Ventures & Technology

Prabakar Sundarrajan

Vice President, R&D

Exodus Communications, Inc.

Outline

Role of Technology

Leveraging Available Technology

Stability, Scaling, Security

Technical Advisors

Role of Technology

Must be a means to an end

Sometimes tech sophistication is not needed
Build a complete solution around it

unless the technology is the product!

Sexy tech alone will not win

must be a solution to a real problem

Decide your motive early on

technical play (acquisition) or big business?

Role of Technology - Part Deux

Technical barriers to entry / exit

lock out competition, lock-in customers
Differentiation from the competition

A patent is not a silver bullet

People will work around them

Don’t bite of more than you can chew

Staging is best - decide what’s critical

Leveraging Available Technology

Time-to-market is critical

If you can, buy and integrate

Customization and control are important

But carefully consider the trade-offs
How critical is to build-to-suit 100%

Service industry - conflict of interest?

Can you win against focus

Is the module core focus for you
How much does a vendor invest in it
Can your module stay feature competitive

Or, will your competition ride the vendor horse and beat you?

4 Pillars: Stability, Scaling, Security, Service

Can’t go down, Can’t slow down

Cost is more than lost users - eBay

It could be a lost business

Architect carefully

No single point of failure

Design for growth

deploy small, expand as needed

Test for high loads and failovers

Security is a critical issue - get expertise

Hotmail issue, credit cards etc.

Invest in tech / products for service.
Use out-sourcers

Tried and true technique

Advisory Board

Complementary set of skills

Been-there Done-that Experience

Leverage industry specific expertise

Architectural and management review

Hiring contacts, partner contacts

Don’t be shy: Help them to help you