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Boise firm thinks wireless
With big-league backer, RidgeRun looks to
future
By Julie Howard
The Idaho Statesman
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| Gerry
Melendez / The Idaho Statesman |
Rudy Prince is the CEO
of RidgeRun, a start-up company using cutting-edge innovations
to focus on the next generation of wireless technology. The
company launched last fall with $5 million in funding from
Texas Instruments.
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Throw away your cell phone. Dump your PC. And that brand new
digital camera that doubles as a video camera? Pass it on to the
kids.
It's old technology, baby. Time to make way for the new wave. Or
as those in the industry call it, the next generation.
That next generation is underway in a historic building in Boise
by a start-up company undaunted by the dot-com corpses littering the
technology industry these days. RidgeRun not only has venture
capital and a big-name backer, Texas Instruments, it has a vision of
a future that uses the kind of cutting-edge innovations now being
developed by its core of software engineers.
In case you haven't heard, the next generation is all about
"wireless." That means the handheld devices of next year -- cell
phones, Blackberry instant messengers, PDAs -- will be able to
transfer information to other sources without having to plug into
them or a modem. Shoot a picture with your digital camera, and with
a press of a button, send it to your computer across town. Log on to
an important video conference meeting, participating and watching
informational slides, using your cell phone. E-mail anyone anytime
from anywhere.
Those technologies are feasible today with the software that
drives those gadgets created by companies like RidgeRun, which
effectively was launched last fall with $5 million in funding from
Texas Instruments. The company was founded months before its funding
by two former Hewlett-Packard engineers -- Pat Sewall and Phil
Verghese -- who went skiing at Bogus Basin one winter day and
conceptualized their start-up on a chairlift heading to the ridge
run.
"The industry is in a transition cycle from being PC-centric to
being Internet-everywhere," said Rudy Prince, who came on board as
chairman and CEO in October. "Just about everything we're working on
today has to do with wireless or multimedia."
While out in the spacious work area where engineers huddle
together over computers, using terms like "digital signal
processors," "Linux" and "development platforms," Prince is more
visionary and end-product oriented. He talks of "voice dialing" cell
phones and ways to make cell phones less intrusive and more "polite"
for use in public. Overcoming objections to gadgets, after all,
could drive more sales. Then there are the popular Blackberry
devices that allow instant e-mail messaging, generating millions in
revenue almost overnight.
"What happens if you can also surf the Web, take pictures and do
e-mail on a wireless device?" asked Prince. "We're at the tip of the
iceberg."
Building up in a down cycle has its risks, but being situated for
the next technology revolution carries huge profit potential.
RidgeRun released its first product in May -- a software tool set
that allows companies like Texas Instruments to develop chips that
work in wireless products. The revenue stream into RidgeRun is
admittedly short at the moment, although sales offices have been
opened in California, Texas, Japan and Ireland.
"Tying up to (Texas Instruments) is the accelerator for us," said
Prince, adding that 80 percent of digital cameras and two-thirds of
the world's cell phones use Texas Instruments microchips.
RidgeRun has 30 employees working at the company's fourth-floor
offices in the Empire Building, 205 N. 10th St. They are quietly
moving forward with new technologies preparing for the next boom
they are assured will hit. Industry projections seem to back them
up. Worldwide shipments of the types of products RidgeRun is making
are expected to generate revenues of $300 million in 2005, six times
what is expected this year. One billion users of mobile
communications products -- cell phones, PDAs, Blackberrys -- are
expected by 2003, with at least half using wireless data services,
according to ARC Group, a market research firm. Analysts from
Gartner Dataquest and International Data Corp. also forecast
increased sales of mobile devices in the next few years.
RidgeRun's biggest challenge is simply surviving until those good
times kick in, according to one industry watcher.
"Their key is to hunker down, not spend too much money and work
the relationship with Texas Instruments," said Rick Lehrbaum,
executive editor of ZDNet's LinuxDevices.com Web site. "They're onto
a good track, but their real problem is lasting long enough until
the revenue stream comes along."
Focusing on technology that will be used in audio and video
applications is a good place to be, Lehrbaum said.
"They're in a place where there's a lot of progress and
innovation," he said. "They have a very nice tool they've developed
that helps in the architecting of those types of devices."
With the current tight economy and wary consumers, banking on the
fact that consumers will buy into the next generation of products
sounds iffy. But the world has yet to turn its back on evolving
technology, says RidgeRun marketing director Tom Park, who says down
cycles are common and expected. And RidgeRun could also be
positioned well by performing research and development functions at
a time when companies are more willing to outsource that business
than hiring on permanent staff.
"Wireless is a natural evolution," Park said. "Will it take
another five years to happen? We don't think so. This may be a very
good time to be starting up."
To offer story ideas or
comments, contact reporter Julie Howard at 373-6618 or jhoward@
boise.gannett.com
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Tuesday, July 10, 2001 
