There is life after Linksys for Victor and Janie Tsao.
The husband and wife entrepreneurs who sold Irvine’s Linksys Group Inc. to Cisco Systems Inc. six years ago are keeping busy these days with charitable works and pet projects. They’re also helping technology startups get off the ground.
In the past year or so, the Tsaos cut ties with San Jose-based Cisco, which integrated Linksys into its Irvine-based consumer products group after paying $500 million for the company in 2003.
After staying on at Cisco for a few years working in China, the Tsaos now have moved on from the business that was their lives for decades.
“We have no ties at this point with Cisco,” Victor Tsao said.
The Tsaos spent nearly 20 years at Linksys, the consumer networking gear company that they started out of their garage in 1988.
Today, Cisco’s consumer unit sees about $1 billion in yearly revenue, with a big chunk coming from sales of Linksys routers used by consumers to string together computers and printers at home.
The Tsaos are experts in the art of bootstrapping.
Now they’re looking to help a new crop of technology startups with venture money and advice.
The Tsaos, estimated by the Business Journal to be worth about $550 million, remain refreshingly down to earth.
“We started in the garage so we wouldn’t have to pay rent,” Victor Tsao said. “We didn’t really get paychecks for a few years. That’s where we started. Those are things that are required in today’s market.”
Miven
The Tsaos are a tag team at Newport Beach’s Miven Venture Partners LLC, a venture capital firm and family office Victor Tsao started in 2005 with Jawad Ansari, founder of Irvine-based Corporate Metrix Inc., a family office business. Ansari left last year.
Victor Tsao is general partner at Miven,he spends most of his time on the road scouting investments in Silicon Valley, China, India, Israel and Vietnam.
He sits on advisory boards for a handful of startups that have landed venture money from Miven.
Janie Tsao is president of Miven and runs day-to-day operations. She also does startup advisory work and heads the Tsaos’ family foundation.
Miven, which runs a $100 million venture fund, is big on investing in consumer technologies in software, wireless, chips, the Web and other areas.
Miven doesn’t disclose its investments. A few have been made public, including Santa Clara-based TZero Technologies, which was bought at the brink of closure this year by NDS Surgical Imaging of San Jose.
Others include Santa Clara’s VivoTech Inc., which makes technology for wireless payments, and Israeli chipmaker Celeno Communications Ltd.
At Miven, the Tsaos’ roles are more wide ranging now than in the Linksys days, where Victor was general manager and Janie headed sales and marketing.
“We are doing more things together,” Victor said. “It’s not as clear cut as it used to be because this is a lot smaller organization. We overlap each other often.”
Victor gives startup managers feedback about operations and logistics. Janie helps review business plans for product development, branding and marketing.
The two also are “there to bounce ideas,” Victor said. “It’s like a mentoring relationship.”
Their best advice: “Be realistic about your goals and focus on what’s achievable,” Victor said. “Consider the worst. Don’t plan for the best-case scenario.”
China
In their free time, the Tsaos have been brainstorming on a passion of theirs: How to foster “better communication, better exchange and less friction” between the U.S. and China.
“Janie and I study this all the time,” Victor said.
Both the Tsaos hail from a rural area in northern China.
Victor Tsao, who travels to Asia every month, said he purposefully stayed home in Newport Coast last summer to avoid the millions of people who descended on Beijing for the summer Olympics.
Viewing the action on TV, he noticed there were a lot of misunderstandings about China’s history.
“Watching all the reporters talk about China I found that as Americans, we don’t know all that much about Chinese culture,” Tsao said. “It seems like there’s a lot of mystery that surrounds it here.”
Although he didn’t give specifics, the Tsaos are looking to back a series of documentaries “that would allow us to understand each other better,” Victor said.
At Linksys, the Tsaos’ footprints are getting smaller as Cisco puts its stamp on the brand.
Being part of Cisco “put Linksys in a lot stronger of a position to expand,” Victor said.
“Cisco brought in a lot of good practices and processes that gives Linksys the flexibility to position itself for the future in a market that’s already mature,” he said. “The other side of being part of such a large organization is that it’s not as agile as it used to be. But that was something it had to compromise.”
The Tsaos still look back at their long days at Linksys with rose-colored glasses.
“I feel as if I’ve been on vacation for the past 30 years,” he said. “Linksys will always be a part of our lives and in our hearts.”
Conexant Names Presidents
Newport Beach chipmaker Conexant Systems Inc. promoted two of its own as co-presidents under Chief Executive Scott Mercer.
Christian Scherp served as Conexant president and Sailesh Chittipeddi was executive vice president of global operations and chief technical officer.
In their new roles, Scherp is set to head sales, marketing and program management.
Chittipeddi is set to manage engineering, operations, quality assurance, information technology and other support activities.
,Sarah Tolkoff
