Romulus, along with two other Indian friends, set up a path- breaking company in Silicon Valley. Only in January this year it was sold for about $285 million to the giant Cabletron Systems, earning the wows of the computer industry in the US.
Founded only in 1996, YAGO Systems was recently named by NETWORK WORLD as one of the top "Ten Companies to Watch," for 1998, while DATA COMMUNICATIONS named the company one of "The Top 25 Hot Startups" in its October 21, 1997 issue. Romulus Pereira was CTO and Vice President for Engineering in YAGO, the company he founded with Piyush Patel and Nilesh Shah.
In an exclusive interview with FREDERICK NORONHA, this one-time student of Loyola's Margao narrates his amazing success story. In Goa since 1973, he studied from third standard through sixth standard at Loyola High School in Margao. His parents are from Navelim and Carmona. Like many other Goans, his family too seems to have invested heavily in education -- at Mount Abu, Dubai and the US. And it paid off...
In 1981 and 1982 which was when he was trying to decide what to do, computers were just beginning to emerge as a new technology. He picked the Jesuit University of Santa Clara University because it was in the heart of Silicon Valley. "Once I got to college and started studying Computer Engineering I was hooked -- the rest just fell into place," says he.
Q: Could you tell us about your company Yago Systems, Inc?
Yago Systems was founded in September 1996 by myself and two others (both Indians). The goal was to develop extremely cost- effective wire-speed switches and routers for large companies and the Internet backbone. Starting the company was a big risk. Our field of computer networking is highly competitive and the chance of failure for small startup companies is extremely high, mostly because the market is dominated by large vendors like Cisco, 3Com, Bay Networks and Cabletron. These companies have more resources and better marketing and as a result, can eliminate small competing companies very quickly and effectively. The only way to survive is to have a great idea, build a highly skilled engineering team, develop products very quickly and get acquired by one of these large companies. The problem for small companies like ours is that there are more startups with good ideas than there are large companies to acquire them ... so most fall by the way side.
Q: What was your "great idea" then?
In our case, I had an innovative idea on how to design a high speed, low cost, backbone router in a way that no one has done before. Also, having worked in Silicon Valley for ten years I knew many good engineers that I then hired to work at Yago. This combination proved to be a winning strategy for us. Our products are now 18 months ahead of our competition which in our industry is an extremely long time. We got acquired by Cabletron Systems in January 1998. The size of the company was 46 employees and we sold the company for $285 million. What makes this a remarkable achievement was that our company was the last to enter the market (there were already 20 other companies trying to create similar products).
Q: Wasn't that quite a big price?
One question we get asked most often is how could such a small company, that has not completed developing its products get sold for such a high value? The answer is very simple. The networking field is advancing so quickly that products are obsoleted within 18 months and cutting-edge technology is common place within 12 months. This requires large companies to acquire the most promising ideas and the most promising companies as soon as possible so that they can realize the maximum gains on the potential value of these small companies. This is what happened in our instance.
Q: Are there many other Goans in Silicon Valley?
In Silicon Valley, the number of Goans in high technology is very small compared to the number of other Indians altogether. I may be one of the first Goans who has successfully "done" a Silicon Valley startup.
Q: How would you rate the situation in Goa regarding computers? There are plans, but things seem to be moving slowly...
Over the past two years, because of the company, I have been out of touch with everything other than my small corner of the universe. However, prior to that I used to keep track of computer developments in Goa, especially the software technology park. I have been aware of (plans for) this park for the last 5 years and have been hoping it will be a success. It is the right direction for Goa to head into. The world is starting to economically separate itself along these lines with wealth and economic progress going to those countries (or areas of the world) that can successfully attract computer companies and engineering talent. If Goans, especially the younger generation, get hooked on software/hardware engineering, the caliber of jobs and quality of life that will be available to them as a result of that, will be far greater than any other career field.
Q: What in your view are the strengths and weaknesses of Goa and Goans in the world of computers and cyberspace?
Strengths include the Goan value system that places large emphasis on quality education for our children especially in the area of sciences and engineering (that was one of the fundamental shapers for myself as a young person). One other big strength of Goa is the fact that having been exposed to the Western world via the Portugese connection, and more recently through tourism. So, it becomes easier for Goans to integrate in cyberspace and overcome cultural barriers that sometimes get in the way when technology from developed Western countries is incorporated into Asian cultures. Of the weaknesses, Goans enjoy life a little more than others, relax a little more than others and overall, proceed at a more relaxed pace than most other Indians. In the world of computers, most of the technological advances and innovations occur in areas of the world where the people work very hard work, commit long hours and are dedicated to computers and computer technology en masse.
Q: What would you like to see more of happening in Goa?
I hope that as more computer technology shows up in Goa and as more young Goans get exposed to the Web and cyberspace, the next generation will get excited by this revolutionary technology and as a result focus more on computers and cyberspace. Another thing Goa lacks (or at least did a few years ago), was a good infrastructure i.e., good roads, water supply, electrical power, etc. I suppose this is a problem country-wide and hence not just a Goan issue. But, Goa's success will be hampered until it successfully builds a strong infrastructure and especially for computers, it installs good phone lines and fibre optic cables to facilitate network connectivity and cyberspace exchange of ideas.
Q: Would Goa feature in your future plans?
I would definitely be interested in investing money and possibly starting a company in Goa. Any such plans though would be more long-term. Being only 31, I am just beginning to make my mark on the computer world. There is much more I wish to do to help revolutionize the uses of computers in the world, especially in computer networking. The best place for that currently is in the Silicon Valley which is where I will probably continue to work for the near forseeable future.
Q: What areas of the computer world would you recommend young Goans (or others) wanting to enter the field? Why?
Definitely computer networking. This is one of the last big- growth areas in computing. With the world attempting to get connected together from a business standpoint, as well as the overall usage of the network by the general population and the projected growth in this market, the demand is at an all time high for qualified networking engineers. My recommendation to young Goans would be to excel in athematics and Physics, study engineering in college and aim to be either a network software engineer or hardware engineer. Other good careers would also be in the area of Web design and web-based services (selling over the network, providing information via the web).
