Category Archives: management

Customer support

Customer support in an EDA company goes through three phases, each of which actually provides poorer support than the previous phase (as seen by the long-term customer who has been there since the beginning) but which is at least scalable … Continue reading

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Ready for liftoff?

I talked earlier about how it seems to take $6M to build a channel in EDA once you get to the “just add water” stage where all you need to do is to ramp up a salesforce and distribution. However, … Continue reading

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Swiffering new EDA tools

Why isn’t a new EDA tool like Swiffer? One point that I’ve made before is that big EDA companies suffer from being unable to get new products into their channel. As I said earlier: “When so much is riding on … Continue reading

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EDA startups: channel costs $6M

I’ve put together several business plans for EDA startups once the product is ready for market. One question is always how much money needs to be raised. The answer always turns out to be about $6M. When you put together … Continue reading

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Startups and large companies: your end of the boat is sinking

I’ve worked at startups and I’ve worked at larger companies. I even worked at one company, VLSI Technology, where I joined it when it was a pre-IPO startup and left when it was thousands of people in tens of buildings. … Continue reading

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EDA startups: seven million to takeoff

A startup EDA company needs about $7M in bookings to become self-sustaining and not require another round of external funding. Curiously, it doesn’t seem to depend all that much on the product provided there is really a market out there, … Continue reading

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Twelve o’clock high

Three or four times in my life I’ve been given divisions or companies to run that have not been performing. Although it seems like an opportunity like that would be a poisoned chalice, it was actually a no-lose situation. If … Continue reading

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Two million per salesperson

There is a rule of thumb that all EDA executives know (or have to learn expensively), which is that an EDA company thrives if its sales teams bring in $2M per salesperson. So a medium sized company with, say, 4 … Continue reading

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One hit wonders

Venture capitalists have the concept of a zombie. Just like in the movies, a zombie company is one of the living dead. It is a company that is not burning through cash, and so is not going to go bankrupt … Continue reading

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He who goes first loses

Earlier we had guest blog entries from Lauro Rizzatti of EVE and Chi-Ping Hsu of Cadence on whether innovation occurs in small or large companies. I’ve always maintained that the problem is a different one. I think it is clear … Continue reading

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