Start-up aims to create a revolution in entertainment
Tuesday, May 27th, 2008 by Lisa Singh | No Comments
Back in 2001, Daniel Simpkins founded Hillcrest Labs with one mission: to create a revolution in entertainment. “People have been hungry for technologies that would let them interact with their televisions more than they can today,” says Simpkins. Today, his company stands on the cusp of reaching that goal; it has developed a sophisticated interactive television platform, HoME, which is a kin to an operating system for television. In the following Q&A, Simpkins shares the latest with this three-dimensional pointing technology, and how his company maintains its drive for innovation.
What prompted you to found Hillcrest in 2001?
Daniel Simpkins: I started a company called SALIX Technologies, a VoIP leader, in 1990 and ran if for a decade and sold it to a company called Tellabs in 2000 for $300 million. Then, I became a GM at Tellabs for a little over a year or a little and unfortunately the tech bubble was collapsing. I decided to leave.
I actually had a plan to write a book called “The 10 Laws of the Entrepreneur” about how to make a great start-up. But in talking to my Tellabs management team, as the bubble was collapsing, I saw a greater need to be filled; I didn’t think I could fill it with a book. As the bubble collapsed, it left many entrepreneurs without opportunities in a high tech world. I really wanted to create an opportunity for my former team at SALIX to stay in the technology world and to do something groundbreaking.
