking for something similar for their line of products. In 2005, Adobe acquired a portion of i Cubed and so Grant and some of his employees moved out here. The talk he gave had some very good points, particularly on the topic of ownership. When working on a project, you can either implement a set of specifications or take ownership of the project and take it to greater heights. That’s the spirit of entrepreneurship and you can display it in the classroom, in a corporation, or in your own startup.

After Adobe, we drove to One Infinite Loop in Cupertino, the headquarters of Apple. The presentations certainly had a bit of a recruiting bent to them, but Joe Fischer gave a talk on how product development works at Apple. Joe was an NC State alum in EE back in ‘01, and he came to Apple’s iPod division after a stint at a startup in the Valley. Joe is now the hardware lead for the iPod line. He is a really down to earth guy who enjoys what he does, and why not? He and like 8 people are responsible for the brains behind the iPod…which has sold how many million units? We then heard from the software lead for the iPod and iPhone…who was very passionate about Apple and believed in the company to its core. Maybe a bit too much, but whatever. Still, being able to hear from the hardware and software leads for the iPod and the iPhone was pretty cool. We had lunch at the Apple cafeteria and Tony Blevins (VP of Apple in Operations and who hosted us the night before) pointed out the Ph.D researcher who helped create the “multi-touch interface” for the iPhone. I also admired Tony’s candid remarks about the challenges Apple will face in the next few years.

Before leaving Apple, we stopped by the Apple store where I bought my Dad an iPod shuffle. I figure if I was going to give an iPod to a man who has worked at IBM for 35 years, I might as well buy it at the Apple Headquarters. Heh.

After Apple, we drove to the Googleplex. Parking was a pain (keep in mind this whole time we’ve been risking our lives with Tara’s driving…”Greg is the light red or green?!”), but once inside we met with about five NC State alums who had a variety of roles within Google. Much of the time was spent discussing the “20% time” projects that Google employees use to explore their own ideas and develop projects. The alums talked about how they go about imagining new ideas and a bit about the corporate culture at Google, which even according to the other people we’ve met, is pretty crazy for Silicon Valley. Instead of thinking about monetization, their inspiration is usually “wouldn’t it be cool if….” Our host, Ronner Lee, then took us on a quick tour of the Googleplex. It’s eye-opening, let me tell you. Each treadmill in the gym has satellite TV. All food and drink is free. They have a massage parlor. Every Friday in the main cafeteria, they have an ‘all hands meeting’ where any Google employee can attend. Sergey Brin and Larry Page go up on an informal stage and present some announcements, then any employee can ask a question to them. Drinks and snacks follow in a ‘happy hour’ atmosphere.

After Google, we headed to a much smaller company that works on a cool idea: using broadcast TV signals for geographic positioning inside of building. Todd Young has had a lot of varied experiences: BS in computer engineering from NC State, MS in Computer Science from Cornell, and an MBA from the Haas School in Berkeley. He has worked in Japan for several years and is fluent in Japanese. Rosum, as a company, they are still definitely in the startup phase but have an impressive board of directors and advisors. People are recognizing their technology but it has yet to be implemented in something big yet.

Following a brief stop at the hotel, we headed out to Grant and Laura Williard’s house for dinner. Their house is, without a doubt, one of the coolest homes I’ve ever visited. Stone walls, dark wood timbers, tall ceilings, accent lighting, adobe and hints of Spanish architecture made it very unique. The doorbell was an actual mechanical bell with a pull resembling an old-fashioned water pump. It was really nice to see Mary and Matt again, and even Jessica Badger was there. Grant and Laura are wonderful hosts and even most wonderful people. We talked with Laura for some time about how it was like living out here in the Bay area, especially from someone who has lived for over 30 years in Raleigh. The fact was that it was truly like an ‘adventure’. Towards the end, Greg wasn’t feel so well so the ARI van left early in search of an urgent care center. Turned out it wasn’t streptococcus. Oh Greg. :)

It was only around 9:30pm when we got back to the hotel, so a group of us decided to walk down to the Nut House on California Avenue. This was recommended to us by Dr. Walsh, who used to have an office on California Ave. for his start-up company BOPS back in the heyday of the bubble. Win and Greg stayed at the hotel but we had a fair sized group go. The Nut House turned out to be one of the best bar establishments I’ve ever been to. Good selection of beer with many on tap, pool tables, dart boards, and large TVs. They have a bin where you can scoop up roasted peanuts in the shell then crack them open and enjoy at your table. No trashcans required — just brush the shells aside. They only seem to sweep the place once a week. I talked with Walden and Stephen about their plans after graduating, then Eric and Jordan headed to the pool table to square off. They proved to be very good at pool while playing at Tony Blevin’s house. A few us took turns playing, had a great time, then headed back to the hotel by midnight.