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, CA, USA
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