Career – a DIY approach

NUS SoC Industry Seminar

Jan 2013

Pete Kellock

Outline

•  My career ...especially muvee

•  Life as an entrepreneurial journey ...some thoughts on work, jobs & happiness

5

How I’ve spent the last 58 years...

Age 0 – 2 wks

Age 2 wks – 10 yrs

Age 17 – 20 (BSc)

Age 10 – 17

Age 20 – 28 (MA +PhD)

Age 28 – 34 (Engineer, CTO)

Age 34 – now Singapore

Where to go on holiday (best in May)

Student working holidays...

Age 20: 3 months in USA

Age 22/23: 2 x 3 months in France

Early Dreams

Patents

Music Composition

Travel

University

•  BSc, Physics / Maths

...and Computer Science, Music, Geology

•  MA (Hons), Music

...and International Relations

Paying my way:

•  research assistant

•  freelance horn player

•  PhD in Electronic Music:

–  Science / Technology

–  Music Composition

PhD Years

•  PhD in electronic music “Animation and Real-Time Control Techniques in Electronic Music: Theory, Development and Application in Two Tape Compositions”

Solaris

Glissboard

Steel Breeze

Earning a Living...

;------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ; PRR State 1. ; ; Only comes here if perf > stub. Monitors existing perf, waiting for an ; event to start recording on scratch perf. ;------------------------------------------------------------------------------

; * Handle live events (eg start/stop)

pr1 ld ix,prfpst ; Perf PST call getibev ; Get input event if any jr c,$20 ; Jump if no events

; ex de,hl ; Input event pointer to de ld hl,pr1tabj ; pr1 router table for jumps call hev_b1j ; Handle event (bank 1 jumps)

; call srecev? ; Should event cause recording to start? jr z,pr1_pr2 ; Jump if so

; * Handle performance events

$20 call prun ; Performance runner call getpbev ; Get perf buffer event if any jr c,$40 ; Jump if none

; call prfcky ; Perf Ckey event handler (On/Off) call nz,hevdef ; If not Ckey event, use default event handler

; * Run all active procs + perf & handle bar/beat display

$40 call run_m ; Call runner call chkbt ; If beat trans, update bar/beat & % memory jr pr1

Zyklus

Zyklus Band

1989: came to Singapore

1989 to 1999 •  NUS - ISS: Designing/managing/teaching short courses •  KRDL: Research in digital media

•  Algorithmic music and sound: Rhythm Morpher, FlexEffex, etc •  Video – MPEG7 etc

muvee Unique software for Automatic Video Production

–  finished productions from raw video (or photos) in minutes or seconds

… skills of a video pro in software

–  for everyone – kids to grannies

–  for almost anything: family events, kids, holidays, sports… (and pros use it too)

–  in hundreds of styles

Video: Intro to muvee

Example muvees

- Drainspotting

- S Am: - First 2 mins. Pictures with Ken Burns. Note slow dissolves then white

flashes

- Then 10'44": tango.

How muvee works

24

Styles

muvee: some Highlights

•  Started in KRDL (now I2R) lab

•  End 1999: core idea

•  2000: prototypes & patents

–  Goal: is it possible? …and good enough?

...and if so, get patent protection

•  Early 2001: taking it out to the world: US. Japan, Europe

–  Straight to major markets: US, Japan, Europe

–  Goal: is it *really* valuable enough to form a business?

–  Worry: is someone already doing it?

•  Aug/Sep 2001: forming company & launching product

–  First online sales + First OEM deal

•  2001/2002: Raising venture capital

–  Closed Series A in Aug 2002

•  Late 2002: move to our own office

–  Goal: grow fast! (customers – revenue – mindshare – team)

…cont: muvee highlights •  2004: first mobile phone version (Nokia)

–  Profitable in 2004 (3rd year)

–  Series B

•  2005: first in-camera version (Nikon)

•  2006: > S$13m revenue. Online version: muveeMix

•  2007: Online sharing: Shwup

•  2008: muvee Reveal

•  2009: Embedding into LG phones

•  2011: Mac version

...and lots more

Founding Team

Team from lab formed core of mgmt.

Spinoff team:

  Pete Kellock

  Terence Swee

  Sarat Venugopal

  Phil Morgan

  + 4 others (engineers)

muvee autoProducer

muvee today

•  ~50 people: in SG. Korea, Japan, US

•  Products for PC, Mac, smartphones, cameras, online, etc

muvee - Achievements

Hasn’t made the founders or investors rich (yet?) but... •  Pioneered a totally new types of SW: automatic video production •  Numbers 100s of millions shipped, millions of users •  Delighted customers •  Headline publicity

•  Substantial global mindshare, eg:

–  > 3m hits for muvee on Google

–  eg 60k hits for “muvee” on YouTube •  > $S50 revenue •  > 500 man-years of employment •  Excellent adventure •  Huge learning experience •  Strong & lasting friendships

My Role in muvee •  Lead inventor

–  Core idea (2 of us) –  Patents

•  Head of R&D team: 2000-2001 –  Research directions –  Product definition –  Some architecting & coding

•  CEO: 2001 – 2006 –  Setting direction, recruitment, leading team, marketing, product

definition & aesthetics, business development, deal-making, financial control, cash-raising, corporate governance ...and lots more

•  “muveeMeister”/CXO: 2007-2010 (part time) •  Left muvee in Sept 2010.

How I’m spending my time at the moment...

External: •  NUS Advisor / Mentor •  Advisor to an incubator and a startup •  Advisor/Assessor for National Arts Council •  Board Member, Singapore Land Authority •  “Startup catalyzer”

Personal Projects •  Writing music •  Personal investment (equity analysis, etc) •  Travel •  Ideas for software products / startups

Life as an entrepreneurial journey

Your choices are wider than you think

•  Not just control of what job, but far more, including –  What goals to seek in life –  What principles to apply (eg Bret Victor: “Inventing on Principle”,

etc...)

•  In the broad sweep of history (hundreds or thousands of years), we live in amazing times –  A large part of humanity (including all in this room) have huge

control over their own lives. In the past – and still for billions of people – this degree of choice is an impossible dream

–  So choose well! Don’t do stuff “by default”. •  How to choose?

–  Keep thinking: pop a level or two at least every few days –  Keep doing: navel-gazing doesn’t work

What makes an Entrepreneur?

•  Businesspeople enter a commercial game and aim to win

•  Entrepreneurs try to redefine the game

...or create a whole new game

...even if the risks are far higher

So why not do this with the game of life?

Your life doesn’t have to be about winning a game created by someone else.

You can (at least to a degree) DECIDE THE LIFE-GAME YOU WANT TO PLAY

In other words, design your own life.

Career: how I’ve approached it •  Always a bit “anti-career”

–  ...especially in big organizations

•  Mostly just followed whatever I found fun / interesting / cool at the

time –  But tried not to switch too often: you need to stick at most things for

years to achieve anything at all. Got to grit your teeth sometimes

–  (I’ve also tried to understand how my interests fluctuate, but without

much luck.)

•  For me, work and job are totally different things –  Many times what I’ve been paid for is not the work I cared most about.

–  Money not v important: things I enjoy most don’t cost much

–  ...and I usually find the status trap easy to resist

•  Periods of v. high work intensity

•  Some long breaks and extended phases without pay

My life – success?

•  Not as it’s defined by many people!

•  Money?

–  Not wealthy, but enough to do what I like from now on

•  Fame/recognition?

•  Ding in the Universe?

•  Happiness / fulfillment?

–  Still loving the journey

–  Still finding new adventures

–  Still lots I want to do

–  Strong curiousity & passion

What’s important to you in your work?

•  Money?

•  Status: impressing family / friends / others ?

•  Proving you have what it takes?

•  Respect?

•  Adventure?

•  Freedom to do what you like, as you like, when you like?

•  “Growth? / Self-discovery / “Self-actualization”?

•  Contribution to the world?

•  Others?

Here’s a thought...

Is

winning

for

LOSERS?

And if you do win - what

happens next?

If your primary goal is to win, chances are

...you will fight your way up

...till you reach a level where you cannot go any higher

...and get stuck there.

Even if you reach the pinnacle, will you feel happy and fulfilled?

Design your own life – how?

That’s up to you, but here are some ideas...

Instead of aiming to win a pre-existing career game, you can...

–  Aim to discover and develop your own new games

•  Commit yourself to innovating in everything you do – make it a habit

•  Copy only rarely (eg to learn)

–  Aim to contribute to the world around you

–  Aim to support and “grow” the people interact with

–  Try to find at least one speciality that isn’t transient

•  Without this, software devp (and many other ICT careers) are hard –

constant reboots!

...cont: Designing your own life

–  Put your heart into whatever you do

•  Work till you drop - sometimes

•  Dig deep: select a few things and pursue them all the way

...even (especially!) when people think you’re crazy

•  But keep a sense of humor

Laugh at yourself, your goals, your achievements, your failures.

–  Aim to enjoy the journey

... and to make it fun & fulfilling for your fellow-travelers

A few final thoughts

Fun v. Achievement? What balance is right for you?

For some of us, FULLFILMENT requires ACHIEVEMENT

So designing your own life often needs more self-discipline

than following a standard path in life

Work-life: my model

Wasting your Life Doing work you don’t

enjoy in a job you don’t believe in

(usually for money).

Slogging Building towards some

long-term / career goals, but the day to day work is tough or

boring

Goofing Off Having fun, but not

building anything for the future

In the Zone Doing something you love which also serves

a long-term bigger purpose

+ve FUTURE

Achieving long-term goals

“Sense of Purpose”

-ve

-ve

+ve

PRESENT In-the moment

happiness

A great place to be, but don’t expect to spend all

your time here.

“Travel light” and make time for this: eg great vacations, and even some “mini-

retirements”

Beware the addictive & half-hearted versions: eg hourly tweeting /

facebook / IM / emailing

Don’t dream of living here all the time: even if you achieve it, the dream will

probably turn sour.

Lots of people end up here. Main causes? Financial Commitments and Fear.

Expect to spend some time here: worthwhile achievements always

involve some slog. Go all-out during those times.

But don’t live here all the time. If you always live in the future, you may never

live at all.

“To achieve your goals in life....

...help others achieve theirs.”

Potential Career/Life Traps

Everyone is different, so hard to generalize. But beware... •  doing stuff “by default” •  becoming dependent on high income

–  Worst version: hate job, feel insecure, earn a lot but spend it all (and some)

•  desire for status –  eg fear that your friends are doing better

Travel light and keep your options open If you get in a career rut, take a deep breath and *jump*

...because playing safe is often the most dangerous strategy

Thanks for Listening!

Some suggested viewing/ reading

•  Video: Bret Victor - “Inventing on Principle”

•  Website: sivers.org

•  Blog: Seth Godin

•  Book: Eric Ries - “The Lean Startup”

–  If you’re even thinking of doing a tech startup, get familiar with the lean

startup movement before you do anything: the ideas of Steve Blank,

Eric Ries, Yves Pigneur and others

•  Book: Tim Ferris - “The Four-Hour Workweek”

–  I don’t support some of his attitudes, but he has thought-provoking

ideas and perspectives. One of the few business/self-improvement

books that’s worth more than 5 minutes of your time.