Luc Burgun, CEO and President, EVE

It’s been a while since any EDA pundit compared our market niche to Microsoft. Sure, Microsoft dominates the computing software market segment, while our industry has four major players. Yet, there are similarities. It’s time to dust off this comparison for another look, especially as chip designs get more complex and time-to-market pressures more intense.

My computer desktop is a good place to start. It’s fully loaded with Microsoft tools, but I’m also using a different email system - a critical application for me - and some other application software for very specific tasks. This is not much different from a typical chip design flow where one EDA supplier will provide the majority of tools, augmented with specialized software or hardware from another vendor for more difficult tasks, such as emulation.
These point tools can be best in class provided by an entrepreneurial startup or emerging company. In the case of emulation, not every full-line supplier offers such tools. Either way, the other vendor is a headache for the full-line supplier whose sales and support team (and maybe management) does its best to outline to the engineering group the risk factors when partnering with another company. The widespread tactic is called FUD for fear, uncertainty and doubt and it’s not just an EDA phenomenon.
As the CEO, president and co-founder of an 11-year old EDA company that has moved from startup to an emerging player, I’ve seen it all.
An engineering team on the lookout for a competitive edge often will turn to a startup or emerging company that may just have the tool to give them that edge. The entrepreneurial startup offers best-in-class tools, otherwise they would disappear. The emerging company will offer a best-in-class tool, too, or they wouldn’t have moved out of the startup phase.
This translates into a focused approach to technology, business and sales, and loads of flexibility. A larger company has a sales and support team that’s responsible for many products, and often sacrifices long-term investment for short-term profits. Best in class and focus can be secondary to meeting quarterly sales forecasts. Flexible is rarely an adjective used to describe a large company.
A startup cares about ensuring that its products are used effectively. All too often, full-line suppliers bundle tons of products in a deal, and many of the licenses just sit on the shelf unused and unwanted. Startups and emerging companies make the effort to ensure that engineering teams are productively using products, and attention to customer support is high. Support is generally better because it’s hard for a large company’s support group to be effective when it’s responsible for hundreds of different products.
Newly minted entrepreneurs often ask my advice about starting a business and then sustaining it. My first piece of advice is to be patient. The second is to nurture key relationships with a few lead clients, focusing on their success. The third is to develop a strong marketing program from the very beginning. A startup may depend on those early adopters to use its tools and help to improve them, but it could take as long as four years to get traction with the majority of design teams, which is why marketing and promotion are so important. It’s essential to make some noise from the outset, all the while setting realistic and achievable business goals.
Additionally, an entrepreneur should be proud of his or her technical roots. My technical background has served me well. Often during a technical discussion, someone will tell me how pleased they are that I understand a specific situation. As a CEO, not only you need to tell your customers how your products are going to change their environment, but also to be credible in the way your vision is going to become a reality.
Microsoft or EDA, many of the sales and marketing tactics are the same. Single product startups and full-line suppliers are equally important for the healthy growth and vibrancy of any industry. Rest assured. The savvy engineering group evaluates both - as long as they know about a company - and makes decisions that will differentiate their electronics products and give them a competitive edge.

About the author:
Dr. Luc Burgun is president, CEO and co-founder of EVE. He has more than 20 years of experience in EDA, where he has held engineering and executive positions. Prior to founding EVE, Dr. Burgun headed the R&D team of Meta Systems, a wholly owned subsidiary of Mentor Graphics, specialized in hardware emulation systems. He has published numerous articles at international technical conferences and has been granted six patents on accelerated verification. Dr. Burgun holds a Ph.D. degree in Logic Synthesis from the University of Pierre and Marie Curie in Paris, France.