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InvenSense’s CEO talks shop about sensor technology, upstart management and more.
Courtesy InvenSense
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E-mailDuring a visit to the NYSE, Steve Nasiri — a 35-year veteran of the microelectronics industry, founder of six related companies, and the CEO of InvenSense Inc. (NYSE: INVN) — shared his strategies for putting sensors to market and staying ahead of the game, and tells why he believes his latest company is riding a technology tipping point.
It’s better to be best than first. Prior to our tiny, low-cost, high-performance version, gyroscopes were used primarily for image stabilization in cameras. Because of their extreme sensitivity, they can measure your hand tremble and use that information to cancel the jitter by moving the lens. But they were either too big, too expensive, too power-hungry, or just not robust enough for other devices. There was just no way to get them into a handset or tablet or even games. To be in a Wii controller, which a kid could bang on a table, or in a phone, which people frequently drop, you need a more robust solution that is much smaller and more precise. We were the first company, as some analysts put it, to really crack the code. Now we are also the first company integrating other sensors into our platform. We added an accelerometer to our gyroscope and we are going to be the first to add a compass. We will be the first to add a pressure sensor.
Simplifying the complex. If you think about camera modules 10 years ago, they were very complex. You needed to select an image sensor, an image processor and lenses, and then know how to put them together. Today you just buy a module and drop it in your device. Most device makers who put one in have no idea what it does; all they know is that it’s a function they want. That’s what we’re trying to do with a motion-tracking sensor module.
“The next big deal for sensors is location-based technology, and it should be bigger than gaming.” — Steve Nasiri
Location is everything. The next big deal for sensors is location-based technology, and it should be bigger than gaming. It’s much more lucrative and a little bit more complicated, but think about it: Google and Amazon and other companies want to know where you are at all times. There are 56 billion advertising dollars that now can be challenged and focused to your screen at the right place, at the right time, with near-field purchasing integrated into the phone. Companies like Google know your shopping habits. They have your calendar, your anniversary date, your birthday, and plenty of other information about you and your habits, as well the current date and time. If they knew your precise location — for example, which store you were standing in front of, or even which department within that store — they would be more than happy to send you information that is of interest to you. Or to look through your own shopping list to see what you want to buy and inform you of what’s nearby. So your smartphone is finally going to be very smart.
We’re at the tip of the iceberg. It’s just the beginning. Nintendo introduced the gyro in the Wii in 2009. The next year Apple introduced it in the iPhone 4. This year, every leading manufacturer has it on a couple of high-end models. Once this technology becomes integrated with multiple sensors — with accelerometer and compass and pressure sensor — so that it’s basically a plug-and-play solution, like a camera module, we foresee that it will be in every smartphone, and even not-so-smart phones. There are all kinds of possibilities. We are talking about sports shoes. You’re already paying more than $100 for a high-end Nike shoe. What is it to put in a couple of bucks of motioning intelligence that can integrate with your smartphone? I could sit here for hours thinking of uses for our sensors. They bring a whole new dimension to devices, and open up the door for whole new categories of more intuitive user experience based on motion that didn’t even exist a year ago.
Going public isn’t just about the money. We’ve been very capital efficient. Our IPO was not based on needed capital; it was more on branding. We are addressing a huge market opportunity and we’re dealing with top-tier world-renowned customers. So we wanted to move away from the tagline of “successful startup company.” I wanted to replace it with “successful publicly held company.”
Sharing in success. I’ve got employees and cofounders who have been with me five, six, seven, eight years and who are living in rental houses. During that time, they’ve gotten married and had kids. They have to see some fruits of their labor. Going public helps us reward them, and also helps attract new employees. Because of all the IPO activity, our option prices had gotten to a level where we were no longer priced like a startup, but we were also not liquid like a public company, so we were sort of caught in between — a place we don’t want to be. Going public was the next step, and something we needed to do.
American business is alive and well — especially in Silicon Valley. The only way this country can maintain our standard of living over the rest of the world is through innovation. For me, being in the Bay area, I’m 10 minutes from all the venture capitals, and less than a half-hour drive from top universities. You’ve got foundries, you’ve got talent, you’ve got capital available, and everybody understands that you are a startup and they respect you. The only place I could have done this was the Silicon Valley. There is no way, even with all my years of experience, with all of my innovative ideas, that I could have done this anywhere else in the U.S., let alone anywhere else in the world.
