Quitting at the worst time

Hans Hasselby-Andersen left Texas Instruments in September 2008 with four children aged five to fourteen. Lehman Brothers was collapsing and credit markets were freezing. His manager thought he was crazy.

“My manager was looking at me like I was crazy, basically.”

The seed was planted

Earlier at Texas Instruments, Hasselby-Andersen had joined a small startup that was acquired five or six months after he arrived. Seeing a company exit made him think he could take that path too.

Finding the problem first

Working in audio semiconductors, Hasselby-Andersen saw a market need for energy-efficient speaker drivers in portable speakers and soundbars. He had no technical solution, so he found a cofounder who could.

Securing a lifeline

Just before resigning, Hasselby-Andersen called his bank and got a basic overdraft facility. He thinks if he had waited two weeks, the financial crisis would have made it impossible to get.

A year of rejection

Hasselby-Andersen spent nearly a year raising his first funding, speaking to between fifty and one hundred different investors. He travelled to Japan, South Korea, and Singapore to pressure-test his idea with potential customers.

The first cheque arrives

Hasselby-Andersen raised the equivalent of about one hundred fifty thousand to two hundred thousand dollars. He and his team spent it in about six months and knew they had to fundraise immediately again.

Betting the house

Hasselby-Andersen and his wife sold their apartment while they could still make money from it and rented instead. They sold their car and leased one. He cashed out his pension early.

“I slaughtered my pension and took out the money.”

The founder's lesson

Hasselby-Andersen advises first-time founders to plan for things to take twice as long as expected. If you think something takes two or three years, multiply by two. Otherwise you run out of cash.

“If you think you can do something in two years or three years, multiply that by two, at least.”

Engineers must learn to sell

Starting at forty, Hasselby-Andersen had learned to communicate with customers and explain his ideas. Many engineers struggle to pitch. He had three minutes to convince investors with an elevator pitch.

The exit and what came next

Nine years later, Merus Audio was acquired by Infineon. Hasselby-Andersen stayed to help with integration but did not want to return to corporate life. He is now CEO and investor at Lotus Microsystems.

Would he do it again

Hasselby-Andersen says yes, he would take the same risk again. The mentality of building something gives enormous energy and motivation. When you have that drive, you can achieve a lot.

“If you have that mentality of wanting to try something on your own, to build something, that is a major driver inside you.”