Startup: The Story of GO Corp.

“The goal is to establish new companies, magical engines of prosperity that spawn products, jobs, and wealth. The price of admission is a radical idea, one powerful enough to motivate people, attract investment, and focus society’s energy on improving the way people work and play. But there is also a darker side to the story, a cautionary tale about what can happen to a young company when its timing is wrong, its technology too speculative, and its market not yet ready.

So begins the very curious tale of a Silicon Valley company that set out to make the pen the point. During its six years of existence, it did spawn a short-lived product (PenPoint), created hundreds of jobs (now gone), and teased its founders and investors into injecting in excess of $75 million with the lure of creating the wealth of valley lore. However, the story that follows in Jerry Kaplan’s new book, “Startup: A Silicon Valley Adventure,” provides for some of the most interesting reading yet available not only about this nascent industry, but also the computing industry as a whole.

Kaplan was in the position to see it all. He describes how, in shuttling from Boston to San Francisco atop Mitch Kapor’s private jet, the two of them hit upon the idea of a mobile, pen-based computing device that would help organize a busy person’s life. Kapor, a visionary with great timing, had earlier brought the spreadsheet to the then-new IBM Personal Computer, in the process founding Lotus Development.

Flush with cash and riding high on the industry, Kapor was eager to corral the resources to start a pen computing effort. Early participants in the project, including Steve Sakoman of Apple Newton fame, had a myriad of ideas of what a pen computer should be. These interests ranged from building an object-oriented, organic document processor to constructing the smallest, lightest, and flattest device possible.

In the end, complete consensus proved too difficult and Kapor suggested that Kaplan pursue the project himself. Kaplan recounts his often-told oral history of meeting with the legendary Bay Area venture capitalists Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. Not aware that the scheduled meeting was of a formal nature, Kaplan arrived with a sport jacket and open collar—no slides, no prototype, and no business plan. He describes how the previous presenter, dressed like an IBM salesman, was just nervously completing his presentation.

Matching his appearance, Kaplan felt on safest ground in keeping the presentation informal. He painted a vision of a new type of computer, one that looked more like a notebook than a typewriter, and how people could operate it using a pen instead of a keyboard. He continued by describing some of the vertical and professional applications and the people that would operate them, such as the mobile data collector, the ubiquitous sales person, and the power commuter.

In an often told story, Kaplan describes how he found his audience hard to gauge and so, in an act of theatrics, tossed his ever-present maroon leather portfolio into the center of the table, landing with a loud clap. Having captured their attention, he declared: “Gentlemen, here is a model of our next step in the computer revolution.” While the rest of us are still waiting for that revolution to arrive, Kaplan was persuasive enough to land his first round of financing.

With money behind him, Kaplan’s next task was to assemble a pool of talent that not only shared his vision, but also had the technical acumen to see the project to completion. He selected Kevin Doren, along with a rising star in the industry—Robert Carr. While Carr was already employed by the number three software company of the day, Ashton-Tate, Carr was swept up by the promise of the new paradigm. His response to the request forms another staple of Kaplan’s speeches of old, in which Carr replied: “Jerry, it’s not a question of whether I want to do this. I have to do this.”

This led to the incorporation of GO on August 14, 1987.

Kaplan acknowledges that in both foresight and hindsight, GO faced hurdles unlike many of its corporate neighbors in the valley. By choosing to push the state-of-the-art in both hardware and software, GO was careening down a road that few companies, large or small, can navigate. Kaplan recounts problems occurring at nearly every instance, forcing schedules to slip, costs to rise, and pinning him to the nearly never ending task of pursuing subsequent rounds of financing.

While the technical and logistic aspects of the project are interesting by themselves, perhaps the most intriguing sections of the book focus on the relationship between GO and other companies in the industry. Kaplan does a splendid job in describing his various dilemmas while pursuing either investment or working relationships with Microsoft, IBM, and AT&T. In the end, all three companies come off as cut-throat and even malicious, seeming to work harder on keeping the playing field uneven instead of developing great new products.

For example, Kaplan describes GO’s attempt at building industry support by enlisting companies such as Microsoft to write applications for the new environment. In place of support, GO seems to have stirred a sleeping giant which awoke with few original ideas, but the power to appropriate much of the goodwill and innovation built by GO.

Likewise, IBM’s seemingly endless series of requests, modifications, and negotiation sessions did about as much harm as any act in delaying the large-scale introduction of the new technology, even with an eager and paying customer, State Farm, ready to go forward with an implementation.

Apple, with its own internal pen project underway by this time, seemed to be another shadow lurking in the background. However, with the technology introduction of the Newton, Kaplan conceded that the device “had the trademark Apple playfulness.”

In addition, Carr was pleased to see that Apple was able to demonstrate real innovation in the field. He noted: “One thing’s for sure. This shows that there are lots of ways to do it—Microsoft didn’t have to copy from us.”

Kaplan takes us through to the very end of GO Corp. where, after divesting its hardware development effort—which becomes EO, Inc.—and attempting to partner with AT&T, a series of unfinished projects and endlessly slipping schedules causes GO to simply collapse under its own weight. Kaplan takes his share of the blame for GO’s failure, while outlining a series of events that would almost feel more appropriate in a Shakespearean tragedy.

Interestingly, Kaplan’s enthusiasm and tireless efforts to stay one step ahead of the two-headed monster of technological barriers and financial burdens contrasts somewhat sharply with his rather conspicuous refusal to fully adopt the use of a pen computer himself.

During the course of the story, Kaplan describes some emotional moments, including the death of his longtime feline companion, Critter, the party at which he met his future wife, how he proposed to his wife using a pen computer, and the somewhat sudden death of his father.

Interestingly, Kaplan’s enthusiasm and tireless efforts to stay one step ahead of the two-headed monster of technological barriers and financial burdens contrasts somewhat sharply with his rather conspicuous refusal to fully adopt the use of a pen computer himself. On just about every occasion I can recall, Kaplan was inseparable from his trademark maroon portfolio and sans pen computer.

I remember thinking how strangely inappropriate this seemed, especially when addressing people outwardly craving for moral support. This included the tight group of developers that would fight the rush hour traffic on Highway 101 to attend the monthly PenPoint developers meetings at GO’s headquarters in Foster City. Still, this takes nothing away from the excellent book.

Startup is a very engaging book that ties the current style of business biographies with a story that is very well written. Kaplan paints an insider’s portrait of an industry that is more cut-throat and competitive than its revenue figures would tend to indicate. Along the way, we also learn a bunch of GO and PenPoint trivia, including the fact that the company paid $70,000 for its stylized logo—a bargain when compared to NeXT’s $100,000.

In the end, people in the pen computing industry will find Startup a page-turner that’s hard to put down.

Startup: A Silicon Valley Adventure
by Jerry Kaplan
Houghton Mifflin Company
ISBN: 0-395-71133-9 US$ 22.95