Secret Academy Episode - Dave BaggettAbout:
Dave Baggett was one of the creators and programmers of the iconic video game character, Crash Bandicoot. Having computer science degrees from UMD, College Park and MIT, he contributed to the game using his coding abilities. After the success of that game by Naughty Dog, he went on to co-found ITA Software, a search provider for air travel. Dave eventually grew the company to 500 employees, and in 2011 ITA Software was acquired by Google for $700M. Today, Dave is active in his new startup called Inky, which is a secure email encryption platform.
Lesson's in Today's Interview:
- How he got involved with Naughty Dog and the Crash Bandicoot games
- The beginnings of ITA Software and how it transformed the online airfare market
- Why a network operations center is so critically important
- Reasons why Naughty Dog and ITA Software were so successful
- Walking away from Google after they acquired ITA Software
- Founding his current company Inky
- Ability to focus on ensuring confidentiality in emails and eliminate phishing
- If you build a successful business that makes sense, then you have intrinsic value
- Why he never thinks about building a company for the sole reason of selling it
- The range of knowledge needed for a startup today versus years ago
- Capturing enterprise customers and going up against a giant like Microsoft
- Why you need investors
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