Co-Founder of NetApp Offers a Candid Memoir Laced with Real Life Business Lessons

HOW TO CASTRATE A BULL: Unexpected Lessons on Risk, Growth, and Success in Business by Dave Hitz with Pat Walsh

The technology boom was fueled by companies built on little more than big dreams and plans sketched on a napkin. But how many survived? And how many still have the original founder on the senior management team?

Dave Hitz can make both claims, co-founding NetApp in 1992 with three employees and a plan to “simplify data storage the way Cisco simplified networking.” Today, NetApp takes in more than $3 billion dollars annually, and consistently makes Fortune magazine's best places to work list. In his new book, HOW TO CASTRATE A BULL: Unexpected Lessons on Risk, Growth and Survival (Jossey-Bass; hardcover; January, 2009) Hitz and collaborator Pat Walsh tell the compelling tale of NetApp’s creation, search for funding, struggle for survival, and ultimate success.

“In a sense,” writes Hitz, “NetApp and I grew up together. Being there from the very beginning has given me an amazing tour through business. I’ve seen -- and participated in -- venture capital financing, management shake-ups, hypergrowth, going public, economic disaster, strategic reversal, and recovery.” His book is an insider’s view of this journey -- a memoir of both the man and the company, with cogent business lessons woven in along the way.

From Hitz’s first days in college at the tender age of 14, to his time at tiny Deep Springs College, a university centered on a working cattle ranch in California’s High Desert, Hitz’s career path has been anything but conventional. And while he did get a computer science degree from Princeton, the skills and the strategies that have helped him steer NetApp from start-up to a mature industry player were those Hitz learned in the most unexpected places.

Among the things you’ll learn: How the lifespan of a Silicon Valley CEO might resemble that of an alpha bull leading the herd Why spotting mistakes and then changing course can be more important than getting everything exactly right the first time When venture funding is absolutely necessary to get a product shipped and why getting it is a completely bittersweet experience How going after the low end of an existing market can turn into a brilliant strategy that makes a company strong

This is business narrative at its finest: a provocative look inside an industry, woven together with lessons learned. HOW TO CASTRATE A BULL: Unexpected Lessons on Risk, Growth and Survival is a story along the lines of Po Bronson’s Nudist on the Late Shift, and Michael Lewis’ Liar’s Poker.

Dave Hitz is founder and executive vice president of NetApp where he focuses on strategy and future direction of the company. NetApp is a member of the S&P 500 and the Fortune 1000. Hitz co-founded NetApp in 1992 with James Lau and Michael Malcolm, and has served as a programmer, marketing evangelist, technical architect and vice president of engineering. Prior to NetApp, Hitz worked as a software engineer at Auspex and MIPS. Before his career in the computer industry, Hitz worked as a cowboy, where he gained valuable management experience by herding, branding and castrating cattle. Hitz holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science and electrical engineering from Princeton University. Pat Walsh is the author of two previous books.

HOW TO CASTRATE A BULL: Unexpected Lessons on Risk, Growth, and Success in Business by Dave Hitz with Pat Walsh ISBN 13: 978-0-470-34523-8 IBSN 10: 0-470-34523-3 January 20, 2009 Jossey-Bass/Hardcover/$27.95