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Staktek's James Cady can make two boasts that most CEOs of Austin technology companies cannot. First, he has spent the past 13 years with the same technology company. Secondly, that company has seen 16 quarters of profitability during Austin's tough tech bust.
While other tech companies have faltered in recent years, Staktek has established a solid footing in the marketplace. The company, purchased by Austin Ventures last year for $127.5 million, takes individual memory chips and stacks them to double, triple or even quadruple the speed of equipment. The technology uses existing memory and limited space - a tremendous advantage in the targeted server market.
"By increasing [the product's] performance, we've increased their value in the marketplace," Cady says. "It directly elevates their position in the market. That's the motivation for the company. It extends the life of products."
The idea for Stakekes technology originated with the late Carmen Burns, who recruited Cady to join him at Staktek in 1991. At the time, Cady was a technology and operations executive with KDT Industries, a company owned by the Kozrnetskys - the same family of one of Austin's technology pioneers, George Kozmetsky.
Cady first met Burns in 1979 at National Semiconductor. At the time, Cady was the director of systems integration at National Advanced Systems, a subsidiary of National Semiconductor. He recalls that Burns was introduced to him as "a genius" in the memory field. As it would turn out Burns played a major role in steering Cady's career path.