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Growing up around the floor of his father’s Bloomfield, N.J.’s aluminum factory, angel investor Bill Warner always knew he’d someday start his own company. He didn’t think of being an engineer, but there were so many knotty problems no one else would solve.
In 1973, an accident partially paralyzed Warner’s legs, sending the 18-year-old college student to the Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine, where he hacked together a relay-based whistle system to let a quadriplegic roommate control something as basic as the room light switch. Much later, after studying at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he was making sales and training videos at Apollo Computer. The editing process was so painful, and the tools so inadequate, that in 1987 he left to found Avid Technology, which went on to win two technical Oscars, an Emmy and a Grammy for its video and audio editing tools.
Now an angel investor with his fingers in six companies, Warner is underwriting and managing development of a new kind of hand cycle. The Morphing Handcycle runs on the road low-slung and fast, like the bikes in the Boston Marathon, then elevates into a high-seated chair with a narrow wheelbase, able to negotiate tight indoor corners.
Warner recently spoke with reporter Galen Moore.
Why Boston?
I applied to schools in Boston because my sister was here. I didn’t think I’d get in to MIT. I was never much of a nerd. I mean I liked to tinker. I was the one who made the science projects that people said, “I remember that thing he made.”
What inspired you early on?
My father owned a factory making aluminum extrusions. As a kid, I got to know management and the people who worked on the factory floor. I rode around on forklift trucks. Growing up I always thought I would start a company. I didn’t even have the thought of working for someone else. The No. 1 issue was, how do I learn as much as I can now so when I started a company I’ll be prepared. I took three jobs based on, how much can I learn in this job.
What was the first feature film done with Avid’s editing tools?
The first big movie done on Avid was James Cameron’s “True Lies.” (Cameron) was so happy with Avid for “True Lies” that he did “Titanic” on Avid. Normally the director says change this, change that. In this case he went in and said, “Let me run it.” They said, “No, you have to be in the Editors Guild. So he went and joined the Editors Guild. He became the lead editor for Titanic. When “Titanic” won the (1997) best editing Oscar, he held it up and said, like the character did in the movie, “I’m on top of the world.” I thought, “OK, that’s a good moment.”
Favorite movie?
“Groundhog Day”
What book are you reading right now?
“The Age of Spiritual Machines” by Ray Kurzweil.
Advice for tomorrow’s leaders?
I tell people today, if you can, don’t worry about “career,” just find a company where you’re fascinated, and where you can learn the most, and where you love what they do, and go work there.
Favorite quote?
In the Thomas O’Neill government building downtown, there are all these pictures and quotes. There’s this one quote I love: “It’s nice to be important, but it’s more important to be nice.”
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