Techies are from Venus, Salespeople are from Mars:

Strategies for effective communication in a

start-up environment

Lance Laking, CEO

April 3, 2007

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Outline

! Set the stage - the BTI context

! Culture & communication style

! Fostering teamwork

! Challenges

! Compensation / incentive programs

! Q&A

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What’s driving BTI’s business? VIDEO !

The Web will only get morecrowded as sites increase

video offerings.

Typical Music File

5 Mb

Typical Movie File

1,500 Mb

Total Video Streams, 2005

1.5 Billion

Total Video Streams, 2011*

6.7 Billion

Estimated. Data: Akamai, Yankee Group.

Source: BusinessWeek: September 25, 2006.

With BTI’s equipment deployed atthe edge of service providernetworks, they are able todramatically improve the delivery ofbroadband Internet, video andwireless experiences.

Top video on YouTube viewed 41,786,882 times

Size of video: 12Mb

That’s 500,000 Gb of traffic for just one video…

it’s a Gigabit World!!

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BTI Photonic Systems

BTI 2060

Access

Metro Edge

MetroCore

Design & market optical systems for the

“metro edge” of service provider &

large corporate networks.

Global addressable market: $400M/yr today,

growing to $900M/yr by 2010.

64 Carrier, Cable & Utility customers

Strategic partner with Fujitsu

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Our Value: 10G optical transport Network

Incumbent

5X Cost reduction

20X Footprint improvement

12X Power saving

1/10th Provision timeEast Route

West Route

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Management Team & Investors:

Lance Laking (BTI 2001)" President & CEO" HUBER+SUHNER, Dynasty

Components

Glenn Thurston (BTI 2004)" VP, Marketing" Nortel (Global Alliances)

• Broad experience with Tier 1 OEMs & start-ups developingoptical systems for carriers.

• Proven ability to set strategy, engage customers & channels,develop & deliver product, build brand & market share, securefinancing, exercise capital efficiency, and scale revenues.

John Mills (BTI 2002)" VP, Product Management" Nortel (Japan), BNR

" Scott Newport (BTI 2003)" VP, Operations" Accelight Networks, IBM,

Celestica, Nortel

Paul Harrison (BTI 2005)" VP, Sales - Dallas" Ekinops, Xtera, Alcatel US& Italy, Marconi UK

" Dave Van Duynhoven (2005)" VP, Finance. CPA, CMA" HUBER+SUHNER, Auditor

General

Jon Boocock (BTI Jan 2007)" VP, Engineering" VP/Co-Founder Catena (Ciena)" VP/ Co-Founder Cadence

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The take-away – our playing field:

" A very technical product

" A technical sales process

" A long, complex, B2B sales cycle

" Very much a David & Goliath landscape

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Functional view: ~80 employees

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6

45

9

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Sales & Marketing

Product Marketing

Development

Mfg & Ops

Finance, IT & HR

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Venus & Mars

Photonics research Sales & Marketing

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Motivation & drive:different strokes for different folks

" Peer recognition

" Papers published, patent

applications

" Speaking at industry forums

" Technical challenge

" “coin operated”

" “show me the money”

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But wait a minute:we’re not that different

!"Everyone needs recognition - the “feeling” that you are important,

that you are contributing to the success of the business, and that

your efforts are respected and appreciated by fellow employees

! On budget / On time

! Cracking a new customer

! Selling on value

! Customer testimonials – helping solve real problems

#"Technical teams want to work on a successful products. Sales

teams want to sell winning products. The common metric is real

customers and market share.

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Culture

Every company has a culture, every company has politics

" Perception is reality

" Work with it

Observations / my sandbox

" Not your “typical” Tech CEO

" Significant company restructuring in 2002

" Culture changes with company lifecycle:

" The 1-5-10-25-50-100M barriers

" Optical Engineers ! software engineers ! hardware engineers ! systemsengineers

" And we’re as multinational as it gets

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Communication style

" Not your `typical` Tech CEO

" Be OPEN, honest, straightforward

" Try to tie in the remotes

" Set 3, clear over-arching objectives, & repeat

" Share the numbers, the good, the bad & the ugly

" Regular informal updates

" Semi-annual formal update

" No problem with mistakes (but not repeat mistakes)

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Challenges

" The VC influence

" The same vested interest or ??

" An exit and minimum 20% IRR is natural

" As the company grows up…

" Start-up excuses go away

" Employment / HR expectations expand

" Act BIG, be small gets harder

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Fostering teamwork

" Trade notes

" Technical teams are starved for customer feedback

" Sales teams are starved to technical innovation / uniqueness

" Push decisions to where the expertise resides

" Product marketing / product line management is the key linkage

" On occasion…take a ‘software geek’ to a customer,

and bring a ‘sales puke’ into the lab

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Fostering teamwork – have fun

If a man insisted always on being serious,

and never allowed himself

a bit of fun and relaxation,

he would go mad or become unstable

without knowing it

Herodotus

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Fostering teamwork – have fun

" Organize events at least quarterly

" beach volleyball

" yoga

" Skating on the canal,

" curling (yes, curling)

" picnics, whatever

" at least one party with spouses / guests

" The leader sets the tone, but the activities are

best when event coordination is spread around

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Compensation & Incentives

" Fair, transparent and equitable

" People talk, especially engineers

" Salaries (the “start-up” factor)

" You have to be competitive – but not the highest

" You have to pay a premium for “A” players – but it’s worth it

" Challenge, responsibility, recognition and reward trump pure $$$

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Compensation & Incentives

" Company-wide incentive plan

" 10% “at plan” , 20% stretch

" Metrics must be aggressive, but realistic

" Combination of financial / market / product milestones

" Always drive home the capital efficiency message (Cash FlowPositive…)

" Stock Options

" Still in vogue, but not Holy Grail

" “Fun” rewards work

" Create a friendly competition / bragging rights

" Does not require big bags of $$$

" Examples: IP", a goofy award

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Closing comments - Marrying Teams:

!"Set a tone that is open, based on mutual respect, and interactive

#"Don’t play favourites

$"Communicate frequently – informally and formally

%"Tie in customer and market touch wherever and whenever you can

&"Structure rewards and incentives to reinforce the behaviour and

culture that you are looking for

Thank you

E-mail: lancelaking@btiphotonics.com