Being an entrepreneur has its price.
Gene Wang, founder and chief executive of Laguna Niguel-based Bitfone Corp., hasn’t been seeing much of daughter Gina, who’s off to Cornell University in the fall.
“I’m heartbroken,” said Wang, who’s been putting in 70-hour weeks and traveling to Europe, where wireless software maker Bitfone has customers.
But being an entrepreneur also has perks. To make up for lost time, Wang said he’s taking Gina on his next trip to Europe.
“I’m trying to make up for lost time without defocusing,” he said.
Focus might not be an issue for Wang, who, for the past five years, has been building Bitfone. The company is one of Orange County’s best-funded startups at about $60 million in venture financing.
The company could be due to make a splash,a public offering or acquisition, perhaps.
Bitfone makes software that allows wireless service providers to send software fixes to a user’s phone via their networks. That allows them to try and fix phones with software, instead of having to replace them.
Bitfone licenses software to customers and provides support. Customers include Japan’s NTT DoCoMo Inc., Motorola Inc., Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB and others.
The company also is a known quantity among wireless phone companies in Europe (the reason for Wang’s many trips there).
Over here, Sprint PCS Group recently put Bitfone’s software on its phones. Wang said he’s in talks with others.
“We solve a very expensive problem in a large, growing industry that is sensitive to costs,” Wang said.
Bitfone has drawn the eyes of wireless phone makers. Investors include Finland’s Nokia Corp. and Singapore’s Flextronics International Ltd., a contract electronics maker that produces phones for others.
And last week, Bitfone scored another big-name investor: Qualcomm Inc. The venture arm of the San Diego-based wireless company made an undisclosed investment in the company.
Wang called the investment small but “strategic.” Qualcomm is set to have an observer seat on Bitfone’s board, he said.
There are challenges. Chief among them: the glacial pace at which big wireless companies seem to move.
Take the company’s recent deal with Sprint PCS.
“We had been talking with Sprint for three years,” Wang said. “Just at the end of last year, they finally launched a phone with Bitfone inside. It just takes an awful long time, and they’re the first in the U.S.”
Rivals include Britain’s Insignia Solutions PLC and DoOnGo Technologies Inc. of Silicon Valley.
Wang doesn’t talk about Bitfone’s finances. The company has had big names approach it as an acquisition target, he said.
Wang hasn’t entertained any offers, he said. The last time he was approached?
“Last week,” he said. “We’re a very open-minded company. It’s definitely something we’d consider.”
Otherwise, Bitfone is looking toward a public offering.
“It’s going to depend on a lot of different factors,” said Wang, who said Wall Street’s appetite for new offerings and the weak dollar are concerns.
Bitfone moved to OC from Northern California in 2002 after buying a Nokia venture called Digital Transit, which was based in Dana Point.
Soon after, Bitfone moved to Laguna Niguel’s Ocean Ranch.
Wang, who lives in San Juan Capistrano, said he loves OC and has learned to surf since he’s been here.
After attending business school at Harvard University for a year, Wang dropped out in 1983 to form Gold Hill Computers, a maker of artificial intelligence software.
The company still is around, he said, but Wang doesn’t have any ties to it.
In 1997, Wang took a company public, Goleta-based Computer Motion Inc., a maker of surgical robotic devices that’s now part of Sunnyvale-based Intuitive Surgical Inc.
Bitfone also has a China Development Center in Beijing and recently closed one in Shanghai.
Beijing is where China’s telecom industry is,” said Wang, whose parents are from China.
Wang is an amateur jazz musician who plays flute, saxophone and guitar. He plays for kids at schools around his house and has done his own recordings of jazz for kids.
