6 ms·

Silicon Valley's newest billionaire - wireless wonder Robert Pera

70 points by sriramk 14y ago

fahad-sheikh 14y ago
Cool.
sparknlaunch 14y ago
Impressive story. Hadn't heard the name before this story.
- sriramk 14y ago
  Same here. He seems to be on PR blitz - there's a newly created blog and Twitter account. Could be something to do with the Grizzlies sale and needing a more public profile.
GDonasta 14y ago
Don't believe the hype. http://www.cnbc.com/id/47694037 http://www.cnbc.com/id/47694037 He is so 'frugal' that he is buying the Memphis Grizzlies.
- guynamedloren 14y ago
  > He is so 'frugal' that he is buying the Memphis Grizzlies. I know nothing about sports but I think it's safe to say that's called an investment...
  - s1rech 14y ago
    some sport teams are treated more as a toy than an investment by their owners, like Chelsea or Man. City.
    - ImprovedSilence 14y ago
      And some sports are treated as an investment, see Washington Redskins. Some are both, see Dallas Mavericks.
xxiao 14y ago
I used his products since 2008, very cost-effective and neat, it also tells you that there is money to be made in hardware, or software-hardware combined business at SV, not just facebook like companies there. Meraki who is doing mesh wifi, to some extent similar to UBNT, did not do well somehow, even with google's backup in the early stage. On the other hand, UBUT does everything Wifi, but mesh.
- windexh8er 14y ago
  I've been using his product religiously since they've been available. Unfortunately that's the crux of his products: they're often not available. Ubiquiti does a fantastic job of engineering and marketing (online), however when a new product hits their page - it's often months upon months before distributors get product. That being said - it's some of the best wireless gear for the money. Their new 1Gb+ (AirFiber) link hardware is pretty awesome, and in general I won't buy consumer grade wireless junk (i.e. Linksys, D-Link, etc) anymore since I can outfit clients or family with hardware like UniFi very cost effectively. xxiao - not sure of what you mean by "mesh" but AirOS (and pre-AirOS) has supported WDS for quite some time.
  - xxiao 14y ago
    AirOS and everybody else has WDS these days, Mesh is different that uses AD-HOC mode(check meraki.com, google olsr, 802.11s etc). Routerboard is actually also great hardware vendor, and cheap too. However it's not in US, and it sells licenses with its software with a premium, which is not attractive to customers, esp those in other developing countries. UBNT wins the battle easily with great hardware, and most importantly, free software going with it.
- blhack 14y ago
  >On the other hand, UBUT does everything Wifi, but mesh. The UniFi stuff will "mesh".
hef19898 14y ago
Interessting approach of not retaining his own sales force. Echews a lot of pain of matching company goals with incentives able to attract good sales people. Thing is I didn't to take this fact as far as to outsource sales. I like that guy!
kinkora 14y ago
Competing hardware doesn’t work with Ubiquiti’s software Does anyone know how this is possible or what sort of techniques that can do this? I would imagine he incorporates some sort of hardware that needs to be present in order for the software to work but that can be easily copied. The other technique I can think of is software base (perhaps a hardware serial checker) but even that can easily be cracked.
blhack 14y ago
I can absolutely vouch for ubiquiti hardware. I started in ~06 putting it in soekris machines as "use this to microwave a burrito" levels of powerful wifi APs for our campus. Now Ubiquiti sells enterprise level hardware for next to nothing. Check out that unifi stuff, which is amazing, or the picostation2 HP, which is even more amazing. And deceptively cheap. Like...<$100 for literally the best wireless AP on the market.
RudySF 14y ago
definitely impressive. He's no longer a billionaire however. Buying an NBA team right now seems a bit odd.
johnesq 14y ago
Ubiquiti makes excellent products. We have been buying and installing their products for five years. However Mr. Pera really must hire a supply chain expert: frequently products are not available/delayed shipment/EOL/ etc. We have to purchase from other manufacturers out of necessity.

70 points by sriramk 14y ago

fahad-sheikh 14y ago

Cool.

sparknlaunch 14y ago

Impressive story. Hadn't heard the name before this story.

sriramk 14y ago
Same here. He seems to be on PR blitz - there's a newly created blog and Twitter account. Could be something to do with the Grizzlies sale and needing a more public profile.

GDonasta 14y ago

Don't believe the hype. http://www.cnbc.com/id/47694037 http://www.cnbc.com/id/47694037 He is so 'frugal' that he is buying the Memphis Grizzlies.

guynamedloren 14y ago
> He is so 'frugal' that he is buying the Memphis Grizzlies. I know nothing about sports but I think it's safe to say that's called an investment...
- s1rech 14y ago
  some sport teams are treated more as a toy than an investment by their owners, like Chelsea or Man. City.
  - ImprovedSilence 14y ago
    And some sports are treated as an investment, see Washington Redskins. Some are both, see Dallas Mavericks.

xxiao 14y ago

I used his products since 2008, very cost-effective and neat, it also tells you that there is money to be made in hardware, or software-hardware combined business at SV, not just facebook like companies there. Meraki who is doing mesh wifi, to some extent similar to UBNT, did not do well somehow, even with google's backup in the early stage. On the other hand, UBUT does everything Wifi, but mesh.

windexh8er 14y ago
I've been using his product religiously since they've been available. Unfortunately that's the crux of his products: they're often not available. Ubiquiti does a fantastic job of engineering and marketing (online), however when a new product hits their page - it's often months upon months before distributors get product. That being said - it's some of the best wireless gear for the money. Their new 1Gb+ (AirFiber) link hardware is pretty awesome, and in general I won't buy consumer grade wireless junk (i.e. Linksys, D-Link, etc) anymore since I can outfit clients or family with hardware like UniFi very cost effectively. xxiao - not sure of what you mean by "mesh" but AirOS (and pre-AirOS) has supported WDS for quite some time.
- xxiao 14y ago
  AirOS and everybody else has WDS these days, Mesh is different that uses AD-HOC mode(check meraki.com, google olsr, 802.11s etc). Routerboard is actually also great hardware vendor, and cheap too. However it's not in US, and it sells licenses with its software with a premium, which is not attractive to customers, esp those in other developing countries. UBNT wins the battle easily with great hardware, and most importantly, free software going with it.
blhack 14y ago
>On the other hand, UBUT does everything Wifi, but mesh. The UniFi stuff will "mesh".

hef19898 14y ago

Interessting approach of not retaining his own sales force. Echews a lot of pain of matching company goals with incentives able to attract good sales people. Thing is I didn't to take this fact as far as to outsource sales. I like that guy!

kinkora 14y ago

Competing hardware doesn’t work with Ubiquiti’s software Does anyone know how this is possible or what sort of techniques that can do this? I would imagine he incorporates some sort of hardware that needs to be present in order for the software to work but that can be easily copied. The other technique I can think of is software base (perhaps a hardware serial checker) but even that can easily be cracked.

blhack 14y ago

I can absolutely vouch for ubiquiti hardware. I started in ~06 putting it in soekris machines as "use this to microwave a burrito" levels of powerful wifi APs for our campus. Now Ubiquiti sells enterprise level hardware for next to nothing. Check out that unifi stuff, which is amazing, or the picostation2 HP, which is even more amazing. And deceptively cheap. Like...<$100 for literally the best wireless AP on the market.

RudySF 14y ago

definitely impressive. He's no longer a billionaire however. Buying an NBA team right now seems a bit odd.

johnesq 14y ago

Ubiquiti makes excellent products. We have been buying and installing their products for five years. However Mr. Pera really must hire a supply chain expert: frequently products are not available/delayed shipment/EOL/ etc. We have to purchase from other manufacturers out of necessity.