Lior Susan, head of Eclipse, talked to #TechCrunch a bit about us today, among other things. One key takeaway: "And it’s on a $100 million annual revenue run rate already in less than a year as an independent company." Oh yeah: #hiring #dayone ***** TC: How did the Bright Machines deal work? The startup started as an internal project at Flex, so do you co-own it with the company? LS: It started internally at Flex. There were 400 people working on it internally, and I went to [Flex management and its board] and I said, ‘I want the team.’ Flex said, ‘Absolutely no.’ But I went back with a better argument why they should, including that they needed to hire talent that wasn’t going to come to work for Flex, and that the company could be worth $5 billion, $7 billion some day. And after 12 months, we carved out the company, with its [intellectual property] and the $350 million in contracts it had, and we created a new company, and we own 20 percent, Flex owns 28 percent, and the team owns the rest. And it’s on a $100 million annual revenue run rate already in less than a year as an independent company. TC: What do you see happening with Bright Machines? LS: it will go public, I’d guess in sub five years. The model is pretty compelling if you’re doing it right. …see more