Gajus+Worthington

Related: Read about Fluidigm's breakthrough technology (Fluidigm.com) Fluidigm teams with Singapore's Genome Institute to establish cell biology research center in Asia 12/17/12 **Description** Gajus Worthington, co-founder of Fluidigm, talks about how the three members of the founding team of Fluidigm met in Stanford Physics professor Doug Osheroff's lab. Though the men went in separate directions after college, the bond that had formed between them remained. When one of them approached the two others with a business proposition about ten years later based on his research at Caltech, they joined him, and Fluidigm was formed. || media type="custom" key="22424994" || **Description** Worthington explains that the market climate at the time of the formation of Fluidigm, around 1999, was not favorable towards anything without dotcom in the title, and their funding requests were met with hundreds of no's. However, as the technology continued to develop, it became clear that they were on to something big; a small, simple rubber valve that was like an integrated circuit for biology, he says. || media type="custom" key="22425006" || **Description** Fluidigm started the wrong way, notes Worthington. Instead of discovering a market opportunity and then finding the technology and team to take advantage of it, they invented the technology first, realized its potential, and then searched for an application for it. Worthington suggests that most technology companies, in fact, work the latter way. || media type="custom" key="22425024" || **Description** Worthington talks about how the founders understood that the key to creating a successful company was picking only the very best people at every level of the company, especially the VCs and Board of Directors. Gajus sacrificed time (it took a year and a half to recruit some board members) and money (settling for a lower valuation from a better VC) to assemble the right team. || media type="custom" key="22425026" || **Description** Worthington explains that creating a company puts incredible strain on the founders and calls upon them to do things that people do not normally have to do. They way to get through these challenges is not by talent, but by obsession and determination, he says. Without these qualities, he would not recommend starting a company. || media type="custom" key="22425032" || **Description** After bringing together the best team, raising money in tough environments, and establishing and living by core values, says Worthington, Fluidigm focused on launching the product. The product development went much faster than anyone could have hoped and soon they had a product with many important features, including an immediate economic benefit to the customers. || media type="custom" key="22425048" || Entrepreneurs can get so caught up in the technology or science behind their product that they forget to focus on the business metrics which drive success. It is essential to pay attention to the margins and avoid price erosion. || media type="custom" key="22425108" || Though Fluidigm is essentially a tool company, which is not very glamorous, the venture was successful in raising funding because they were a real, functioning company that already had customers and were able to prove a real market. Worthington recommends not wasting time with venture capitalists that are not immediately enthusiastic about the company. Once they make up their mind against the company, there is no use pursuing it. On the other hand, when there is that mutual connection, pursue the VC relentlessly. || media type="custom" key="22425116" || Worthington relates an anecdote about how renowned intellectual property lawyer Bill Smith joined Fluidigm as general counsel. Worthington gave Smith the pitch before Fluidigm was even funded. Nonetheless, Worthington notes, Smith decided to join the team with the idea that it was going to be a total train wreck, and it was going to be really fun to watch. || media type="custom" key="22425122" || If Worthington could start the company over, he would hesitate less in firing people. Firing is one of the hardest things to do as a manager, but unfortunately is necessary in some situations and important to the future of the company. || media type="custom" key="22425130" || <span class="description_title" style="background-color: #eeeeee; font-family: arial,helvetica,clean,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">**Description** <span style="background-color: #eeeeee; display: block; font-family: arial,helvetica,clean,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">Worthington talks about how Fluidigm relied on two assets to help them recruit top talent: breakthrough technology and chemistry. Obviously, the technology was a big draw for many people to come to Fluidigm, he says. Chemistry was not as obvious an asset. Worthington got along well and developed strong relationships with many individuals that helped Fluidigm to recruit the top talent. || media type="custom" key="22425144" || <span class="description_title" style="background-color: #eeeeee; font-family: arial,helvetica,clean,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">**Description** <span style="background-color: #eeeeee; display: block; font-family: arial,helvetica,clean,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">Worthington would not trade his technical degree for an MBA. He sees entrepreneurship being about breaking many of the rules that one learns in business school. He sees being able to lead as much more important to having an MBA, and suggests practical experience as a better alternative. || media type="custom" key="22425158" || media type="facebooklike" key="http%3A%2F%2Fprofcraigarmstrong.wikispaces.com%2Fspace.template.Facebook%20Like%20template" width="450" height="80"media type="googleplusone" key="" width="450" height="24"
 * [[image:profcraigarmstrong/gajus_worthington.png]] || Before co-founding Fluidigm, as Mycometrix, Gajus Worthington held a variety of engineering, operations and marketing positions at Actel Corporation, which designs, develops and markets field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) and associated design and development software and programming hardware. Mr. Worthington served in several departments during his tenure at Actel, including product engineering, R&D engineering management, program management, product planning, and strategic marketing. His last position at Actel was Director, Strategic Marketing and Product Planning. Mr. Worthington received his undergraduate degree in Physics and a Masters degree in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University || [[image:fluidigm.jpg align="center" link="@http://fluidigm.com"]] ||
 * <span class="description_title" style="background-color: #eeeeee; font-family: arial,helvetica,clean,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">**Forming the team and seizing the opportunity**
 * The breakthrough idea
 * Breaking convention: Technology first, opportunity second
 * Building a team and picking the right venture capital investors
 * The challenges of building a company
 * Product development
 * Keeping a financial focus
 * Raising money and recognizing interest in VCs
 * Recruiting the best
 * Challenges of managing: Firing people
 * How to recruit top talent
 * Technical degree? Or MBA?
 * Source of videos and descriptions: Stanford Entrepreneurship Corner ||  ||