Jorge Myszne On Selling A Company For $400 Million And Building Solutions To Manage Critical Data Securely

Welcome to the captivating narrative of Jorge Myszne, an entrepreneur whose journey traverses continents, technological frontiers, and entrepreneurial landscapes. Buckle up as we embark on an exhilarating ride through the highs, lows, and pivotal moments that shaped his entrepreneurial voyage. Jorge’s latest venture, Kameleon, attracted funding from top-tier investor, Xilinx.

In this episode, you will learn:

• Jorge’s journey reminds us to embrace opportunities and take the plunge, even into uncharted waters.
• Through funding challenges and market competition, Jorge’s resilience paved the way for success.
• Jorge’s story from Uruguay to Silicon Valley underscores the global reach of entrepreneurial vision.
• Wilocity’s focus on solving real-world problems propelled them to the forefront of technological innovation.
• Jorge exemplifies the importance of flexibility in entrepreneurship by navigating mergers, acquisitions, and market shifts.
• Jorge’s ability to lead diverse teams across continents highlights the universal language of vision and collaboration.
• Jorge’s unwavering resolve to pursue his entrepreneurial dreams shines as a beacon of inspiration through every setback and triumph.

 

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About Jorge Myszne:

Jorge Myszne is an experienced professional with a diverse background in various roles and companies. Jorge currently holds the position of Chief Product Officer at Niobium Microsystems since March 2023.

Prior to that, they served as an Advisor at Silicon Catalyst starting in December 2022. Jorge also worked as a Mentor at Founder Institute Uruguay from August 2022.

In addition, Jorge has been involved in the investment field, working as an LP at J-Ventures Fund since October 2019 and at J-Angels since March 2018. Jorge has been an Advisor and Consultant for various companies from September 2017 until July 2018.

Jorge has significant experience in the technology industry, particularly in product management and sales. Jorge held the position of Head of Product Management at Qualcomm from July 2014 to May 2017, where they managed product definition and roadmap for 802.11ad products.

Prior to that, Jorge was a co-founder and held various leadership roles at Wilocity. Jorge served as Vice President of Products and Sales and GM of Wilocity US from August 2010 to July 2014, where they opened and led the US office, managed the product team, and oversaw sales and business relations with customers.

Before that, from April 2007 to July 2010, they worked as the Co-Founder and Head of Systems Engineering at Wilocity, where they built the system engineering team and led the development of the first 60GHz wireless PCIe system.

Overall, Jorge Myszne’s work experience reflects a strong background in technology, product management, and entrepreneurship.

Jorge Myszne obtained a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Electrical, Electronics, and Communications Engineering from Universidad de la República from 1992 to 1998.

Jorge also earned an Associate’s degree in Computer Engineering from the same university between 1994 and 1997. In addition, they earned a Private Pilot certification from the Federal Aviation Administration in 2017.

Connect with Jorge Myszne:

• LinkedIn
• Crunchbase
• RocketReach
• TheOrg

Read the Full Transcription of the Interview:

Alejandro Cremades: All righty hello everyone and welcome to the deal maker show. So today. We have another founder you know, joining us another founder with incredible with an incredible story I mean he’s done it a bunch of times you know the first time you know was smashing hit. You know with a ah rumored transaction of 400000000 you know which was the exit and now he’s on his latest you know a journey you know with a rocket ship that he’s building. You know that they actually he joined and that he’s helping to build and that we’re going to be talking about. So again, we’re going to be talking about the building the scaling the financing. We’re gonna be talking about being first to market a competing with the big guys raising money and also being able to land top drvcs as well as you know going about building a new team and and all of the above so without further ado. Let’s welcome our guests today hor hey. Misnay welcome up to the show. So originally born and raised in Uruguay so give us a walk through memory lane. How was life growing up over there.

Jorge Myszne: Thank you Thanks for having him me here.

Jorge Myszne: It was really great. So I I was born in Montevideo that is the capital about one and a half million people very friendly place close to the beach. Nice weather actually similar to California. the the silicon valley where and I am now here. So it was really really great.

Alejandro Cremades: That’s amazing. That’s amazing now now in your case you know it sounds like you know you got into the whole idea of ah computers and engineering you know quite early. So what? What really got you into into computers to begin.

Jorge Myszne: So I I always knew I wanted to be an engineer from a young age I remember myself playing with the sinclair for those who are old enough to know that the Zx and the commodore 64 and having going ta computer course I remember the first ah mexico 1986 the the world. The the soccer world and championship doing a program. To basically keep the scores out of that. So since then I knew that I wanted to go into engineering and specifically into electrical engineering and that’s what I did.

Alejandro Cremades: So then so then you know right? after getting your your actually your degrees. You know it sounds like you didn’t take much time for you to pack the bags and and get going to Israel so why Israel out of all places.

Jorge Myszne: So I like the cheap design and all the anything that has to do with that in uruguay at that time there was not a lot of cheap research. The only place you could do anything like that was at the university so I joined the university for some time and then ah get an opportunity to go to Israel and got recruited into Intel in Israel so that’s when I decided I i. Move to Israel and start working at Intel.

Alejandro Cremades: So for you I mean it sounds like when you joined there was not a lot of people and then by the time you decided to pack the box it was. It was quite a big team. You know how was that growth.

Jorge Myszne: So I joined there actually I I got the option to join the processor scene or a new group that was doing wi-fi this was 1999 and so this was a very small team about 30 people when I got to his drop and that then became um centrino that everybody probably remembers so we did like.

Jorge Myszne: 4 generations of chipssets on the wifi side until 2000 and and 7 that together with other three coworkers. We decided to pack our bags and start a new thing and that was basically velocity.

Alejandro Cremades: That’s amazing. So I get say you know let’s talk about that you know packing the backs and getting on with willow City I mean what? what really fueled that idea what was that incuation process all the way to getting you know going with the with the company.

Jorge Myszne: So I I remember you know I I was very comfortable Intel at that time you know a good a good job. A good salary doing things that I liked so one day decided okay, let’s do something else. Let’s leave all this. Let’s jump into the water and or into the pool and we don’t even know if there is water so we started to think about there was a new technology starting so we started to think oh we should. We can do something about this and at some point I always wanted to do something by myself and not just work for somebody and at that time I was twenty when I think 29 if I remember correctly and it was. Okay, if I want to do it. This is the time to do it and these are the people that I believe if anybody can do it. These are the people that can do it so I remember talking to my wife at that time saying okay, let’s jump. And we jumped.

Alejandro Cremades: So what ended up being the business model of velocity. How are you guys making money there.

Jorge Myszne: So velocity um, develop Sixty Gigahertz well as chipsets. So what we today know as 5 g so this was a ah precursor of five g that it’s called millimeter wave. So these high frequencies is where basically there is space available and you can go very very fast so it was challenging 2007 ah, this was before Ai so pretty much nobody was. Investing in silicon so getting the first round was very challenging. It took us about six months until we got the the seed money but we ended up getting benchmark and sequoia There are two very known.

Jorge Myszne: Vcs and that’s how how we started now on the technological side ah up until that time and all the chip sets that were designed were only up to five six gigahertz so any fab that manufactures the chips will give you models up to 10 gigahertz and that’s what you use to model your design and simulate simulate your design we needed Sixty Gigahertz so there were no models. So the favs didn’t have models. So. We had to basically build our own models. So we we’ll just fabricate a chip that was lines and very basic structures that then we had to measure and build the models so there was a lot of. I would say r and d in order to to get there.

Alejandro Cremades: So what? What do you? think you know needed to happen because I mean if you’re for six months raising money you know anyone would typically like throw the towel you know and be like oh my god this is just not working out but it’s just amazing that after six months you’re able to land you know some heavy. Hitters like sekoia or benchmark. So. What do you think was that turning point for them to come onboard.

Jorge Myszne: So I think it was kind of a validation of the market since the beginning they showed interest they liked the team. The team the the 4 founders we were very experienced coming from the field. Knowing exactly what it will take to do it. Ah they they needed to get some more validation from Companies. So We had to work with a lot of the big name companies trying to explain what the product will be. And try to get feedback from them that they were Interested. So once we were able to do that and get people around the idea of what we were trying to do that’s where the vcs said. Okay, this makes sense. Let’s let’s go.

Alejandro Cremades: So in total for the company you know prior to the acquisition. How much capital was raised.

Jorge Myszne: We raise about a $100000000

Alejandro Cremades: And what was that the process like of of raising that money because I mean it was also during the crazy times of O Eight and you know and really going through all of that financial you know craziness in the world. You know I mean it was probably shaky.

Jorge Myszne: Yeah, so so we started in 2007 the first round was 2007 and then we of course have had everything planned now we were lucky that we raised the a round.

Alejandro Cremades: And bumpy.

Jorge Myszne: A little bit before the crisis. So in 2008 before everything went South So when we got into the crisis. Ah we had money in the bank that helped us to go through the the storm while we had money we had to change. Some of the plans we had to slow Down. We even had to let go some of the people because it was completely ah unclear where things will go So I would Say. 2009 was very very challenging and then going into 2010 is when things became more clear and then we started to accelerate.

Alejandro Cremades: So I guess say you know for something like this like what you guys were doing I mean 1 thing that that was probably frightening. You know was to all of a sudden see that you’re first to market and and and then you see yourself that Intel is rolling out something that is competing against you I’m sure that was not fun.

Jorge Myszne: Ah, it’s not fun, but actually it’s a validation you are on the right path right? If you have a company like into running after you then you did something bright at the same time. I would say that ah small companies while they can be the first markets they have the first mover advantage they cannot make the market in order to make the market. You need one of the big companies and Intel is known for. Making markets and big markets. So actually we we tried to run as fast as we could we tried to ah build the best product that that we could do but we knew that when we were talking with the potential customers. We didn’t need to explain too much why these technology is going to happen because if Intel is also offering a product later that means that this market is going to happen.

Alejandro Cremades: So then. So then how was that acquisition process because I mean the company ended up getting acquired by Qualcom and I’m sure he was a I mean it was a smashing outcome. You know, according you know to the world of the tree was about 400000000 but What was that process like.

Jorge Myszne: So the process was have to say that ah prior to qualcom. There was a company called Atheros that was a wi-fi seneconductor company that was later acquired by by qualcom so athero.

Jorge Myszne: Invested in velocity very early. There was a second and the second round they invested and then when they were acquired by qualcon Qualcomm continued to invest in all the rounds so we were working very closely with Qualcom. And at some point we were started. We started the company working on pc products. This was 2007 so it’s even before the Iphone right? at some point of 20102011. We started to move into more of a ah. Mobile ecentric solution and we started to work with some of the big names Samsung apple etc. So the moment that these companies started to seriously look at our product that was when qualcom and others. Started to look and say okay this is interesting and well from there. They they made an offer and ended up closing with quaco.

Alejandro Cremades: So what was that process like where all of a sudden you know this acquisition is done and you know here you are you know, an immigrant in the Us you know and then all of a sudden you you hit the American dream. You know how did that feel for you.

Jorge Myszne: And see it’s ah it was very interesting because for a short period of time you said oh wow I did but then you forget kind of forget. Right? And you run you know we moved into Qualcomm and we you know you have people that move with you so you are responsible for them and you try to integrate them into the new company. You try to make sure that they they are good in the new in the new company. So. There is a lot of responsibility and while you know financially there might be a good, a good outcome. Ah you still have a lot of work to do and you need to make sure that you know everything continues and you continue to deliver right? So it’s. Incredible. How fast you forget about that right? and you enter into the day to day and you say okay I need to make sure that my people are okay and you keep growing once we move to qualcon. We almost double the team and so. It’s it’s a lot of responsibility.

Alejandro Cremades: And no kidding. So at Qualcomm you were there for a couple of years and then basically you know as they say once an entrepreneur always an entrepreneur you know it became time you know to really get going with your next company. You know we’d ended up being becoming chameleon. So. What were you doing there because I think that that was a very interesting transition where you are now taking the reins as the Ceo for the first time going from the technical side to the business side. So how was that transition for you as well.

Jorge Myszne: Yeah, so um, when I moved to the us I kind of started the transition that slow transition between the technical wall and more of the customer engagement and product world. Ah, and definitely with Chameleon I took on the role of the Ceo. So also here I have ah 3 3 more partners so we were 4 co-founders and it’s it was a.

Jorge Myszne: And was really interesting as a technical person that sometimes you need to take a step back. Let the technical people do their things even though you might know something but at the same time you understand enough to ask. The rest the right questions and understand where the challenges are where the problems are and try to facilitate how you go over those things.

Alejandro Cremades: So with Chameleon What were you guys doing there.

Jorge Myszne: So with Camemilia we we did ah basically ah, ah, hardware security solution for servers mainly protecting servers at the time that they boot right? So what it’s called secure boot. Making sure that nothing was changed and when you turn on a server all the software that is loaded before the operating system is loaded is the authentic hasn’t been touch and so. All those kind of things cannot be done in software because this happens before this software. What we call software right at the ah application or operating system level loads. So all that was where where we were doing there.

Alejandro Cremades: So with Chameleon How did you guys go about for example, like capitalizing the operation. What did that thing. What did that look like.

Jorge Myszne: So we we leverage a lot of the contacts that we had before right? So so basically the product. The product was tailored for cloud providers and server oems so those were some of the people that we were. Working before in velocity and in in qualcom. So basically we were able to tap into those relationships and at the same time. Ah, when we started the team. So ah, most of the engineering team was in Israel I was. Living in the us some of my partners were were in Israel and we were also tapping into some of the people that we have been working before right? So the core team of Chameleon have been working before together in. But lossityity and quan.

Alejandro Cremades: So then so then for this I mean you guys send it up basically going through a merger. So um I know also that this was the first time that you would venture into the security world. So I guess what was that the experience and and like and and then also like. Why did you guys ended up going through a merger.

Jorge Myszne: So ah, at that time this was ah so we went through Covid and we we ended we ended up with some pre Covid then Post. Covid effects right? especially in the Cloud world I would say the pre Covid effects as were Covid or inside Covid I would say when Covid hit. Right? Everybody moved to remote and everybody moved to the Cloud So the and the need for Cloud just when bananas right? So internally we were working with some of the Cloud providers and. They had to cancel the next generation projects because they didn’t have enough servers to support the demand that they had now at the same time if you remember we had all the the parts the supply shortage. So They couldn’t get parts to build more servers to be able to support that demand so they had to redesign the servers with whatever parts were available in order to be able to as.

Jorge Myszne: And work and support that demand that means that all the projects that were kind of next generation project. They just got delay now at the same time. It was very clear that after that spike in Demand. There will be a drop right? and it was very clear that that spike was not real right? So after that it will just be too too much supply and not enough demand so that’s where we started to see Okay, what do we do. What? Ah, What is the right approach for for the company and we were working with another company and we say okay it makes sense to join forces and ah basically merge.

Alejandro Cremades: So then what happened after that merger because it didn’t take long for you to pack the backs.

Jorge Myszne: Yeah, so after that merger I personally decided to to live I was flying to Israel once ah, a month. Ah so long flight so to long distance and and then I i.

Jorge Myszne: Work as an advisor and silicon accelerator here in the bay area and as and one of their events I met company called naobium doing basically compute on encrypted data. So it’s a new type of encryption that allows you to basically compute on data that is encrypted without needing to decrypt the data so ended up talking to them and this this was something that at Chameleon we were. Looking as ah as something that was starting and it was very interesting to me so ended up deploying the the team again a very small team. We were about 18 people when I when I joined ah this company got a. Ah, grant from Darpa to build ah an accelerator for f fullomo morphic encryption. That’s the name of his technology and basically I lead all the the product and go to market activities ah may help you.

Alejandro Cremades: So I guess I mean you’re an entrepreneur you have it in you. You’ve started a bunch a couple of companies Now Why not starting another one. Why why joining someone else wondering.

Jorge Myszne: So I this company came from the it. It was ah Naopium was so spin off from ah another company called gala.

Jorge Myszne: That is an R and D company working for the Us government mainly D O D partner of of the fan. Ah and it started as a project for darpa not as a. Product company and I like the challenge for me was kind of starting from scratch understanding where to take that product how to um work the go to market how to build. The company and steer it into the the the right direction. Ah so that’s it.

Alejandro Cremades: So then I guess say for you now I mean incredible entrepreneur or journey now as well. Um I guess if you had the opportunity of going back in time you know I’d say I give I give you a time machine and you’re able to go back in time to. Maybe that moment where you were working at Intel in back in Israel and you were thinking about joining you know these other guys you know to start wheelosity and let’s say you’re able you know on the way out the door after giving your notice at Intel you’re able to stop that younger self and give that younger self one piece of advice before starting a business. What would that be and why given what you know now. Jorge.

Jorge Myszne: So I I still have friends from that time at Intel there are still at Intel right? And it’s also well known what it’s called the the golden cuffs right? when you’re getting one of these big companies. Ah that you know. It’s very difficult to to leave. So I think that the piece of advice is and I that’s what I took to myself is I prefer to fail rather than not trying but I prefer not to regret. Not trying right because you know you asked me now if I had a time machine I thought you were going to ask me if I would change anything and the answer is no I wouldn’t change that I will take exactly the same the same ah path even if. It wasn’t successful and there was no exit with clothes or whatever right? But I think that if you have that entrepreneur in in you don’t wait right? if you have that go take the risk jump into the pool. Hopefully there is water.

Alejandro Cremades: There you go so joge for people that are listening that will love to reach out and say hi. What is the best way for them to to do so.

Jorge Myszne: So Linkedin I think it’s the best way. Ah, Missionnet there’s only one I think or very few so hoka mishna m y s z and e happy to help and talk to.

Alejandro Cremades: Amazing. Well hey Jorge thank you so much for being on the deal maker show today. It has been an absolute honor to have you with us.

Jorge Myszne: People.

Jorge Myszne: Thank you A likeandro was an honor for me pleasure.

*****

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