Techies are from Venus, Salespeople are from Mars:
Strategies for effective communication in a
start-up environment
Lance Laking, CEO
April 3, 2007

Outline
! Set the stage - the BTI context
! Culture & communication style
! Fostering teamwork
! Challenges
! Compensation / incentive programs
! Q&A
2

What’s driving BTI’s business? VIDEO !
The Web will only get more
crowded as sites increase
video offerings.
Typical Music File
Top video on YouTube viewed 41,786,882 times
5 Mb
Size of video: 12Mb
Typical Movie File That’s 500,000 Gb of traffic for just one video…
it’s a Gigabit World!!
1,500 Mb
Total Video Streams, 2005
With BTI’s equipment deployed at
1.5 Billion the edge of service provider
networks, they are able to
Total Video Streams, 2011* dramatically improve the delivery of
broadband Internet, video and
6.7 Billion
wireless experiences.
Estimated. Data: Akamai, Yankee Group.
Source: BusinessWeek: September 25, 2006.
3

BTI Photonic Systems
Design & market optical systems for the
“metro edge” of service provider &
large corporate networks.
BTI 2060
Global addressable market: $400M/yr today,
growing to $900M/yr by 2010. Metro
Acces Core
s
64 Carrier, Cable & Utility customers
Metro Edge
Strategic partner with Fujitsu
4

Our Value: 10G optical transport Network
Incumbent
West Route
5X Cost reduction
20X Footprint improvement
12X Power saving
1/10th Provision time
East Route
5

Management Team & Investors:
• Broad experience with Tier 1 OEMs & start-ups developing
optical systems for carriers.
• Proven ability to set strategy, engage customers & channels,
develop & deliver product, build brand & market share, secure
financing, exercise capital efficiency, and scale revenues.
Paul Harrison (BTI 2005)
Lance Laking (BTI 2001) \" VP, Sales - Dallas
\" President & CEO \" Ekinops, Xtera, Alcatel US
\" HUBER+SUHNER, Dynasty & Italy, Marconi UK
Components
Jon Boocock (BTI Jan 2007)
\" VP, Engineering
John Mills (BTI 2002)
\" VP/Co-Founder Catena (Ciena)
\" VP, Product Management \" VP/ Co-Founder Cadence
\" Nortel (Japan), BNR
\" Scott Newport (BTI 2003)
\" VP, Operations
Glenn Thurston (BTI 2004) \" Accelight Networks, IBM,
\" VP, Marketing Celestica, Nortel
\" Nortel (Global Alliances)
\" Dave Van Duynhoven (2005)
\" VP, Finance. CPA, CMA
\" HUBER+SUHNER, Auditor
General
6

The take-away – our playing field:
\" A very technical product
\" A technical sales process
\" A long, complex, B2B sales cycle
\" Very much a David & Goliath landscape
7

Functional view: ~80 employees
4
16
9
Sales & Marketing
Product Marketing
6 Development
Mfg & Ops
Finance, IT & HR
45
8

Venus & Mars
Photonics research Sales & Marketing
9

Motivation & drive:
different strokes for different folks
\" Peer recognition
\" “coin operated”
\" Papers published, patent
\" “show me the money”
applications
\" Speaking at industry forums
\" Technical challenge
10

But wait a minute:
we’re not that different
\"Everyone needs recognition - the “feeling” that you are important,
!
that you are contributing to the success of the business, and that
your efforts are respected and appreciated by fellow employees
! On budget / On time
! Cracking a new customer
! Selling on value
! Customer testimonials – helping solve real problems
\"Technical teams want to work on a successful products. Sales
#
teams want to sell winning products. The common metric is real
customers and market share.
11

Culture
Every company has a culture, every company has politics
\" Perception is reality
\" Work with it
Observations / my sandbox
\" Not your “typical” Tech CEO
\" Significant company restructuring in 2002
\" Culture changes with company lifecycle:
\" The 1-5-10-25-50-100M barriers
\" Optical Engineers ! software engineers ! hardware engineers ! systems
engineers
\" And we’re as multinational as it gets
12

Communication style
\" Not your `typical` Tech CEO
\" Be OPEN, honest, straightforward
\" Try to tie in the remotes
\" Set 3, clear over-arching objectives, & repeat
\" Share the numbers, the good, the bad & the ugly
\" Regular informal updates
\" Semi-annual formal update
\" No problem with mistakes (but not repeat mistakes)
13

Challenges
\" The VC influence
\" The same vested interest or ??
\" An exit and minimum 20% IRR is natural
\" As the company grows up…
\" Start-up excuses go away
\" Employment / HR expectations expand
\" Act BIG, be small gets harder
14

Fostering teamwork
Trade notes
\"
\" Technical teams are starved for customer feedback
\" Sales teams are starved to technical innovation / uniqueness
Push decisions to where the expertise resides
\"
Product marketing / product line management is the key linkage
\"
On occasion…take a ‘software geek’ to a customer,
\"
and bring a ‘sales puke’ into the lab
15

Fostering teamwork – have fun
If a man insisted always on being serious,
and never allowed himself
a bit of fun and relaxation,
he would go mad or become unstable
without knowing it
Herodotus
16

Fostering teamwork – have fun
\" Organize events at least quarterly
beach volleyball
\"
yoga
\"
Skating on the canal,
\"
curling (yes, curling)
\"
picnics, whatever
\"
at least one party with spouses / guests
\"
\" The leader sets the tone, but the activities are
best when event coordination is spread around
17

Compensation & Incentives
\" Fair, transparent and equitable
\" People talk, especially engineers
\" Salaries (the “start-up” factor)
\" You have to be competitive – but not the highest
\" You have to pay a premium for “A” players – but it’s worth it
\" Challenge, responsibility, recognition and reward trump pure $$$
18

Compensation & Incentives
Company-wide incentive plan
\"
\" 10% “at plan” , 20% stretch
\" Metrics must be aggressive, but realistic
\" Combination of financial / market / product milestones
\" Always drive home the capital efficiency message (Cash Flow
Positive…)
Stock Options
\"
\" Still in vogue, but not Holy Grail
“Fun” rewards work
\"
\" Create a friendly competition / bragging rights
\" Does not require big bags of $$$
\" Examples: IP\", a goofy award
19

Closing comments - Marrying Teams:
\"Set a tone that is open, based on mutual respect, and interactive
!
\"Don’t play favourites
#
\"Communicate frequently – informally and formally
$
\"Tie in customer and market touch wherever and whenever you can
%
\"Structure rewards and incentives to reinforce the behaviour and
&
culture that you are looking for
20

Thank you
E-mail: lancelaking@btiphotonics.com