Hiroshi's Desk

Trust is the glue that holds business relationships together. 

Today I made a visit to R2 semiconductor where I visited an old friend and met a new one.  I saw intelligence, perseverance, and focus.  Both very focused and technically solid people, you often find the cream of the crop in small outfits like R2.  Its tough working in a start-up there are so many issues to deal with many non-technical.  I really appreciate what their team has done.  My visit reminded me of  the story of Hiroshi's wallet.

I joined a start-up Keyeye around late 2002 or early 2003 time-frame.  At my previous company we had been doing research and development on communication circuits until that changed.  At the situation we were trying to start our family my wife didn't want to move.  Keyeye was one of a very few ways to stay in Sacramento and still do cutting edge mixed-signal design outside of university research.  I took a huge pay-cut with the goal to make it back in stock.

Hiroshi Takatori was a founder and the CTO of Keyeye at the time.  We don't talk much anymore unfortunately, but what I can say about Hiroshi is that he is a brilliant and incredibly hard-working man.  Hiroshi  basically dedicated a big chunk of his life toward the success of Keyeye.  He was very careful in who he hired.  He had many criteria but one was to bring aboard straight-shooters (like himself) and people he could trust.  His style is Japanese and he liked to do all the system simulations which he did at his desk which was located right in the center of our office building.  He had no cube walls around his desk, he would sit watching the company work from his central location.  We all had cube-walls fortunately.  You could not go into the break-room, the front-door or the lab without passing by his desk.  He pretty much had the same set of items on his desk all the time.   His computer, butcher paper (for system diagrams), bucket of pens, FORTRAN print-outs, a container of dried sea-weed and his wallet sitting on the edge of the desk.

What I found interesting wast that over the first 3 years I worked there (before the move) his wallet basically sat in the same place everyday.  It was a fat wallet with lots of notes, business cards and money popping out the sides.  It was always there, always in the same spot.  We would all walk by it every day multiple times.   Guests visiting Keyeye would sometimes comment on it since it was so big and bulky looking, no wonder he didn't leave it in his pocket.

Nobody ever touched Hiroshi's wallet.  We all feared the dried seaweed.

I found that Hiroshi's wallet symbolized one of the key elements of characters in a start-up which is trust. When in a start-up you wear many hats, do many functions.  You focus on the success of the company your funding partners are helping you to create.  There are few checks and balances.  Your responsibility is huge, and your risk is high.  If your character is weak, then you do not belong there.  You do not deserve the responsibility.  You need to trust each-other.  Your funding partners need to trust you to deliver.  If you are ever at a start-up and looking to hire someone, ask yourself if you would you trust them with your wallet?  If not, then keep looking.