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Technology Stocks : LAST MILE TECHNOLOGIES - Let's Discuss Them Here -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bernard Levy who wrote (7319)	6/14/2000 9:01:00 PM
From: ftth	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 12823

Hi Bernard, and since you mention Ensemble: 500 WORDS ABOUT A VENDOR Reality doesn't bite Jason Meyers Broadband fixed wireless. Only the most recent of so many technology creations that have suffered at the hands of hype. The new leader of Ensemble Communications is trying to steer around the hype hole. The philosophy of David Twyver is to wait until all systems are go before delivering product. "We're trying to be a real company with real products and real customers that order more than once from us," Twyver says. "What's most important to us is that our potential customers know we're real." A novel approach in an age of calling stuff good when it's obviously still buggy. Maybe years of heading the wireless business of Nortel Networks taught Twyver that reality rules. Or maybe it was the experience of trying to sort out the dysfunction at Teledesic, the Craig McCaw/Bill Gates satellite behemoth where Twyver was briefly CEO. Ensemble didn't exactly skulk in the shadows before Twyver arrived. Its founders and principals are nothing if not vocal--even downright zealous--about their creation (which, by the way, is a point-to-multipoint broadband wireless platform based on adaptive time division duplexing technology). But their enthusiasm has smacked more of engineering than marketing. Twyver is the seasoned pro brought in to legitimize Ensemble's feats of engineering. To turn Ensemble into something that will bring the company respect. But not before it's sure the products are really ready. "We've been kicking the tires real hard," Twyver says. "We don't want to inflict our problems on our customers." Twyver's style is a blend of paternal sagacity and business acumen. The first characteristic can be seen in the way he's trying to embrace Ensemble's underdog environment. The company screams start-up: Its modest La Jolla digs have a roll-up-your-sleeves-and-get-to-it-but-have-fun-while-you're-at-it feel. There's even the requisite foosball table, standard issue for any start-up. (Although Ensemble's is disturbingly ramshackle and looks like no one ever uses it.) Evidence of the latter trait, the acumen, comes in financial form. Take Twyver's rapid-fire response when asked if Ensemble's perfect product plan makes it hard to attract funding: "Our shareholders know how good we are. We have no problem raising money." Fair enough. Ensemble does in fact count ADC Telecommunications and Digital Microwave Corp. among its big-name backers. Also a couple of VCs. DMC is also going to buy and resell Ensemble's products as a complement to its point-to-point line. And Adelphia Communications, an LMDS license-holder, started testing Ensemble's gear last month. So that's the formula: Take a minimal amount of hype, add a high concentration of engineering. Fry it until it's done. While you're at it, raise a lot of money so you don't have to take your company public too early. Twyver, summing up the strategy: "We have solid investment and backers, we have untapped funding, and we're not hyping the company to flip it or do an IPO." *