Andy Bechtolsheim: biography of the engineer and investor
Andy Bechtolsheim is most famous for being the first major investor in Google. But he is also the owner of several other thriving technology companies. In addition, the entrepreneur is the co-founder of Sun Microsystems, a hardware developer.
Andreas von Bechtolsheim was born in Bavaria in 1955. His family of four lived on a farm in the Alps, surrounded by beautiful nature. They had no television and no neighbours within walking distance. With little entertainment, Andy immersed himself in the study of electronics.
This fascination paid off when the young man was 16. Bechtolsheim designed a controller for a local company. He used the income from the invention to pay for his education and enrolled at the University of Munich, where he continued experimenting with devices.
In 1975, Andy became a participant of the Fulbright programme, thanks to which he went to a US university. There, he became a master’s student in computer science. In 1977, he had a job offer from Intel and was on his way to Silicon Valley. But after being transferred to Oregon, Bechtolsheim quit. Andy took a job at Stanford University, where he later defended his doctorate.
Work at Stanford
Andy’s main focus was the development of the powerful SUN workstation, which became the basis for Xerox’s Alto computer. Bechtolsheim worked for Xerox for a while. The company did not pay the engineer but gave him free access to its research facilities.
Bechtolsheim put a lot of effort into working on the computer that became the basis for the first routers. The young man tried to involve other companies in the production of workstations, but they were not interested in the project. This inspired Andy to set up his own company. In 1982, he teamed up with other engineers, founded Sun Microsystems and left Stanford.
Own business
The company grew rapidly, reaching US$1 billion in sales within 6 years. However, Bechtolsheim decided to move on and left the company to pursue other projects.:
– in 1995, he founded Granite Systems, which made network switches;
– in 1996, Cisco bought the company for US$220 million, 60% of which went to the founder;
– Andy became the head of one of Cisco’s business units, where he worked until 2003;
– in 2004, Sun Microsystems bought Kealia, and Bechtolsheim took a management position in the company;
– in 2008, he left the company to lead Arista Networks.
As well as the projects mentioned above, Andy is also an investor. He co-founded HighBAR Ventures, an investment company focused on technology investments. Bechtolsheim’s most successful investment was US$100,000 in a young start-up called Google in 1998.
Andy continues to lead investment activity, with his capital estimated at over US$11 billion.
