behind the towers

Jeff Lindholm joined Wellfleet in early 1989 as Director, International Sales. Jeff wrote an excellent, comprehensive business plan designed to introduce Wellfleet to international markets starting in Europe. Unlike the U.S. market, Jeff had identified several European distributors who were competent and capable of selling our products. Most were focused on specific countries, so Jeff had a lot of qualifying, training, and negotiating ahead of him to introduce our products to the largest European economies – U.K., Germany, France, Italy, Switzerland, etc. Jeff was going to need a lot of local assistance.

Jeff identified the best candidate for the job, Jakob Strebel, who lived near Zurich, Switzerland. Jakob was a really bright engineer with deep experience in providing technical support for a variety of products and technologies in Europe, Asia and South America. He was conversant in several languages, energetic, hard-working, and really interested in Wellfleet’s products. He was exactly what we needed to bring Wellfleet to market in Europe.

Jakob visited our facility in Bedford in mid-1989. He was underwhelmed with our products’ performance at the time. Jakob writes:

My first contact with Bill dates back to January 1987 (1989? wms) at the small facility on deAngelo Drive with Mark Strangio. When the conversation shifted to technical details, Mark brought Bill in. Among other things, the question about performance came up. I almost fell off my chair when I heard the performance numbers. IP routing 875 packets per second. In bridging mode, the LinkNode was doing about 1,500 pps. The Vitalink Bridge, for some of us this is still a well-known, achieved about 15’000Pps. Steve Willis responded, this is a Multiprotocol Router and not a Bridge. You can’t compare them, but we work on it to improve the numbers.

First tour in Europe mid 1989

I had organized a tour to the first interested distributors. Asher Waldfogel was available for this. The Netherlands, Belgium, France, Germany and Italy were planned. Asher’s luggage was lost on the flight from Boston to Schipol. The plan was to visit a new partner each day. Asher was beside himself because he had no toiletries and could not change his shirt. I tried to calm him down, and the first thing I did was to organize toiletries and tell him that he would have to wear the white shirt for one more day. The kicker of the story was that Asher’s luggage was always redelivered by the airlines to our new destination. But we had already left the place. As a result, we had to buy a new shirt every time we went to a new place where we had a client appointment, so that Asher would feel comfortable.

Jeff and Jakob set out to sign and train country-specific distributors at a whirlwind pace. We shipped hundreds of Mark Strangio’s seminar booklets to all of the distributors and scheduled training on the products for the distributors and their leading prospects. I was involved in many of these training sessions. On one occasion, I brought three cases of the seminar booklets and product literature as checked baggage to Brussels, Belgium. Once I arrived in Brussels after midnight the next day,  I had to convince Belgian customs officials that the value of the booklets was US$1.00 each despite the fact that no price was printed on the cover. And then I paid the appropriate import tax on my personal credit card. I managed to get in front of the audience at 8am that morning to do my thing.

I visited Jakob on several occasions after that, accompanying him on several trips through Germany and Switzerland, in particular. He taught me how to drive on the German Autobahn at over 160kph (100mph), noting how quickly he would hit the brakes whenever the brake lights came on the cars in front of us. Jakob became a close colleague and a good friend to me.

From Jakob:

Our first important deal was BASF. I was able to persuade Bill to fly to Germany (October, 1989). BASF Dr. Jagau, a German, precise as a watchmaker from the Black Forest (the German stronghold of the Urmacher) had hired BBN to accompany the rebuilding of the bridged core network over the turn of the year. Bill, with a convincing performance, was able to convince BASF that together with BBN we were able to manage the rebuild. The challenge was that the network rebuild was only possible in the Dec 23 to Jan 6 window, during the plant service shutdown. Bill offered to be on standby over the holidays and provide all the support needed. Before the end of the year, the new BASF network was back up and running. 

The arrival of Gary Bowen as VP, Sales and Marketing in early 1990 greatly energized the field sales and support operation, including Europe. Sales activity picked up substantially after Gary arrived, and there seemed to be a new-found confidence spreading throughout the company. The “Only Router that Really Works” ad had put Wellfleet on offense, and the effects were palpable. It seemed that 1990 might be a breakout year for us. We needed to take advantage of the rising tide of enthusiasm.

One dark cloud emerged early in 1990. Cisco’s initial public offering (IPO) occurred in February, 1990, at a valuation of $224M. That event dampened our enthusiasm somewhat because we were concerned that Cisco might accelerate their investment plans in new products, sales and support, and marketing. Yet at the same time, it also seemed apparent that public investors had an appetite for what we were doing since we were Cisco’s largest competitor. If Cisco was the Hertz of the router business, we could become Avis. That didn’t seem such a bad thing. Our future was entirely in our hands.

On 2 August 1990, Saddam Hussein’s military invaded the State of Kuwait, routing Kuwaiti forces in less than 72 hours of combat. Hundreds of Kuwaiti soldiers were killed including the younger half-brother of the Emir while he attempted to defend the royal palace. The Iraqi Revolutionary Guard units were particularly brutal, running over the body of the Emir’s half-brother with a tank.

I was driving past the Wang Country Club in Groton, Mass when the news came over the radio of the invasion. I pulled over to listen to the announcer describe the fighting, thinking that a lot of innocent Kuwaitis were going to die that day. Saddam was portrayed by the media as a ruthless, powerful dictator who ruled Iraq with an iron fist inside an iron glove.

And the Iraqi Republican Guard were characterized by our media as invincible warriors, practically eight feet tall, the core of the sixth-largest army in the world. There were threats that Saddam and the Republican Guard would launch terrorist attacks on U.S. airlines, cruise ships, embassies, anything displaying Old Glory. Somebody had done a good job of image building. It all seemed suspicious to many of us.

Nonetheless, the media’s caricatures were highly effective. It worked on our management committee. We had planned to make a major swing through several European cities to raise Wellfleet’s profile. After the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, the management committee consensus was that we should call it off. The risk of flying on a U.S. or European carrier seemed too great. I objected. It seemed to me that that attitude was effectively capitulating to the terrorists and Saddam. Why should we let Saddam run our business for us, I asked. If none of you are willing to go, I will go by myself.

Gary Bowen spoke up, stating that he would accompany me. He wasn’t intimidated by Saddam’s PR machine. He and I would go to Europe to represent Wellfleet. Perhaps I was foolish, but the U.S. Army didn’t teach me to run from our enemies. I felt like we needed to show our existing and prospective customers that we were a supplier that they could trust under any circumstances. It isn’t enough to produce a good product – you have to prove that you are a reliable and trustworthy partner.

When Gary and I landed in London, we sought out the local newspapers. The Times led with the simple headline “WAR!” It was clear that the Brits were not going to let the invasion stand. President Bush also stood tall in the face of Saddam’s brutality, stating his intention to assemble a coalition of allied forces to crush Saddam’s military and kick them out of Kuwait if the Iraqi military didn’t withdraw. It was a proud day to be an American in London.

We took a black cab to our hotel, passing by the Iraqi embassy on the way. A crowd of protesters was in the streets, screaming at the face of Iraq in the U.K. I was impressed that the reaction of the “man on the street” was to stand up to the Iraqi government.

Kuwaiti women dressed in traditional black abaya were waving their fists at the embassy of their country’s occupiers. Armed Iraqi soldiers were standing guard in front. London police cars were parked between the building and the protesters. The “bobbies” were wearing ballistic vests, and were visibly armed. It was clear that the Brits weren’t going to allow the protests to erupt into open warfare. Still, an unsettling sight, a reminder of the ugliness of war.

The next several months went by in a blur, the news dominated by the buildup of armaments in Saudi Arabia by the U.S.-led coalition. For the moment, the war was on the horizon, far away from Bedford, Mass. But, like everyone else, it came into our living rooms every evening for the rest of the year.

We kept our heads down and focused on increasing our sales, adding features and functions to the products, and supporting our customers with their network operations. Operating multiprotocol networks was a new thing, no one had much experience in running such networks, so our involvement in day-to-day issues was inevitable. Everyone was very busy and getting busier.

It didn’t seem likely that Wellfleet would have anything at all to do with what would become known as the First Gulf War. We were wrong. A phone call from a 202 area code in early 1991 would prove how wrong we were.