College
of Business Communications Feature
One
of an occasional series of feature stories on the web
Entrepreneurship
and Technology:
Challenges and Rewards
While Dr. Prith Banerjee said he expected difficulty in starting his own technology company, he discovered that there are many things about the start-up that had to be learned by the seat of his pants.
"(Engineers) have this idea that 'if you build it, they will buy it,'" he said. "But that's not true. You have to adapt your technology to the market."
In the second event of the 2003 Center for Entrepreneurial Development (CED) speaker series, Banerjee emphasized that despite the difficulties establishing his venture, AccelChip, Inc., he plans to repeat the process with at least one more company now that he has learned the key aspects to success. AccelChip develops and markets high-level synthesis tools to accelerate the process of chip design.
Banerjee, the former director of Computational Science and Engineering program at Illinois and now at Northwestern University, said he learned many lessons on how to start a company that cannot be taught in the classroom. Along with having unique technology, he commented, your product must have compelling value propositions for a specific market, and you must recruit a quality team.
Most importantly, he had to learn how not to run his business, when he eventually had to relinquish some his control over the company in order to secure its future. Banerjee learned that, as an engineer, he could not succeed by hiring friends, and that he would have to hire an experienced managerial team to attract investors.
"Imagine you're a parent, and you've raised a child. After a while someone tells you to give it up and let him raise it," Banerjee explained. "To take it the next level, you need to know when to give up. It was not easy, but I'm glad now. And the next time I'll start right away with experienced management."
Banerjee also had to develop a product that customers would "care" about. At AccelChip, he believes they have done that, entering the Digital Signal Processing (DSP) market. DSP technology is used in everything from cellular phones to national defense. Their technological advances produce the design chips used in DSP in a matter of days. Previously the design took two to three months.
Despite having a stellar product, Banerjee faced several challenges, including timing. He started AccelChip in 2000, around the time of the infamous burst of the tech bubble. AccelChip was nearly victimized by the market before it got off the ground. But Banerjee didn't compromise his dream.
And though he was forced to adapt parts of his vision, he refused to take AccelChip out of Illinois, despite the recommendations of potential investors. While he admits that raising funding and finding a quality team is tough in Illinois, he was determined to show that it could be done.
"I wanted to prove that is could be done," Banerjee said, "I took it as a personal challenge."
Though Banerjee said he would wait until AccelChip achieves success before starting another entrepreneurial venture, AccelChip's partnerships with Boeing and Lockheed-Martin, among others, signal that his next venture may not be far off.
Yet, with all the success that Banerjee has achieved with his company, he says the success of his product is where his satisfaction lies.
"The fun part is, to have created something from a research lab that becomes a product," Banerjee said.
--Christopher
Boyce
April 2003