Dan Fylstra

Dan Fylstra is a pioneer of the software products industry. In 1975 he was a founding associate editor of BYTE Magazine. In 1978 he co-founded Personal Software.[1][2] Personal Software became the distributor of a new program called VisiCalc, the first widely used computer spreadsheet. In his marketing efforts Fylstra ran teaser ads in Byte that asked, oddly enough for an entirely new product, "How did you ever do without it?"[3]

The VisiCalc-Apple connection suggested the hypothesis of the "killer app" -- or the "software tail that wags the hardware dog."[4] Once VisiCalc caught on, people came into computer stores asking for VisiCalc and then also the computer (the Apple II) they would need to run the program. VisiCalc sales exceeded 700,000 units by 1983.[5]

Fylstra's software products company, later called VisiCorp, was the #1 personal-computer software publisher in 1981 with $20 million in revenues as well as in 1982 with $35 million (exceeding Microsoft which became the largest such firm in 1983).[6]

Fylstra is the former president of Sierra Sciences, and is currently president of software vendor Frontline Systems. In 1998 he joined the Libertarian Party.

References

  1. ^ "Sagas of Five Who Made It". Time Magazine. Feb. 15, 1982. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,925281-3,00.html. 
  2. ^ Kenneth M. Pierce and Michael Moritz (Oct. 05, 1981). "Software for the Masses". Time Magazine. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,921076-2,00.html. 
  3. ^ "VisiCalc of Dan Bricklin and Bob Frankston" [1] (July 2011)
  4. ^ Paul Ceruzzi, A History of Modern Computing (MIT Press, 1998), quote 267.
  5. ^ Martin Campbell-Kelly From Airline Reservations to Sonic the Hedgehog: A History of the Software Industry (MIT Press, 2003), 215.
  6. ^ Martin Campbell-Kelly From Airline Reservations to Sonic the Hedgehog: A History of the Software Industry (MIT Press, 2003), 211.

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