Billions In The Bubble: Siara CEO Vivek Ragavan (Part 3)

SM: What was the plan to follow on and build upon Fiberlane?

VR: In the 1980s and 1990s there was a thing called SONET, which was a standard to carry signals over the fiber networks. It was designed for voice transmission. The Internet required a transition to data transmission. SONET was not initially designed for that. The idea was to develop something that was more efficient at transporting data than SONET was capable of doing.

There were a lot of technologists working on these technologies. Vinod was definitely someone who was pushing it as were other people in his group. He wanted to form a company that integrated SONET and data technology, and essentially integrate software and ASICs into one platform that carried and allowed data- centric SONET that could be enabled under the existing architectures. At the time we were seeing an explosion of carriers who were competing with the phone companies for service. It really formed a great market for this new service we were going to offer.

I came in a little late in the game, but I decided to give it a shot. It took me a while, longer than it should have to make the decision to come over because I was so comfortable at ADC.

SM: What were the hindrances in making that shift?

VR: I was enjoying myself at ADC. It was the first time I had ran a business unit and I found it different and fun. I was traveling the world, selling products, and engaging with customers. My wife and family were well settled in Connecticut. We all enjoyed our lives and I really enjoyed the company. It was exciting and a very fulfilling time.

While I was taking time with my decision, Vinod’s Fiberlane company was in some turmoil. There were different factions in the company. The first wanted to make a business out of making SONET itself more efficient and find ways to lower the cost of SONET. The other faction wanted to incorporate data transmission into SONET. Ultimately Fiberlane broke into two pieces. The group that wanted to focus on SONET efficiency became Cerent, and at the time it was a great idea.

Vinod recognized that Cerent was really about an incremental change. It was about reducing the cost of an existing technology. Vinod really wanted to transform the network, and so the other faction, which focused on the data-centric aspect of SONET, became Siara. Vinod had already found a CEO of Cerent, but he had not found anyone for Siara. He called me back a few months later and offered me the Siara position. I came out, and the rest is history.

When I took the job the idea was really just a gleam in someone’s eye. There were some things which had been built at Fiberlane that we were able to build upon.

SM: It helped that you had built up your career in the engineering tract, because that is the stage the business was at when you joined.

VR: That is what I focused on. I had a great engineering background, and then the business building background from ADC. The technology we inherited was built at Fiberlane for a Cerent-type box. We had a great team at Siara, so that was a tremendous help.

This segment is part 3 in the series : Billions In The Bubble: Siara CEO Vivek Ragavan
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