Entrepreneurs of the Year

 

As for Janie and Victor, they're traveling more to open new markets and Victor is saying he plans to retire in five years and maybe teach, a claim no one believes. "If there's a contest for the most boring couple in Orange County," says Janie, "I think Victor and I would win."

Victor is now 52, Janie 50, and the company has been their life for 15 years. Victor says he has no significant regrets, except in one area: his children. His sons are now in college. Sometimes Victor managed to play basketball with his boys, but too often, quality time together took the form of the kids coming to the warehouse on Saturdays to help ship products. That's what 100-hour weeks will do. "From age 13 to 15, they just shot up, taller and taller," says Victor. "Whoa, what happened?" But the family tries. Victor started to delegate more two years ago, and he's down to about 70 hours a week. Last February he even found time to hook up a home network at his own house.

The Tsaos have even taken a vacation. Last May the family took a car tour of the Grand Canyon. "For four days," Victor says. "The four of us just drove."

Linksys' Irvine headquarters is a modest, two-story structure in a pedestrian-unfriendly office park where people walk in the street because there is a dearth of sidewalks. Desk-high scuffmarks circle the walls where temporary tables were erected at a time when workers had to cram two to a cubicle, before Linksys opened its new warehouse and call center in 2001. An ad hoc photography studio overlooks the old warehouse space, where overflow customer service reps were once housed in temporary heated tents.

In the back, Janie sits in a windowless office unadorned save for four art prints and neat piles of manila folders. In the front, a temporary divider splits the office that Victor shares with Kothari. Wearing a monogrammed white button-down, Victor looks surprisingly lively--considering that less than 24 hours before, he and Janie had returned from a four-day trip to Taiwan. The trek had started after a sleepless night (he'd worked through until morning, with only a 20-minute break to pack) and came four days after he'd returned from another 10-day Asian excursion. Victor's dark office is as unadorned as Janie's, except for a burst packing box on the floor and an AARP cord taped to his monitor in a mocking gesture at age.

Soon Cisco will move the headquarters to something grander. That suburban garage may become legendary yet.

Sidebar: Be Patient

For the Tsos, growth is central, rewards are for later.

1988

Revenue: $500,000
Employees: 3
Janie and Victor Tsao form DEW International, later to become Linksys, in their garage. The company popularizes technology like this Multishare print server.

1991

Revenue: $1.5 million
Employees: 4
Victor quits his IT job at Taco Bell and begins working 100-hour weeks. Linksys outgrows the Tsaos' garage and moves to a real office.

1992

Revenue: $2.2 million
Employees: 8
Linksys grows enough in one year to need an office upgrade and moves to a new 2,000-square-foot location.

1994

Revenue: $6.5 million
Employees: 55
Victor starts to take a salary from Linksys. He is not the highest- paid employee and will never get a raise.

1997

Revenue: $32.1 million
Employees: 60
Linksys debuts on the Inc. 500 list at No. 304. The Tsao family moves to a new home in Newport Coast, Calif.

2000

Revenue: $206 million
Employees: 180
Having signed up distributors from Amazon to Radio Shack, Janie moves from a clear plastic cubicle to a windowless office.

2002

Revenue: $430 million
Employees: 305
Linksys gets out ahead on the new Wi-Fi standard (and celebrates at a holiday party). Victor cuts back to 70 hours a week.

2003

Projected revenue: $538 million
Employees: 305
Cisco Systems acquires Linksys for $500 million in stock. The Tsaos take a rare family vacation: four days in a car.

Ian Mount is a New York City-based writer. His story about the bar chain Coyote Ugly appeared in the November 2003 issue.

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