NVIDIA’s Growth Story

NVIDIA’s Growth Story

1. the origin of the company’s name

Initially, there were only two letters, NV, which meant ‘Next Version,’ or ‘next generation.’ Later, Jensen discovered the word ‘invidia’ in a Latin dictionary, which means ‘envy’ in the name of the goddess of vengeance.

Invidia are terrifying animals, punishing narcissistic people and depriving them of wealth from the worthless.

So NVIDIA has become a jealous company in all industries.

2. initial financing

Funding isn’t just one day’s work. It’s not all that one day of presenting a PPT in an investor’s conference room. In the early days of his start-up, Jensen Huang went to investors who were introduced with his PPT. His first presentation was terrible, and he knew it himself. He was very nervous, and he thought everything was ruined.

But investor Don Valentine put $2 million into him. “Wilf (British semiconductor master Wilfred Corrigan) told me to give you the money. I don’t really want to do it, but I’m going to give you the money. But if you lose my money, I’m going to kill you,” said the founder of this Sequoia Capital.

Wilfred Corrigan was the president of LSI Logic, where Jensen Huang worked before his start-up. Jensen Huang earned Wilfred’s trust by working at LSI Logic for eight years, which introduced him to his significant investor, Sequoia Capital.

For Jensen Huang, the most important thing in financing was not a few hours in Sequoia, but eight years of Wilfred’s credibility.

3. We must correct our mistakes

A project that you continue on because of face or relationships even though you know it’s obviously wrong could lead to the company’s demise. Jensen’s collaboration with SEGA led to Sega being a competitor to Nintendo. They tried to build their graphics engines based on squares at the time, but in the meantime, Windows 95 was released, so Direct3D used the triangle standard. Windows 95 was the future of PCs, and Jensen’s Huang realized he was wrong.

He sincerely apologized to Sega and asked for additional funds. Sega unexpectedly accepted it. So the shape of the current NVIDIA building is a triangle.

Later, Sega left the console gaming industry, but NVIDIA got a new partner. Around 2000, Microsoft and NVIDIA began working together on the Xbox, a secret project.

4. Vision and execution

Jensen Huang: “The truth is, there are times when it’s better to have a simple idea that a company can execute perfectly, rather than a grand idea that a company can’t. So the bigger the company, the more complex it is, the more important it is to keep simplicity and prudence.

A lot of people say to me, ‘Jensen, why don’t you do this? Why don’t you do that?’ We can do everything, of course. This isn’t a matter of ability, you have to make decisions. As a company, as a team of engineers, as an innovator, you have to know.

I don’t have to change the world overnight. I’m going to change the world over the next 50 years. I don’t have to make a killer product overnight. I just need a product to win. The reason to win is to try again. Most companies have to realize that this is a long journey. You can’t make perfect products. You have to have a long-term vision, but you have to be able to make products and projects simple enough to run them perfectly.”