Re: [Elecraft] Odd Question [Elecraft history]
I certainly agree that stock speculators have no interest in the long term outcome of a company. Being private does help large established companies avoid the whipsaw of investors who can do real damage when stock prices vary. An example of this is SAS Institute, the largest privately held software company in the world with two decades of double digit growth until 2010, including the two prior recessions, when the worst recession since the great depression held them back to only 8% growth. Their strategy in downturns is to pour on the research when competing companies are laying off and go cherry-pick talented people out of work. 3+ billion a year and over 20,000 employees worldwide is the result. SAS and it's owner have been on a cash basis for years, and having cash to spend in a downturn has proven very useful, allowing them to expand when acquisitions are cheap. They keep employees, with a ridiculously low turnover rate far below the industry norm, due to the owner's attitude that the employees are his main asset. They've taken the careful conservative path to a 3+ billion per year company. What SAS and Elecraft have in common is private ownership, running on a cash basis, staying within one's means, significant technological innovation, purposeful interaction through their technical support methods with a loyal customer base who know they have real input into what comes next, and real dedication to the purposes that uncovers. I'd say Elecraft is keeping damn good company. 73, Guy On Thu, Apr 21, 2011 at 9:06 AM, n...@n5ge.com wrote: Not being public may be one of the reasons they are so successfull. Outside stockholders can make life miserable for companies like Elecraft. Many privatly held businesses award uotstanding employees stock as rewards for their service. Tom, N5GE On Wed, 20 Apr 2011 21:08:45 -0500, Bill (K9YEQ) k9...@live.com wrote: Alan, I am still waiting on them to go public so I can get a few shares. :-) 73, Bill K9YEQ -Original Message- From: elecraft-boun...@mailman.qth.net [mailto:elecraft-boun...@mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Alan Bloom Sent: Wednesday, April 20, 2011 7:14 PM To: j...@audiosystemsgroup.com Cc: elecraft@mailman.qth.net Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Odd Question [Elecraft history] Elecraft reminds me of what Hewlett Packard company must have been like in the early days. Two engineering buddies start a company in their garage. One (Dave Packard in the case of HP, Eric in the case of Elecraft) gravitates toward the business end of the enterprise while the other (Bill Hewlett, Wayne) concentrates on the engineering. I wasn't around in the early days of HP, but maybe someday when Elecraft is a multi-billion-dollar corporation I'll be able to say that I knew Eric and Wayne way back when. :=) Alan N1AL On Wed, 2011-04-20 at 15:51 -0700, Jim Brown wrote: On 4/20/2011 2:44 PM, Wayne Burdick wrote: Here's my account. VERY interesting, Wayne. That fills in an important gap for me -- I had not realized that Eric had the serious EE background that he does. But that also makes another point that I've long felt about being a good chief executive -- to do it really well, you need not only a solid biz background, but also a solid technical understanding of every aspect of the business you're trying to run. Clearly, he has all of that -- one of the things that has impressed me the most about Elecraft is a near complete absence of dumb business or marketing decisions! 73, Jim K9YC __ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html __ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html __ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html __ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html __ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http
Re: [Elecraft] Odd Question [Elecraft history]
There are a number of reasons why going public profoundly changes companies, often for the worse, but I would rank the influence of outside stockholders as fairly low among them. In fact, in the case of many privately-held startups, it's pressure from a handful of outside stockholders that keeps management on its toes. I think the most common problem for any growing company, public or private, is size. Once you get to about 100 employees, the management structure has to change in a big way. When that happens, the entrepreneurial spirit, everybody-knows-everybody camaraderie, focus on quality, focus on the customer, and can-do attitude tend to give way to approval hierarchies, competition for position within the hierarchy, focus on compensation versus job satisfaction, focus on numbers instead of quality, petty personal agendas, and so forth. Maintaining the positive aspects of the previous culture and hiring people who fit in with it become much more problematic. One reason this is a characteristic of public companies is that a company has to be relatively large to go public these days. This is not to say that there aren't other negative aspects to being a public company. First among them is the market's relentless focus on short-term results. Management is expected to generate ever-increasing returns and never miss their quarterly projections. This results in sacrificing long-term goals to please the market, and sometimes financial engineering or even cooking-the-books to make the numbers. This attitude filters down the org chart and infects the employees such that many of them are focused on the wrong things. I'll admit this is a somewhat exaggerated description, and some public companies have managed to figure out how to avoid these pitfalls to some extent. Some do it through brilliant management, some by hiring only the best and brightest, some by insisting that the long-term is more important than the short term. But even in those companies, something precious that smaller entrepreneurial enterprises have is lost. Having been through a complete startup-to-exit cycle with my own software company back in the '90s, and having spent 15 years coaching, managing and investing in other teams doing the same, I have to say that I much prefer the small company environment. The real trick is figuring out how grow while preserving the good things that made you successful. From my observations of the way Wayne and Eric conduct themselves and run Elecraft, I have great hopes that they will be among the few who figure it out. 73, Dick WC1M -Original Message- From: n...@n5ge.com [mailto:n...@n5ge.com] Sent: Thursday, April 21, 2011 9:06 AM To: elecraft@mailman.qth.net Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Odd Question [Elecraft history] Not being public may be one of the reasons they are so successfull. Outside stockholders can make life miserable for companies like Elecraft. Many privatly held businesses award uotstanding employees stock as rewards for their service. Tom, N5GE On Wed, 20 Apr 2011 21:08:45 -0500, Bill (K9YEQ) k9...@live.com wrote: Alan, I am still waiting on them to go public so I can get a few shares. :-) 73, Bill K9YEQ -Original Message- From: elecraft-boun...@mailman.qth.net [mailto:elecraft-boun...@mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Alan Bloom Sent: Wednesday, April 20, 2011 7:14 PM To: j...@audiosystemsgroup.com Cc: elecraft@mailman.qth.net Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Odd Question [Elecraft history] Elecraft reminds me of what Hewlett Packard company must have been like in the early days. Two engineering buddies start a company in their garage. One (Dave Packard in the case of HP, Eric in the case of Elecraft) gravitates toward the business end of the enterprise while the other (Bill Hewlett, Wayne) concentrates on the engineering. I wasn't around in the early days of HP, but maybe someday when Elecraft is a multi-billion-dollar corporation I'll be able to say that I knew Eric and Wayne way back when. :=) Alan N1AL On Wed, 2011-04-20 at 15:51 -0700, Jim Brown wrote: On 4/20/2011 2:44 PM, Wayne Burdick wrote: Here's my account. VERY interesting, Wayne. That fills in an important gap for me -- I had not realized that Eric had the serious EE background that he does. But that also makes another point that I've long felt about being a good chief executive -- to do it really well, you need not only a solid biz background, but also a solid technical understanding of every aspect of the business you're trying to run. Clearly, he has all of that -- one of the things that has impressed me the most about Elecraft is a near complete absence of dumb business or marketing decisions! 73, Jim K9YC __ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please
Re: [Elecraft] Odd Question [Elecraft history]
Not being public may be one of the reasons they are so successfull. Outside stockholders can make life miserable for companies like Elecraft. Many privatly held businesses award uotstanding employees stock as rewards for their service. Tom, N5GE On Wed, 20 Apr 2011 21:08:45 -0500, Bill (K9YEQ) k9...@live.com wrote: Alan, I am still waiting on them to go public so I can get a few shares. :-) 73, Bill K9YEQ -Original Message- From: elecraft-boun...@mailman.qth.net [mailto:elecraft-boun...@mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Alan Bloom Sent: Wednesday, April 20, 2011 7:14 PM To: j...@audiosystemsgroup.com Cc: elecraft@mailman.qth.net Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Odd Question [Elecraft history] Elecraft reminds me of what Hewlett Packard company must have been like in the early days. Two engineering buddies start a company in their garage. One (Dave Packard in the case of HP, Eric in the case of Elecraft) gravitates toward the business end of the enterprise while the other (Bill Hewlett, Wayne) concentrates on the engineering. I wasn't around in the early days of HP, but maybe someday when Elecraft is a multi-billion-dollar corporation I'll be able to say that I knew Eric and Wayne way back when. :=) Alan N1AL On Wed, 2011-04-20 at 15:51 -0700, Jim Brown wrote: On 4/20/2011 2:44 PM, Wayne Burdick wrote: Here's my account. VERY interesting, Wayne. That fills in an important gap for me -- I had not realized that Eric had the serious EE background that he does. But that also makes another point that I've long felt about being a good chief executive -- to do it really well, you need not only a solid biz background, but also a solid technical understanding of every aspect of the business you're trying to run. Clearly, he has all of that -- one of the things that has impressed me the most about Elecraft is a near complete absence of dumb business or marketing decisions! 73, Jim K9YC __ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html __ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html __ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html __ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
Re: [Elecraft] Odd Question [Elecraft history]
My comment was tongue in cheek. I don't expect Elecraft to do anything but keep offering great stuff to its niche. Just want them to keep up the great business of making the stuff I have always wished I could have at a reasonable price and let me be part of the building process. 73, Bill K9YEQ -Original Message- Not being public may be one of the reasons they are so successfull. Outside stockholders can make life miserable for companies like Elecraft. Many privatly held businesses award uotstanding employees stock as rewards for their service. Tom, N5GE Alan, I am still waiting on them to go public so I can get a few shares. :-) 73, Bill K9YEQ __ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
Re: [Elecraft] Odd Question [Elecraft history]
Lee Buller wrote: I am a history buff and I like to read historical accounts. I've been reading about how some ham radio manufacturers got started. I wonder if there is an official historical document/story/narrative about how Elecraft got started the history from inception to now. Hi Lee, Here's my account. * * * Elecraft grew out of an extended conversation Eric and I were having about whether a modular transceiver could be designed that would emulate the very popular do-it-yourself PC. The idea was to have a basic radio that could be customized as needed by the user. Could this lead to a successful startup? We knew there were many risks. But both of us had issues with our jobs at the time, so we dreamed up a company name and proceeded to give up our nights and weekends in pursuit of this idea. Eric and I collaborated on the first design--the K2--which represented a synthesis of our two philosophies. I had recently designed other QRP kits, including the NorCal 40A, Sierra, and SST. I wanted the K2 to be easy to build and operate, small in size, very power-efficient, and have a clean, visually-appealing design. Eric was a DX enthusiast and consequently wanted the K2 to have excellent receiver performance and big-rig operating features. We discussed the design for weeks, mostly by e-mail (since we live an hour apart), but also during the occasional walk on the beach. At one point we suddenly realized that what we were proposing to design was the ultimate Field Day rig, a true dual-purpose (home/field) radio. In fact we had done Field Day together for several years, and took note of what we really wanted: bullet-proof receiver; internal battery; and an internal automatic antenna with two antenna jacks (for two orthogonal long wires). The year before starting the K2 design, we operated FD with a Sierra and two antenna tuners and an A/B switch--we were committed to cleaning up this act! In October, 1997, my wife Lillian helped me build a foam core mockup of the proposed K2 design. I drew photo-realistic color renderings of the front and rear panels, printed them out, and glued them to the foam. We even had early K2 PCB artwork glued to the interior surfaces. The entire assembly was held together with sewing pins. It still sits on a shelf above my lab bench. On October 20th, Eric and I announced our intention to start Elecraft at Pacificon, a major California hamfest. The room was packed, and my guess is that by now, probably 60-70% of the 150 people who were in that room bought K2s. We showed off the mockup and took lots of questions. The way we introduced the name of the K2 was something of a joke. Having design the Sierra and spawned something of a rash of rigs named for mountain ranges (by NorCal and other QRP groups), I swore I'd never name another rig after a mountain. So we suggested naming our new rig after the millennium: the Elecraft 2K. Since this was a QRP crowd, the irony was not lost on them--that's the model of a famous high-power linear amplifier! So we said, OK, let's reverse the characters--K2. OOPS, another mountain From that moment we started working nonstop on the design, and, frankly, compromising our day jobs. Our design skills were very complimentary. Although I had been designing radios for some time, my degree is in Cognitive Science, so I focused on the overall packaging and user-interface scheme. I also started writing firmware for the several microcontrollers to be used. Eric's degree is in EE, and he's meticulous about measuring performance. We each prototyped different parts of the circuit, and after many phone calls and e-mails, met approximately in the middle. The basic design was completed in Spring, 1998. One thing that really can't be overstated is how important receiver performance was to both of us, but especially Eric, Mr. DX. While I was completing the PCB layouts and chassis mechanical design, Eric was busy duplicating the ARRL's test lab. So, at about the time one rig was ready for test, we had a means of verifying performance and making final changes. Later, the ARRL tested a K2, and confirmed our excellent results. (At that time, the K2 had the best close-in dynamic range ever measured by the ARRL lab.) We then sold 100 K2s as Field Test units, a strategy that has paid off time and again as we've released new products. The K2 was into full production early in 1999. An unsung heroine was Eric's wife, Lerma, who helped get our act on the road -- to Dayton and beyond. She was (and still is) our most dedicated roadie, taking orders, keeping us wallowing in healthy snacks, and not letting us forget when it was time to go do a talk. By that point, Eric and I had both quit our other jobs. Eric, who had been a successful entrepreneur in Silicon Valley for over a decade, started focussing on business issues. He pretty much ran things at our headquarters, originally in Aptos. I chose to work at home (Belmont, closer to San
Re: [Elecraft] Odd Question [Elecraft history]
On 4/20/2011 2:44 PM, Wayne Burdick wrote: Here's my account. VERY interesting, Wayne. That fills in an important gap for me -- I had not realized that Eric had the serious EE background that he does. But that also makes another point that I've long felt about being a good chief executive -- to do it really well, you need not only a solid biz background, but also a solid technical understanding of every aspect of the business you're trying to run. Clearly, he has all of that -- one of the things that has impressed me the most about Elecraft is a near complete absence of dumb business or marketing decisions! 73, Jim K9YC __ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
Re: [Elecraft] Odd Question [Elecraft history]
Elecraft reminds me of what Hewlett Packard company must have been like in the early days. Two engineering buddies start a company in their garage. One (Dave Packard in the case of HP, Eric in the case of Elecraft) gravitates toward the business end of the enterprise while the other (Bill Hewlett, Wayne) concentrates on the engineering. I wasn't around in the early days of HP, but maybe someday when Elecraft is a multi-billion-dollar corporation I'll be able to say that I knew Eric and Wayne way back when. :=) Alan N1AL On Wed, 2011-04-20 at 15:51 -0700, Jim Brown wrote: On 4/20/2011 2:44 PM, Wayne Burdick wrote: Here's my account. VERY interesting, Wayne. That fills in an important gap for me -- I had not realized that Eric had the serious EE background that he does. But that also makes another point that I've long felt about being a good chief executive -- to do it really well, you need not only a solid biz background, but also a solid technical understanding of every aspect of the business you're trying to run. Clearly, he has all of that -- one of the things that has impressed me the most about Elecraft is a near complete absence of dumb business or marketing decisions! 73, Jim K9YC __ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html __ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
Re: [Elecraft] Odd Question [Elecraft history]
I'll be able to say that I knew Eric and Wayne way back when. :=) I want to make sure they remember me at the time of their IPO. Paul, W9AC __ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
Re: [Elecraft] Odd Question [Elecraft history]
Alan, I am still waiting on them to go public so I can get a few shares. :-) 73, Bill K9YEQ -Original Message- From: elecraft-boun...@mailman.qth.net [mailto:elecraft-boun...@mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Alan Bloom Sent: Wednesday, April 20, 2011 7:14 PM To: j...@audiosystemsgroup.com Cc: elecraft@mailman.qth.net Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Odd Question [Elecraft history] Elecraft reminds me of what Hewlett Packard company must have been like in the early days. Two engineering buddies start a company in their garage. One (Dave Packard in the case of HP, Eric in the case of Elecraft) gravitates toward the business end of the enterprise while the other (Bill Hewlett, Wayne) concentrates on the engineering. I wasn't around in the early days of HP, but maybe someday when Elecraft is a multi-billion-dollar corporation I'll be able to say that I knew Eric and Wayne way back when. :=) Alan N1AL On Wed, 2011-04-20 at 15:51 -0700, Jim Brown wrote: On 4/20/2011 2:44 PM, Wayne Burdick wrote: Here's my account. VERY interesting, Wayne. That fills in an important gap for me -- I had not realized that Eric had the serious EE background that he does. But that also makes another point that I've long felt about being a good chief executive -- to do it really well, you need not only a solid biz background, but also a solid technical understanding of every aspect of the business you're trying to run. Clearly, he has all of that -- one of the things that has impressed me the most about Elecraft is a near complete absence of dumb business or marketing decisions! 73, Jim K9YC __ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html __ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html __ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
