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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Bell_curve 11 Jun 2024 \ on: John Walker, founder of Autodesk, has died tech
John Walker was a co-founder and early employee of Autodesk, the company behind the popular CAD software AutoCAD[5].
Some key facts about John Walker's involvement with Autodesk:
  • In 1982, Walker and 12 other programmers pooled $59,000 to start Autodesk and began working on several computer applications[5].
  • The first completed application was AutoCAD, a software for computer-aided design (CAD) and drafting[5]. AutoCAD had begun life as "Interact", a CAD program written by programmer Michael Riddle[5].
  • Walker and Riddle rewrote the program and established a profit-sharing agreement for any product derived from InteractCAD[5]. Walker later paid Riddle $10 million for all the rights[5].
  • Autodesk went public in 1985. By mid-1986, the company had grown to 255 employees with annual sales of over $40 million[5].
  • In 1986, Walker resigned as chairman and president of the company, continuing to work as a programmer[5]. He moved to Switzerland in 1991[5].
  • By 1994, when Walker resigned from the company, Autodesk was the sixth-largest personal computer software company in the world, primarily from the sales of AutoCAD[5].
John Walker played a pivotal role in founding Autodesk and developing its flagship product AutoCAD, which became a dominant force in the CAD software market[5].
Sources [1] August 2023 Newsletter: Six AI Themes to Consider https://www.lynalden.com/august-2023-newsletter/ [2] https://open.substack.com/pub/livingonbitcoin/p/abandoned-adoption-bitcoin-backslides?r=2jojiv [3] A CAD Legend Passes: Autodesk founder John Walker (1949 to 2024) https://www.engineering.com/story/a-cad-legend-passes-autodesk-founder-john-walker-1949-to-2024 [4] John Walker leaves us - Through the Interface https://www.keanw.com/2024/02/john-walker-leaves-us.html [5] John Walker https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Walker_%28programmer%29
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