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Mike Workman, CEO, Pillar Data Systems: Page 5 of 11

Byte and Switch: Did you consider coming out with a less ambitious product sooner and bringing out a higher-end system later?

Workman: Maybe we could have. We considered that. We decided we would stick with our principles. Once you get something in concrete, it's hard to tear it apart. If you go down a tributary off the main river, you might never get back to the main river.

We sat down with Larry and said, "It's hard, lots of code, lots of enterprise code, serious stuff." We spent six months testing once the code was done. Larry looked at what we were doing and said, "It's hard to believe you have done what you've done so far." He has an appreciation for enterprise stuff. Everybody else said, "What the hell is taking so long?"

We tried to stay away from being a niche company as far as what we want to do with the company. Niche companies look to sell to a big fish. The VCs like that, Larry doesn't.

Byte and Switch: When will you break even?