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Sponsors:

• Purdue University Entrepreneurship
• Peter Fasse, patent attorney at Fish & Richardson

Thrice-exited founder Jon Hirschtick of SolidWorks and Onshape fame, talks about the promise of cloud-based technologies and how to build successful businesses in the space. Jon’s a good sport and a fun guest.

Highlights:

• Sal Daher Introduces Jon Hirschtick, Founder of SolidWorks and Onshape
• “...the problem we were solving with Onshape is around the use of CAD, Computer-Aided-Design t”
• “...I had a year off and I could see the emergence of cloud technologies and I thought back to the problems I had seen users having.”
• “...Onshape is the Google Docs of CAD...SolidWorks was the Microsoft Word of Onshape. What came before SolidWorks was like the Wang Word Processor of CAD.”
• “...Marc Andreessen, he was an investor in Onshape”
• It Was hard to Raise Money for SolidWorks but Its Success Made It Easy to Get Onshape Funded
• Jon Hirschtick Was on the Famous MIT Blackjack Team
• SolidWorks Was Jon’s Idea of Taking Computer-Aided Design from Specialized Work Stations to Desktop PCs
• Jon Hirschtick Proved All the Naysayers Wrong on SolidWorks
• Why Jon Hirschtick Thinks Boston Is a Great Place to Start a CAD Company
• New York’s Unlikely Rise as a Startup Hub
• “...Boston city government is not perfect but...compared to San Francisco and...New York City, we're models of efficiency, we're Singapore.”
• Jon Hirschtick Thinks There’s Room for Improvement in Massachusetts’ Non-Compete Law
• How Cloud-based Technologies Drive Innovation
• The Way Data Is Organized Is Archaic, It’s Trying to Emulate Paper Records
• The Cloud Shatters Barriers Imposed by Paper Emulation, Making Fast Iteration and Communication Possible
• Saying Goodbye to Version Control
• Jon Hirschtick’s Most Important Factors of Success by Founders
• Jon Hirschtick: “...it's easier than ever to start a company and harder than ever to build a great business.”

Topics: founding stories, fundraising, software, venture funding