Senior ex-Irvine WD'ers to join me in High-Speed Serial Protocol Analyzer garage start-up?

I spent 9 years with WD (between 2004 and 2013) but left voluntarily to continue development of my side-business (InternationalTestInstruments.com), in which I develop high-speed serial protocol analysis for USB 2.0, 3.0 and PCI Express. I have sold about 1000 of these units over the years generating about $500K of revenue off an AdWords ad. The current product is a USB 3.0 Protocol Analyzer (5 Gbps), which is the most advanced protocol analyzer so far. I have distributors in some 15 countries. Due to me working alone, the product development cycles are too long so the revenue would definitely benefit from additional engineering resources!

I would consider teaming up with a hard-core electronics engineer with solid expertise in FPGA Digital Design (Altera/Verilog), general board design skills (Altium Designer, high-speed), firmware skills (Cypress FX2LP,C), high-speed memory interfaces (DDR2/SODIMM) etc to off-load me with software development, marketing etc. The right person would need to be hard-core (not a regular 9-5 employee drone) and love to invest his own time to build something solid for the future. Ideally, you would have your own home-lab with most equipment but no serious project to work on.

Note that this is not a regular job. I don't offer any salary. You would be a co-entrepreneur and share in the revenue. If you are looking for a job, this is not it. Currently, the revenue is barely enough for me to live on so this is a high-risk venture. This is, however, an opportunity for a senior engineer that is sick of working as a corporate drone and that would love to spread the wings and really make a difference. I have a full-blown lab with 13GHz scope, USB 3.0 protocol analyzer, spectrum analyzer, TDR, 4 other scopes, logic analyzers, reflow oven, BGA rework station, hundreds of technical books related to EE/SI/ PCB design/SW development, SI software etc. In other words, everything needed to design and prototype complex designs. I currently work from home, in my lab in the garage and home office.

If interested, ping me through either of my web sites:

InternationalTestInstruments.com

SummitSoftConsulting.com

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9 replies (most recent on top)

The op hustles

All enterpreneurs hustle

So, a kudos from me

Holy Cow! With a project resume like that (SummitSoftConsulting.com) I don't understand why you aren't a millionaire - or were several years ago already. I don't see how one person could accomplish all that. Seems like you enjoy very complicated system projects. While you are working on such technically difficult projects 20-somethings are just posting ideas on Kickstarter and Indiegogo and making millions for them. They don't work. They aren't designed. But they get the money....

You need to start a business/entrepreneur book section and see the light! Then hit on us again - I'm up for working on a cool idea that we could complete in a short period of time. And if that pays the bills, on to the next idea...

No you are the RUDE one a--hole to ask people to work for nothing for 12 hour days

Great post! Glad to see someone reaching out to the WD community and offering a start-up opportunity. Hewlett Packard was a start-up once, like so many other companies that succeed over time. I asked a CEO of several start-ups how he became succesful at it. He said "By willing to fail a lot!" But for him, at least, the successes more than made up for the businesses that didn't work out. Thanks for posting!

No, people that don't want to work 12 hours a day for money that is not guaranteed are not stupid. They simply have an employee mindset. And, as you have found, the down-side is that you may get laid off. Getting any business off the ground is far from easy and is not for everyone. If you are not interested, it's understandable. Most people will not take any chances. No need to be rude though...

John - Ignore the haters. You offered a gig, people can take it or leave it.

$500k in revenue and $500k in expenses... ? so work for nothing?

I think it's better to just make an app for cheaters or swingers like Tinder.

You must think people are stupid to work 12 hours a day for no money to make you rich, a--hole

Not in my area but I wish you all the best man - things like this make our country movign

Thread regarding Western Digital Corp. layoffs

Senior ex-Irvine WD'ers to join me in High-Speed Serial Protocol Analyzer garage start-up?

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