Interlude - Index of

62 | Turbulent Adolescence
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Create a new market called Network­Attached Storage
(NAS), and convince analysts to track it.
Dominate that new market, with No. 1 market share.
Double revenue every year for five years to a billion dollars.
The first goal was about being recognized. We believed
that NAS was an important new market category, but it’s one
thing to claim that you’ve invented a new market and quite
another to convince industry analysts that it is worth their
time to study it and report on it the same way they do for computers,
routers, and printers.
The second goal was about beating the competition. At
that point, Auspex was our closest competitor, but we were
growing so fast that we expected to pass them up before the
analysts started paying attention.
The third goal was about our own execution, and it was
bold to the point of controversy. When Tom Mendoza heard
that his goal was to sell a billion dollars worth of equipment,
his eyes rolled back in his head, and he practically fell out of
his seat.
Tom believed in the company and the product, but a billion
dollars seemed unrealistic to him. It was an absolutely
enormous goal given that our revenue that year was only about
$40 million. This company­wide goal would require fantastic
products, successful marketing, and strong customer service,
but Tom felt the burden most heavily because revenue goals
traditionally belong to sales. I mistakenly assumed that Tom
just didn’t understand the math of doubling, but it didn’t calm
him at all when I scribbled down some figures and said, “Look,
if we double every year for five years, that’s well past a billion,
more like $1.3 billion.”