Janie Tsao (born 1953), née Wu Chien (), is a Taiwanese-born American entrepreneur and hardware engineer. She and her husband

Victor The name Victor or Viktor may refer to: * Victor (name), including a list of people with the given name, mononym, or surname Arts and entertainment Film * ''Victor'' (1951 film), a French drama film * ''Victor'' (1993 film), a French shor ...

co-founded

Linksys Linksys is an American brand of data networking hardware products mainly sold to home users and small businesses. It was founded in 1988 by the couple Victor and Janie Tsao, both Taiwanese immigrants to the United States. Linksys products incl ...

, a consumer home networking pioneer, and sold the company to

Cisco Systems Cisco Systems, Inc., commonly known as Cisco, is an American-based multinational corporation, multinational digital communications technology conglomerate (company), conglomerate corporation headquartered in San Jose, California. Cisco develo ...

for $500 million in 2003.

Early life and career

Born Wu Chien (or Wu Jian), Tsao received her bachelor's degree in English literature at

Tamkang University Tamkang University (TKU; ) is a private university in Tamsui District, New Taipei City, Taiwan. It was founded in 1950 as a junior college of English literature. Today it is a comprehensive university with 11 colleges that serves nearly 25,000 ...

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

. There, she met her future husband and business partner,

Victor Tsao The name Victor or Viktor may refer to: * Victor (name), including a list of people with the given name, mononym, or surname Arts and entertainment Film * Victor (1951 film), ''Victor'' (1951 film), a French drama film * Victor (1993 film), ...

. They later married in the United States. In 1975, Tsao moved to the United States and accepted a position at

Sears Roebuck Sears, Roebuck and Co. ( ), commonly known as Sears, is an American chain of department stores founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosenwald, with what began a ...

in information technology, where she worked for more than eight years. Later, she worked at TRW and

Carter Hawley Hale Broadway Stores, Inc., was an American retailer based in Southern California. Known through its history as Carter Hawley Hale Stores and Broadway Hale Stores over time, it acquired other retail store chains in regions outside its California home b ...

as a systems manager. In 1977, Tsao and her husband moved to

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, where they attended graduate school. They later settled in

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

Linksys

In 1988, the Tsaos had an idea for a product that would allow multiple computers to share a printer. Janie, then 35 years old, quit her job to start

and the couple financed the company with their savings. They founded the company in their garage. The company's first product was a success and by 1991, it was generating enough profit to allow Victor to also quit his job and work on the company full-time. Janie Tsao took charge of the company's sales, and was responsible for persuading the major retailers

Fry's Electronics Fry's Electronics was an American big-box store chain. While operating, it was headquartered in San Jose, California in Silicon Valley. Fry's retailed software, consumer electronics, household appliances, cosmetics, tools, toys, accessories, ma ...

and

Best Buy Best Buy Co. Inc. is an American multinational consumer electronics retailer headquartered in Richfield, Minnesota. Originally founded by Richard M. Schulze and James Wheeler in 1966 as an audio specialty store called Sound of Music, it was rebra ...

to sell Linksys products in 1995 and 1996, respectively. These were crucial breaks for Linksys, quadrupling its revenue to $21.5 million in 1996, and tripling it again to $65.6 million two years later. She developed Linksys' retail channel and oversaw the development of the company's distribution, e-commerce and international channel market strategies and programs. She also developed Linksys's broadband strategy, partnering with cable and telecom companies to "provide high-speed Internet sharing access via wired or wireless solutions to PC users across the country." In 2003, the Tsaos sold the company to

in a deal valued at $500 million. They continued to work for Cisco as senior vice presidents until 2007, when they retired from corporate life and shifted their focus to Miven Venture Partners, an investment firm they had founded in 2005. In 2000, Tsao was named Entrepreneur of the Year by the Orange County Business Association. In 2002, she was awarded a BridgeGate 20 award. In 2004, Tsao and her husband were jointly named Entrepreneur of the Year by '' Inc.'' magazine. She is the 2005 winner of the ABIE Award for Technical Leadership from the

Anita Borg Institute AnitaB.org (formerly Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology, and Institute for Women in Technology) is a global nonprofit organization based in Belmont, California. Founded by computer scientists Anita Borg and Telle Whitney, the institute' ...

Family

Tsao and her husband have two sons, Michael and Steven. Through the Tsao Family Foundation, they work with the

Center for Asian American Media The Center for Asian American Media (CAAM) was founded in 1980. The San Francisco-based organization, formerly known as the National Asian American Telecommunications Association (NAATA), has grown into the largest organization dedicated to the adv ...

to produce documentaries "promoting understanding and communication."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tsao, Janie Living people American women business executives American business executives Taiwanese emigrants to the United States Tamkang University alumni Taiwanese women company founders American technology company founders American women company founders American company founders 1953 births Cisco people Taiwanese company founders American computer businesspeople American telecommunications industry businesspeople Linksys 21st-century American women