Lessons in how to 'go big' from Silicon Valley success

WILDGEESE: EMIGRANT BUSINESS LEADERS ON OPPORTUNITIES ABROAD:John Hartnett, Founder of Irish Technology Leadership Group

Establishing the group in 2007, Hartnett with his ITLG peers form a collective of senior Irish executives from some of Silicon Valley’s leading companies who have learned through their US experience what it means to “go big”.

The lesson is one of attitude, a vision where failure is not the worst that could happen.

Having made their fortunes in companies like Palm, Cisco, Intel, Apple and Microsoft, these executives are now keen to not only ensure Ireland remains on the investment map for US tech companies but also to nurture the potential of indigenous Irish start-ups – to get them to “go big”.

Coming out of Limerick’s Crescent College Comprehensive in 1980, Hartnett was hitting the job market just as Limerick was getting back on its feet.

In 1978, 1,400 workers from the local Ferenka wire factory were let go – the biggest loss of jobs in Limerick until Dell. Shannon Development, however, was hard at work and US computer company Wang touched down with Hartnett joining its production line aged 17.

“I was probably one of its first 100 employees,” says the Corbally man. “I was a kid and I had walked into a huge giant at the time . . . but within a few months I thought, ‘Uh oh, I didn’t do my degree’.”

Hartnett spent the next nine years studying at night, earning a marketing degree and postgraduate diploma in finance.

From Wang, he joined Digital Equipment and later a Dublin subsidiary of Apple called Claris where he became managing director. It was then on to software company Metacreations which saw him abroad more than at home. “I was setting up their international business, going to Japan, China, Singapore, Taiwan and Europe. I was working internationally and that experience was invaluable.”

The story of Hartnett’s career, like many of his generation, mirrors the story of US investment in Ireland. “I’ve got a Limerick accent, but I’ve never worked for an Irish company – or even a European company. I’ve only ever worked for US multinationals,” he says.

Having reached the peak of his career here, the next step was to move Stateside and, in 1997, aged 35, he moved to Silicon Valley.

It was a period in the valley’s history that Hartnett describes as “absolutely insane”.

The founders of Handspring, the original inventors of the Palm Pilot, quickly poached him. Joining them as a vice-president, Hartnett got in on the ground floor of mobile computing and went on to become a senior vice-president of Palm Inc.

Now a valley veteran and with 30 years’ experience in US multinationals, what lessons does he think Ireland can learn?

“It’s okay to fail in Silicon Valley. It’s seen as a learning process. When you fail, you learn, and when you learn, you get stronger,” says Hartnett. “It’s been like that here for 50 or 60 years. It’s a risk-taking culture that has clearly paid off.”

The second lesson he says is to “go big or to go home”. “When I started at Handspring, we had only just started to shift product and our revenues were zero. But we were walking around the building saying, ‘We’re going to be the fastest-growing company in the world and we’re going to hit a billion dollars’. When I left that company, we’d taken our revenue from zero to $1.6 billion.

“If we weren’t walking around saying we were going to do it, we wouldn’t have done it and that’s the lesson for Irish entrepreneurs – go big.”

The third lesson he says is “smart capital”. Describing the venture capital investors in start-up Handspring, Hartnett says, “Their focus was on growing and scaling the company, about top-line revenue rather than costs. They gave us the money to think strategically rather than drip-feeding cash and forcing us to be tactical.”

As president of the ITLG, Hartnett has created a structure to pass on lessons he and his peers have learned. Along with former chief executive of Intel, Craig Barrett as group chairman, they have just launched the Silicon Valley mentoring programme. Partnering with the Silicon Valley bank and the Department of Foreign Affairs, they now have a pool of 14,000 companies in which Irish graduates can either gain mentoring or an internship.

“The idea is to give graduates experience but then to bring them back home to set up their own Irish multibillion-dollar company,” says Hartnett.

“It breaks my heart when I read about an Irish company that sold for $20 million or $50 million – the company buying it is going to make millions in revenue or billions . . . and it’s effectively being taken out of the country when we’ve made the investment in education.”

Hartnett’s advice to Irish entrepreneurs is loud and clear: “your exit should be Nasdaq”.

He cites the experience of Israel as one to follow: “They have about 130 Nasdaq companies, Ireland has about five. We can be the next Israel because we have all the ingredients – education, entrepreneurship and we have a diaspora three times the size of theirs – we’re a friggin’ army over here and we’re only dipping our toe into it.”

Living full-time in California with his wife Helen and children who he says are hugely supportive, he describes the ITLG as a “technology battalion that’s going to help Irish companies”. His motivations are mixed. “I went through an experience . . . How am I going to say this in a humble way? I went from being at the bottom of the food chain to where I experienced a pretty major change in my wealth. So your priorities change – now it’s the priority of what’s going on in Ireland and how you can help.

“But what’s also driving me is that Ireland has all the ingredients. There is a massive investment opportunity – my motivations rank everywhere from the heart to the mind.”

For more on the ITLG,

see www.itlg.org