Ex-Cisco CTO returns to the start-up life

Former Cisco Chief Technology Officer Judy Estrin and her husband Bill Carrico have started yet another company, their fourth in 20 years.

But this one has a twist. Instead of bringing products to market, growing revenue and then filing to go public, Packet Design will develop Internet technologies and then rely on others to bring them to market.

That's a different business model than the other three companies Estrin and Carrico founded. Remember Bridge Communications, which was founded in 1981, went public in 1985 and merged with 3Com in 1987? How about Network Computing Devices, founded in 1988? Finally, there was Precept Software, which was founded in 1995 and acquired by Cisco in 1998.

When Precept was acquired by Cisco, Estrin became Cisco's CTO, and Carrico spent a year as senior vice president of Cisco's small and medium line of business. But big-company life did not suit them, and they decided to create Packet Design.

Packet Design is chartered with developing IP technologies that enhance the performance, scalability, provisioning and ease of use of the Internet. The company's technologies will address optical networking, voice and data convergence, user mobility and high growth in the amount of Internet traffic and users.

"There's an architectural vacuum in the Internet infrastructure," Estrin says. "We're asking the Internet to do things it was not originally designed for."

Rather than selling its technologies as branded products, Packet Design will spin off separate businesses to market the products to service providers and companies. Packet Design expects to spin off its first company within two years.

The start-up will also license its technology to established players.

Rather than try to meet a time-to-market product deadline or an initial public offering window, the company is going to develop technologies that will improve the Internet in three to five years.

Estrin is the new company's president and CEO and Carrico is chairman of the board. Packet Design's chief scientist is Van Jacobson - most recently Cisco chief scientist and known for his work at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratories on TCP congestion control, IP operations tools and the Internet Multicast Backbone. Douglas Klein, formerly president at NuvoMedia, is the company's vice president of business development.

Packet Design's initial funding of $24 million has been provided by Foundation Capital, Carrico, Estrin and others.