#297: Bob Metcalfe — The Man (and Lessons) Behind Ethernet, Metcalfe’s Law, and More

Bob Metcalfe (@BobMetcalfe) is an MIT-Harvard-trained engineer-entrepreneur who became an Internet pioneer in 1970, invented Ethernet in 1973, and founded 3Com Corporation in 1979. About 1.2B Ethernet ports were shipped last year — 400M wired and 800M wireless (Wi-Fi).3Com went public in 1984, peaked at $5.7B in annual sales in 1999, and after 30 years became part of HP last year. Bob was a publisher-pundit for IDG-InfoWorld for about 10 years and a venture capitalist for about 10 years with Polaris Venture Partners, where he continues as a Venture Partner.Bob is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a recipient of the National Medal of Technology.In this conversation, we talk about everything from how he toasts when drinking with friends, how he learned to recruit and fire,