Courtesy EcoScapes (http://www.ecoscapes.net)

Last year was my first time attending DVCon. So, that was the first time I got to witness the infamous EDA Troublemakers Panel. Last year Peggy Aycinena channeled her inner John Cooley with a provocative panel discussion entitled “EDA: Dead or Alive”. Of course, the EDA world looked very bleak back then, just months after the financial meltdown, Cadence financial woes, EDA layoffs left and right, VC funds shutting down … a forest fire of bad news sweeping the industry.

But just as the wildflowers bloom after the wildfire, optimism is returning to the EDA industry. (Gosh, that sounds really corny, huh). So it’s not too surprising that two EDA veterans will be at DVCon this year heralding EDA’s return. Fellow EDA blogger Paul McLellan and EDA Hall-of-Famer Jim Hogan have become the Captain and Tennille of EDA. They spoke at ICCAD on the future of chip design. And now they are giving another talk during DVCon entitled “So you want to start up an EDA company? Here’s how…”.

I don’t know what these guys are going to say, but if I were them, here are a few things that I’d point out that make for some optimism for starting up an EDA company now:

• There are lots of good EDA people looking for work, so this is a good time to partner with them or to get them on board for a lower salary than you’d have to pay otherwise.
• Small companies are able to use technology to their benefit to lower their cost of development. Development hardware is cheap and even rent-able through cloud computing providers. Open source software tools abound. The biggest cost will be your time.
• The cost of sales is dropping due to new technology. WebEx. GoToMeeting. Skype. Xuropa. These tools and others enable you to reach out to customers globally while never leaving your office.
• Then again, who needs an office? Working from home has never been easier.
• And who cares where you are located? It’s easy enough to collaborate with your virtual team globally. (Xuropa has people in the Bay Area, the LA Area, and France).
  
• The lack of VC money can also be a good thing. You retain ownership and control of the company and don’t have a “timetable” to “cash out”.
• The lack of VC funding also forces you to think about getting cash flow positive as quickly as possible. Rather than wasting time and money designing the perfect product, you’re forced to start selling it early which leads to better feedback and a better product.

The idea that the downturn is an opportunity is not new. In fact, Sean Murphy has been spearheading the whole concept of bootstrapping for some time now. Check out his site for some great advice. Also, Dharmesh Shah, founder of Hubspot, writes a great blog on this subject as well.

I’m still not sure if I’ll make it to DVCon this year, but if I do, I will definitely attend this session. If not, I’m sure someone from Xuropa will be there. Just like my EDA SaaS and Cloud Computing Roundtable last year, it’s not part of the regular program. It will be held Tuesday evening Feb 23rd from 6:30 – 7:30 in the Oak Ballroom at the Doubletree Hotel (where DVCon is going on). This will be right after the DVCon reception, so grab a beer or a glass of wine and head on over.

I hope to see you there.

Posted under Xuropa, business, industry, marketing

Many, many people ask the question, “Social Networking is interesting, but how can it impact my business?”.

This question, and many more are to be explored in a panel that promises to be fascinating and useful.  The event is organized by the Association for Corporate Growth (of which I am a member), and held at Cadence Design Systems in San Jose.

For more information and to register, go here.

Date/Time:

Thursday, January 28th, 2010; 6:00 PM - 8:30 PM

Location:

Cadence Design Systems, Inc.
2644 Seely Avenue, Building 10
San Jose, CA

Panelists:

Peter Coffee
Director of Platform Research
Salesforce.com

David Sacks
Chief Executive Officer
Yammer, Inc.

Charlene Marini
Director, Corporate Marketing
ARM, Inc.

Dr. Peter Young
Adjunct Professor, New Media
SJSU

Steve Brown
Director of System Design and
Verification Marketing
Cadence Design Systems, Inc.

Garrett Herbert
Partner - Merger & Acquisition Services
Deloitte & Touche LLP

See you there!

Posted under business, industry

Scott Hamilton

With the 2010 Winter Olympics approaching, there has been some talk recently about those sports that Americans talk about once every 4 years. One of them is figure skating.

Now, I’m not much of a figure skating fan myself, but my mother-in-law is. And all this talk reminded me of the time we took her to an ice skating show at the LA Forum. It was not just any old show … it was Scott Hamilton’s return to figure skating after a fight with testicular cancer. Scott was as close to a superstar as there was in men’s figure skating, having invented the back-flip and won the Gold medal in the 1984 Olympics. So seeing him back on the ice was a feel good story.

The show featured a lot of other well known figure skaters, including Dorothy Hamill and Katerina Witt, but the climax was towards the end when Scott Hamilton took the ice. Cheers went through the crowd as he performed move after move, if not flawlessly, at least without major error. Then came the moment of truth. Scott would now perform his famous back-flip.

The lights dimmed. A lone spotlight. A drum roll. Scott Hamilton took a deep breath, began his run, turned backwards, took off ……. and fell

Obviously, it was disappointing. This show was being recorded and going to be shown a week later on Network TV, so unfortunately it would not be as great a moment as we’d anticipated.

When the show ended we started to gather our things when an announcement came over the PA that went something like this: “we’d like to do some extra takes of certain parts of the show. If you would like to stay, please come over to the west side of the forum and fill in the seats over there.”

What happened next I should have anticipated, but for some reason I was naive. The show producers proceeded to repeat parts of the performance where skaters had fallen or stumbled.  And of course, that included Scott Hamilton’s back-flip. Time after time the lights dimmed, the spotlight fell, and Scott skated and tried his back-flip. Finally, I think it was after 4 or 5 tries, Scott Hamilton nailed it and a roar went through the crowd.

I made a point of watching the performance when it aired on TV a week or so later. And sure enough, nobody fell or even slipped up. And of course, Scott Hamilton successfully executed his back-flip on his first try, to the cheers of a huge crowd.

Having been in the EDA business for many years, I know that a lot of EDA tool demos are a lot like Scott Hamilton’s return performance. If features don’t quite work, the demo avoids those features. Or if the feature is critical, then that is the one that gets fixed while other not-so-critical features may be left broken. It’s part of the smoke and mirrors that is the least well kept secret of EDA tool demos. The customer knows that the EDA company is avoiding the holes in its product.

But what if you don’t have big holes in your product? What if your tool really can nail that back-flip on the first pass? What if your tool really is a “game changer”? Won’t they believe you if you show them? After all, seeing is believing!

Unfortunately, customers have become so cynical and jaded about EDA tools and EDA salespeople that they hardly ever believe what they see anymore. I know. I’m also one of those customers. Read ESNUG or any one of the many EDA forums and you’ll know that I’m right.

But what if they could try the tool out themselves? No strings attached. That’s what we are trying to do with the Xuropa labs. To give your jaded, non-trusting, cynical customer a chance to try your fabulous tools himself.

“Seeing is believing” is no longer good enough. “Doing is believing” is the new reality.

If you’d like to see what a Xuropa Online Lab is like, you can try it out here. We’ve got some tools loaded and you can play with them as long as you like. No strings attached.

Oh, and to be fair to Scott Hamilton, here’s a video of him nailing that same back-flip just a few weeks ago. In this case, seeing is believing.

Posted under Xuropa, business, industry, marketing

There was some good news today when the Institute for Supply Management reported that the purchasing managers index rose to its highest level since April 2006 - 55.9.  This is yet another sign that we’re heading in the right direction, but we’re far from out of the woods.  Many of the factors built into the Wall Street Journal article back in August are still with us, and so the path we’re on remains unclear - Sharp Rebound; Slow Growth; or Double-Dip.

Since the recession officially started two years ago, we’ve all been focused on the bottom line and cutting costs like crazy.  The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in December that Productivity in the non-farm business sector in Q3 of 2009 rose by 8.1%, the largest increase since the same quarter in 2003.  Which means that businesses are doing a great job of getting the most out of their remaining workforce after multiple Reductions in Force.

However, as we move forward, we need to change our focus if we’re to do more than just survive.

Moving Focus to the Top Line

So the question is, while we’re on the path to recovery, how can we take advantage of the sales opportunities that arise and grow the top line?  Traditionally, if we were to focus on increasing sales we’d have to invest ahead of the curve in sales resources - new or additional account, regional, country, or market coverage. 

In this environment, the length of a sales cycle is not predictable and when the recovery will actually occur is unknown.  This brings a great deal of “Balance Sheet Uncertainty” when companies do not have the resources to gamble.

Balance Sheet Uncertainty

So again, what do we do to get back into growth?

Enterprise Software - Take Your Product and Business Online

Fortunately, for Enterprise Software companies, there is an option - move your software and sales process online.  I do not mean for you to rewrite your software and business model overnight, but to install your software as-is on the Xuropa Platform.  You can then delivery your product for demonstrations, evaluations, training, or even in a post-sales Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model.

In this manner, you are able to lower your cost of sales while focusing on growing your top line revenues.

Revenue Growth with Xuropa

Once your software is installed on the Xuropa Platform, you’ll be able to employ it to solve a large number of sales challenges.  And your business will be able to participate in the benefits of the SaaS model without having to re-invent your company. 

For more information on how we can grow your revenues, contact us at sales[at]xuropa[dot]com.

Posted under business, industry

Maybe you missed the news (as I did), and only caught it once the Thanks Giving turkey had settled - but great news it is indeed!

Slower than other platforms (eg. Facebook Connect), LinkedIn has been integrating out into the web, but now the pace is really picking up. 

On November 9th LinkedIn announced the Twitter partnership, and then came the really exciting news - the doors really flew open with an official LinkedIn Platform play on November 23rd.

We’ve been waiting for this a long time.  Ever since we enabled the import of LinkedIn Profiles into your Xuropa Profile we’ve wanted to enable our users to move data smoothly between the two platforms. We’re not about re-inventing wheels if we don’t have to.

Currently, we’re on a march to improve the overall usability of the Xuropa Platform.  But look forward to some interesting integrations in the future.

Posted under Features, Xuropa, business, marketing

My favorite source of online music is Pandora and their Music
Genome Project.  If you’re not familiar with them, it’s a web based service that streams high quality music to your browser through a flash applet.  Just the idea of working out my musical “genetic” make-up was cool to me, but it was the exploratory nature of it that really got me hooked.

Essentially, you first of all seed your stream with some of your favorite tracks, musicians, or bands.  From that Pandora’s algorithm starts to stream to you similar music with the bands you selected sprinkled in.  The genetic part of it is when you see common threads across music that you may not have listened to or heard of otherwise…but you like.  For example, seeding with 80’s alternative music (New Order, Joy Division, Spear of Destiny, etc.) got me to modern era Killers, The Strokes, and a few other bands that I either hadn’t heard of, or only peripherally.  But you can tell their “musical genetic makeup” is very similar…and I liked it!

So - a cool app that many people love, but their business model was broken.  There they were delivering tons of value to users, but they were trying to monetize that value through advertising.  Of course this wasn’t working for them, especially as they have to pay royalties on the music they stream.  So today I noticed that they have moved over to a subscription, or “freemium” model.  This makes complete sense.  You get 35 hours free per month, and then you have to pay $36 per year for better audio quality and no advertising (there are other premium features, but who really cares about “skins”?)    There we have it - Music-as-a-Service!  MaaS!!

Now that their platform is built, their greatest costs are licensing royalties that I’m assuming they pay after the fact.  So charging “power users” up-front will put them in a good position to fund the company and the royalties.  I hope they make it (there were rumours that they were struggling hard and may even shut down).

Now, why $36?

SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) is all about charging for value as that value is consumed…or as near to this as is reasonable to expect, ie. monthly or annually (with discount).  And here lie the challenges for companies looking to move to a SaaS model:

1. Is there a free (or relatively cheap) version of the product with a reduced feature-set that provides some value without giving up the farm?
2. Can the lower priced version of the software be delivered and supported in a low cost manner?
3. Is there a clear and natural path to upgrade to the premium product that will make up the core of your business?
4. What are the features of your software that provide 80% of the value…and what is their value to the end-user?
5. What is that value, what is it worth, and how should it be charged?

Within the electronic design tool industry segment, business models and use models are essentially orthogonal today.  SaaS provides a way to bring these models more in line. 

But as I’ve argued before, unlike the current license-based model, it’s not a simple equation for electronic design tools with a one-size-fits all approach.  Not only do different tools deliver different levels of value, but also the value is consumed in different ways - ie. use models differ depending upon the tool being used and where in the chip design process the tool is being used (verification and simulation tools are a good example of this variance over time).

Fortunately, a SaaS model not only provides a low cost delivery and support vehicle, it also provides you with visibility into the use of your product and the mechanisms to adapt relatively quickly to market conditions and learnings gained. 

There-in lies the opportunity to better serve your customers, and your investors…or maybe GET customers and investors!

Posted under business, industry

(Photo courtesy Yankee November)

Hi! This is Harry Gries (aka the ASIC guy). And this is my first blog post at Xuropa.

It’s been almost a year since I made some bold predictions on my other blog concerning the impact of Cloud Computing and Software-as-a-Service on the EDA industry. So, I thought it would be interesting to revisit that blog post and see where we are today, this being my first official post on the Xuropa Blog.

The gist of my original post was that a revolution does not happen overnight, but often depends on the confluence of critical technologies. As Ron Ploof had pointed out in his post on the Birth of a New Media Revolution, social/new media required easy-to-use publishing tools (e.g. Wordpress), simple syndication/distribution (e.g. RSS), and low-cost bandwidth. Once those were in place, new media hit the tipping point.

My similar prediction concerning an EDA evolution was as follows:

The pieces are coming together for a revolution in EDA. Like most revolutions, it is starting small, hardly noticed by the big guys on the block. In the next 5 years, it will change our industry forever by leveling the playing field, allowing smaller EDA companies to compete with larger ones, giving customers greater flexibility on how and when they access tools and which vendor’s tools they use.

And the three barriers that I predicted would need to come down were:

1. The high cost of sales, marketing, and support.
2. Licensing models that lock-in customers.
3. Lack of comprehensive standards for tool interoperability.

So, where do we stand with respect to these barriers as compared to one year ago?

1. A funny thing happened since last Labor Day. The world’s economy hit a bit of a bump in the road. Reducing the cost of sales is no longer a good idea or a key initiative … it’s a matter of survival. And “doing more with less” is the mantra. In the world of EDA, we’ve seen companies slash their AE headcount and marketing budgets. New media, which was pretty much just Synopsys last year, is now a part of almost every company’s marketing plan. And Xuropa, in particular, has seen growth from just a stealthy startup to having a key customer in Cadence and dozens of other EDA companies looking to adopt on-line labs as part of the sales process as a way of doing more with less.
2. Licensing models continue to become more flexible. Synopsys introduced e-licensing, similar to Cadence’s eDACard, enabling peak licenses for periods as short as a week. Cadence launched their Hosted Design Solutions which constitutes a SaaS-like option for small companies looking to turn capital expenditures (CapEx) into Operating Expenses (OpEx). Semiconductor companies want to take advantage of the cost savings and flexibility of cloud computing and are asking their EDA suppliers for flexible licensing models to support them. And the idea of SaaS as a way to differentiate a software offering is being conceived by EDA execs, not just Xuropa and the crazy bloggers. Look for that to happen in the next year.
3. On the standards front, we’ve had the merger of Accellera and Spirit. We’ve also had a new flow offering from Synopsys, called Lynx, which could form the basis for an industry standard flow. And we’ve had other flow offerings from independent consultants like Steve Golson of Trilobyte with his flowmaker flow. Synopsys’ VMM now run’s on Mentor’s and Cadence’s simulators and vice versa for OVM. There’s talk of burying the UPF/CPF hatchet. And the world is awash in peace, love, and interoperability.

As I said last year, I’m optimistic and I’m also a realist. It will take several years and this revolution is still in its childhood. But there has been a lot of growing up in the last year. I can’t wait to write this post again next year when the revolution will be in its adolescence.

harry

Posted under business, industry

I’m sure there are very few people in EDA marketing departments with the time to read blogs this week, never mind write one - about 96 hours from now the show floor of DAC will open in San Francisco and all their work for the past six months will be front and center.  (No one really thinks about DAC seriously until January is out of the way.)

Anyway, the pressure is off Xuropa.  Being online and available globally 24/7 definitely has its advantages

We won’t have a booth, but we will be there walking the floor talking to vendors and users about what we could do to help their business or experience on the Xuropa Platform.  If you see me walking the floor I’d love to hear your feedback - it’s a great opportunity to meet people that have a passion for EDA, SaaS, and the future of the business of the semiconductor design industry.

If we don’t bump into each other on the exhibition floor (or at the Denali Party), stop by the ChipEstimate booth (#1100) at the below times.  The Cadence Verification IP team will be presenting their products and providing attendees the ability to use the products for themselves on the show floor - using their Xuropa Online Labs.

They haven’t had to worry about installing PC’s and testing them just before the exhibit opens.   Everything is all ready to go and sat up on the Xuropa Platform.  They’ll be using the ChipEstimate PCs with just a browser on the day.  Of course, once the show is over the demos will still be available 24/7 for anyone in the world to continue to go into the Lab and trial Cadence products - a beautiful thing.

So, here are the times.  Susan Peterson will be presenting and I’ll be stood in the wings to answer any questions and get feedback during the demo sessions.

• Monday at 2pm
• Tuesday at 2pm
• Wednesday at 1pm
• Thursday at 10:30am

Enjoy the show, and hope to see you there!

- James

Posted under Xuropa, business, industry, marketing

(It’s been too long since my last post (we’ve been *really* busy at Xuropa), but this is too big…)

There has been buzz about a Google OS for a while, but it’s now official - Google is getting into the OS business.

It’s been something that has been begging to be done for years - a fast, light, and secure OS that gets you onto the web “immediately”.  Back in 2001I even batted around the idea (Linux with an Opera browser) at Merinta (R.I.P.)  as a way to turn that company around (not enough gas).  In ‘95 Ellison had the idea of the Network Computer and announced it at Comdex of that year.  This was while I was at National Semiconductor working on x86-based set-top-boxes and the beginnings of what became to be Internet Appliances.  As with everything - the first goes around never make it, especially when they’re this revolutionary.  The first attempts, ideas, and runs at the problem spur the industry, the environment, the infrastructure, and the thinking of the day to lay the ground work for “the one” to make it happen.  All the pieces are in place for this to be a great success.  Exciting times.

I particularly appreciate in the Google blog post the statement that the OS is a “natural extension of” the browser.  The reversal of the exact position Microsoft took in defending its bundling of the browser with Windows when it first released IE to kill Netscape.  Sweet irony.

But to my point about it being bigger that it initially appears.  For example, Michael Arrington’s post on TechCrunch misses the mark.  He states that “The browser is the platform.  The browser is the UI.”  He’s only half right and is really missing the bigger picture.  The correct interpretation of the announcement, IMO, is “The Cloud is the Platform.  The browser is the UI”.  And it’s not just Microsoft that should be worried, but Amazon, all other cloud computing providers, and subsequently telecoms companies.

I expect to see a plethora of cloud-based services and a Chrome-based API to access them to come along with the Chrome OS.  The first obvious service is storage, but in terms of applications the sky’s the limit.  In fact, combining the OS with the browser not only gives Google a competitive position against Microsoft, it significantly strengthens their position against Amazon and other Cloud vendors.  It’s another choke hold on access to services that will be too sweet for developers to pass up.  Before you know, there will be services and applications built upon the Chrome OS/Browser API’s and a whole infrastructure put in place before Microsoft and Amazon can say “Department of Justice”.

I’ve always said that people were spending too much time talking about Microsoft’s monopolistic position and not looking at Google enough.  But just like the advent of other standard platforms (eg. the IBM PC and Windows), this is going to open up tremendous opportunity for industry growth…and mass schizophrenia.

Posted under business, industry

This day has been a long time coming - we can now officially announce that the Cadence MIPI Verification IP Online Labs are up and running!  This is a real vote of confidence in the platform from Cadence, and we’re looking forward to announcing more activity in the coming weeks.

Below is the full press release.  (Yes, the press release is trailing reality…but that’s the web for you.)

Online Community Lowers Cost of Sales, Enables Effective Leverage of Field Resources Globally

San Francisco, California – July 2, 2009 – Xuropa^SM Incorporated today announced the opening of the first Xuropa Online Lab featuring technology from Cadence Design Systems (NASDAQ:CDNS).

With only a web browser, approved visitors to Xuropa Online Labs can access the Cadence Incisive® MIPI verification IP Components. Users can run simulations, employing them on example circuits at their convenience.

The service is free to Xuropa Community members and dramatically simplifies the process of evaluating EDA software products. Users can begin to test drive applications in minutes vs. the days or weeks it used to take to get agreements signed, software downloaded, and keys installed.

The Xuropa Online Community presents networking and learning tools in a professional environment and is dedicated to electronic design.

Addressing a Dynamic and Global Marketplace

“The better educated customers are about Cadence products the more likely they are to call us. Having our technology available through Xuropa Online Labs enables customers to move beyond the datasheet to view presentations and videos, and actually use the technology themselves – at their desktops, and at their convenience,” added Susan Peterson, Verification IP Marketing Director at Cadence. “With no installation headaches to deal with, the evaluation process becomes more efficient and effective for us and our customers.”

Physical trade shows and conferences present engineers with the opportunity to try out new technologies and discuss them with experts. The Xuropa community complements these events by providing the tools and the experts online all year round, accessible from all over the world.

“Generic online communities are generally consumer-centric and electronic design companies tend to get lost in the noise,” Xuropa CEO and founder James Colgan explained. “The electronics industry focus of Xuropa brings resonance and helps electronic design companies connect with their customers. The Xuropa Online Lab, featuring the Cadence VIP, exemplifies our goal – to economically bring technology to engineers so they can make better purchase decisions faster.”

Availability

Xuropa Online Labs featuring Cadence Incisive MIPI verification IP are accessible at no cost to authorized Xuropa members. Go to www.xuropa.com and sign-in for access – Cadence MIPI CSI VIP Online Lab or Cadence MIPI DSI VIP Online Lab. For information about how to create your own Online Lab, or any of the other Xuropa community products, please contact Xuropa at the address below.

About Xuropa Incorporated

Xuropa^SM Incorporated was founded in 2007 by veterans from the internet, IT, and electronics industries. With the goal of economically and effectively bringing together the constituents of different industry verticals to accelerate business processes, Xuropa offers a unique environment that integrates professional networking, collaboration, marketing, and product evaluation tools. Xuropa’s current area of focus is the electronic design industry. http://www.xuropa.com/

Posted under News, Xuropa, business, industry