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Matthew Szulik
Red Hat management faced an important decision earlier this year after it purchased Cygnus Solutions - let the acquisition continue operating in Silicon Valley or fold it into corporate headquarters in the Research Triangle Park region? Red Hat President and CEO Matthew Szulik said it was a no-brainer. "For our vision of building a great, sustainable company, we felt this was the right place to do that," Szulik said. Szulik's main complaint about Silicon Valley is the "reckless compensation packages" being offered college graduates and those with little industry experience. "It creates a lack of commitment, which I think makes it very hard to build loyalty and consistency in your business," he said. "Here, we have much more traditional values than in other high-tech communities." Szulik believes Red Hat (Nasdaq: RHAT), founded in 1994, is now positioned to become the worldwide leader in open source operating system software, services and information. "On July 1, 1999, we had no representatives outside the U.S. Now we have about 140," he said. "We're transitioning the business from $40 million in total revenue to get to $1 billion in the next three to four years. Our vision is to be a global company." Szulik said Red Hat is "the first company in a long time that was organically grown here and went public here," but he would like nothing better than to see ventures such as Sciquest.com and OpenSite Technologies continue to excel in the Triangle. "We need to grow sustainable businesses. We need to get away from building companies and quickly cashing out. There are excellent opportunities here for forward-thinking companies," he said. "That's why, for me, it's the way the Triangle will be in the next five to 10 years that gives me the most promise." Red Hat, Inc. For more information about the Venture 2000 Conference, please contact the Council for Entrepreneurial Development at 919.549.7500, or visit CED's World Wide Web site at www.cednc.org. |