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It's
not unusual to hear talk around startups about bringing
in adult supervision to give a young company credibility
and maybe attract some venture funding.
Paul Baran
isn't interested in adult supervision for his startup.
He's 83.
"You
can say 83," Baran says, "or you can add the
two numbers together and get 11. I have all the fun an
11-year-old would have."
Baran is
sitting in the conference room of Plaster Networks, his
Menlo Park, Calif.
, networking startup. It's a company of about a dozen
workers housed in one of the valley's ubiquitous
strip-mall-style R&D developments. Next door is
GoBackTV, a company working on providing video streaming
to televisions. Baran started that company five years
ago, back when he was still in his 70s. He says the
early stage company's video delivery system is gaining
traction with luxury hotels outside
the United States
.
Serial
entrepreneur? You could say that. Baran helped start
nine companies, including Packet Technologies (which
became Stratcom),
Metricom
and Com21, all of which reached valuations of more than
$1 billion
, he says. And clearly he can't stop.
"If
you're having fun, why stop?" Baran says, a
seemingly constant twinkle in his eye. "I'll have
plenty of time after I get fully decrepit."
While
nobody keeps official track of these sorts of things,
let's just say Baran is a strong contender for the
valley's oldest startup founder. How many can you name
who were born nearly a half-century before
Silicon Valley
became
Silicon Valley
?
In a
perfect world, age wouldn't even be an issue. In a
perfect world we'd be saying: Eighty-three? So what?
What does age have to do with it?
But this
isn't a perfect world. This is
Silicon Valley
, age-obsessed
Silicon Valley
. This is a place where a key part of the narrative is
those kooky college kids — like
Jerry Yang
and
David Filo
, like
Marc Andreessen
, like
Sergey Brin
and
Larry Page
, like
Mark Zuckerberg
— who have an idea, start a company and become
fabulously rich.
This is a
place where some think only the young are innovative.
Remember Sequoia Capital
venture capitalist
Douglas Leone's
recent comment that his firm concentrates on young
entrepreneurs because people over 30 aren't innovative?
(Yes, he backtracked a bit, but still.) Ridiculous.
Right,
Paul Baran
?
Actually
... "I think it has a lot of merit," Baran
tells me. "When you look at major advancements,
most of it comes from the young ones, because they don't
know what can't be done."
Still,
Baran says, blanket statements are dangerous. There are
always exceptions. And he certainly doesn't believe
innovation has an age limit.
In fact,
Baran was over 30 when he came up with the innovation
for which he is best known — the idea that earned him
a National Medal of Technology and Innovation and gave
the rest of us the Internet. It was Baran who, while
working at the
RAND Corp.
in the 1960s, seized on the concept of packet switching,
chopping digital information into pieces that can be
sent across the Internet and reassembled when they reach
their destination.
He's been
at it ever since, which he says is simply second nature
for an engineer.
Now he's
focused on Plaster Networks, which builds adapters and
the software to create computer networks that rely on a
building's electrical wiring to carry digital signals.
The system can replace or complement a home's wireless
network, for instance. The company also provides remote
monitoring that can pinpoint any networking problems
that arise.
No, it's
not radical or cutting edge. But Baran thinks his
latest, self-funded venture has a chance of doing some
good while achieving business success. Will he guarantee
success?
Not a
chance.
Paul Baran
knows better. He's been around too long for that kind of
talk.
———
THE
WISDOM OF PAUL BARAN
On
consumers: "They get less and less interested in
the process of setting things up and they"re
totally beside themselves when something goes wrong.
They should just plug stuff in and forget it."
On tech
choices: "No technology is ideal everywhere."
On ideal
tech: "Any good technology becomes invisible over
time."
On
starting a company at 83: "I get to enjoy working
with wonderful people and have a lot of fun. And the
results are socially useful."
On the
valley"s youth culture: "You have to be very
careful with generalities. Because if you"re not
careful, you begin to think they're accurate."
On
innovation: "You play with a lot of things and a
lot of things you play with don"t work, so you
quietly flush them."
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