Jeremy Jaech [PSBJ photo by Matt Hagen]

Jeremy Jaech is one of Seattle's most successful technology entrepreneurs. The University of Washington computer science grad co-founded Aldus -- sold to Adobe for more than $500 million -- and Visio -- sold to Microsoft for $1.3 billion. But not everything Jaech touches turns to gold as he found out after online calendar startup Trumba didn't go as planned.

Now, the 54-year-old software executive is blazing a new path at the helm of Verdiem, an 8-year-old Seattle company that helps schools, governments and corporations better regulate the power consumption of personal computers. Jaech, who joined the 60-person company as CEO in mid-November, sees bright things ahead as a Barack Obama administration promises to implement new energy conservation programs. The bad economy also could work in Verdiem's favor, forcing companies to look at creative ways to reduce costs.

We chatted with Jaech to get his take on everything from the economic recession to the entrepreneurial lessons of growing up with five siblings to why he got fired from his first job.

On taking a job in green IT: “It just feels like an industry that has a lot of momentum behind it right now. I am like most Seattleites. I recycle and try to be careful about not wasting things, so the basic premise of the company of not wasting electricity on computers is appealing to me. And even more appealing was that it seemed like the climate had changed and it was the right time to take a company that had established some traction in the marketplace and scale it.”

On how things have changed: "Whereas a couple years ago it was pretty hard to make a corporate sell of a green IT product or service, that has completely switched. Part of it is corporate responsibility, but another part of it is with the Obama administration coming in. I think people are expecting that there is going to be a lot more regulation around energy use and we are going to start looking a little bit more like Europe in our energy use policies rather than the way the Bush administration has run things in the past. So companies are trying to get ahead of the regulation and some of that is trying to get a handle on the consumption they have now."

Has the Obama administration actually led to new sales at Verdiem? "Our business is good, but I can’t say it has been driven by Obama’s election."

How much are companies saving by using Verdiem's product? “It depends on what the energy rates are in a particular area, but the range runs from $30 to $60 per PC per year. So, if you have more than 10,000 PCs, it starts to make a difference. If you go over 100,000 PCs, it starts to make a real difference. There are substantial savings that are big enough to matter.”

What makes Verdiem unique since Microsoft already offers energy-saving features in its operating system? “We build on top of all that.... In a corporate environment, you want to be able to centrally manage the power states of all your network connected devices, because that allows you to do things like schedule times when the computers are up for patch management…. Most PCs in corporate environments don’t get turned off at night because the IT people don’t want them turned off ... because then they can’t do maintenance on them. So, centralized control is important."

What is your take on the general economy right now? "There are a lot of companies that have laid off people and I think there will probably  be more in January.... Capital spending is going to come way down and it is going to be hard to find budgets for operating expenses, and I think that any long-term (return on investment) projects are really hard to sell right now.... I don’t think the broader economy is particularly good and it probably won’t be for a little while."

How did you survive the tough times at Aldus and Visio? “Both companies were started in not very good climates. Aldus started in 1984.... And Visio started in 1990.... So, my experience to date has mostly been starting companies in down cycles and growing them through up cycles. I feel like I am stepping into this one at a time when it is kind of a down cycle and I want to come out the other side, so it feels familiar.”

Is that the best time to start a company when things are not going well in the economy or was that happenstance with Aldus and Visio? “I think it has been happenstance in my case, but it seems to have worked out OK.”

Other tips for this economy? “Part of it is recognizing that it is a cycle and that you will come out the other side. But I think getting your expenses down before you realize you are in a hole is really important to preserving your cash. I don’t take as draconian a view as the Sequoia presentation that floated around and everyone read. I don’t think it is that dire. But ... you do need to be proactive in cutting your costs and making sure you don’t need to raise money any time soon.”

You had big successes with Aldus and Visio, but your last startup, Trumba, didn't turn out the way you hoped. What did you take out of that experience? "Yeah, business model is critical. We made a business model error that fated us to the kind of growth of trajectory that the company is on. It is not a bad thing. It is probably more conservative and more likely to not flame out, but it just means slow growth. That one really hammered home for me the importance of picking the right business model and understanding the ramifications of it."

Why join an existing startup versus going out and doing one on your own again? “The other opportunities I was looking at were either much more mature where I didn’t feel like I could make that much of a difference or they were really early-stage where you are looking at this daunting task that I had just gone through at Trumba where you have to build something from scratch and prove the market need. And that frankly just felt like something I wasn’t quite ready to do after going through the mill with Trumba. Trumba was hard on me. Not that this is a break, but it is just a different environment. It is one where you go: 'hey all I have to do is speed it up and maybe point it in a slightly different direction. It is mostly about execution."

You grew up as one of six kids in Richland, Washington. Anything from that experience that shaped you as an entrepreneur? “I guess it was kind of a competitive environment. I was certainly competitive with my older brother, who was about 18 months older than me. I didn’t really want to cede to him the role of older brother, so whenever he got to do something I was trying to do it and I pushed him hard to be the co-oldest brother as opposed to number two so I think I got some competitive juices from that. And I have to say that I learned to turn out the light when I left the room, which seems relevant to the current business.”

College: Master's degree in computer science and bachelor's degree in mathematics from The University of Washington

Hobbies: Basketball, flying.

Father’s profession: A statistician and mathematician who performed modeling work for nuclear power plants.

First job: “I was a bus boy at the Pat Boone Inn in Waldport, Oregon and I was fired after two weeks. The chef said to me that some people were just not cut out to be bus boys.”

Favorite book: “The Black Swan” by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. “Unusual things do occur with more regularity than people think, but they don’t reoccur which as much regularity as people think. I think that the way it applies to me is that I’ve always had a great deal of luck and timing with the various things I’ve been involved in. I recognize that there is skill involved as well, but luck and timing matter for a great deal and the book encapsulates the whole reason why things happen that way.”

What would you do if you weren’t a technology CEO? Teacher or professor.

Favorite vacation spot: Lake Chelan.

Car you drive: “I actually don’t drive a car very much, but the car I own is a Maserati Quatrroporte. But I ride the bus to work.”

Favorite TV show: The Office. “I get all my HR advice from that show.” (Laughs)