Daniel Bricklin (1951-)
by Adam M. Fleming
Daniel Bricklin was the principle designer of the VisiCalc spreadsheet program, the first "killer application" for the PC. He is also the founder of Software Arts and Software Garden, Inc.
B.A. Computer Science, MIT, 1973
MBA Business Administration, Harvard Business School, 1979
Co-founder of Software Arts, 1978-1985
President of Software Garden, Inc., 1985-present
Vice-President of Slate Corporation, 1992-present
1981 - Grace Murray Hopper Award
awarded by the Association for Computing History for "outstanding
young computer professional of the year."
Often referred to as "The Father of the Spreadsheet", Daniel Bricklin's place in the PC revolution will forever be one of prominence. In the late '70s fledgling computer manufacturers sought to sell their new machines to the public, but they had yet to convince anyone that they were useful. What good was a heavy metal box that had no real application? Lucky for us Daniel Bricklin thought the same thing. He would go on to fuel innovations in software development which would jump-started an entire industry, and the world would never be the same.
Born in 1951 in Philadelphia, Daniel Bricklin grew up in a world that was just taking its first steps into the computer revolution. Around the scientific community there was a buzz over these new machines that could seemingly think. What can they do? What could we make them do? New technologies, new programming languages, and who knew what else, were being developed as fast as people could think of them. It was in this new era that Dan Bricklin was raised. Later he would experience it first hand, enrolling at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1969.
The future founder of two software development companies began his college career as a mathematics major, but soon transferred to computer science. He also began to work in the Laboratory for Computer Science. It was here that he met the man who would later become his business partner, Bob Franksten.
Upon graduating from MIT in 1973, Bricklin went to work for Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). Among other things, while there he helped design the WPS-8 word processing product. He left the company in 1976 and went to work for FasFax, a cash register manufacturer. In 1977, after a very short stay with FasFax, Bricklin decided to return to school and work towards an MBA in business administration from Harvard Business School.
While at Harvard, Bricklin began to formulate the groundwork for something that would eventually lead to his, and one of the computer industries, most influential products ever, VisiCalc. The idea for the project stemmed from Bricklin's belief that computers could be used in the business industry for more than just word processing. Up until that point calculations that now seem simple and practically error-free had to be done by hand. Not only was the work long and tedious, but it often produced inaccurate results. Bricklin decided that a computer could do the job faster, easier, and more accurately than had ever been done before. His program would enable users to manipulate numbers as easily as they could manipulate words. Budgets, cost estimates, inventories, and investments could be easily managed through one program. The benefit to the business world would be tremendous. Such a project, though, required long hours of planning, coding, and testing. Receiving a masters degree from Harvard was tough enough without having to revolutionize the PC industry by himself.
Luckily his old friend from MIT, Bob Franksten, was around to help. The two combined to take Bricklin's idea from the drawing board to a reality. With Bricklin designing the interface and Franksten coding, the project was in full swing. The two men formed Software Arts in 1978 with the express purpose of producing and (later) enhancing VisiCalc. By the time Bricklin received his degree in 1979 the product was ready for market.
At the time VisiCalc was being developed, changes were being made in the hardware industry as well. Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak were in the process of creating their own place in history. This was the era of the Apple Computer. For the first time small, relatively inexpensive computers were available to the general public. There was only one problem: who wanted to buy a machine that did nothing useful? What Jobs and Wozniak needed was the so-called "killer application"; the one item that would turn the computer from a curiosity into a necessity. Enter Software Arts.
It was in the fall of 1979 that VisiCalc was made available to the public for use on the Apple II. The impact was felt immediately. At $100 per copy the software was being bought by just about anyone who could afford it. Apple's sales rose accordingly, as many people bought computers just to be able to run VisiCalc. To capitalize on the market Bricklin and Franksten made their product available on many more platforms; most notable was a version for IBM, which became available in 1981. Perhaps more exceptional than anything else, the format Bricklin and Franksten chose would vary very little in future years. So thorough and insightful was there design that others would copy it for years to come.
Throughout all this Bricklin made the decision not to patent VisiCalc, holding to his ideal that software should not be proprietary. "Seeing the advances that did come about from people trying different things and [being] willing to make compromises that we may not have been willing to make, I don't think the industry would have moved as far as it has." [The Editors] It is obvious that Bricklin's intent was not to make money, but to make a difference. Regardless, Software Arts grew from 2 employees to 125 in just over four years. In addition, annual sales grew to over 10 million. The future was bright for the young company. Alas, the decision not to patent VisiCalc would soon prove disastrous.
While VisiCalc was still going strong, another young software company, Lotus, began putting out their own spreadsheet package; Lotus 1-2-3. Available for the IBM PC line, Lotus 1-2-3 began to eat into the market VisiCalc had once dominated alone. Although based on Bricklin's product, Lotus 1-2-3 was more powerful and user-friendly. Software Arts meanwhile, had failed to adequately improve VisiCalc, and sales suffered. The resulting domination by Lotus forced Software Arts to layoff employees and begin selling company assets. To make matters worse, VisiCorp, the company handling the marketing for VisiCalc, was upset at the lack of improvement in the product. VisiCorp claimed the two companies had an agreement which Software Arts was not honoring, and VisiCalc's rights should become theirs and not Bricklin's. After a long battle, the case was won by Bricklin, but not before so many resources had been consumed that he was forced in 1985 to sell the rest of the company to Lotus Software. In an ironic twist, as a result of the Software Arts' demise, Bricklin went to work for Lotus as a consultant.
Before long, Bricklin's desire to be on his own took over and he again endeavored to start a company. This time he would use a different approach, however. With Software Arts, he and Franksten had allowed the company to grow out of control. Success came too fast, and the young entrepreneurs could not maintain it. His new company, Software Garden, Inc., would remain small. Growth would be expected but controlled. It was Bricklin's intent that the stupendous rise and fall of Software Arts would not be repeated. In response to a question regarding how to best balance a company's growth and the worth of having a large number of employees Bricklin stated: "Kings derive honor and splendor from the number of people they have. . . . You have to remember it's honor you're getting from having all these people in your company. It's not necessarily efficiency." [The Editors]
The main purpose of Software Garden, Inc. was to produce and market "Dan Bricklin's Demo Program". This new product allowed users to create demonstrations of their programs before they were even written. The program was also used to create tutorials for Windows-based programs. Other versions of the product were soon released, including demo-it!. Before it was sold to Peter Norton Computing, D.B. Demo Program made Bricklin about as much money as had Software Arts.
In 1992 Bricklin, in addition to being the president of Software Garden, became vice president of Slate Corporation. Always innovative, at Slate he began work on a project which used a pen-based interface. Bob Franksten also worked for Slate Corporation for a time but left in 1992.
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Recently Bricklin has been involved in yet another ground-breaking piece of software; OverAll Viewer. This Software Garden product takes data normally represented as text, and displays it in a graphical format. What makes this program especially impressive is how it handles varying levels of detail. If the document in question is a map, you could look at a birds-eye view of a state, for example, and with a click of a button zoom in to get a much more detailed look at one of its cities. Applications for OverAll seem limited only to the imagination. The image to the left is a screen shot built using the OverAll Viewer. |
If the computer industry is to grow in the future as it has so far, more people like Daniel Bricklin must step to the fore. His decision not to patent VisiCalc, although costing him untold wealth, allowed countless others to develop and further his work. Products such as Lotus 1-2-3 and Excel may never have materialized as quickly as they did without Bricklin's influence. In an age when computers and computer products are a multi-billion dollar industry it is refreshing to find someone who is more interested in producing a quality product than turning a fast buck. What makes him a true pioneer, though, is his ability to think in terms of what could be, not what is. It is much easier to improve an existing product than it is to develop and entirely new one. Dan Bricklin has been taking the difficult road for years now, and for our benefit.
Computer
Science Guru Page
Jones Telecommunications
and Multimedia Encyclopedia - Dan Bricklin
Byte Magazines
20 Most Important People
VisiCalc's
Bricklin Tries Again - Information Week, 1994
My company,
My Self - The Editors, 1989
Word count: 1688
Please send any comments to: Adam
Fleming
Virginia Tech
CS 3604
©, 1997.
Last updated: 2/16/97