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Dan Fylstra

Dan Fylstra is an American pioneer of the software products industry.

A graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,[1] in 1975 he was a founding associate editor of Byte magazine. In 1978 he co-founded the company Personal Software,[2][3] and that year reviewed the Commodore PET 2001 and TRS-80 Model I for Byte while studying for an MBA at the Harvard Business School, having ordered each almost immediately after release.[1][4] Personal Software became the distributor of a new program named VisiCalc, the first-ever computer spreadsheet. As part of his marketing efforts Fylstra ran teaser advertisements in Byte that asked, considering electronic spreadsheets were an entirely new product category, "How did you ever do without it?"[5]

VisiCalc soon became popular, and people began asking for VisiCalc and also the computer (the Apple II) they would need to run the program. VisiCalc sales exceeded 700,000 units by 1983.[6] The VisiCalc-Apple association suggested the hypothesis of the "killer app"—or the "software tail that wags the hardware dog".[7]

Fylstra's software products company, later named VisiCorp, was the #1 earning 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 company in 1983).[8]

Fylstra is the former president of the company Sierra Sciences, and is currently president of software vendor Frontline Systems. He joined the Libertarian Party in 1998.[9]

References

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  1. ^ a b Fylstra, Dan (March 1978). "User's Report: The PET 2001". Byte. p. 114. Retrieved October 17, 2013.
  2. ^ "Sagas of Five Who Made It". Time. February 15, 1982. Archived from the original on November 3, 2012.
  3. ^ Pierce, Kenneth M.; Moritz, Michael (October 5, 1981). "Software for the Masses". Time. Archived from the original on September 28, 2006.
  4. ^ Fylstra, Dan (April 1978). "The Radio Shack TRS-80: An Owner's Report". Byte. p. 49. Retrieved October 17, 2013.
  5. ^ "VisiCalc of Dan Bricklin and Bob Frankston". History Computer. July 15, 2021. Archived from the original on October 20, 2017. Retrieved October 22, 2021.
  6. ^ Campbell-Kelly, Martin (2003). From Airline Reservations to Sonic the Hedgehog: A History of the Software Industry. MIT Press. p. 215.
  7. ^ Ceruzzi, Paul (1998). A History of Modern Computing. MIT Press. p. 267.
  8. ^ Campbell-Kelly, Martin (2003). From Airline Reservations to Sonic the Hedgehog: A History of the Software Industry. MIT Press. p. 211.
  9. ^ Dan Fylstra – Libertarian from Advocates for Self-Government website
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