CRN

"The invention of the electronic spreadsheet itself is an act of genius for which Dan deserves enormous credit"
--Mitch Kapor, Creator of Lotus 1-2-3

Dan Bricklin, the inventor of the personal computer spreadsheet, zips open a knapsack filled with artifacts from Harvard Business School. Out of it, Bricklin pulls sacred relics that mark the beginning of the PC age. This is like seeing Picasso's paints, brushes and paintings, which heralded a new era in modern art.

There is the actual Texas Instruments calculator that was Bricklin's constant companion in his days at the B-School, the one that he used to do all those tedious equations, checking, rechecking and rechecking them again. This is the calculator that sent Bricklin, the father of the first smash hit business software product, VisiCalc (Visible Calculator), daydreaming of a fighter-pilot-like way to do calculations, visualize them and change them on-the-fly.

TITLE: Founder, chairman, Software Arts; founder, chief technical officer, Trellix

BORN: July 16, 1951

EDUCATION: B.S., Electrical Engineering/Computer Science, MIT; M.B.A. Harvard Business School

ACCOMPLISHMENT Inventor of VisiCalc, the first electronic spreadsheet

Bricklin's imagination led to a product that junk bond financier Michael Milken once said helped pave the way for the 1980s corporate megadeals. At the same time, it was the product that made accounting fun. Bricklin's name is scribbled on the back of the TI calculator with his old phone number. There is also a Polaroid of a ponytailed Bricklin in his class, front row center, and also the Pepsi Cola case study that Bricklin used to test his product.

Bricklin is the father of the modern PC business software marketplace. The old master of the strange mix of art, science and commerce that is software development. It is no mistake Bricklin's first company was called Software Arts.

Besides creating the spreadsheet, Bricklin developed or played a role in the development of the early Digital Equipment Corp. word processor; a PC demo program that is still considered a breakthrough in corporate America for its prototyping capabilities; a pen-based spreadsheet that was 10 years ahead of its time; a snazzy, software print utility; and, most recently, a product, Trellix, that makes it easier to create, post and edit Internet documents.

"They are works, like many paintings," said Bricklin, sitting in the conference room at Trellix Corp., his latest venture, which is housed in an office park in the shadow of Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass. "They are pieces of art that I have produced. I try this here. I try that there. I experiment with this. I experiment with that. I know the advantages and flaws from each one. I try to learn from each one."

In Bricklin's office at Trellix, there is a Harvey Edwards photograph print of a ballet dancer's painful feet pushing upward. Under the print, which once hung in Bricklin's office at Software Arts in Wellesley, Mass., are the words: "Dance Is Hard Work."

Bricklin said he likes the print because it shows that it takes a "lot of work to make something that looks real simple and smooth." Also in Bricklin's office, a copy of the Henry Petroski paperback, "To Engineer Is Human--The Role Of Failure In Successful Design," and several toys on the edge of his desk. Those are for visitors to fidget with when discussing a software design or business problem or to play with when they stop by to chat.

Mitch Kapor, the creator of Lotus 1-2-3 who was inducted into CRN's Industry Hall of Fame last year, has suggested that Harvard Business School put up a plaque in the classroom in which Bricklin came up with the idea for the PC spreadsheet.

"As it happened in response to what was going on in his class when he was a student there, I thought it might inspire other students," said Kapor via E-mail.

VisiCalc is the product that started the PC revolution, said Kapor, who was a product manager for VisiCalc at Personal Software (later renamed VisiCorp), the separate company set up to market the software creations from Bricklin's Software Arts.

"The invention of the electronic spreadsheet itself is an act of genius for which Dan deserves enormous credit," said Kapor. "He thought it up, and it wasn't obvious [until after he did it]. With VisiCalc, there was now a real reason for a businessperson to buy a personal computer. It was deeply inspirational to software developers like me, and it legitimized the PC industry."

Kapor said the design of 1-2-3 was "enormously influenced" by VisiCalc. "It set the standard we wanted to improve on," said Kapor, who brought the spreadsheet to another level by adding graphics and instant charting.

Ironically, even though it was Bricklin who invented the spreadsheet, it was Kapor who made millions of dollars with Lotus 1-2-3 and was crowned the spreadsheet king. Kapor ended up buying the assets of Software Arts in 1985 after a vicious legal dispute between Software Arts and VisiCorp led to the demise of both companies.

Kapor's acquisition secured the legal rights to the spreadsheet. Since then, Kapor has gone on to fund several Bricklin projects. "It was difficult to be in competition with a friend," said Kapor. "Dan and I long ago made our peace with each other, and I consider him to be one of the true superstars of the industry."

The most prized possession in Bricklin's knapsack is, of course, one of the early copies of VisiCalc for the Apple II--16 Kbytes of code that forever changed the way people view personal computers. The product, introduced in October 1979, is part electronic brain and tool, part painting and sculpture and, in the end, a product for businesspeople.

Amazingly enough, that 16 Kbytes of code included operating system, screen buffer and data. "And we still had room to do some calculations," joked Bricklin. Except for the streaks of gray in his hair, the 47-year-old Bricklin looks like he did when he appeared on the cover of Inc. magazine in January 1982 with VisiCalc co-developer Bob Frankston.

It is hard not to resort to hyperbole to capture what impact VisiCalc has had on the computer business: The product single-handedly transformed the PC from a hobbyist's plaything that was used for games into a red-hot business tool.

Venture capitalist Ben Rosen, who was instrumental in founding Lotus Development Corp. and Compaq Computer Corp., called VisiCalc the "software tail which would wag the hardware dog." He was right.

For those who opened computer stores, it was the product that made it all possible. VisiCalc, which originally was priced at $99.95, gave ordinary people a reason to spend $3,000 for a bulky plastic case with a microprocessor, transistors and a floppy diskette. VisiCalc turned the PC into a phenomenon.

It became possible to make business decisions based on a wide range of what-if scenarios that were quickly calculated.

When Ed Esber, who was vice president of marketing at Personal Software and later went on to head up database maker Ashton-Tate Corp., first saw VisiCalc demonstrated he knew "not only a company, but an industry could be created around this product."

Bricklin, Esber said, may not have walked away from the PC game with the biggest bank account or the fame of some of the other industry pioneers, but among his peers he is widely recognized as one of the most influential players in the PC revolution.

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