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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — It is a source of long-standing disappointment that world-class technological assets such as Sandia National Laboratories and Intel Corp. have spawned so few innovative technology companies in our community.
Former Senators Pete Domenici and Jeff Bingaman struggled for years to get Sandia to spin out technologies and technologists to start new companies, employ local people and become the foundation of new industries. There was always hope that Intel in Rio Rancho would spawn new companies in Albuquerque, just as Fairchild Semiconductor in Silicon Valley spawned Intel, National Semiconductor, Signetics, Four Phase and Advanced Micro Devices, which spawned Zilog, Xilinx, Linear Technology, Sierra Semiconductor, VLSI Technology, Synaptics and many more. That hasn’t happened.
One of the few examples of this virtuous cycle in the Albuquerque area can be found at 3D Glass Solutions. The company was founded in 2007 by Jeb H. Flemming, who invented the technology 3D Glass uses while he was at Sandia Labs. A year or two ago he hired two retired Intel engineers to help with the manufacturing process. 3D Glass is building an alternative to conventional printed circuits.
Flemming came from Sacramento, Calif., to attend New Mexico Tech, earned his engineering degree and joined Sandia in 2000. When he left Sandia, his second child was eight weeks old, he had no health insurance, and he was the lone employee of a brand new company. His Sandia friends thought he was crazy to leave a good-paying job with great benefits and a liberal vacation policy to start his own company.
“I figured if I was going to fail in life, I’d fail young,” he said. “I thought I’d have only one shot at this.”
Flemming can think of several reasons the technology giants don’t spawn small progeny, but they all boil down to personality and the local talent pool. The kind of risk-taking, convention-defying, business-savvy technologists who abound in Austin and San Jose are hard to find in New Mexico. Business management expertise is also scarce. Flemming sees the creation of business incubators in Albuquerque as part of the solution.
“There are great minds at Sandia,” Flemming said. But the people who leave to start companies don’t really fit in there. The most successful Sandians get doctorate degrees and publish important scientific papers. The culture is risk-averse. Sandians cultivate a talent for tracking down funding sources for their projects.
“I very rarely find super-educated, extremely bright Ph.D.s starting businesses,” he said.
Flemming quit a doctoral degree program so he could pursue an MBA, a move that management warned him would probably limit his rise through the Sandia ranks. Completing the doctorate, on the other, would be a boost.
Flemming said there is a difference between the people working for Intel in Rio Rancho and in Silicon Valley. Silicon Valley is “a maker environment, a tinkerer environment. Intel here is more of an automation environment. It may be the wrong environment for makers.”
A technologist who comes from the big institutions immediately faces a dearth of the business expertise needed to build a company. “New Mexico is technology rich, but management poor,” Flemming said. The technologist struggles to find someone with whom to discuss business ideas and problems. “Finding an engineer who is an effective salesman is like finding a purple unicorn.”
“Getting those tech guys (from Intel) was really important” to 3D Glass, Flemming said, but by 2014 “we got the technology squared away. We needed business capability on the board.” Flemming recruited former Intel executive Kirby Jefferson and Krysalis Corp. founder and serial entrepreneur and investor Jeff Bullington to join the board of directors.
Flemming is a big fan of business incubators, and he applauds the joint University of New Mexico and City of Albuquerque effort to build an innovation district Downtown. “I’m glad incubators are popping up,” he said. “You can overcome a lot of barriers in those environments.” Technical talent is teamed with experienced business talent. You learn “it’s OK to take risks.” You learn that risks often aren’t as high as you think they are.
Flemming finds the most promising talent is emerging from Central New Mexico Community College. He said those students who attend CNM because they want to change their lives are “scrappy.”
UpFront is a daily front-page news and opinion column. Comment directly to Winthrop Quigley at 823-3896 or wquigley@abqjournal.com. Go to www.abqjournal.com/letters/new to submit a letter to the editor.
