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 THE STAT 26Percentage of wireless customers who use their cell phones to take picturesMore Vitals
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MAY 29, 2003
Judy Estrin's Unfailing Eye for Opportunity [Page 2 of 2] One of Estrin's strengths is her ability to view her brainchildren dispassionately. Earlier this year, for instance, under pressure from investors, her incubator stopped developing new products in order to concentrate on its three existing ventures, including Vernier Networks, which makes security and management systems for Wi-Fi networks. "I'm a big believer in being realistic about the market and adapting," Estrin says. She's also known for picking the best ways to monetize her ventures. For instance, she decided that her second startup, Network Computing Devices, should go public. But she sold her 1995 venture, Precept, to Cisco, which she felt could best market Precept's technology for sending audio and video to large numbers of PCs on a network. That technology is now widely used in distance learning, but Estrin has no regrets about leaving Cisco, which she found moved more slowly than the startup pace she prefers. NO GLASS CEILING. In fact, Estrin may be the most pragmatic member of a family of high achievers, says Cerf, who is friends with Estrin's father, Gerald, and has known Judy since she was 10. One of her sisters is a doctor, the other a professor of computer science at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Gerald Estrin is a world-renowned computer engineer. And his wife, Thelma, is a pioneer in biomedical computing and "a very assertive woman, very forthright," says Cerf. "Judy couldn't have asked for a better role model." Estrin claims she has never had to fight the glass ceiling -- because, she says, she has built her own houses. And she has done so with hard work as well as ingenuity. While getting her master's degree in electrical engineering from Stanford University, Estrin often had to arrive at the lab at 3 a.m. to work on Internet protocols with a team based in London, says Cerf, who oversaw that project. And Estrin and other co-founders spent Bridge's first Christmas installing routers at UCLA, the company's first client, says Eric Benhamou, a Bridge co-founder who is now chairman of 3Com. Carrico, Estrin, and Benhamou met at Zilog (ZILG.OB ), a San Jose maker of semiconductors, where they worked on the Ethernet, now the most widely used architecture for networking PCs. When the three founded Bridge several years later, Estrin also helped find funding and customers. "She has a strong, charismatic presence, and she's good at overcoming objections in a diplomatic way," Benhamou says. Estrin's people skills may account for much of her success. "She's able to get along with almost anybody," says Cerf. "And she has gained the respect of very smart people who work for her." For instance, colleagues say that her thorough understanding of technology helps Estrin unruffle the feathers of prickly software engineers -- a key to success in product development. HALL OF FAMER. When she isn't running her businesses day-to-day (husband Carrico is chief strategist), Estrin serves on the boards of Disney (DIS ), Federal Express (FDX ), and Sun Microsystems. She also says she leaves herself time to spend with her husband and their teenage son -- and to think. "I don't believe in being completely frenetic," she says. "I may go home at 5 p.m., interact for a while, then get back into work mode, perhaps while working out on the treadmill." In 2002, Estrin was one of three women inducted into the Women in Technology International Hall of Fame in Encino, Calif. But she remains humble, as befits a cautious entrepreneur. "Some people put her on a pedestal, but she puts her pants on the same way everyone else does," says Raffel. It's afterward that she begins to stand out.
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