Still at a loss for words for my previous company that went from a profit of $2 billion dollars in 1989 to a $700 million dollar loss in 1990. That is just one whole year! Talk about 0-100 real quick...sheesh... Consequently in my search for a new prospective job of an executive caliber I sent out a dozen letters to companies. Out of all the letters I sent out no one responded... except for... go on try and guess. That's right! Cisco Systems! Cisco had been founded in 1983 by a married couple, Len Bosack, the head of Stanford's computer-science department, and Sandy Lerner, who held a master's in business administration from the same school.
The couple had been searching for a way have Stanford's computers to be able to communicate with one another. Bill Yeager had developed a device called a "router" which enabled communication between various departments of Stanford via the famous language protocol known as Internet Protocol (IP).
After that the couple then built their company around the idea of the router. By 1986 the company was making $10 million a year. Venture capitalist Don Valentine came along the midst with $2.5 million to gain a third of ownership of the company. The three individuals then made Cisco public in 1990. However due to altercations with Valentine the president of Cisco, John Morgridge and the married couple founders of Cisco left and sold their shares of $170 million back to the company.
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