Marketta Silvera, Pilot Network Services Inc. Founded in late 1993. Provides secure Internet and remote-network services to companies with enterprise-wide networks. Pilot was the first to offer comprehensive, secure Internet services, thereby protecting corporate systems from hackers and intruders. (These services are provided through the company's "network-services centers," configured with advanced "firewall" technologies.) Pilot is headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area, with service centers there as well as in L.A., New York and Chicago. Silvera is founder, President and CEO, and a major shareholder. The company's technology was lauded as "state of the art" by Fortune's Richard Behar in "Who's reading your e-mail?," the magazine's February 3rd cover story. Birthyear 1943 (Finland), phone (510) 433-7800, HQ Alameda (CA).

Part One: From Finland to Silicon Valley

Frank Gregorsky: It was apparently a long and fortuitous odyssey, so -- how did you get to Silicon Valley?

Marketta Silvera: I grew up in Finland, where you don't have the opportunities [enjoyed here] -- for men or women. You were raised to get into the universities; you really had to fight hard, because spaces were limited. When I applied to this [particular] economics university, they selected seven women out of the 200 who applied. And the number of universities was also limited -- we had three [laughter] -- so you had to fight real hard from the time you were a little kid. No time to think about entrepreneurship.

FG: What year did you leave Finland?

Silvera: In 1964. First I went to Switzerland, for a year. I had been an exchange student there [in the early '60s] as part of my economics curricula at the university in Finland. After graduating in Finland, I decided to go back and look for a job. In my own mind, I strategized: "Where would I be able to add value in a foreign country?" I spoke five languages, so that would help. But strategy was everything; I had to get international experience.

FG: But you were thinking at that conceptual level, as opposed to just seeing something in the paper and thinking, "Oh, maybe I should go there"?

Silvera: Yes. As a concept, already, as a kid. We grew up in this little tiny country, where work was so hard you really had no time to waste. So you were constantly thinking ahead. I went to school on foot, skis, or by bicycle, depending on the time of the year -- that was my means of transportation. And we didn't change clothes every day [laughter]. I am the only daughter. I have three brothers and my first mother died when I was three years old. She died from a war epidemic, which was lung polio. My father remarried, so all three brothers and I were raised by the same mother, who was very progressive and focused on helping her kids become successful. I didn't realize it, but my brothers told me afterward I had set an example for them in many areas [laughter].

FG: So, preparing to leave college, you are posing this "value-added" question to yourself -- ?

Silvera: Fascinating, looking back, how I came to the right conclusion. As an exchange student, I had written a thesis about a specific wholesale business in St. Gallen, Switzerland. So I was familiar with the general business environment in that country. All of a sudden, a light bulb came on: "What about the foreign embassies?" Switzerland was a hub. I got all excited, put a portfolio together, and went cold-calling (didn't know then it was called "cold-calling"). I walked into embassies asking to see the economic attaché. At the American embassy, they had never seen anyone do this. "What do we do? Well, her credentials look good, so we should let the economic attaché talk to this person." They put me thru tests for several days, had me read foreign newspapers, and finally offered me a job. But I couldn't be sure, so, early in the process, I went to a whole bunch of embassies: Austria, India, Canada. And I got a job offer at every one of them. So I felt like a million bucks. After evaluating all these others, the decision was easy: Of course I wanted to work for the American Embassy, because it was the biggest and the best. Working there for a year, I got to know the science attaché -- Dr. J. Murray Luck -- who was a Stanford professor of biochemistry. He was one of these people who decided he was stifled [in Academia]; he had called up the State Department and asked for an assignment where he could contribute. That's how he ended up in Bern. I ended up getting to know Luck because he was writing a book called The Excitement And Fascination Of Science while in Switzerland. The Swiss are very private people, and not just the bankers. So he was having trouble getting information. With lots of friends there, I was able to help him open up some doors. He was so impressed he offered me a job at Annual Reviews at Stanford -- this little kid of 22 years old.

FG: The whole situation turned out to be more audacious than you appreciated at the time.

Silvera: That's right. I did not recognize its significance then. Looking back I say, "Wow." Interviewing these young people here, trying to think of what I felt like at their age, I had matured faster than most. I credit a hard, disciplined lifestyle, and really establishing the early values. My father and mother always said, "Look, you can do anything you want to do in life. Don't feel like you have to be a teacher or a nurse, or do embroidery or be a housewife. You can do anything you want." I heard this from the time I was a tiny little kid.

FG: Is your father still alive?

Silvera: Oh yes, and he's in great shape. At 81, he's still an athlete. He can outrun my husband, who's an American. He was one of those guys who, in the Second World War, beat the Russians -- dressed up in his white ski suit. He helped earn independence for Finland. That's what really radiates to the kids.

FG: You're speaking of 1940-41, when Stalin tried to annex Finland?

Silvera: Yeah. Of all those little countries there, Finland was the only one they couldn't get. They could've killed all of us -- every one of us -- before we would ever become Communists. We believed in individualism -- and being different. Early on, I got that excitement about being different. I always wanted to do something different, always wanted to be the best -- incredible ambition. What helps teach this are competitive sports. My parents got me into them -- not particularly planning me to be anything, the way nowadays a lot of parents "set the stage" for their kids. But my parents just felt it was fun and healthy.

FG: What kind of sports?

Silvera: Cross-country skiing. Swimming -- team relays. Soccer. And we would do a lot of track sports: Long jump, high jump and those things.

FG: Your father may have been the first one, but let's talk a little bit about mentors, role models and coaches.

Silvera: Certainly my Dad. But also my mother who raised me -- she has been a real driver, almost too much so. We would disagree at times, but the end result was very fine. Role models? As a young girl mine were movie stars [laughter] -- Audrey Hepburn, June Allyson, Jean Simmons, Elizabeth Taylor, Marilyn Monroe. This thing [they embodied] didn't exist in my country; it was so foreign, so unique and so different. Fascinating, glamorous. Jackie Kennedy was also admired. You see, I went thru the period when we didn't really have feminism. You admired women who were attractive, gorgeous, beautiful stars, of some kind.

FG: Back then they were called Sex Symbols.

Silvera: Yeah, that's right! So I grew up as wanting to look nice, feeling that this has great value. Anyway, I arrived at Stanford -- I just looked it up -- on October 5, 1965. My trip was paid for, my visa arranged. But all my friends in Europe said, "Why would you want to go to America? People there are superficial, they don't understand real friendship, they chew gum, they don't understand art." I understood how they felt -- but I wanted to go see.

FG: Professor Luck -- he was a mentor?

Silvera: One of the early ones. He never realized what an impact he made on me by explaining why he left the university professorship.

FG: He was validating your view of how life should work.

Silvera: He was, but I didn't know he was validating. I didn't realize. But that's the thing I subconsciously picked out.

FG: You knew right away he was a kindred soul [smiling].

Silvera: That's exactly what it was. We became good friends. I was just a young person, but very mature. He gave me all these great books -- I was like Alice in Wonderland. When I came here, I was engaged to a Swedish guy. But I ended up falling in love with an American -- born and raised here -- whose mother is Swedish and father is Portuguese. He was a football player from Notre Dame University. Born and raised right here in the Bay Area. We met on a blind date. We got engaged two months later, and married two months after that in my hometown: Valkeakoski (which translates into "white water falls"). So everybody trucked over to Finland [laughter]. I've been married to him -- next September, it will be 30 years. It must be the family values I was raised with -- none of my brothers is divorced either -- way back, roots. You have to stick to things even when they get tough.

FG: So how did you take professional root in Silicon Valley?

Silvera: My husband was a rising star with DuPont Corp.: He was part of the team, involved in Freon Products, that put the first guy on the Moon. He was promoted to the East Coast. He ended up as a territorial manager for DuPont and we lived in Syracuse [NY] -- with ice and snow not too different from Finland's. "So now what do I do? I'm supposed to be a housewife, have kids." But now we had birth control. So I went and got a job as an editor at Singer Publishing Company (this was 1966). When that didn't offer me much, I entered graduate school, where I was the only woman in the mathematical-economics curricula at Maxwell School. I took these wild theoretical classes -- the professor was amazed; I had a lot of fun. Looking at those books now, it's hard to figure out what I did. "Did I really solve those problems?" In 1967, I decided to take computer science. Punch cards! "I want to find out what all of these people seem to be raving about." The math people were doing the raving, and I was a math type. So I took FORTRAN -- and fell in love with it. Not so much the actual punching of the cards, but the concept: Feed a bunch of instructions into this machine, and it will do the work for you! My imagination went wild: "How many clerical jobs can we automate?" I didn't see this as a threat to full employment, I saw it as new freedom for people who could have more challenging jobs -- and who should be pushed a little bit toward challenges. They would be happier [moving beyond] the clerical things. I took a job as a part-time programmer. Suddenly I found myself as a junior programmer at this start-up called Computer Control Corp., which had been founded by a couple of IBM sales guys. As a woman programmer, I was a novelty -- even pictured in their brochure. I designed this piece-rate payroll system for Oberdorfer Foundries on IBM 360 Model 20. They put these computers in a big glass "fishbowl" at the center of the plant and [laughter] I'm there doing test programs and fixing the machines. All these guys are going, "Is she for real? What is she doing there?" I felt reasonably safe, but definitely a novelty -- remember, this is occurring at a foundry, in 1968.

[Her husband turned down a DuPont transfer to Wilmington, DE: No more company towns, too professionally restrictive. Instead, they chose her husband's family's business in Antioch, CA: Silvera Lumber Company, founded in 1939, wholesale and retail, "like Handyman's and Grossman's." Mr. Silvera "pioneered the home-improvement center concept before the big chains came along." No children then -- or later. "I never decided not to have kids, but I always thought: Next year. That 'later on' became never, because there was less and less time to take off."]

Silvera: Using a headhunter, I got a job as a programmer and systems-designer at a very innovative "facilities management" company, Computer Synergy, here in Oakland. This was also started by a couple of IBM sales guys. We had big accounts like Simco (American Toy), Clorox, Dillingham Corp. I designed computerized billing and accounting systems for them. But facilities management was not a concept that allowed for growing the company, and the business was sold. Just before it was sold, I moved on. Still, I was with Computer Synergy for three-and-a-half-years -- from 1969 to the end of '72. In those days, [tech] people didn't change [companies every year].

[In 1973, Silvera had competing offers as Systems Engineer. She chose the position at Xerox Computer Services, because that company was introducing new online systems and applications, and the south San Francisco facility had just opened. They proceeded to pioneer MRP -- material-requirements planning -- systems, which she was put in charge of implementing...]

In 1975 I looked around at all these guys -- we had only guys as sales reps -- and thought, "They're making a lot more money than I'm making, and that's not fair. Besides, it looks like more fun to be out there making those presentations." There I was, doing all the work for them -- before the sale, and after the sale. I knew all about their trips and bonuses and commissions. My boss wondered, "Why do you want to do that?" "Because I want to progress in my career, and it looks like I need sales experience to be able to, one day, run a business." He kinda looked at me and said, "Well, okay." But I had to offer him something. "If I help get [us] the biggest deal in the history of the San Francisco branch, you'll support me going into sales, right?" Done. He didn't think we would get it. Well, we got it, and I did all the presale work. The regular sales guy closed the sale, and he had no problem accepting my assistance. Meanwhile I had this big incentive, and I knew the sales guy would give me credit. He would have the whole commission. So I made my application for sales rep. I had to go see the President, Jim Campbell, who founded the company. They warned me my old job wouldn't be guaranteed if I didn't like this new one. "Well, no pain, no gain -- so I want to do it." I'd been put on notice that, if it didn't work, they didn't owe me anything. If it did work, they could brag about having a woman sales rep. Boy, that was hard! I thought it would be a piece of cake. But it was so hard the first year. I had never sold anything before. Going from a technical to a sales role was much more difficult than I had expected. I cried many a tear. And I tried to get the guys to take me on calls. They said, "Yeah, sure, of course," because I had helped them out for a long time. But the "right time" never came. They didn't want to have a woman [along] on their calls, calling on these manufacturing plants and what-have-you.

[During '76, she quit trying to understand or replicate their methods and applied different strategies. She enrolled in manufacturers' organizations, which were all-male, and she was again a novelty. One was the American Production and Inventory-Control Society, where she joined the board and ultimately was elected president of the Golden Gate chapter. By 1977 she was setting Xerox Computer Services' records for both total number of new accounts and dollar sales. "Jim Campbell was very proud, and he ended up becoming a mentor. I could call him for advice; he was great."]

FG: Okay, in a professional sense, you had made your first million. It should then become easier to acquire the second million.

Silvera: I expected it to. But it doesn't necessarily work that way. Constantly, looking back, I feel I'm always auditioning. It doesn't matter what I did the year before.

[By 1983, she had one-fourth of the company's revenues under her as a Region Manager. "We were the most profitable group within Xerox" -- technically, Computer Services was an autonomous subsidiary. In 1986 she joined her first start-up, in the voice-technology field, as vice-president of sales and marketing. The systems ran on ITT voice cards and their target market was hospital staff scheduling. With no role in money-raising, Silvera accommodated the preferred strategy for a year-and-a-half. It became an example of how not to do things and a "perfect example of why so many start-ups fail." She got another job, same title, at VOTAN, which had invented one of the best voice-recognition technologies and was struggling to turn itself around...]

The company had been around for nine years, and they had excellent technology. But they had missed their mark; they had never generated profit. It was engineering-driven -- they were so proud they felt the world would ultimately come to them. One of their early CEOs was a great promoter -- he had raised a lot of money, and spent all of it. Most of the original investors had walked away. I was taking a job nobody wanted. Well I wanted it, because it was a real company, known in the industry. Because they were in trouble, I had everything to gain and nothing to lose: If it went down the tubes, nobody could blame it on me. I was able to develop marketing and sales strategies that produced the first profitable month within five months. We developed and marketed the first PC-based voicemail system, which worked with voice-recognition, so you didn't need to use the touch-tone keys -- you could just speak. We had our own manufacturing plant. All in all, the typical Silicon Valley high-tech environment. After a year and a half of this, in 1989, I became President. The turnaround was a major challenge. Besides, you can't get a job as a President if you haven't done that before. My job was then to downsize the company and sell it. It was too late to build anything new; you could no longer raise venture capital for that company. Even partnerships were a long shot -- it smelled bad. We ended up selling the company to Moscom after several other tries. My next turnaround opportunity was a little bit more lucrative: Another voice-messaging company, $12 1/2 million in sales, break-even -- but everything was flat. In 18 months, we grew that company to $65 million. Now I started to feel like a million bucks. I finally felt like an individual entrepreneur who could see how to do and not do things. When I arrived at the company, it felt like a morgue. We grew thru acquisitions. We acquired two companies. The original investors and their advisors began seeing stars. They wanted to go public -- immediately -- so they could get the return on their investment, which they had waited for a long time. I recommended against that; "Let's wait a year or two and build a sustainable revenue-growth path." The Board said I could either follow thru or leave.

[Discussion of the realities of leading an IPO campaign, the disagreements within that company, and where it is lately...]

FG: This sounds like a bigger catharsis, or rite of passage, than any of your previous episodes.

Silvera: Right. It really was. It almost seems that the more one accomplishes, the more one can lose. Hopefully I won't have to go thru that again. But you really learn how to do things. Fortunately I had built a great reputation. When all this was happening, I was introduced to a young venture capitalist, Bill Elmore, who said, "Look, I've got this idea for a business, take a look at it -- I'll write the 'seed' checks myself, if you agree to run it."

FG: And this became Pilot Network Services Inc.?

Silvera: His idea is not what we've ended up with. The original idea he attracted me with was remote-network services for corporations. But it was good enough to get [us] building toward something hotter, which is the secure Internet services. That's hot [and] there's "acute pain" in the corporate world about satisfying this need, about getting connected to the Internet with a high level of security. By contrast, remote-network services is what I call "latent pain." I learned the difference in the Xerox days: You find the acute pain, go after the acute pain.

FG: Latent is a dull ache, acute is a bloody sore.

Silvera: Right, and you don't go after [the former] because, even if you have the best solution, they can put off using it. The pain isn't great enough -- they don't have to make a decision. But this guy told me he felt it didn't matter [exactly] what we did, I would turn it into a success. So he wrote the checks. He put me in business, essentially. It was blind faith: "You're gonna make it work." I was so impressed. When I started work on the original business plan, he said: "You don't know how good you are."

Part Two: Policy and Social Trends

FG: What does the word "feminism" mean to you?

Silvera: Something a little bit negative: You're going to overcompensate; you want special privileges because you're a woman or [you hope to] earn things more easily [or via a group entitlement]. However, there's a place for this. As we all know, you have to have the extreme groups to be able to get the balance.

FG: If the Congress were to focus solely on start-ups and job-creation, what should or could they do?

Silvera: The three high-level principles I would recommend would mean (1) they should "incent" the start of these enterprises; (2) incent the growth of those same enterprises; and (3) they should reward success when it is reached. Ironically, the biggest way government has helped here is by breaking up AT&T. It so happens that Stanford Prof. William Baxter is a friend of mine. When I read his work, I called him up and suggested a lunch. We did. A brilliant mind -- just think about what he did. Had he not done it, I would not be here with this business opportunity. Monopoly is as poisonous as Communism -- I really think so. And so I worry about all these big giant mergers. Indirectly, they are making it harder and harder for new companies to start -- because the power in the hands of these merged entities is so phenomenal the little guys don't have room to breathe. AT&T is doing a joint venture with BBN [Bolt Beranek & Newman]. BBN got into the Internet business by buying BARRNet, which used to be the Internet access-provider here at Stanford. They bought that little provider for $8 million and now they're teaming up with AT&T -- a very powerful partnership, and I won't be surprised if AT&T buys BBN later. To me, it starts to be monopolistic to the point that you can't compete. And this could do the same thing as what [the old] AT&T did to the United States: We were behind other countries, including many in Europe, in telecommunications. Until William Baxter came in and bounced that system, followed by Judge Greene's implementation.

FG: So you're saying, as of the early '80s, because one super-company dominated the phone system in this country, the U.S. was technologically behind the other democracies?

Silvera: Certainly that was the perception. Cellular is a good example. And look at the difference ever since that breakup: The whole world has changed. Yet I know some of the [old-time AT&T people] who say, "It would be so much better had it never happened." I can't believe they would say this -- amazing. In a little country like Finland, cellular technology and car phones were available ages before the United States.

FG: Besides a pool of ready cash, and the ability to stimulate demand for their products, what does a huge company bring [to a small one working] a new field?

Silvera: That's a good question! Really, nothing. That's why these [combinations may not really] accomplish their objectives. But they occur because it's a simple way for a small group of well-placed individuals to become billionaires -- at the expense of industry overall. Perhaps some of the board members are sincere, but they have gotten caught up in the sales pitch. "We won't look like we're cutting-edge if we don't do what everyone else seems to be doing."

FG: How often do you make a decision or a plan -- or not do so -- based on legal fears, legal projections, lawsuit issues?

Silvera: Doesn't affect me, really. I don't think about those things. My initial reaction is to assume we'd be excluded because we're so new and so small -- our industry as well as a company my size.

FG: The puppy is not yet big enough, or slow enough, for the fleas to gather.

Silvera: Right, right. However, our industry is going to become stronger. And we do have some lobby groups -- the Commercial Internet Exchange and IBA, the Internet Business Association, etc. -- to make sure that crazy things don't come about. For example, we need to protect corporations' trademark rights also within the Internet world. But the Internet, in general, is without rules.

FG: I imagine you favor a series of laws and regulations to preserve the Internet, and all computer networks, as common carriers, as opposed to holding them liable for content.

Silvera: Absolutely, yes. That's a big, big topic. We cannot be held liable for content of the subject matter we transport for our clients over the Internet. But you'd be surprised how many potential prospects we run into who try to write [the opposite premise] into our contract, our service contract, and how we have to educate them that there's no way we can be held liable for the content of the data (e.g. unlawful data) that may travel via telecommunications connections provided by us. We have no control or knowledge of the content. So we have a long way to go to apply some order to the chaos within the Internet at this stage. We're addressing some of the hot topics right now, but it'll take awhile.

FG: Have you spotted any gender differences among the under-30s coming in here for high-level tech jobs?

Silvera: I interview anyone whose resume shows the right qualifications -- there's no discrimination. But one thing has been absolutely eye-opening. I've never seen it before, and I never would have believed it. But here it is: The women don't take the same risks, or view the opportunity the same way, as the guys do. So I've ended up, to a greater extent, with a male staff here, because the fellas grabbed on: "This is something new." They asked the right questions, and they were willing to take the risk.

FG: The risk of betting on a brand new industry.

Silvera: Betting on a brand new industry. That's what I did, and so I felt it was second nature. I've always gone for that risk, because, again: No pain, no gain. And so I was disappointed to see women shying away from that -- it was almost scary to me. Very qualified individuals with good resumes, they really wanted to have the big paycheck, because they had finally gotten to the point [in their most recent job] of making this amount of money, with that kind of a title, in very much a similar industry. It wasn't lack of [technological] familiarity -- exactly the same platform as the guys [who were applying]. The guys jumped at the opportunity. They said, "Okay, I'll take lower pay, or I'll do it for equity." With the women, we would have needed to match what they were making now. They did not want to give up an inch. So it's been a real lesson for me. Women should not complain. "Men get ahead because of unfair advantage"? No, today it is still men -- at least, the young guys I'm interviewing -- who take the chance. I interviewed almost as many women. They wanted to have everything they had at the other place, and then come to the start-up for equity.

FG: And enjoy the potential of becoming a millionaire via the stock options!

Silvera: Right, and not realize it's an investment. You have to go back a couple of steps, and then build up, while you contribute. That was a real disappointment for me. You can quote me. I'm basing this on many dozens of interviews. We do have a few women -- but they are absolutely exceptional. The women you met in here earlier are exceptional; they SAW the opportunity.

FG: In Greensburg, PA, the Seton Hill College "National Education Center for Women In Business" holds summer camps for girls age 12 to 18. They've shown an interest in business, somehow -- been recommended by someone -- so you're not dealing with a random bunch of kids. But what would you tell them in a pep talk?

Silvera: Surely the same advice I got from my parents: No limits. You can do anything you want to do -- if you always do the best job you're capable of, you'll get the opportunity to do what you really want to do in life. Give it all you've got. Make the recipient feel, and notice, how you really went out of your way. It pays back, in the long run, when you leave a good trail and don't burn your bridges. The other thing of great value is to involve yourself in new areas, constantly. Forget the comfortable topics you've grown familiar with.

FG: What would such a new area be for a 12-year-old in our country today?

Silvera: Various things. It could be a new sport. It could be a new type of club. It could be a scientific experiment. It doesn't have to be specifically job-related or hobby-related.

FG: Could it be a social trend?

Silvera: It could be a social trend, yes. And the parents should guide them in this process. Just like when you interview people and see, in front of your eyes, a thought evolving in their minds -- you kind of help [the person] along. Parents should do the same thing. Don't limit your kids' interest to the things you happen to know well.

Related Links:

• Discovery Institute
• Joint Economic Committee
• Women Business-Owners in Post-Corporate America