Founders at Work.pdf

88 Founders at Work
then we have to finally sell off all our stuff, because they did an asset deal. So
people had to stay on to close down the company and all the liabilities for a year
or two; it was a mess.
All those things happen, all the time—the wonderful ups and horrible
downs, but that’s what business is all about. And it’s very personal. There are a
lot of personal things. It’s running into people. And how did I know that I
should talk to Mitch? Well, our insurance agent was also his business insurance
agent, and he talked to Mitch. So I knew that Mitch knew what was happening
with our business. He knew our business was in rotten shape, because we had
to work out all this stuff about insurance and getting the right things done and
what we were going to do in case we were going to declare bankruptcy, because
we came within days, within minutes, of declaring bankruptcy at one point. And
so we had to work closely with him. But, he also worked closely with Lotus. So
he was able to tell me, “Look, why don’t you talk to Mitch? He’s a good guy.
He’ll help.”
I had known Mitch from the Apple II days and all those other things. And
we were like sister companies until they competed with us, and even then. And
a lot of our people were at Lotus, so I liked a lot of the people there. So when I
ran into Mitch, I was willing to actually tell him how bad things were.
Even though it seems like it’s big business and impersonal, and “they” take
care of it, it really isn’t. There is no “they.” It always comes down to an “I” of
somebody, and in many cases, it’s a principal.
Bob Frankston (standing) and Dan Bricklin, circa 1982