LOGICAL INVESTMENT: Entrepreneur Dado Banatao started with nothing and used a four- part formula for success to make a fortune in the technology market. On May 5, he will share those secrets with students during a talk sponsored by the Management of Technology Series.

Silicon Valley entrepreneur and engineer Dado Banatao will talk on investing in technology

Perhaps it was Dado Banatao’s technological pragmatism, instilled by his engineering background, that helped him succeed during the Silicon Valley downturn several years ago. He escaped unscathed as tech companies and dot-coms went belly up and investment capital dried up around him.

“I survived the downturn because I didn’t invest in the dot-coms but rather stuck with unique technology products. I believe the value of a company is based on the value of its product or the technology embedded in that product. In a downturn, the rate of adoption changes, but technology is always stable. People will always buy things that are truly valuable,” says Banatao from the office of his Palo Alto investment firm, Tallwood Venture Capital.

Banatao will discuss what it takes to succeed in Silicon Valley during a May 5 talk at 4 p.m. in Sibley Auditorium as part of the Management of Technology Lecture Series.

Banatao grew up as a farmer’s son in a poor neighborhood in the Philippines, where most of his friends never studied past grade school. Now Banatao is among the most prominent and wealthy Filipinos in the world, regularly advising the Philippine president and cabinet on technology and science issues. He’s regarded as the visionary scientist behind several key semiconductor technologies and known for leading many trends in the electronics field.

Banatao received an electrical engineering degree from the Mapua Institute of Technology in Manila and graduated among the top of his class. He then pursued his passion for flying by training to become a commercial airline pilot. A twist of fate brought him to the U.S. when Boeing offered him an engineering job in 1968.

He quickly moved up in his career, becoming a top design engineer for some well-known companies. At Seeq Technology Banatao created a breakthrough technology by putting an Ethernet controller on a single chip. He embarked on his first start-up company in 1984.

He owes his success in business and the tech arena to a personal four-step formula for gauging good investments. He will share that formula during his talk.

While Banatao got his master’s in EECS from rival Stanford University, he has been a generous contributor to the College of Engineering both personally and financially.

“A long time ago I was admitted to both schools, and my affinity for Berkeley started then,” says Banatao. That relationship deepened when his daughter and two sons decided to attend Berkeley. His son Desi is currently getting his Berkeley master’s in MSE.

The advice he gives ambitious engineers is to pay attention to the market and market needs. Creating an innovative product that no one wants is a waste of time and energy.

“Because engineers are involved in the design of products, they are the backbone of any company. Engineers that are good at what they do eventually get promoted to upper management. If you learn the other aspects of your business, you will just keep on moving up,” he says.

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