In 1995, Shai Agassi was working on a project for Apple that was dropped because it relied too heavily on the Internet, which at the time was still a new concept to the public.
Shai Agassi.(Wikimedia)
When that project ended — along with a few other failed portfolios — Agassi was left with very little cash, so he worked fast and put together a prototype for a product to market within months:
"I called a good friend from Apple, who called a few good friends he knew, and all of a sudden the mythological stories about funding a business in Silicon Valley became my reality. Within two weeks we had the capital lined up. We were looking for $500,000, but raised $800,000 from 14 individuals."
"As for TopTier Software, the company that went through this near-death experience in the summer of 1996. Well, we sold it 18 months later, for the whopping sum of $110 million. I stayed on for three more years as CEO, and in 2001 sold the company again to SAP. This time for $400 million. I stayed at SAP, too. It became my next home."
"And the lesson from my mistakes? Trust no one but yourself with the fate of your company. Don't tie yourself onto a troubled ship nor should you tie your fate to a bunch of small boats. Neither of these options will take you in the right direction ... That and hard work will make you very lucky in life."
(Source: LinkedIn)
This entry was posted
on Thursday, September 4, 2014
at Thursday, September 04, 2014
and is filed under
inspirational-stories-of-success
. You can follow any responses to this entry through the
.
