Seagate Technologies

Conner contacted Alan Shugart and in 1979 they co-founded Seagate Technology to manufacture 5.25-inch hard disk drives for desktop computers.

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Seagate's sales took off: by 1984 it had sales of $344 million and was the largest maker of hard disk drives. Seagate grew to $1B in revenue by 1987 and has dominated the hard disk industry for nearly four decades.

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Disk/Trend president, James Porter described the 1980 introduction of the Seagate ST506 5.25-inch 5MB unit as the model "that created the biggest change in the industry."

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(Article provided by StorageNewsletter.com)

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Conner Peripherals

Conner Peripherals, Inc., the second-largest manufacturer of hard disk drives after Seagate Technology, has grown faster than any other company in United States history between 1986 and 1990. 

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Following his belief that more storage for less cost was a serious need of future computing, Conner joined John Squires, formerly with Miniscribe, to develop, manufacture and market a revolutionary  3.5” HDD.   Conner was impressed with the Squires concept and decided to establish Conner Peripherals to follow his past successful style of launching a new company that would follow proven strategy….Sell, Design, Build.

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With Compaq as its primary customer, Conner's sales took off immediately from $10 million in the first quarter of 1987 to $30 million in the third, for a total of $113.2 million for its first year of sales--a record for a manufacturing startup. In April 1988 Conner went public, raising $40 million and at the end of 1988 sales were $256.6 million, making Conner the fastest-growing company in the United States.

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Conner Peripherals continued to set new and unheard of records and in 1990, Conner set a record by reaching $1.337 billion in sales in four years, without acquisitions, making it the fastest growing manufacturing startup in United States history. In it's 10th year, Conner Peripherals hit $2.7 billion in sales.

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(Facts provided by article in Fortune Magazine)

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Conner Investments LLC

After several successful companies, Conner established Conner Investments LLC and leveraged his experience with early stage investments. Some of Conner Investments were in Callaway Golf, Adams Golf and Cool Clubs. Cool Clubs has since gone on to become the nations leading custom club fitting companies with locations nation wide.

 

BluStor (Sentry Enterprises)

BluStor, now operating as Sentry Enterprises was Finis' latest vision for extending and protecting the mobile world. Revolutionizing the world of digital identity and data privacy, BluStor offers a patented solution for personalized cybersecurity for personal and commercial applications. Finis acted as a hands-on senior executive responsible for overseeing all company operations, staff and execution of the organization's short and long-term objectives.Finis has recently stepped down as CEO to pursue a career in consulting...while enjoying a few more rounds of golf.

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