Fire in the Belly: Building a World-Leading High-Tech Company from Scratch in Tumultuous Times

by Jerry D. Neal, Jerry Bledsoe (Contributor)

A fascinating look behind RF Micro Devices, the world's leading supplier of cell-phone power amplifiers, which exemplifies the wild ride through the technology boom of the 1990s.

224 pages, Hardcover

First published January 30, 2005

About the author

Neal is a founder and executive vice president for marketing and strategic development of RF Micro Devices. He is a member of the Board of Visitors at Babcock Graduage School of Management at Wake Forest University.

Reviews

[Mark Kelley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is about the RF chip company called "RF micro devices", and their founding team's trials and tribulations to make it big which they eventually did. a large part of the book focuses on the relationships with Qualcomm with whom they ultimately had success. I purchased this book because I hired someone who's featured in it in a quite negative way. I was having the same experience with this fellow who I'd hired so I read the book. "The Screamer" was fellow I'd known since I was 13 years old in San Diego. Oh how well this book captured this man... And as the author points out "even today I'm unable to express the amazement the elation the sheer Bliss I felt on learning that the screamer was gone from my life and that never again would I have to endure what it is unbearable and embarrassing tantrums or worried that he might explode and ruin one of my suits it was almost too good to believe". Amen.

[Hareesh · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good read on how RFMD got started and the impact it had on the world. Telling the last chapters mainly from the lens of the stock price didn't do the book any favours. Would have loved to see Neal get more into the weeds of the business and some of the strategy calls - the hows not just the whats.

[Matt McCullough · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good story about the ups and downs of an engineering company. It's great to hear about other areas besides silicon valley.

[SizemoreLabs · Rating 5 out of 5]

Genuine and well-written account of RFMD (now Qorvo?) from pre-startup days at Analog Devices through their IPO. Extremely interesting, entertaining and inspiring right up until the IPO. Then the book was a commentary on RFMD's stock performance. Perhaps there's a lesson in that.

[Michael Sizemore · Rating 5 out of 5]

Genuine and well-written account of RFMD (now Qorvo?) from pre-startup days at Analog Devices through their IPO. Extremely interesting, entertaining and inspiring right up until the IPO. Then the book was a commentary on RFMD's stock performance. Perhaps there's a lesson in that.