Founders at Work.pdf

176 Founders at Work
I had figured out a way to make existing video games work online—you
know, a two-player game like NBA Jam—we hacked it so the software, instead
of looking to the second controller, actually would set up a link through the
dialup connection to another box, and the two kids were able to play each other.
And of course they didn’t have to buy new software because we were working
with game software that’s already written. Great way to bootstrap an online
game thing.
Of course, we were way early for the online game market, and we were at
the tail end of the cartridge market. There were a million things I learned from
that, because it ultimately did not succeed as a business. Financially it was OK,
but as a business, it was not successful.
But the biggest lesson I learned was: I wasn’t getting along with this guy and
it was time to move on. So I stayed there for about a year. We started that in the
spring of 1994; I left in the spring of 1995. And then I was very tired. I was
physically, bodily tired, as you can imagine after such a hard effort.
I was determined to just go and tinker for a while and explore things. I saw
Netscape 1.0 and thought, “The World Wide Web is kind of cool.” I’d been on
the Internet since college—then it was the ARPANET. Back then, the
ARPANET only connected up a few institutions, but through the years I continued
to use it as a software engineer might use it.
Livingston: Were you an engineering major?
Perlman: No, I have a liberal arts background. My engineering background is
as a hobbyist. I built a computer when I was 16 and then designed a graphics
display to go with it and things like that. I’d read Kilobaud magazine and Byte
magazine, and I’d go and print up some company letterhead, which I’d send to
the chip companies—that are now people I work with officially—and I’d say,
“Hey, we have great plans for new products. You should send me some samples.”
So I’d get all these chips for free. The ones I could get for free, I’d design
circuits around their capabilities. They weren’t the ideal chips, you know. But
what are you going to do—you’re a kid in high school; you had no money.
I was in Connecticut and everyone else was in California, so I was 3 hours
off. I ended up shifting my schedule and actually was getting up around noon
because that’s when stores would open: Jameco Electronics would open at 9:00
a.m. in California, which is noon in Connecticut. So what’s the point of getting
up before noon, right?
I’ve always been a hobbyist, and it’s one of the reasons I kind of seamlessly
go between software, hardware, networking, and material science. I don’t
care—it’s whatever it takes to make the damn thing work. I don’t have much
formal education in these things, but you learn. You build enough stuff; after a
while, you see it. And if you reverse-engineer enough things, you learn what
other people have done.
I designed a software-based modem when I was in college and I got an F for
it because the professor said it would never work. But I got it working at my
first company. The professor was quite nice about it. I sent him an email later
on and said, “This email is being sent to you on the modem that I designed at