Twenty-five years ago today, January 30, 1982, the initial meeting to organize what became Autodesk was held in founder John Walker's house in Mill Valley, then galactic headquarters of Marinchip Systems, Ltd. The working paper which invited people to the meeting, mailed two weeks earlier is:
The working name was "Marin Software Partners" in this paper. They showed prototypes of AutoCAD and Autodesk at the West Coast Computer Faire on March 19, 1982 (using a booth which Marinchip had already reserved and paid for):
The brochure they handed out at the Computer Faire, which was the first time "Autodesk" (the product) appeared in public:
By then they were calling the company "Desktop Solutions" which, along with several other alternatives, was rejected by the California Secretary of State:
The company ended up falling back to the name of which Dan Drake wrote in Information Letter 4:
"At the March 16 meeting we reached a pseudo-consensus on an unsatisfactory name for the corporation (Autodesk Inc.), ..."
Other twenty-fifth anniversaries this year are:
April 26: Incorporation of Autodesk, Inc.
November 24-26: AutoCAD launch at COMDEX in Las Vegas
The first copies of AutoCAD-80 were shipped in December 1982.
Thanks to John Walker and the other founders for starting our company and their contributions to the industry. The information in this post was taken from an email from the man himself! Thanks John.
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