A couple weeks ago Michael Arrington compared entrepreneurs to pirates. He said that pirates and entrepreneurs share a lust for the “pirate life itself,” since in both cases the chance of financial success is pretty low.
The article reminded me of Rahul Sood, founder of Voodoo computers and a member of my team since HP acquired his company in 2006. Rahul’s entrepreneurial spirit and passion for innovation made him a valuable team member as we achieved some exciting milestones over the last couple of years.
His departure comes when enthusiasm is growing for our newest Envy notebooks, a line of premium systems with Voodoo influence. The Envy 14 has received several awards and positive reviews from publications, including the prestigious Computer of the Year Award from WIRED. Its bigger sibling the Envy 17 is receiving its fair share of accolades as well.
The team that created those systems shares a lot with Rahul. They approached the project with a sense of adventure and an undying passion for results, despite the fact that they wouldn’t receive individual recognition outside of HP.
It makes me wonder if Arrington didn’t get it a little wrong when he painted the pirate club as such an exclusive one.
Here’s to pirates everywhere.
*Photo by Cayusa, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike License.
