Title:
CEO and chairman, Continuous Computing Corp.
Education:
Attended American University, New York University graduate film school
Age:
47
Birthplace:
New York City
Residence:
Solana Beach
Family:
Son, Julian
Hobbies:
Tennis
Ken Kalb’s Firm Has Great Expectations to Become a Computer Industry Classic
Ken Kalb leaves the conference table at Continuous Computing Corp. to get something off his desk. He comes back with an object the size of a large, flat billfold.
It’s a calculator, but not just any calculator. It’s a Hewlett- Packard model 12c.
“It is the most widely used calculator in the world,” Kalb says. “It performs a series of functions more elegantly than virtually any device of its caliber that was ever created.”
Though the design is more than 20 years old, it’s still popular. In Kalb’s eyes, it’s a classic.
Another item Kalb considers a classic is the model 5E switch created by AT & T.; Communication systems all over the western world use it to deliver voice, Kalb notes.
The calculator and the telecom switch have done their jobs well despite the passage of time. That gives both a sort of beauty, Kalb says.
Now he’s hoping to follow those companies in creating classics.
Kalb is CEO and chairman of Continuous Computing Corp., a San Diego-based maker of high-availability hardware and software for the telecommunications industry. The company designs and builds a variety of servers and gateways. Some, but not all of the company’s equipment uses voice-over Internet protocol technology.
The company’s customers include Alcatel, Cisco, Ericsson and Lucent.
Privately held Continuous Computing made nearly $3 million in revenues during 1999 and $16 million in 2000.
The growth has attracted the attention of Deloitte & Touche, which named Continuous Computing a “Rising Star” company in its 2001 Technology Fast 50 survey for San Diego and Orange counties.
Speaking about notions of beauty, the 47-year-old Kalb seems to be approaching his topic from a liberal arts perspective rather than an engineering perspective.
It reveals the unconventional road he has taken to the top job at Continuous Computing.
Kalb was born in Staten Island. For a long time he felt the pull of Broadway and Hollywood.
He studied economics and English literature in an abbreviated undergraduate stint at American University in Washington, D.C. He worked as president of the National Student Lobby and shortly afterward served as an intern former Oregon Sen. Bob Packwood.
Later, he attended New York University’s graduate film school.
It’s an eclectic background for a tech executive. But by then the seeds of what he would eventually do were sown.
Recalling A Classic
Kalb put himself through film school as a freelance writer. It was the early 1980s, and writers were making the transition from typewriters to computers. Kalb wrote and lectured on the phenomenon. Publisher Ziff Davis had him write a computer book.
Around that time Kalb got his first computer, a Kaypro.
“They were great machines,” he says. Rugged, too. “They were like a tank,” he recalls. Kalb no longer has the computer but now lives in the town where it was produced , Solana Beach.
For a while Kalb wrote and produced theater in New York. He came to California 13 years ago, where he wrote and produced for television.
“Eventually I woke up one morning and decided that I wanted to build computer systems. That was more interesting,” he says.
As time passed, Kalb worked his way to the president’s job at Emultek, a software simulation tool company based in Israel. The company is now known as E-Sim.
Kalb’s office was in Pasadena , also home of the California Institute of Technology. He soon found himself attending seminars and entrepreneur forums at CalTech. He met several talented engineers. Soon this group was intent on forming a company of its own.
The group’s discussions climaxed with a series of meetings over several rainy evenings at the university. Participants hashed out their product, pricing, target customers and company ownership. Everyone put in $10,000.
Early Interest
Continuous Computing formally started operations in February 1998, though even before incorporation the company had Sun Microsystems buying its computer boards.
In a short time the company got more attention. It cultivated sponsors like Technology Crossover Ventures, Palomar Ventures and Smart Technology Ventures. By Kalb’s estimation, Continuous Computing has now raised $31 million in financing.
Andrew Viterbi, co-founder of both Qualcomm Inc. and Linkabit Corp., came on as an investor and board member.
A relationship with local contract manufacturer Qtron, Inc. soon brought Continuous Computing to San Diego.
Kalb’s five co-founders are still at Continuous Computing, serving as officers: P.J. Go (now president), Mike Coward (vice president of engineering), Wurzel Parsons-Keir (vice president of software), Robert Cagle (vice president of software services) and Robert Telles (vice president of operations).
Kalb started out as chairman, finished his work with Emultek, and then took the CEO’s job at Continuous Computing in January 1999.
In his view, building telecom gear is not unlike producing a play.
“You have very talented people who are somewhat eccentric, who are very creative. And the idea is to harness that and lead them to get to where you really want to be,” he says, counting off all the constituencies a successful business must serve.
“I adore the people that I work with,” he adds. “They’re really extraordinary people that have fantastic skills. It’s very much like working with Matthew Broderick and Nathan Lane (who star in ‘The Producers’ on Broadway). It’s that same caliber of people.”
Kalb is “very good at surrounding himself with real talent,” notes longtime friend Bob Banner.
Now an attorney at the Manhattan law firm of Ingram Yuzek, Banner estimates he has been Kalb’s friend since they were 5 or 6 years old and living in Jericho, Long Island.
“He’s an extraordinary guy. He really pushes the envelope,” says Banner, adding Kalb has long been someone who has questioned assumptions and taken up challenges.
“Tell Ken, ‘I don’t think it can be done,'” says Banner, and Kalb will take a crack at it.
Kalb’s eclectic background also included a time playing semi-pro basketball in New York. Today he prefers tennis to stay in shape.
Give him some free time and Kalb would probably want to go to Los Angeles and take in a Lakers game.
He has tickets, he says, but he does not use them much. Running a company and being a single dad takes the bulk of his time, he notes.
He shares his Solana Beach home with his 7-year-old son, Julian.
“Whenever I have a chance I generally nest at home,” he says.
By now Continuous Computing has about 100 employees and offices in Dallas, Palo Alto, Colorado and England.
Growing the company has been more of a challenge in recent months, Kalb acknowledges. Some orders have been postponed.
“The deals are still flowing,” he says, yet “the spigots aren’t turned on with any kind of velocity, if you will.”
As for the goal of making something beautiful, functional and long lasting? The goal of creating a classic?
“We’re almost there,” Kalb says. “We have some hardware and software now that is quite extraordinary.”