“Around 1999 to 2000 we talked to venture capitalists”, recalls Hal Philipp, who sold his company, Quantum Research, for $88 million to Atmel last week, “they said to us: ‘You’re not internet; you’re not telecoms; you’re nothing.’ Then they offered us £100,000 for half the business. It was appalling really.”
Those VCs must be gnashing their teeth because now they’d be sharing in a nice little earner.
Quantum is growing like a weed in a market, capacitive sensing, which is one of the hottest growth markets in the high-technology sector.
Everyone wants sensors, from Apple’s touchscreens and wheels to Nintendo’s Wii.
Flogging off a company you founded, and still mostly own, for $88 million after 12 years, might seem like a dream, but Philipp doesn’t see it that way.
” I wouldn’t recommend it.” Philipp told me last week, “it’s been hard graft. 100 hour weeks. Some 120 hour weeks. You sacrifice your social life, and your family life.”
Philipp founded the company in 1996 after inventing charge transfer capacitive sensing technology for use in automatic taps.
“The company was founded out of frustration at not finding a market in the field of automatic taps”, said Philipp.
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