"I'm a builder," Lo Alker says of her 1984 decision to start Counterpoint Computers with Fred Kiremidjian, who had been director of engineering of her division at Convergent. "I wanted to start something on my own."
Counterpoint would build a very high performance multi-processor system under the business and market direction of Lo Alker. She secured $5 million of venture capital to start Counterpoint. "There are a lot of venture capitalists," she says of what may well be the world's most active venture market. "It's very [routine]. You have an idea, you pitch it to some venture capitalists. That's what they do for a living. People invest hoping they'll make a lot of money in several years."
Taiwanese personal computer maker Acer quickly became Counterpoint's biggest customer. By 1987 Acer bought Counterpoint. "We were doing good busines together, and one thing led to another. 'How about if we put it together?'
"They wanted to go into a more high performance Unix system and they needed technology and people who understand the business," Lo Alker says. "It was a lot of work, but we believed that was the right thing for that company. In this business it's very difficult to compete with the big guys."
The buyout process was completed within a few months. "You don't drag on," Lo Alker says. "You either do it or you don't."
Lo Alker stayed on to manage Counterpoint, first as president of Acer's network computing division, then as president of Acer America Sales and Marketing. The job was grueling, requiring her regularly to shuttle back and forth to Acer headquarters in Taipei. By the fall of 1990 Lo Alker had had enough of Silicon Valley.
"I needed to rest," She says, sounding harried at the mere thought of how she had been feeling back then. "I was running around. It was very stressful. I kept going for many years, 10-12 years or so. I was tired, I needed a rest. It was just very tiring. Besides I wanted to be a little bit closer to home and wanted to be more involved with a smaller company. But I really wanted a rest.
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"I read, I got reacquainted with myself, my family and friends, I traveled all over Asia, China, all around the U.S, just taking it easy. I had a good time." With Kevin in college, Steve was her full and equal partner in leisure.
Lo Alker was settling into this blissful routine when she was contacted by a recruiter who had been given her name by Paul Ely, a former Hewlett-Packard operations manager turned venture capitalist. Having channeled millions into Network Peripherals, he wanted to strengthen the company's management with a strong marketing-driven CEO. He insisted the recruiter sound out Lo Alker about the job.
On top of the challenge and excitement of building a startup, Lo Alker was offered a nice chunk of NPI stock. She's reluctant to disclose the precise amount, but says it's under 10%.
In 1990, the year before Lo Alker signed on as president and CEO, NPI's sales were only $246,000. Its operations for the year lost $808,000. Neither figure is remarkable for a startup's first full year of operation. What is impressive is its performance during the three years under Lo Alker's leadership. Its 1993 sales were an impressive $10,687,000. The operating income of $357,000 wasn't a significant amount but a sure sign that the company was on the right track. By early 1994 it was clear that NPI was about to hit its stride that year. The time had come to take it public.
"The company had been profitable from April of 1993 and growing very fast," Alker says. "It seemed to me it was the right thing to do and the timing was right. We were positioned in the right place and [we wanted] to provide some liquidity for the original investors and to fortify the treasury to help build the company faster.
"We needed a lot of credibility, stability, treasury," she emphasizes. "We signalled to customers that we're not going away, so the company would be able to attract more people, they find it easier to do business with you. [That gives us] much more credibility."
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"I read, I got reacquainted with myself, my family and friends, I traveled all over Asia, China, all around the U.S, just taking it easy. I had a good time."
