Mitch Kapor notes: Disruptive Innovations I have Known and Loved, Part I, PC
The founder of Lotus speaks at Berkeley in a three part series, following are my notes from the first part.
Mitch identifies most strongly with Long Island in the 1960's and the Pastrami sandwich. He enjoyed a white, middle-class education with special access to computers in his youth due to Sputnik1. Today, Mitch supports important programs like SMASH and Ideal Scholars, both summer programs at UCB for underrepresented youth.
After college, Mitch spent time in Boston, where DEC built mini-computers in the 1970's. Now DEC is totally gone, mini-computers having been completely replaced by PCs. How does this 'disruption' happen?
Disruption occurrs in print media, taking Computer LIB / Dream Machines as an example of how a document can be totally inspiring and dead wrong all at once, yet still herald a new era.
Disruption occurrs in hardware, the Altair 8800, first PC in 1975, Basic, and papertape. Then the AppleII in 1977. Mitch told classic story of how he crossed state lines to buy an AppleII because he only had enough money for it without the sales tax. (He was just working as a DJ and giving talks on transcendental meditation at this time during his 20s.)
Disruption occurrs in new communities, with the AppleII and the first Basic software product, a community begins to form out of programmers who hang out at the computer store (presumably between meditation sessions). AppleII user group is formed.
Then, disruption in software, Visicalc, the first spreadsheet, legitimizes the industry. Mitch worked on a product called TinyTroll that he sold to Visicalc and that money seeded the beginning of what we now know as Lotus.
Then, more hardware disruption, IBM's 16-bit machine. Mitch ported Lotus to this 16 bit machine and took it to COMDEX. Wrote $1 million in orders on the show floor. Did $50 million first year and 100 million the next. He was part of a bigger phenomenon, a new platform.
What else worked, besides hanging at the computer store, joining a user group, and porting good software to new platforms?
- Ads in the Wall Street Journal
- Help screen
- Usability
- Hired hands to demonstrate and sell product for dealers
- Building humanitarian company values around constant change
Q&A session:
What are the differentiating factors that lead to longevity of Lotus?
A: leadership, willingness to change, strong culture
Why didn't Rickland patent the spreadsheet?
A: IANAL, but patent was not a legal option in 1979 (further discussion with very techie guy who still has his Altair 8800 about the first true spreadsheet...)
What did you take for granted in your life that has helped you to be successful?
A: family stability, location stability enabling freedom of long-term planning
What makes a humanitarian company?
A: Respect, humor, and Managment bonuses that are tied to value-based behavior as seen in the eyes of their employees. Set up an anonymous communication channel with actions required. Disallow superiors from pushing others around. Mitch feels that the culture of Lotus had more lasting impact than the product.
What is the future of disruptive technologies?
Robots, virtual worlds, what is a game? and Skepticism. More in part II.
Note: I missed partII last evening, but will attend final partIII.
What can you say about proprietary versus open source?
Open source has unique value, but is a mistake to rely on that entirely, because you need the right incentives to get the right things done. The challenge is how they live together (os and prop.).
