Alex Roe

STARTING A NEW COMPANY IS A CREATIVE PROCESS. Every detail, even the name, is part of this journey. As with all creative endeavors, it’s crucial to be selective about whose feedback you consider. Accepting feedback from everyone will strip away the uniqueness critical for success. I always pay very close attention to feedback from Andy Bechtolsheim. Andy has always inspired me. Andy is an engineer by heart that deeply understands business. He has the rare ability to combine a bold technical vision of the future with sound business judgement and ability to execute. An immigrant from Germany, he dropped out of the third year of his Stanford PhD to found the iconic Sun Microsystems. He later founded @AristaNetworks (NYSE: ANET, $112B market cap) and wrote the first check for Larry & Sergey’s PhD project: @Google. Seven years ago, I too was in the third year of my Stanford PhD, working on what would become @cresta. I had a phone call with Andy on a Sunday evening and asked him to invest in the new company. He said he never invests in entrepreneurs without meeting them in person. He was flying to Germany the next day but asked if I could meet him at the corner of the Gates Computer Science Building on the Stanford campus. I showed up that afternoon and Andy drove up in his silver Porsche 911, with his signature long flowing hair and Birkenstocks with socks. After a five-minute conversation, he said, “I like you. I’m going to invest in your company.” He got back in his 911 and drove off to the airport, but not before asking me the name of the company. I couldn’t figure out a name for the company. Out of necessity I incorporated the company under a placeholder name in Delaware — Grey Parrot Inc because the African Grey Parrot is the most linguistically intelligent animal in the world. He refused to wire the money until we figured out a better name. True to his nature, Andy’s feedback on the name was prescient. Over the next few weeks we worked to come up with the name “Cresta” and filed for a name change in Delaware. Cresta derives from the latin word for growth. Another inspiration, Yoky Matsuoka tied it to the mission of the company: the highest point of a wave is a crest and waves are repetitive - Cresta’s mission was to harness the energy of repetitive work and repurpose it to creative pursuits. Andy approved, he wired the money and we were in business. I am excited to share that I am working on something new, and once again, Andy wrote the first check. His feedback has been just as instrumental in shaping this new venture. We are now building a team of extraordinary engineers in San Francisco and Berlin and an engineering culture inspired by Andy’s innovative ethos. Please reach out if you are interested in joining us. More to come…