Aggressive predictions (03 May 2008)

CoCreate Software, my employer, is merging into Parametric Technology GmbH. This is a major milestone for both CoCreate and PTC. We have good reasons to look forward to what's coming up - but it's also a perfect opportunity to look back at 25 years of CoCreate history.

I joined the company in 1991 when it was still called MDD, a division of Hewlett-Packard at their Böblingen site. Shortly after that, I heard somebody report that some sales guy from a competing company was questioning the viability of our division and our products. Apparently, customers were told something like: "Give them 2 more years, and then they're gone."

This was one of my first lessons how things are done in real bidniz: It's not just about the functionality and quality of your product, but also about how far customers will trust your company. And competitors will not hesitate to attack both on the product and the company credibility front.

Anyway - turns out that the prognosis was just a tad too aggressive. So far, we survived another seventeen years (and not just barely), way more than the two years the Cassandras gave us. And even as a part of PTC, we'll continue to serve our customers with our own product line, so the CoCreate story continues.

Memory of those days in the early 90s is hazy, and maybe I've got it all wrong. But then, I'm pretty sure somebody also mentioned which company that sales guy worked for.

It was PTC

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