Gil Syswerda, Founder and Super Angel - Founding Startups

Sponsored by:

• Purdue University Entrepreneurship
• Peter Fasse, Patent Attorney at Fish & Richardson

AI wiz, founder and angel investor Gil Syswerda on building algorithms and companies. This episode focuses on Gil’s biography and his startups. It’s the first in-studio interview since spring 2020. We had a blast!

Highlights:

• Sal Daher Introduces Gil Syswerda, Founder and Super Angel
• Gil Syswerda Lucked into a Great High School – Built His Own Calculator
• "Computer programming. What is that?"
• “Because programming a computer for the first time you have this machine that just does whatever you tell it to do. The power is just indescribable. It just seems like the possibilities are unlimited.”
• Selling Cutco Knives to Pay the Rent – Learned to Sell
• “...I taught myself programming on that computer at Calvin College...”
• “When I wasn't at a place working, I would just fly to a city where I had friends and hang out with them. I just literally lived nowhere for a year.”
• Gil Meets His Wife Carol - They’ve Been Married 38 Years Now
• “One day I was at my job as a programmer, the next day I'm in class.”
• Animation Toolkit Was a Flop Because It Was Too Much of a Niche Product
• “The target audience is miniscule. We just didn't realize it. It was the classic mistake. If we build it, they will come.”
• Genetic Algorithms: A Lesson from Evolutionary Biology
• Gil Syswerda Gets into Hot Water with His Advisor by Being a Know It All
• BBN Labs – Gil Syswerda Wrote Seminal Papers in AI that Are Still Frequently Cited
• “What I really wanted was a job where I could use genetic algorithms and the only place on the planet that I could find that did anything of the kind was BBN Labs...”
• “I tried every way I could think of to get a ride in an F-14 but I never succeeded.”
• “Just because you're the CEO doesn't mean you have complete decision authority.”
• Optimax Systems Was Bootstrapped by the Founders – Had Revenue Right Away
• Raised Money to Cover Working Capital – Michael Mark Invested
• Pitch for Pater Fasse, Patent Attorney at Fish & Richardson
• “...created a machine for making scheduling systems and user manuals.”
• “We did not want to try to perpetuate the engagement with a customer by doing consulting...”
• Optimax Systems Followed Its Business Plan; Never Pivoted
• Shell Oil’s Tank Farm Broke Opitmax’s Optimization Algorithm
• Built a Scheduling System for the Mayo Clinic, Made the Mistake of Thinking Mass General Would Buy It Too
• “It was a very rapid four-year run to get an acquisition offer from i2 Technologies. We beat them in every single sales situation.”
• Optimax’s Revenues Had a Direct Positive Impact on i2 Technologies’ Earnings
• What Gil Syswerda Did After Leaving i2 – Travel the World + Race Cars
• The Big Lesson for Startups from Being a Race Car Driver
• Gil Syswerda’s Management Workflow at Optimax Systems
• Gil Syswerda Believes in Putting Boards to Work
• “...instead of becoming a professional race car driver, I decided to go back to my roots and build another hammer. Again, it's based on genetic algorithms...”
• “Machine Insight was to correct a really big tactical error that we made with Optimax Systems.”
• “I didn't even have to finish the presentation and they're already sold.”
• More Gil Syswerda to Come in Future Episodes

Topics: software, robotics / AI, product, selling, management, boards, co-founders