chapter 9, The Life and Times of a High-Tech Entrepreneur

In Part II: Some Case Studies from: Engineering a High-Tech Business: Entrepreneurial Experiences and Insights

Editor(s): José Miguel López-Higuera, Brian Culshaw

Author(s): Colleen Fitzpatrick

Published: 21 March 2008

Chapter DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1117/3.786604.ch9

Chapter Page Count: 10 pages

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Front Matter

Part I: Reflections, Motives, and Money
1. Some Suggestions from an Economist to a New High-Tech Starter

2. The Academic Entrepreneur: An Oxymoron?

3. Money

4. Confessions of a Start-Up Junkie

5. Being an “Intrapreneur” and an Entrepreneur in the Optoelectronics Industry

Part II: Some Case Studies
6. Mirada Solutions: The Case Study of a University Spin-Off

7. Building a Company the Old-Fashioned Way: Meadowlark Optics, Inc.

8. Building a Lasting Optical Design and Manufacturing Company

9. The Life and Times of a High-Tech Entrepreneur

10. A Case from Russia: IPG Photonics

11. Wacko WYKO

12. The Ocean Optics Story in a Nutshell

13. Experiences Starting a Nano-Sized Company

14. The Story of Fiberonics

15. Founding a Fiber-Optic Component and Sensor Business

16. How to Start a Small High-Tech Business in Troutdale, Oregon

17. SMARTEC: Bringing Fiber-Optic Sensors into Concrete Applications

18. “An Earth Odyssey” or Fibersensing

19. The First Years of Crystal Fibre A/S from a University Perspective

20. Multiwave Photonics: Building a Fiber Optics Company in Portugal

Part III: Supporting the Entrepreneur
21. Developing High-Tech Companies in Spain and Portugal

22. Intellectual Property in High-Tech Entrepreneurship

23. Support for a Young Company

Part IV: The Universities
24. Strategic Support: The Case of the Technical University of Madrid

25. University Research and the Optics Industry

Back Matter

Preview

Excerpt

Twelve years ago, when I was laid off from my job at a small high-tech laser company, I decided to go it on my own. I figured that if nothing else, I would at least learn something. Little did I realize how right I was. Because women in laser physics are in the vast minority, and female high-tech business owners are an even smaller group, if nothing else, I have learned what it is to persevere.

9.1 The Beginning

In 1989, I started my company in my garage—or, more accurately, in half of my garage (I still needed a place to park my car). Although I grew up around businessmen—my father was a successful entrepreneur—I had little if any practical business experience. At that time, I started my company because that is what I felt was the next step. The company I had just left was disintegrating, which brought out the worst in everyone as they scrambled to protect their jobs. I did not want to walk back into a cut-throat atmosphere like that with the same kind of boss. I wanted to disconnect from the fast track that had so blindly swept me away and reorient my life to go more in the direction I wanted it to go.

When I lost my job, I received no severance package, so I had only my own savings to live on. I thought I could last about a year without an income, but actually, my savings ran out long before that, and I lived on loans until I received payment on my first contract. During the first couple of years in business, I did whatever I could to earn money to support bad habits such as paying my bills on time. I tutored high school students in math, I did word processing, and I even went on game shows. (To answer your next question, “Wheel of Fortune” and “To Tell the Truth,” where I won a combined total of five house payments.) In my spare time, I decided to enjoy life, so I had inexpensive adventures such as white-water rafting and volunteering as an extra for the local opera. I also made my home as comfortable a place to work as possible, since I was spending the majority of my time there.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1117/3.786604.ch9

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