Ken Olsen, founder of Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), died Sunday.
DEC was the original "microcomputer" company (back then, microcomputers meant computers not bigger than a cupboard), beating out IBM's mainframes and paving the way for the miniaturization of computing. He proved before anyone else that smaller, nimbler companies could beat seemingly invincible tech juggernauts.
DEC was also the first venture-backed company to go public, proving out the venture capital model that many people were thinking was crazy. He was the original man to leave a safe academic track at MIT to pursue what we would now call a startup, paving the way for hundreds of other entrepreneurs. He decided to run DEC like an academic lab, not a buttoned-down company, a management philosophy that can be seen at countless startups and tech giants like Google.
DEC was the original "microcomputer" company (back then, microcomputers meant computers not bigger than a cupboard), beating out IBM's mainframes and paving the way for the miniaturization of computing. He proved before anyone else that smaller, nimbler companies could beat seemingly invincible tech juggernauts.
DEC was also the first venture-backed company to go public, proving out the venture capital model that many people were thinking was crazy. He was the original man to leave a safe academic track at MIT to pursue what we would now call a startup, paving the way for hundreds of other entrepreneurs. He decided to run DEC like an academic lab, not a buttoned-down company, a management philosophy that can be seen at countless startups and tech giants like Google.
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