Applications are on all of our minds today. Back then, the CEO of LSI Logic convinced his biggest investor, Don Valentine, to meet with me. Don Valentine, as many of you know, is the founder of Sequoia. I can see a lot of founders here edging forward in anticipation, but how did I convince the most sought-after investor in Silicon Valley to invest in a team of first-time founders building a new product for a market that doesn't even exist?
I didn't know how to write a business plan, so I went to a bookstore. Back then there were bookstores. In the business book section, there was this book, written by someone I knew—Gordon Belt. I should go find it again; it's a very large book, and the title is "How to Write a Business Plan." That was a highly specific title for a very niche market. It seemed like he wrote it for 14 people, and I was one of them.
So, I bought the book. I should have known right away that was a bad idea, because Gordon is super, super smart, and super smart people have a lot to say. I'm pretty sure Gordon wanted to teach me how to write a business plan completely. I picked up this book. It's about 450 pages long.
Well, I never got through it. Not even close. I flipped through a few pages and thought, by the time I'm done reading this thing, I'll be out of business. I'll be out of money. Lori and I only had about six months in the bank. We already had Spencer, Madison, and a dog, so the five of us had to live off whatever money we had. I didn't have much time, and instead of writing the business plan, I had to find another way.
