In a region where tech industry titans are as common as the area’s nightmarish traffic, it takes a lot for someone to stand out as truly legendary.
T.J. Rodgers is one of those legends.
An inventor of semiconductor technologies, an early investor in solar technology company SunPower, and most notably, the founder — and for 34 years, the only chief executive of Cypress Semiconductor — Rodgers has done enough to justify kicking back and spending his days following his beloved Green Bay Packers.
So, why is he out in a field, working up a sweat and explaining the intricacies involved in properly watering pinot noir wine grapes?
Well, it’s not just because he makes his own wine on an acre of property around his home in Woodside. It’s because he believes that, with the right technology, California can dramatically cut the amount of water it uses, and wastes, while also improving the outputs of its agricultural industries.
Rodgers is trying to do this while serving as executive chairman of WaterBit, a San Jose-based startup that is using technology such as sensors and miniature solar panels so that farmers can better control the amount of water their crops need based on factors such as the crop itself, the type of soil involved and a plant’s stage in its life.
“There’s a part of your life when going back is rejuvenation, becoming technical again in a new area,” Rodgers said. “But there’s also the part of having to wear diapers again, which isn’t as good a deal, My goal is to get them through their diaper phase as quickly as possible.”
In a wide-ranging interview at his home in Woodside, Rodgers spoke about his passion for solving farmers’ water issues, turning his vineyard into a test lab for WaterBit’s technology and why he thinks the words of the late Packers coach Vince Lombardi still carry weight today. His comments have been edited for length and clarity.
Q: How did you end up working with WaterBit?
A: When I was at Cypress, I always did one interesting project to keep my sanity. I had what I called Technical Thursday. I picked the project I wanted, and it was something that was a stretch. My last year before I retired, I worked on agricultural watering because I saw it as a problem. I worked on that for two years, and the WaterBit guys came to see me and they were working on similar stuff. They were a startup, really energetic and really tight with customers. I felt it would be a good marriage. So, when I left Cypress, WaterBit took over the technology we were working on. And the stuff works.
Q: What is one of your goals for the application of WaterBit’s technology?
A: We want to cut the water use in California by something approximating half. Grapes are a great plant to start with because grapes are not a particularly water-consuming plant. This quarter, our revenue will be significant. We have major customers — for example, Gallo is one of our customers, and they are one of the most-advanced wine companies in the world when it comes to technology. We’re doing corn in Nebraska. Lettuce and tomatoes in the Central Valley. Grapes in Napa, Sonoma and Mendocino.
Q: You have WaterBit technology all over your acre-sized vineyard here. How has it worked so far?
A: This is a testing lab for WaterBit technology. This vineyard is divided into six blocks, with different watering experiments, with the idea of simultaneously reducing the amount of water we use and improving the quality of grapes we produce. We did that last year when we reduced the amount of water we used by about a factor of 10, and the quality was exceptional.
Q: How long have you been making wine here?
A: We planted our first grapes in 1994, and had our first vintage in 1996. We started selling wine in 2000. We sell nationwide and the bulk goes into premium restaurants under our name, Clos De La Tech
Q: How does WaterBit technology usage transfer for use with crops other than grapes?
A: It works by the same concept. Let me take corn. Suppose you have a 10-acre plot, and you have a six-inch pipe feeding it. And let’s suppose you have some good system for watering. You water the plot. Some places were probably waterlogged when you started and the puddles stayed there for days. When you waterlog a root, you plug up its ability to communicate with the soil and the atmosphere and the plant doesn’t grow. On the other end, you have maybe a higher area and there’s sand in the soil and the water went straight through to the subsoil and it’s too dry. So, in any 10-acre plot, you have places that are too dry and too wet at the same time. You’re better off putting the water on frequently a little water at a time.
Q: This is a lot different from your typical system for watering at home.
A: This is a system that says, for example, “I am a water probe. I’m in a critical position in the middle of a block. The water content at a depth of 14 inches just dropped to 43 percent. That’s my trigger. Therefore, I’m going to turn on the water for this block and I’m going to turn it on for 15 minutes. And, I’m going to validate it was turned on, then I’m going to turn it off, and I’m going to validate it was turned off and I’m going to provide a precise amount of water for this block.” You can sit back at the controls and learn faster about the right way to water your crops.
Q: You are originally from Wisconsin. You must still be a Green Bay Packers fan because you have a lot Packers merchandise around your house.
A: What I like is that they’re blue collar. The stadium is in the middle of a neighborhood. When you go to games, you park on the lawn of one of the little houses nearby — I’ve been parking on the same guy’s lawn for 25 years. I became a big Packer fan when Vince Lombardi became coach in 1959. I love football and I love Lombardi. A lot of his sayings are dead on for business, about how you have to think and how you have to work.
T.J. Rodgers:
Job Title: Executive Chairman, WaterBit. CEO, Rodgers Capital.
Age: 70
Education: Bachelor’s degree, electrical engineering, Dartmouth College. Master’s and Ph D. degrees, electrical engineering, Stanford University.
Hometown: Oshkosh, Wisconsin.
Residence: Woodside
Family members: Wife, Valeta Rodgers.
Five Things About T.J. Rodgers:
- In addition to his involvement with WaterBit, Rodgers is an investor in Lumenari (phosphors for LEDs), NexGen (gallium nitride transistors) and one public company, Enphase (solar microinverters).
- He and his wife watch between two and four movies a week.
- He is an avid runner and runs five days a week.
- Rodgers is rebuilding his childhood home on Lake Winnebago in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, adding his favorite cooking tool, an Italian wood-burning pizza oven, to the house.
- At Oshkosh High School, Rodgers played on two Wisconsin state champion football teams, including one championship played at Lambeau Field, home of the Green Bay Packers.
