Artifact Details

Title

Johnson, Pitch (Franklin Pitcher) oral history

Catalog Number

102702043

Type

Document

Description

Franklin Pitcher "Pitch" Johnson, one of the earliest venture capitalists in Silicon Valley, discusses investing in Boole & Babbage, one of the earliest software products companies, in 1967. He describes some of the problems that Boole & Babbage faced in selling their products into a market dominated by IBM and how IBM initially coached its sales staff to persuade its customers not to buy Boole & Babbage's products but later changed its policy to be supportive of the increased efficiency that the Boole & Babbage products brought to their customer base. He talks about the growth difficulties that Boole & Babbage encountered in the 1980s until their business strategy was refocused toward client/server platforms in the 1990s and the challenges of creating a start-up company in a new industry.

Date

1997-12-10

Contributor

Johnson, Franklin Pitcher, Interviewee
Johnson, Luanne, Interviewer; Editor

Publisher

Computer History Museum

Place of Publication

Palo Alto, California

Extent

12 p.

Category

Transcription

Subject

Johnson, Franklin Pitcher; Johnson, Pitch; Software; Boole & Babbage; Boole and Babbage; Kolence, Ken; Katch, Dave; Newton, Paul; Coleman, Bruce; Problem Program Evaluator; PPE; Configuration Utilization Evaluator; CUE; Patatucci, Mike; Norris, Jim; Van Kinsbergen, Jack; Bruggeling, Johannes

Collection Title

Oral history collection

Lot Number

X5311.2009