Maria Lourdes C. Capilitan

Sysanal(OOA)

June 26, 2008

Case Study

Mike Ramsay

Cofounder,TiVo

Mike Ramsay and Jim Barton founded the TiVo in 1997. Their plan is to create a network server for homes but they came up with digital video recorder(DVR). The first version was released at 1999. TiVo help you skip commercials, pause live T.V, etc. but many worried how people will handle it.

Having different ideas will help you in your success and adding special programs to the previous technology will help  you and give you a lot of data to work with. Even your not earning fast the most important is your price is right and you have a good service.

             Mike Ramsay in his mid-20’s went to United States to work on HP. When he left HP he start a company called Convergent Technologies it is intended to be workstation. while working to HP on his second stint he met Jim. He also got recruited at SGI, for Ramsay people in SGI are all bright. Jim were assigned to different section of the company. Jim made UNIX this is to do graphics. Lately, Jim started to work on video-on-demand system like SGI is doing with Time Warner. I the end, like other programs/ technologists Jim started his own company.

            DVR was not original idea of Ramsay but instead a home server network. They decided to create server based on very low cost. The DVR (PVR by that time) is the killer application for them, the personalized television, a reliable and bulletproof. They went to VC’s  and explain to them what they will do. In 6 months their team expanded who’s all working to different aspects but there are big companies which people are dreaming to work with. Ramsay didn’t want to have a second rate engineering organization he want it to be a top rate to attract brightest people. TiVo became the first company that created well and was not expensive.

             The biggest challenge for them is first, they have to make the price down to make it a consumer product. Second, people think that it is just like VCR. The first patent that they have is Time Warp patent which is known as Media Switch. The second patent was harnessing of program guide data to drive the function of machine.

            They have difficulties in using the program guide so they switch to telephone line since not al TV signals have a program guide. They created it so that no one would hack it and no one will steal a T.V programs from someone. They created a back-end server farm. They created TiVo phone home. It is like controlling the satellites so that if they lose track they can be in a safe mode.

            The first round of their money is by Jeff and Stewart. Second, is the most difficult round for them because they are in need for investors. Third, Paul Allen invested, it is the time when media companies get interested to them. They got investment from AOL because they got a lot of money from movie studios and to their IPO. They hired Dave Courtney as CFO and became their most successful achievement.

            They launch the project in March 1999. Their first user is Consumer Electronics Show (CES) and then they also started shipping to Philips by a retail store. They also deal with Sony. The features that their consumer got surprised is the Pause live TV. They worried on their competitors like Replay who’s doing dirty tricks but still TiVo won. The next threat is Direct T.V. TiVo have outselling amount, people love TiVo by their partnership with Microsoft. Lastly, the recent threat is cable companies and satellite companies.