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> He then wrote a $6,000 personal check for the reexamination fee... “It’s definitely not a drop in the bucket for me,” he says. > Swildens tells me from his h

> He then wrote a $6,000 personal check for the reexamination fee... “It’s definitely not a drop in the bucket for me,” he says. > Swildens tells me from his home in Los Altos Hills, near Mountain View. I can't help but feel that he's not being totally genuine here

saagarjha 9y ago
> Swildens ended up selling Speedera at a discount to Akamai for $130 million You’re not the only one.
- frenchie14 9y ago
  Well if he'd sold below valuation (and in the middle of a lawsuit to his prosecutors no less!) it would be plausible that he didn't make out well. But I don't see how one can live in Los Altos Hills without having a lot of wealth. EDIT: The comment below points out that Speedera took $51M in funding
  - stevenwoo 9y ago
    Maybe not in this particular case, but I know someone about that age who grew up about 30 years ago off of Page Mill in the hills and he said their house was at least 20 times less than they are going for now, but sadly for him, his parents had to sell it when his family moved out of the area. This might have been before even 280 was built IIRC.
- CalChris 9y ago
  Total funding on Speedera was $51M. So assume a liquidation preference takes at least $51M off the top. He was an engineer and not a founder or an exec. So yeah, I’ll take him at his word. He probably didn’t clear anywhere near a $1M. https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/speedera-networks https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/speedera-networks
  - frenchie14 9y ago
    The article states he was a co-founder and the crunchbase page has two other cofounders
    - CalChris 9y ago
      Typical engineer not getting enough credit and probably not enough stock. Sounds like the real deal as an engineer though. http://www.d.umn.edu/external-affairs/homepage/12/swildens.html http://www.d.umn.edu/external-affairs/homepage/12/swildens.h...
      - frenchie14 9y ago
        From the sounds of it, he wasn't "a typical engineer with not enough stock." He lives in Los Altos Hills. The cheapest house for sale on Zillow right now is $5.5 M [1]. This guy made out just fine [1] https://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sale/Los-Altos-Hills-CA/pmf,pf_pt/32578_rid/pricea_sort https://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sale/Los-Altos-Hills-CA/pmf...
    - joshuamorton 9y ago
      Wikipedia and Bloomberg also list him as a cofounder, CTO, and VPE. Oddly there appears to have been another cofounder who was also CTO, but I expect that he got a good payday.
    - dougb 9y ago
      The 'ERA' in 'Speedera' was from the first letter of first name of each of the founders, Eric Swildens, Rich Day, and Ajit Gupta.
- swang 9y ago
  It was actually more like $168 million since when the deal was closed in June 2005, Akamai's stock was around $14/share. $14/share * 12 million shares ~= $168 million https://www.akamai.com/us/en/about/news/press/2005-press/akamai-completes-acquisition-of-speedera-networks.jsp https://www.akamai.com/us/en/about/news/press/2005-press/aka... https://www.marketwatch.com/investing/stock/AKAM/historical?siteid=mktw&date=06%2F13%2F2005&x=14&y=15 https://www.marketwatch.com/investing/stock/AKAM/historical?...
- asabjorn 9y ago
  I think we are getting stuck on his smallest investment. Even for a middle class person spending the time to research and write a 101-page challenge of the patent far outweighs investing $6k.
  - dsfyu404ed 9y ago
    Most middle class people can find the time to dedicate to things that are important to them (even if those things are a 100 patent challenge). Wringing $6k out of your budget is a different story.
    - asabjorn 9y ago
      From personal experience it was different. When I did my PhD and was very low income I did invest more than 6k in projects, and writing the 120 page thesis was way harder even after my research was done.
pfarnsworth 9y ago
Los Altos Hills are where Los Altans go when they get sick and tired of all the "poor" people in Los Altos.
- seanmcdirmid 9y ago
  Well, it’s not like Palo Alto vs. East Palo Alto.
asabjorn 9y ago
What his total wealth is seems a bit irrelevant. Do you think that he is not genuine about paying for this himself? If so, what do you base that on? The rest of the story seems to support his story that he did this on his own, especially because from the way the journalist describe the court proceedings it seems like Uber didn't capitalize on his work at the right time when they could have if they were aware of it. Also, this article was published yesterday which is multiple court proceedings after his work was submitted to the USPTO and what was supposed to be court date. If this is a PR effort I would have expected it to be done a bit earlier.
- frenchie14 9y ago
  I'm specifically talking about his statement that "It’s definitely not a drop in the bucket for me" seems disingenuous when he appears to have a large amount of wealth. I'm not disputing that he paid for the fee himself. It's almost like he's trying to make himself seem more relatable by saying the fee was a bigger deal for him than it actually was. To me, it comes off like he's trying to hide something
  - asabjorn 9y ago
    I would imagine spending $6k is a consideration even for a millionaire. Spending the time to research and write a 101-page challenge to the patent seems like quite a considerable investment for anyone, dwarfing the $6k even for a middle class person. Why do you think $6k is not a consideration given his liquid capital? What do you expect his liquid wealth to be and what do you base that on?
    - Fnoord 9y ago
      If he owns a house which is worth at least 5.5M USD then he's more than a millionaire; at least a multimillionaire. Just to put it in perspective: 6k USD is 0,6% of 1M USD. If I got a savings of 10k USD, and I donate 0,6% of that to EFF during Christmas, then we're talking about 60 USD while I keep 9940 USD or 99,4%. Even that doesn't tell us much though because your networth isn't descriptive to your income. If you own 0,5M but you don't have income that's something different than owning 0,5k but having 2k to spend every month.
falcolas 9y ago
Most self-made million/billionaires tend to get there by being cognizant of the cost and benefit of every monetary expenditure. This doesn't count how assets like a home (especially one used by the owner directly) count very little towards someone's actual liquidity. For a non-profitable move that is probably not even tax deductible, $6,000 is not a trivial investment.

saagarjha 9y ago

> Swildens ended up selling Speedera at a discount to Akamai for $130 million You’re not the only one.

frenchie14 9y ago
Well if he'd sold below valuation (and in the middle of a lawsuit to his prosecutors no less!) it would be plausible that he didn't make out well. But I don't see how one can live in Los Altos Hills without having a lot of wealth. EDIT: The comment below points out that Speedera took $51M in funding
- stevenwoo 9y ago
  Maybe not in this particular case, but I know someone about that age who grew up about 30 years ago off of Page Mill in the hills and he said their house was at least 20 times less than they are going for now, but sadly for him, his parents had to sell it when his family moved out of the area. This might have been before even 280 was built IIRC.
CalChris 9y ago
Total funding on Speedera was $51M. So assume a liquidation preference takes at least $51M off the top. He was an engineer and not a founder or an exec. So yeah, I’ll take him at his word. He probably didn’t clear anywhere near a $1M. https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/speedera-networks https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/speedera-networks
- frenchie14 9y ago
  The article states he was a co-founder and the crunchbase page has two other cofounders
  - CalChris 9y ago
    Typical engineer not getting enough credit and probably not enough stock. Sounds like the real deal as an engineer though. http://www.d.umn.edu/external-affairs/homepage/12/swildens.html http://www.d.umn.edu/external-affairs/homepage/12/swildens.h...
    - frenchie14 9y ago
      From the sounds of it, he wasn't "a typical engineer with not enough stock." He lives in Los Altos Hills. The cheapest house for sale on Zillow right now is $5.5 M [1]. This guy made out just fine [1] https://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sale/Los-Altos-Hills-CA/pmf,pf_pt/32578_rid/pricea_sort https://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sale/Los-Altos-Hills-CA/pmf...
  - joshuamorton 9y ago
    Wikipedia and Bloomberg also list him as a cofounder, CTO, and VPE. Oddly there appears to have been another cofounder who was also CTO, but I expect that he got a good payday.
  - dougb 9y ago
    The 'ERA' in 'Speedera' was from the first letter of first name of each of the founders, Eric Swildens, Rich Day, and Ajit Gupta.
swang 9y ago
It was actually more like $168 million since when the deal was closed in June 2005, Akamai's stock was around $14/share. $14/share * 12 million shares ~= $168 million https://www.akamai.com/us/en/about/news/press/2005-press/akamai-completes-acquisition-of-speedera-networks.jsp https://www.akamai.com/us/en/about/news/press/2005-press/aka... https://www.marketwatch.com/investing/stock/AKAM/historical?siteid=mktw&date=06%2F13%2F2005&x=14&y=15 https://www.marketwatch.com/investing/stock/AKAM/historical?...
asabjorn 9y ago
I think we are getting stuck on his smallest investment. Even for a middle class person spending the time to research and write a 101-page challenge of the patent far outweighs investing $6k.
- dsfyu404ed 9y ago
  Most middle class people can find the time to dedicate to things that are important to them (even if those things are a 100 patent challenge). Wringing $6k out of your budget is a different story.
  - asabjorn 9y ago
    From personal experience it was different. When I did my PhD and was very low income I did invest more than 6k in projects, and writing the 120 page thesis was way harder even after my research was done.

pfarnsworth 9y ago

Los Altos Hills are where Los Altans go when they get sick and tired of all the "poor" people in Los Altos.

seanmcdirmid 9y ago
Well, it’s not like Palo Alto vs. East Palo Alto.

asabjorn 9y ago

What his total wealth is seems a bit irrelevant. Do you think that he is not genuine about paying for this himself? If so, what do you base that on? The rest of the story seems to support his story that he did this on his own, especially because from the way the journalist describe the court proceedings it seems like Uber didn't capitalize on his work at the right time when they could have if they were aware of it. Also, this article was published yesterday which is multiple court proceedings after his work was submitted to the USPTO and what was supposed to be court date. If this is a PR effort I would have expected it to be done a bit earlier.

frenchie14 9y ago
I'm specifically talking about his statement that "It’s definitely not a drop in the bucket for me" seems disingenuous when he appears to have a large amount of wealth. I'm not disputing that he paid for the fee himself. It's almost like he's trying to make himself seem more relatable by saying the fee was a bigger deal for him than it actually was. To me, it comes off like he's trying to hide something
- asabjorn 9y ago
  I would imagine spending $6k is a consideration even for a millionaire. Spending the time to research and write a 101-page challenge to the patent seems like quite a considerable investment for anyone, dwarfing the $6k even for a middle class person. Why do you think $6k is not a consideration given his liquid capital? What do you expect his liquid wealth to be and what do you base that on?
  - Fnoord 9y ago
    If he owns a house which is worth at least 5.5M USD then he's more than a millionaire; at least a multimillionaire. Just to put it in perspective: 6k USD is 0,6% of 1M USD. If I got a savings of 10k USD, and I donate 0,6% of that to EFF during Christmas, then we're talking about 60 USD while I keep 9940 USD or 99,4%. Even that doesn't tell us much though because your networth isn't descriptive to your income. If you own 0,5M but you don't have income that's something different than owning 0,5k but having 2k to spend every month.

falcolas 9y ago

Most self-made million/billionaires tend to get there by being cognizant of the cost and benefit of every monetary expenditure. This doesn't count how assets like a home (especially one used by the owner directly) count very little towards someone's actual liquidity. For a non-profitable move that is probably not even tax deductible, $6,000 is not a trivial investment.