Rising Above ... Wireshark University (by Denny K Miu)
Welcome to another episode of “Rising Above … America TECH Heroes” showcasing individuals who choose to “rise above” all that life can throw at them and be successful in spite of all odds and adversities.
I write regularly about entrepreneurship (particularly survival skills needed for “bootstrapping” entrepreneurs) and I enjoy talking about determined and successful entrepreneurs (as we did with Cahaba Data). Today we are featuring Laura Chappell, Founder of Wireshark University.
I met Laura for the first time during the recent Sharkfest Conference. Laura and her colleagues (Betty DuBois and Tony Fortunato) were teaching a series of introductory and advanced courses on network monitoring and troubleshooting (the PowerPoint presentations can be downloaded here). Since then I have learned more about Laura and her company and come to respect her immensely for what she has accomplished and her reputation among her peers.
As I have discussed in the past, entrepreneurship is fundamentally about wealth creation, for ourselves and our family. Entrepreneurship is far from rocket science. As one of my former Board members once told me (who was an early investor of Sun Microsystems and now spend his retirement racing BMW's when he is not on his yacht), “If you could take something that is previously a hassle for someone and turn it into a routine, then you have a business. And if in addition, you could convince your customers that what you have created is so valuable to them that they are willing to pay you more than what it takes for you to deliver your creation, then you have a 'profitable' business.”
Too often, especially in the Silicon Valley, we forget this simple truth and entrepreneurs (especially first-time entrepreneurs) confuse valuation with value-building (with no shortage of misinformation and generalization from VC's and from the popular media). They mistakenly believe that success is about getting investment from investors as opposed to building a sustainable and viable business.
It is nice to see counter examples such as Laura who didn't wait for the cavalry but instead choose to lift themselves by their bootstraps. Laura's success is built entirely on her deep believe that business is about providing values to her customers and her community.
A lot has been written already about Laura Chappell including her bio, a short video showing her entertaining lecture on ways that one can be attacked through cyberspace (everything you want to know but afraid to ask), her famous book on Internet Safety for Kids, her own account on how she started Wireshark University with blessing from Gerald Combs (creator of Wireshark) and finally, and her very popular blog (A bit of humor, a bit of technology - 0x10 bits in all).
Recently, Laura also started her YouTube video series (Bitsplitters) with episodes on many technical issues including Trace Files Time Stamp, etc. Never one afraid to provide entertainment while educating, she recently posted some advises on how **not** to buy gifts for Mother's day. Having been married for twenty plus years, her advise came at a most opportune time for me. Enjoy.
The following presentation can also be viewed on 
“The CACE Team's mission is to find more and more relevant ways to make Wireshark and complementary open source tools even more useful. Pilot and upcoming development projects will make Wireshark an increasingly powerful platform for analyzing wired and wireless networks.”
According to Wikipedia, Pilot (Naucrates ductor) is a carnivorous fish that is a horse mackerel and belongs to the Carangidae family of fishes. It is well known that Pilot congregates around sharks, rays, and sea turtles, where it eats ectoparasites on and leftovers around the host species. They are also known to follow ships, sometimes for huge distances. Their fondness for ships led the ancients to believe that Pilot would navigate a ship to its desired course.
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