Summer 2011 - University of Massachusetts Lowell

F E A T U R E S T O R Y
GOOGLE PARTNER HONED
HIS ENTREPRENEURIAL
INSTINCTS AT UMASS LOWELL
Prof. Emeritus Pat Krolak remembers sitting at Logan
Airport, getting ready to board an airplane to
Pennsylvania, and waiting anxiously for his grad
student Rich Miner. As part of their work for
the Center for Product Enhancement, the pair
were due in Philadelphia, where they were
scheduled to make a pitch to the Commodore
and Amiga group.
Miner had been working on their presentation throughout
the night – and still had it in his possession – but he was
nowhere in sight.
“Our plane was leaving in 45 minutes and there was
still no sign of Richard at Logan Airport,” recalls Krolak.
“I called him and it turned out he was still packing things
into his car at Lowell. I said, ‘Richard, the plane is about
to leave.’ And he said, ‘Sure, I have plenty of time.’”
Krolak says a lot of money was at stake – and he was
nervous.
“About five minutes before the plane’s door was to
close, Richard came running up to the counter, breathing
hard,” he says. “I asked him, ‘How did you ever manage
to get here so fast? How did you find parking, especially
with this being Thanksgiving week?’ He said, ‘It was easy
— I just stopped the car in front of the gate, left the keys
in the car with the engine running and ran inside. They’ll
probably just tow it and charge me with a fine.’ And that
was exactly what happened: the car got towed away, but
we made it to our presentation, got the contract and
Richard paid the towing fine, which turned out to be
cheaper than Logan’s parking fee since we were away for
nearly a week!”
Things seem to work out that way for Miner, says
Krolak — but his good luck is more than matched by his
motivation, intelligence and innovation.
Indeed, while working at the Center for Product Enhancement
– where Miner was a team captain and as
such would attend up to 20 trade shows a year, pitching
the group’s research projects to presidents and CEOs of
major corporations – Miner secured an unheard-of number
of deals.
“By the time Richard decided to become a Ph.D.
student, he had several million dollars’ worth of contracts
under his belt, which was amazing for an undergrad,”
he says.
A HOME-GROWN ENTREPRENEUR
“A natural leader.” “Motivated and inquisitive.” “Innovative
and a self-starter.”
These are just some of the accolades used by computer
science Prof. Emeritus Tom Costello to describe Miner,
his former student.
Miner, who earned his bachelor’s degree in computer
science in 1986 and his master’s in 1989 from then-University
of Lowell and his Ph.D. in 1997 from UMass
Lowell, is now a partner at Google Ventures, the venture-capital
division of the Internet search giant that
invests up to $100 million per year in promising enterprises.
Miner’s 25-year-plus journey to “the other side of the
desk” — the side that invests venture-capital money
rather than asking for it — involved the successful
founding of several innovative, leading-edge technology
companies, including Wildfire in 1991, which was acquired
by Orange in 2001 for a reported $142 million, and
Android, a mobile platforms company that Google
acquired for a reported $50 million in 2005. These days,
sales of Android-powered smartphones have outpaced
those of other smartphone platforms.
“There was no question he was going to be successful
— it was just a question of how soon and where,” says
Costello. “His current work at Google Ventures is basically
a continuation of what he was doing at the University:
assessing technology and determining what ideas look
marketable and what the size of the market is going to
be.”
Miner says UMass Lowell was instrumental in preparing
him for his future.
“The education I received was great,” says Miner. “The
University’s Computer Science Department was amazing
— it was deeply immersive and intense.”
As an undergrad, he had thoughts of becoming a
physicist. But on the side, he wrote computer games for
the Commodore 64, a first-generation gaming system,
and soon discovered his love of both computer science
and entrepreneurship. As a graduate student, his work
with Krolak opened the door to other innovative ideas.
“My professors prepared me with the skills to be an entrepreneur
by providing a strong technical and commercial
foundation,” says Miner. “They also provided me with
pragmatic education. They challenged me and encouraged
me to go out and work with companies to get real-world
practical experience. Even though I wasn’t taking any
business courses, my fellow grad students and I were
living the business side of things since we were dealing
with real world commercial issues well as advocating for
our projects to research foundations and sponsors while
also carrying a fill course-load.”
Miner and his team worked with Wang, Apollo, Digital,
IBM, Kodak, Siemens, Raster Technologies, LexiData,
Stellar and Pyramid Computing, among others.
“We had strong relationships with these companies. If
they were involved with CAD, graphics and computing,
we were working with them. Most of our projects were
funded by corporations with the goal of having direct
impact on their products,” he says.
Krolak considers Miner a “one-in-a-lifetime” student:
“I was trying to mentor Richard, but it was like trying to
tame the wind. He was a ball of energy. We’re all very
proud of him.”
Continued
A close-up of the 7281 parallel
data-flow coprocessor that
Miner designed and built,
after being told that it was not
possible to create one. The card
enabled the University’s Apollo
workstations to process highresolution
images a lot faster.
“THE
UNIVERSITY’S
COMPUTER
SCIENCE
DEPARTMENT
WAS AMAZING —
IT WAS DEEPLY
IMMERSIVE
AND INTENSE.”
—RICH MINER
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