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| A holiday lights display was better than a résumé for this Silicon Valley exec |
PALO ALTO — On a chilly December evening, 54-year-old engineer Mark Robins opened a laptop inside his son’s room to demonstrate the software he uses to control the 10,000 lights that adorn his house and yard. They illuminate an assortment of candy canes, gift-wrapped boxes and animals, including a flamingo, an owl, a reindeer and a small dog that resembles his elderly mutt, Oscar. A button at the front of the yard invites passersby to synchronize the lights to one of 25 Christmas, pop and rock tunes.
Robins pulled up the Earth, Wind & Fire song “September,” which is connected to 16 “channels” tied to strings of lights around his house and yard. For every minute of music, it takes an hour to program exactly how he wants the lights to flash.
“All these little symbols on here are telling that light to go on at that time in the song,” Robins said. “I like building things, and then if you can build something that other people can appreciate and enjoy and get some happiness out of, that’s even better.”Inspired by a Christmas lights display he saw at Walt Disney World years ago, Robins thought he would sprinkle a little pixie dust on his Silicon Valley neighborhood. And the reward was more than just holiday cheer — it helped land him a senior job at a high-profile streaming company.
“I wasn’t trying to get a job when I did this,” Robins said. “But, you know, serendipitous things happen all the time. In a way, it’s sort of like making your own luck, right?”
Robins spent about $3,000 on his light show, which did more than impress his neighbors.
In 2020, Robins — then head of Intel’s corporate A.I. strategy — wrote in his family’s Christmas letter that he was automating his home in Palo Alto with a smart irrigation system, thermostat and grill. At the same time, his light show was becoming more popular — that year it won the city’s people’s choice award, beating former Yahoo Chief Executive Marissa Mayer, Robins said.
The light show and letter caught the attention of Anthony Wood, chief executive of Roku, who lives in the neighborhood.
The San Jose-based company is known for its devices and operating software that connect TVs to many streaming services. Wood sent an email to Robins, complimenting him on his light show and mentioned that Roku had an ambitious smart home project underway and that the company was looking for somebody to run it. Was Robins interested?
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| A holiday lights display was better than a résumé for this Silicon Valley exec |
A risky bet for some, but not for Robins, who previously had co-founded and led a startup that was later sold.
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| A holiday lights display was better than a résumé for this Silicon Valley exec |
“Building companies, building businesses, creating something from nothing or very little is really exciting for me,” Robins said.
After a rigorous job interview process, he joined Roku in May 2021, overseeing a team of hundreds of employees worldwide. Roku launched its new smart home products in October at Walmart.
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“It was clear the dedication, passion and creativity Mark displayed with his light show, along with his impressive career résumé, would be a great addition to Roku’s leadership team,” said Mustafa Ozgen, the company’s president of devices, who is Robins’ boss.
Robins says his inspiration for the light show came after a memorable visit to Walt Disney World in 2013, when he, his wife, Kim, and their three kids watched the Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights.
The show, which synced to music and millions of lights across several buildings, came to Disney World after the company made a deal with Jennings Osborne, whose light display in Little Rock, Ark., drew so much traffic that he was sued by his neighbors.
Robins asked his kids if they would like to see a light show like that at their house. They screamed, “Yes!”
It took him a few years, but in 2017, Robins brought his first light show to Palo Alto.
His eldest daughter, Gillian, turned to him and said, “Wow, you said you were going to do it and you did it” — a moment Robins cherishes.
The joy of seeing people push the button extends inside the Robins’ home too. Sometimes, when family members are watching a movie on their TV, Robins’ mom visiting from New Jersey will exclaim, “We got a pusher!”
Over the years, he’s added more songs to the mix. When he hears a Christmas song on the radio, he imagines how he’d program it to the dancing lights in his head. Sometimes after a late-night programming session, he’ll excitedly dash outside at 1 a.m. and run a demo (with the music volume low) to check on his work.
Sometimes he marvels at how his hobby turned into a job.
“I would encourage people who have a hobby that potentially others can appreciate to make an effort to get it in front of as many people as you can,” he said. “And who knows what will happen?”
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