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In 1978, a Harvard Business School student watched his professor erase an entire blackboard to fix one number, and imagined a grid that would recalculate itself. Fourteen months later, VisiCalc went on sale for $99.95 and quietly created the personal computer industry. Businesses bought $2,000 Apple II machines just to run it. It sold hundreds of thousands of copies. It gave the world the phrase "killer app."
Six years later it was pulled off the market forever, after being sold for roughly $800,000 to the company that destroyed it.
This is the full story of how two Massachusetts companies invented the spreadsheet, split the rights between them, failed to patent the idea, shipped a slow port to the IBM PC, funded the man who would build Lotus 1-2-3, spent millions on a graphical interface nobody could run, and then sued each other for a year while the market vanished. Dan Bricklin, Bob Frankston, Dan Fylstra, Mitch Kapor, Ben Rosen, VisiCorp, Software Arts and Lotus Development — every decision, in order, and why each one looked correct on the day it was made.
Sources and further reading:
https://www.bricklin.com/history/saiidea.htm
https://www.bricklin.com/visicalc.htm
https://www.computerhistory.org/revolution/personal-computers/17/312
https://dssresources.com/history/sshistory.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VisiCalc
Bob Frankston, "Implementing VisiCalc," 1986
Paul Freiberger and Michael Swaine, "Fire in the Valley: The Making of the Personal Computer"
Robert X. Cringely, "Accidental Empires," 1992
InfoWorld contemporaneous trade coverage of VisiCorp, Software Arts and Lotus, 1982 to 1985
Computer History Museum oral history interviews with Dan Bricklin, Bob Frankston and Mitch Kapor
This channel is made by an enthusiast who loves business and technology history — nothing more. All videos are for educational and entertainment purposes only and reflect my personal views and interpretations. I research each story carefully using publicly available sources, but errors or omissions can happen. Nothing here is professional, financial, or legal advice, and this channel is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by any company mentioned.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCb0ps9eCp0y6yP1Xg4sDDFw?sub_confirmation=1
In 1978, a Harvard Business School student watched his professor erase an entire blackboard to fix one number, and imagined a grid that would recalculate itself. Fourteen months later, VisiCalc went on sale for $99.95 and quietly created the personal computer industry. Businesses bought $2,000 Apple II machines just to run it. It sold hundreds of thousands of copies. It gave the world the phrase "killer app."
Six years later it was pulled off the market forever, after being sold for roughly $800,000 to the company that destroyed it.
This is the full story of how two Massachusetts companies invented the spreadsheet, split the rights between them, failed to patent the idea, shipped a slow port to the IBM PC, funded the man who would build Lotus 1-2-3, spent millions on a graphical interface nobody could run, and then sued each other for a year while the market vanished. Dan Bricklin, Bob Frankston, Dan Fylstra, Mitch Kapor, Ben Rosen, VisiCorp, Software Arts and Lotus Development — every decision, in order, and why each one looked correct on the day it was made.
Sources and further reading:
https://www.bricklin.com/history/saiidea.htm
https://www.bricklin.com/visicalc.htm
https://www.computerhistory.org/revolution/personal-computers/17/312
https://dssresources.com/history/sshistory.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VisiCalc
Bob Frankston, "Implementing VisiCalc," 1986
Paul Freiberger and Michael Swaine, "Fire in the Valley: The Making of the Personal Computer"
Robert X. Cringely, "Accidental Empires," 1992
InfoWorld contemporaneous trade coverage of VisiCorp, Software Arts and Lotus, 1982 to 1985
Computer History Museum oral history interviews with Dan Bricklin, Bob Frankston and Mitch Kapor
This channel is made by an enthusiast who loves business and technology history — nothing more. All videos are for educational and entertainment purposes only and reflect my personal views and interpretations. I research each story carefully using publicly available sources, but errors or omissions can happen. Nothing here is professional, financial, or legal advice, and this channel is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by any company mentioned.
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