They started out engineers and ended up entrepreneurs. Or perhaps more accurately, engineer-entrepreneurs, because they've each maintained their roots in engineering while taking on the additional responsibility of owning and running a business. None of the five engineers profiled here arrived at UT with a master plan to build a business empire. But somewhere along the way, they were seized by the idea that they had the right combination of technical skill, resourcefulness, and confidence to make it in business. 

          Dr. James Truchard (B.S. and M.S. in physics, 1964, 1967, Ph.D. in electrical engineering, 1974) arrived at that conclusion when he realized the job he wanted didn't exist in Austin. Twenty-five years later, as president and CEO of National Instruments, Truchard has not only created the job he wanted, but has opened the door of opportunity for hundreds of other UT-trained engineers. 

          For Dr. Casey Fox (M.S. and Ph.D. in biomedical engineering, 1984, 1990), a similar moment came when, upon completing a grueling doctoral program, he realized that starting his own business was the best way to commercialize his biomedical research. In 1990, Fox and his wife Nancy took the plunge and started Biomedical Engineering Inc., a San Antonio-based developer and manufacturer of orthopedic medical devices.

          Kip McClanahan and Kenny Van Zant, (both B.S. in electrical engineering, 1992), best friends since high school, were probably destined to be business partners. Yet they never seriously considered it until a unique convergence of circumstances occurred in 1998. Spotting the opportunity of a lifetime, they joined with two other Texas Exes to found BroadJump, which in less than three years has become an industry-leading provider of software for the growing broadband market.

          The newest in this select group is Dr. Cathy Fulton (Ph.D. in electrical engineering, 1996), who started Austin-based NetQoS with her husband Joel Trammell in 1999. For Fulton and Trammell, becoming entrepreneurs was less a decision than a natural progression of events that began more than a decade ago when they were young naval officers pondering their future.

          Their reasons for becoming entrepreneurs are as different as the businesses they run. But they share one thing in common - it never would have happened if they hadn't been engineers first.

Dr. Jim Truchard's entrepreneurial achievements are legendary among engineering students and alumni who love to see one of their own succeed. His is an inspiring tale of how ambition, technical skill, management savvy, and foresightedness created one of the most successful and respected technology companies in the world. It's also the story of a dedicated Texas Ex who is creating opportunity for a new generation of Longhorn engineers.

          Dr. T, as he's fondly known at National Instruments (NI), received a B.S. (1964) and M.S. (1967) in physics from UT before earning a Ph.D in electrical engineering (1974), specializing in underwater acoustics and signal processing. Although he had a comfortable and successful career as a research engineer at UT's Applied Research Laboratory for many years, Truchard couldn't shake the idea that he would be happier and more productive working in private industry.

          "I looked around and didn't see the job I wanted in Austin," he recalls. "So I decided to go out and create the job I'd like to have."

          In 1976, he and fellow researchers Jeff Kodosky and Bill Nowlin (who has bachelor's and master's degrees in electrical engineering from UT in 1972 and 1979) started a small company in Truchard's garage to develop and build an instrument that would allow measurement devices to be connected to a computer. The trio took out a $10,000 bank loan, pooled resources from their teacher retirement funds, and began production. Their prototype was ready in mid-1977, and the first unit was sold to Kelly Air Force Base late that year. NI was up and running.

          Today, NI is celebrating its 25th anniversary. The Austin-based company has more than 2,700 employees in 35 countries and in the year 2000 served more than 24,000 customers in such diverse industries as aerospace, consumer electronics, automotive, communications, and petrochemicals. Most impressive, NI has recorded double-digit growth for 24 consecutive years, topping $410 million in 2000.

          NI's list of industry recognitions is also impressive. Cahner's Electronics Group named NI the number one company to watch in 2001, and FORTUNE magazine named NI to its list of 100 Best Companies to Work For in 2000 and 2001. Truchard has been selected as one of the Nation's Top 50 CEOs by Worth magazine for the last three years.

          As president and CEO, Truchard focuses on NI's management and international expansion. However, he also has a hand in creating and developing products; he and Jeff Kodosky created LabVIEW, the company's award-winning virtual instrumentation software.

          From the first, NI had strong UT ties. All three founders attended UT and are active supporters. In the early days, at least one-third of NI's engineers came from UT, and today, more than 115 UT-educated engineers work there.

          In addition, Truchard chairs the College's Engineering Foundation Advisory Council and serves on the 2020 Committee, a group studying trends that will affect the College and the profession over the next 20 years. He also donates NI engineering software to each engineering student participating in the College's Laptops for Learning Initiative.

          "We have synergy with UT on several levels," he says. "We rely on UT for graduates, so the quality of their training is critical. In turn, our tools are used by researchers and scientists working at UT, so the quality of our work is critical to them. It is a two-way exchange."

          Truchard encourages engineers who are interested in owning their own business to develop strong technical skills, learn all they can about business, prepare to work hard, and focus on the long term.

          "I am a great believer in the fundamentals. Good technical skills and good engineering principles are a good place to start," says Truchard, who gained most of his business acumen by reading books, an approach he often recommends to others. "It's also important to be realistic about your growth potential and to adapt as you grow."

          NI has remained true to its founding principles of solid engineering, affordable products, and an engineer-friendly environment. The company also maintains its fun spirit, hosting 30 volleyball matches a year for employees at its campus in North Austin.

          Truchard chuckles when he talks about NI's relaxed environment, a far cry from the traditional research culture where he first worked.  "This is a place where engineers can have fun," he says. "Remember, I wanted to create a job that I would like, and the way to do that was to create jobs other people would like. I think we have done that."

Dr. Cathy Fulton inspires confidence. Thoughtful, bright- eyed, with an obvious quick intelligence, she is the person you'd want on your team in a crisis. Or better yet, the person you'd choose to lead your team.  That's a role she'd probably accept, because Fulton thrives on personal and professional challenge. For example, when she graduated from Texas A&M University with a B.S. in physics in 1986, Fulton wanted to pursue a master's degree. Shy by nature, she lacked the confidence and presentation skills necessary to defend a master's thesis. Instead of giving up on her dream, she sought a job that would sharpen her interpersonal skills. And she found it, as an instructor in the U.S. Navy's Nuclear Power School, an organization so elite that faculty are hand-picked by the Admiral of Nuclear Navy.

          Over the next five years, Fulton taught naval officer candidates, future nuclear plant engineers and operators, and enlisted students alike, preparing them to operate the most sophisticated nuclear equipment in existence. Overcoming her fear of public speaking, she excelled in the classroom and was recognized as the school's best instructor. Coincidentally, she also completed her hoped-for M.S. in electrical engineering at the University of Central Florida, which is near the Orlando naval base where she was stationed.

          The Navy contributed much more than professional polish to Fulton's life. She began dating instructor Joel Trammell, who taught courses in another track at the nuclear power school. Fulton, who had been in the Navy longer, was the superior officer, and when Trammell was placed in her track, the two had to obtain permission to continue dating. The Navy approved, and they married in 1990.

          By the time Fulton received her master's degree, she was leaving the Navy and looking for new adventures. The University of Texas began recruiting her to attend graduate school in Austin. "I didn't want to come to UT," she laughs. "After all, I was an Aggie, and this was the last place I wanted to come. But they kept calling, and eventually they flew me in for a visit. I spent a couple of days on campus and fell in love. I knew this was the right place for me."

          Fulton and Trammell moved to Austin in 1992, and Fulton began her doctoral program that fall. She was originally scheduled to work with Dr. Ben Streetman, whose textbook she had read as an undergraduate, but she soon realized that her interests had changed to telecommunications. With Streetman's support, she made the switch.

          Fulton worked extensively with Dr. San-Qi Li, doing research, writing articles for professional journals, consulting with major corporations, and making numerous presentations at international conferences and meetings. "It was a great time for me," she recalls. As a result of her UT experience, Fulton became a consultant for companies such as Cisco Systems and Samsung Electronics, did a short stint with a Dallas start-up, and returned to Austin to work as a research scientist for Schlumberger. Meanwhile, Trammell was gaining valuable experience in management and marketing, working for companies such as Advanced Micro Devices, UST Computers, and HomeSmart.

          At the beginning of 1999, the couple decided to combine their professional experience and take on their greatest challenge. They opened NetQoS (pronounced net-q-o-s) as a two-person consulting firm to provide software tools and services that help clients improve network and application performance without constantly upgrading bandwidth and equipment. There's a natural division of labor at work - "Joel is management and business; I'm technical," explains Fulton. Their teamwork has resulted in impressive growth. The company now employs 44 people, and thanks to $11 million in venture capital invested last year by New York City-based Liberty Partners, is poised for long-term stability.

          "Our whole focus has been long-term profitability," says Fulton. "Most local venture capitalists are willing to invest no more than $1 million per round in a company like ours, but we knew we needed more upfront to do things the right way. That's why we went with a New York firm."

          The College of Engineering provided experience in areas that have been invaluable to her as an entrepreneur, Fulton says. "UT prepared me very well. I got experience in attracting grant funding, consulting for real companies, and doing presentations. I got an excellent education."  Those real-world skills, combined with Fulton's naturally adventurous personality, are plenty of reason to have confidence in this talented entrepreneur.

Dr. Casey Fox is proof that where you start out going in life may not be where you end up. After leaving home at 17, Fox took on the multiple tasks of working and finishing high school on his own. Now Fox is internationally recognized as a biomedical engineer for his contributions to orthopedics, and owner of BioMedical Enterprises Inc., a San Antonio-based firm that designs, manufactures and distributes orthopedic medical devices worldwide.

          In many ways, Fox is living a far different life than he imagined as a Houston teenager who loved racing motorcycles more than cracking books. However, as he notes with a grin, in other ways, his teenage career as a professional motorcycle racer was perfect preparation for later life as a biomedical engineer specializing in orthopedics.

          "My nine years racing motorcycles gave me good exposure to orthopedics," says Fox, who endured knee and shoulder injuries as a result of his pursuits. "I also learned plenty about good engineering and machine shop practices during my climb to the pinnacle of racing and building racing motorcycles for others. That all came in handy."

          Fox became a professional racer at 16, and while working and finishing high school, he opened his own motorcycle business at 18. By 21, he felt like an old man on the cycling circuit. Armed with a now stale high school diploma, and a hand full of cash from the sale of his business, he entered UT Austin in 1977 to pursue a degree in mechanical engineering.

          "From an English, reading, and writing perspective, I was years behind my peers (upon entering UT)," he recalls. "But from an engineering perspective, I was a junior in college."

          Thanks to a supportive faculty and the availability of self-paced classes, Fox was able to take his time with the course materials and develop good study skills. Though he was on the dean's list, Fox laments that poor reading skills made every course a challenge.

          Fox also found a new two-wheeled passion - bicycle racing. In the late 1970s, bicycle racing was virtually unknown in Austin outside of children racing Schwinns around their neighborhoods. Fox was among an elite group of riders who saw Austin's potential as a world-class bicycle training and racing site.

          Fox had a successful racing career, riding with the national team and becoming top ranked in his division. As an assistant coach for the U.S. Olympic Cycling Team and President of the Austin Bicycle Club, he helped bring the U.S. Olympic team training camp to Austin in the early 1980s. All this, he sheepishly acknowledges, caused his grades to drop so much that he was initially rejected for graduate school.

          Once again, the engineering faculty came to his aid and with letters of recommendation from the Head Coach of the Olympic Cycling Team, employers, and faculty he was admitted to the master's program. After receiving an M.S. degree in biomedical engineering in 1984, Fox moved to San Antonio to work as a biomedical engineer at the Southwest Research Institute, where he contributed to leading edge biomedical research in noninvasive cardiovascular monitoring. During this time he visited Austin for Sunday rides and became impressed by the raw talent of then unknown young bicyclist Lance Armstrong.

          With the encouragement of his employer and the UT engineering faculty, Fox soon found himself back in school - this time holding down a full-time job and commuting 198 miles a day to campus. The key to success, he says, was that UT pre-approved his dissertation topic, a project funded by the research institute to develop an implant system to study osteoporosis and bone healing.

          By the time he received a Ph.D. in biomedical engineering in 1990, Fox was exhausted by his hectic schedule and eager to take his research farther than was possible at the research institute. He and his wife Nancy, a corporate accountant whom he met in a chemistry class during his first semester as a UT undergrad, decided the time was right for a change. So they quit their jobs, took a three-month trip to Australia and New Zealand, and came home to start their own company.

          BioMedical Enterprises Inc., known as BME, opened in October 1990 to develop, manufacture, and market medical orthopedic devices. The company's signature products are the BoneHOG(tm), a surgical device used to harvest bone tissue for grafting or diagnostic purposes, and the OSStaple(tm), a plate and staple system of memory alloy that stimulates fracture healing through mechanical compression.

          Fox has always been BME's chief scientist, product developer, and marketer, aided by consulting orthopedic researchers and an international sales force. His efforts have resulted in 11 patents and over 50 published works. Now, after nearly 11 years in business, Fox is ready to take the business to a new level and is seeking investment capital to expand its manufacturing and marketing capabilities.

          "The investment climate is perceived to be awful for dot-coms," he admits, "but fortunately the spotlight has moved to medical devices, and investment capital is five times more available than when our industry was last in favor." Consequently, he has tremendous optimism for success. Not only does BME have a proven track record, it is in a growth industry and holds eight FDA approvals for several new products. Its most important asset, however, may be a CEO who spent his youth juggling work, high school and a career as a professional athlete, and who still has the stamina to ride his bike 30 miles to work, even at the height of a Texas summer.

          "If we hadn't had a sound, service-oriented business, we wouldn't have survived this long," he says. "When you've experienced flying over blind jumps at 70 miles per hour you learn to handle risk. I'm fairly used to holding the throttle wide open until the last minute and then executing my plan. In fact, it has always been one of my strengths."

          Proof again that where you end up is the result of all of your experiences, even if it's not what you had in mind.

Kip McClanahan and Kenny Van Zant exhibit the easy chemistry and zippy banter more common among successful comedy teams than engineers. It's not unusual for them to finish one another's sentences or launch simultaneously into the same story. They especially enjoy poking fun at one another.

          When Van Zant mentions that he's a lifelong Longhorn sports fan, for example, McClanahan quickly offers a premium to see his partner called a "big athletic supporter" in print.

          You might think they'd spent most of their lives together. And you'd be right. McClanahan and Van Zant have been best friends for more than 15 years, since they were students at Round Rock's Westwood High School. The two got along so well that they became college roommates and helped each other through the rough spots of higher education.

          After earning bachelor's degrees in electrical engineering in 1992, it looked like McClanahan and Van Zant might drift apart, at least professionally. McClanahan specialized in software development, while Van Zant turned his attention to hardware engineering and sales. Their careers appeared to be headed down different paths.

          But fate intervened. Van Zant, then a sales rep for Cypress Semiconductor, recommended McClanahan for a crucial software development job at NetSpeed, Inc., one of his customers. McClanahan got the job and soon afterward recommended Van Zant for a key marketing position in the company. The two were reunited.

          McClanahan and Van Zant, along with fellow Texas-Ex Jim Crow (B.S. in computer science, 1980), established NetSpeed as a leader in DSL broadband technology. The company was so successful that it was acquired by industry giant Cisco Systems in 1998. Enriched by the experience, as well as by the buyout, the former Longhorns began pondering their futures.

          In late 1998, they joined with UT grad Adam Chibib (B.B.A. in accounting, 1989) to create BroadJump, a new software company to serve DSL, cable, and wireless broadband providers. McClanahan serves as the company's president and CEO, while Van Zant is chief operating officer, Chibib is chief financial officer, and Crow is chief technical officer. "We definitely have Longhorns calling the shots," says McClanahan. In less than three years, BroadJump has grown from what McClanahan calls "four guys and a dog" to an industry-leading firm with more than 220 employees in seven cities, funding from several respected venture capital firms, and a who's-who list of clients and corporate partners.

          "Austin is one of the few places where we could have started BroadJump," says Van Zant. "There is a great venture presence here, and start-ups are respected. Despite the downturn, if you continue to execute, you can succeed."

          One key to success, he says, is regular communication up and down the chain of command. The founders conduct a casual Friday afternoon beer-and-chat session where everyone in the company can ask questions, discuss issues, and offer insights. Their more formal meetings may take place in conference rooms employees have decorated like a Mexican cantina or an undersea wonderland, complete with a ferocious larger-than-life shark head. As with most start-ups, life at BroadJump is fast and furious. Employees are expected to be dedicated leaders and creative problem solvers - just like the founding partners.

          "Our culture spawns from the founders," Van Zant explains. "We are four guys with domain knowledge in different areas, and we maintain a culture of individual knowledge. We expect our employees to be leaders, to see things we can do differently and better, and to ask for information when they need it. They are responsible for managing their success; we don't manage them into success."

          Van Zant pauses for a moment. "If they don't know the rules ..." he begins. McClanahan quickly jumps in. "In our case, it's helpful not to know the rules," he chuckles. "It stands in the way of getting things done."

          McClanahan and Van Zant acknowledge that one thing they did right - even without knowing the rules - was to get an engineering education. "There is a massive benefit to the engineering style of education," McClanahan says. "It empowers you with the tools to continue to learn, maybe more than anything else. You learn to be adaptable and able to assimilate new information. That's very important."

          Sounding more like a proud dad than a grad, Van Zant offers a pragmatic recommendation. "Engineering equips you to get a job, and likely in an area that's growing." Thanks to entrepreneurs like McClanahan and Van Zant, that's not likely to change any time soon.

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