My Company, My Self

The founder of two defunct software companies reflects on growing too fast, staying small, and facing losses.

Tweet

Dan Bricklin, creator of a prototypical hot company of the '80s, reflects on growing too fast, staying small, and separating yourself from your company

Though not yet 40, Dan Bricklin has already lived through at least two complete business lives. A graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard Business School, he teamed up with Bob Frankston in 1978 to create the product that some say put the Apple computer on the map: VisiCalc, the first electronic spreadsheet. The pair also started Software Arts Inc. to develop new versions of VisiCalc, which were then marketed by another company, VisiCorp. On the strength of the product, both companies took off, becoming two of the new industry's early fast-growth stars. In four-and-a-half years Software Arts ballooned to 125 employees and about $10 million in annual sales.

Unfortunately for Bricklin, Software Arts never grew into the company it seemed destined to become -- which is to say it didn't become Lotus Development Corp. In 1983 VisiCalc was swept aside by Lotus's hot new spreadsheet, Lotus 1-2-3, designed specifically for the IBM PC. Before long, Bricklin was dealing with indignities often suffered by companies in decline: cataclysmic layoffs, a fire sale of company assets, and a bitter legal battle with VisiCorp, which brought suit against Software Arts. Although Bricklin and Frankston eventually won the case and negotiated the sale of most of the company's assets to Lotus, Software Arts achieved a dubious renown as one of the legendary failures of the nascent industry.

Bricklin then spent a few months consulting for Lotus, watching from the inside as that company showed its first signs of stumbling. Meanwhile, he was thinking about questions of growth and size. His reflections led him to choose a different path for his next venture, Software Garden Inc., which he founded in 1985 to develop and market a package called Dan Bricklin's Demo Program. His explicit goal was to keep the business lean as bone -- "to see how little I could get away with." For a while the company occupied a spare bedroom. His staff size peaked at three. He himself took orders, filled out credit-card slips, and stuffed products into envelopes.

It worked. The program won awards from the Software Publishers Association and sold well, and the business made money. By 1988 Bricklin had taken Demo as far as he wanted, so he sold it to Peter Norton Computing for an undisclosed sum. Bricklin will say, however, that in the end he made just about as much money on Demo as he did on Software Arts. Satisfied with that accomplishment, he began to work on a new product -- and to contemplate where he'd been and where he wants to go.

Inc. editors Bo Burlingham and Michael Hopkins talked with Bricklin at his office in Newton, Mass.

INC.: It must be pretty hard to help launch an industry and then watch your company get swallowed up by it.

BRICKLIN: Yes, I'd say that it was hard at times.

INC.: Did you learn anything from it?
BRICKLIN: I learned that you have to be able to separate yourself from your company. If your company has problems, you can't let them get to you personally. And that's a very difficult thing to learn, because it feels as though the world is crashing down on you. But the sun still comes up the next day.

INC.: At what point did you realize the importance of that lesson?

BRICKLIN: When Software Arts was about to disappear.

INC.: But by then the company had been struggling for quite a while. How did you get through that?

BRICKLIN: Well, of course, the support of family and friends was important, and I'm not averse to seeking professional help, either. I had actually established a good relationship with a psychologist when the company was successful. I thought it was great, having somebody I could complain to all the time. That was definitely helpful. Then things started to go sour. I came in one day and said, "Guess what?" Thank god, there was somebody to talk to about it. At the time we couldn't talk about a lot of things for legal reasons, but discussions with a psychologist are privileged. So I could talk freely to my lawyer and my shrink.

INC.: It wasn't a secret that the company was having problems, was it?
BRICKLIN: No, no. Not at all.

INC.: So how did you deal with your colleagues in the industry?
BRICKLIN: That's actually an important point. When things started going downhill at Software Arts, I made a decision not to go into a closet and hide. I kept going to industry meetings. I remember I went to [industry analyst] Esther Dyson's conference. It was Pioneer Day, so I rented a coonskin cap and a musket. I found people were very supportive. I also went to SoftCon, the industry trade show, may it rest in peace. Not only were people nice, but I ran into [Lotus founder] Mitch Kapor on the plane. He asked me, "How are things going?" I said, "Lousy." We talked about it, and that conversation eventually led to the deal in which Lotus acquired most of Software Arts.

 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5  NEXT 

Read more:

Sign-up for our Leadership and Managing Newsletter

Email Address: