Founders at Work.pdf

C H A P T E R
14
Mike Ramsay
Cofounder,TiVo
Mike Ramsay and Jim Barton founded TiVo in 1997.
Their original plan was to create a network server for
homes. Realizing it would be hard to explain to consumers
why they needed one, they narrowed the idea
down to one component of the original plan: the
digital video recorder (DVR). The first version was
launched in 1999.
TiVo was ground-breaking in that it took all the
information that existed on television and gave
the viewers the power to manipulate it. With TiVo,
you could skip commercials, pause live TV, schedule
the recording of every episode of a series—all the things one might expect to be
able to do with data. But these new features sparked controversy in Hollywood.
Networks worried about losing control over how people watched TV.
By skillfully navigating the border between what’s possible with technology
and what television executives would tolerate, TiVo brought about a revolution
in the way people watch TV. Like Google, its name became a verb.
TiVo went public in 1999. Ramsay stepped down as CEO in 2003, but
remained as chairman.
Livingston: You came to the United States when you were in your mid-20s.
What brought you here? Had you planned to stay for as long as you have?
Ramsay: The reason I came was because I worked for HP. I joined HP right
out of school. I was educated in Scotland, and they had a factory over there.
Through good fortune, I got a chance to come over here with HP and check the
place out, and loved it so much that my wife and I decided to come here.
It was the mid-’70s and Britain was in bad shape. That was when there was
25 to 30 percent inflation; there were strikes everywhere. By today’s standards,
it was a complete mess. A lot of people, not just myself, were disillusioned. This
was like Disneyland for technologists, so off we came. I had a great career with
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