Thought Leaders in Cyber Security: Mark Lee, CEO of Splashtop (Part 1)

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Remote work has boosted some great trends. Read on for more on the cyber security front.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start by introducing our audience to yourself as well as Splashtop.

Mark Lee: Thanks for having me. I am the CEO and co-founder of Splashtop. I’m an immigrant from Taiwan. I came here when I was 13 years old. I went to high school in the Los Angeles area. I went to MIT for college. I heard that you went to MIT as well. 

Sramana Mitra: When were you at MIT? 

Mark Lee: I was there in the class of 1993 and I was an undergrad of their grad school in 1994. 

Sramana Mitra: We were there at the same time. I was there from 1993 to 1995. I was in the Ph.D. program. I was in the class of 1993 from Smith’s College Computer Science, then I went to course six for my grad school. As I was finishing my master’s thesis, I started a company. I left after my master’s and didn’t stay for the Ph.D. Are you also in course 6?

Mark Lee: Yes, I was more course 6-1 – an undergrad of electrical engineering, but it’s all part of course 6. I was taking mostly computer science classes though.

Sramana Mitra: Who was your adviser?

Mark Lee: I don’t know if you know Amar Gupta. I was doing handwriting recognition for AI. I wasn’t specifically working with grad students. I was part of the 6A program. I worked for Intel every summer. My master’s thesis was done at Intel.

Sramana Mitra: Are you now in the Bay area?

Mark Lee: Yes, I have been here since 1997.

Sramana Mitra: I moved at the end of 1996.

Mark Lee: You are in the Bay area as well. That is great.

Sramana Mitra: I’m in Menlo Park. Where do you live?

Mark Lee: I live in Saratoga. Our office is in Cupertino. It’s five minutes away from my home.

Sramana Mitra: Okay, tell me about what you are doing and tell me about Splashtop.

Mark Lee: Splashtop is my second startup. The first one and this current one were founded with three other MIT friends.

Sramana Mitra: Is the second one still done with the same team – the same three guys?

Mark Lee: Yes.  I don’t know if you know Robert Ha, Thomas Deng, and Philip Sheu. They are the three MIT buddies of mine. We have known each other for 30 years. This is our second startup together.

Sramana Mitra: The other one was also in cyber security.

Mark Lee: The other one was more in data center server management. 

Sramana Mitra: What happened to it? Did you sell it?

Mark Lee: Yes, we sold it in 2004 to a public company. We stayed on for two years as part of the deal. In 2006, we started this venture. This venture has taken longer to build.

The first one started in 2000. It was in the server data center system management. Dell, IBM, and HP servers still use the same software that we developed over 20 years ago. I have been an entrepreneur for the past 20 years.

This segment is part 1 in the series : Thought Leaders in Cyber Security: Mark Lee, CEO of Splashtop
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