A Serial Entrepreneur’s Journey in Real Estate Tech: Cloud CMA CEO Greg Robertson (Part 3)

Greg Robertson: It was a giant hassle for realtors to learn two MOS systems and having to buy two separate pieces of software to access these systems. It was a big problem. That problem came down here in Orange County where half the county went to one system and the other half went to another.

A Serial Entrepreneur’s Journey in Real Estate Tech: Cloud CMA CEO Greg Robertson (Part 2)

Greg Robertson: Now we are talking about the early 1990s when laptop computers started to play. They needed a person that knew computers because they had these projectors, which now seems commonplace where you throw a big computer screen on a big screen in a ballroom. Back then these projectors were specialized.

A Serial Entrepreneur’s Journey in Real Estate Tech: Cloud CMA CEO Greg Robertson (Part 1)

Greg has done multiple ventures in Real Estate Technology and discusses his long career as an entrepreneur in the field.

Serial Entrepreneurship in CAD: SolidWorks and Onshape Founder Jon Hirschtick (Part 7)

Sramana Mitra: What did you do in terms of getting OnShape off the ground? Did you raise venture money? From whom? 

Jon Hirschtick: I got a founding team together. Guess who’s on the founding team? Tommy and Dave. The guy who had supervised me in ‘81 and had been my SolidWorks co-founder had bought me out in ‘91 co-founds OnShape with me.

Serial Entrepreneurship in CAD: SolidWorks and Onshape Founder Jon Hirschtick (Part 6)

Sramana Mitra: What prompted that decision to sell?

Jon Hirschtick: It came down to three things. My criteria are winning the market, working with great people, and making money. Both routes made money. This could help us win the market. People like going public because they’re fascinated with it.

Serial Entrepreneurship in CAD: SolidWorks and Onshape Founder Jon Hirschtick (Part 5)

Sramana Mitra: Any other strategic decisions that you made in building SolidWorks? 

Jon Hirschtick: One is, we decided to sell exclusively through a dealer channel. We would not sell directly. If you want to buy SolidWorks, you have to go through dealers. That was a huge decision. It had all kinds of implications. It turned out to be a very shrewd idea.

Serial Entrepreneurship in CAD: SolidWorks and Onshape Founder Jon Hirschtick (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: Who funded you?

Jon Hirschtick: The first investor to commit was Atlas Venture. Axel, my co-founder from my first company, is the Managing Director of Bolt and an associate at Atlas Ventures. He got interested.

He introduced me to Mike Payne, co-founder of PTC. Mike and I met. We have very different personal styles, but intellectually, we totally agree on what we needed to do in this industry.

Serial Entrepreneurship in CAD: SolidWorks and Onshape Founder Jon Hirschtick (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: What year does this bring us up to?

Jon Hirschtick: 1993. I stayed two and a half years with Computer Vision. 

Sramana Mitra: I started at MIT in the Fall of 1993.

Jon Hirschtick: So you were a freshman at MIT.