In 1982, Ron Gruner, Craig Mundie, and Rich McAndrew founded Alliant
Computer Systems to build parallel supercomputers. Their goal was to build a
machine that used multiprocessing to achieve better performance than the
fastest single-CPU machines, but in a way that was transparent to developers.
In 1985, after 3 years of work, they’d done it, and for the next several years
Alliant was one of the leading players in the turbulent parallel computer industry.
But the company lost its way; Gruner left in 1991 after disagreement about
the company’s direction; and a year...

growth path from Digital’s Vax line of machines, which were topping out at half
a million dollars.
Our machines provided anywhere from four to ten times the performance
of Digital’s largest Vax, for maybe 50 percent more, using parallel processing
technology. But because this was a very complex technology—obviously all
hardware-based; back in those days everything was proprietary hardware—we
had to raise a lot of money. We took the traditional approach of going out and
raising venture capital.
We knew, even then, having watched how Data General financed itself, that
you...

plan done. We worked very hard on that plan and then went out to San
Francisco and pitched the idea to them. This was John Doerr. He had been
there a few years at the time, but he was just really getting started in his career.
Frank Caufield, Brook Byers, and Tom Perkins—that whole crew.
They liked the idea because they could draw analogies with Tandem
Computer. They looked at our backgrounds, having been in the business, etc.
So we were able to raise money from Kleiner Perkins. The first round, as I
...

9:30 in the morning, going to a 4- to 5-hour typically boring board meeting,
then flying back that night. And he was in his early 50s at that time. He always
had great insights, and always tinged with a nice touch of humor, too.
Ron Gruner 429
We had other great members of the board. We felt that most of the venture
capital community added a lot of value—also in terms of contacts, we were very
positive about that.
We grew very quickly, and at one point we had a market valuation of...

buying workstations and personal computers.
At the same time that was going on, the Cold War was coming to an end.
Many of our customers were defense-related. Major customers were large
intelligence agencies in the United States, for example, or other defenserelated
applications. So that market dried up. Revenues turned down very
steeply in the late ’80s.
Livingston: How did your investors react?
Gruner: We had a situation where a lot could be learned about the pros and
cons of using venture capital. Things were going south quickly and badly. We at...