"Vision Matters" - Jen-Hsun Huang, CEO and co-founder of NVidia

오늘 아주 흥미롭고 유익한 podcast를 하나 발견했다. Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders라는 Stanford에서 entrepreneur들이 했던 강연을 모은 것이다. 그 중 NVidia CEO 편이 있었는데, 들으면서 그 생각의 깊이와 통찰력있는 perspective에 감동했다. 아래는 Podcast 들으며 요약한 것.



Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders: "Vision Matters" by Jen-Hsun Huang

iTunes URL: http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woz/wa/viewPodcast?id=80867514

Speaker: Jen-Hsun Huang – Co-founder, President and Chief Executive Officer
Jen-Hsun Huang co-founded NVIDIA Corporation in April 1993 and has served as President, Chief Executive Officer, and a member of the Board of Directors since its inception. Under his leadership, NVIDIA has become the world leader in visual computing technologies and one of the semiconductor industry's largest fabless companies. In 2004, the Fabless Semiconductor Association honored Mr. Huang with the prestigious Dr. Morris Chang Exemplary Leadership Award, which recognizes a leader who has made exceptional contributions to driving the development, innovation, growth, and long-term opportunities of the fabless semiconductor industry. Additionally, Mr. Huang is a recipient of the Daniel J. Epstein Engineering Management Award from the University of Southern California and was named an Alumni Fellow by Oregon State University. Prior to founding NVIDIA, Mr. Huang held engineering, marketing, and general management positions at LSI Logic, and was a microprocessor designer at Advanced Micro Devices. Mr. Huang holds a B.S.E.E. degree from Oregon State University and an M.S.E.E. degree from Stanford University.

Key Points

* Perspective matters. Vision matters. You have perspective, therefore you have vision. When Sequoia Capital approached me and asked me if search engine technology is an attractive one, and I said no. They invested anyway, and that company was Yahoo. I have perspective on what I do, but not on what I don't know. At that time, there were many search engines - Altavista, Lycos, ... What makes their perspective different from others? Some companies said that they are the destination and outsourced search engine technology.
* Our perspective was that 3D graphic was insatiable. Even when the customer says that it is too expensive and too powerful, and they say that you should not do something.. But we had our own perspective. So we ignored customers. They don't know the nature of your business. There is no way that they can possibly know.

* Continuous improvement: We made this better, better, and better. And at one time, it became "good enough".

* Passion is important: When you build a company, skill and intelligence matter. But passion matters more. When you build a company, ask yourself, "What is the purpose of building a company?" Be honest to yourself. In my case, I just loved the process of building something and being part of something.

* Need tolerance to failure: To become an entrepreneur, you need to have tolerance to failure. Try things even though it is impossible to calculate the risks. Follow your own instinct.

* CEO needs to be able to tolerate ambiguity.

* Did you have a business plan?
I never finished my business plan. I am still making it.

* Who are mentors? What was the best advice that you got?
- If you want to be successful, you need to have capacity to learn from anybody - even from your kids. I learn internet age from kids. I learn from talented executives and
- Advice: Focus matters. I do think about Nvidia 24/7

* Biggest challenges now?
- Reinvention of the company. Every success needs to be torn down at some point and need to be rebuilt. Sometimes it's distruptive or destructive.
- Reinventing the company every ten years is necessary. That's a fun challenging.

* How much did you invest at first?
- I met this investor and explained about the technology. He said that he needed my money to set up the company and asked me how much I have. I said, "$200". Then he said, "Okay". He took it, and I got 20% of share of NVidia. (the audience laughs)

* First few years. Cash is key. How did you manage cash in the beginning?
- Survival's always important and cash's always king. If you are not 1) making money, 2) raising money, or 3) saving money, you need to focus on those things. I have been raising money all the time. As a start-up, you always fail and are out of business.

* Leadership succession?
- One of the primary roles of the CEO, in order to grow the company, is to cultivate new leaders. I spend most of my times these days helping them think through various of subjects.

"Money is the only, singular reason not to start the company. Starting a company - very unlikely probably to succeed. You need to want to build something great. That is the only reason that you wanna do it. Ideas don't really matter. You have to have the perspective that is unique that you feel really strongly about it, and that you are willing to persevere any challenges to make it happen. That's the reason why you start the company. Thank you."