"From PARC to PlaceWare: Life in an Internet Start-Up"

Richard Bruce, Pavel Curtis, Mike Dixon, Bob Krivacic, and David Nichols
PlaceWare

Abstract:
Three years ago, while working on a research project called Jupiter at PARC, we decided that the next logical step was to develop a commercial product. A year later, with a very early version of the product, some seed capital, and Xerox's blessing, we spun out to form PlaceWare. Now we've got a 40-person company, a comparatively mature product, customers, competitors, partners, a bit more of a clue what we're doing, and some stories to tell. Is life in a start-up different from life in research? Do you really need sales, marketing, and investors? Who gets cut by cutting-edge technology? Is computer-supported collaboration The Next Big Thing? We'll tell you what we've learned so far.