Sierra has finished its substrate manufac-turing process; it will plan the assembly portion of the process. Bahl expects this to grow the company’s revenue to $100 million in the next five years, which will require 25 percent annual growth.

BIGGEST COMPETITORS: Advance Circuits, Sunstone Circuits, DDi Corp., Streamline Circuits, Screaming Circuits, TTM Tech-nologies Inc. and Minco Products Inc.

BEST BUSINESS DECISION: Converting the low-tech production facility to a quick-turn prototype facility in 1991.

TOUGHEST BUSINESS DECISION: Knowing how much to reinvest back into the busi-ness. Bahl said the investments are an ex-periment in perfecting its technology, but

JULY 9 ,2010

SILICON VALLEY / SAN JOSE

Reprinted with permission from the San Jose Business Journal. ©2010, all rights reserved. Reprinted by Scoop ReprintSource 1-800-767-3263.

THE BUSINESS: Sierra Circuits Inc. does business as Sierra Proto Express, mak-ing printed circuit board prototypes with quick turnaround production. Sierra of-fers Web design tools for medium and low technology boards, which allow users to check the feasibility of the design before going to production.

CUSTOMERS: The company claims 20,000 customers each year, including Boeing Inc., University of Hawaii, Hewlett-Pack-ard Co., Siemens Medical Solutions USA Inc., L-3 Communications Holdings Inc. and Agilent Technologies Inc.

SHORT-TERM GOAL: To establish itself as a full-service printed circuit board manu-facturer. CEO Ken Bahl said this would allow Sierra to design circuit boards on a faster turnaround schedule by doing the prototyping and medium production in the U.S. and larger production in China and Taiwan. Bahl said reducing the cycle time is key because it cuts down on the time and cost for the customers. Bahl said he expects the customer base of Sierra Cir-cuits to grow with this service.

LONG-TERM GOAL: To reduce the produc-tion time for printed circuit board design-ers. This year Sierra introduced a “Better DFM” service. This shows the engineer any manufacturing issues on the board before a prototype is made. In 2011, the company plans to introduce a software program that assists designers in creat-ing the most economical and producible design. In the following years Sierra will continue to provide design assistance and manufacturing of prototype circuit boards.

it comes with risk of reaping the rewards five to 10 years later.

ONE THING THAT MIGHT SURPRISE PEO-PLE ABOUT THE CEO: Bahl started Sierra with $35,000, his entire savings. He had no prior experience in the printed circuit board prototype industry.

REPORTING By DONOvAN FARNHAM

Sierra is often first stop for new circuit boards

PROTO EXPRESS: CEO Ken Bahl estimates that his company serves 20,000 customers a year, including Hewlett-Packard and Agilent.

ViCKi THOmPsOn

BUSINESS PROFILE

SIERRA CIRCUITS INC. DBA Sierra Proto Express

Headquarters: sunnyvaleCEO: Ken BahlExpected 2010 revenue: $40 million to $50 million Founded: 1986Employees: 235Website: www.protoexpress.comPhone: 408.735.7137