Farpoint Group at 20

It was quite literally 20 years ago today (apologies to Sgt. Pepper’s) that I sat on the floor of my basement surrounded by assorted boxes of paper and begin my first day at Farpoint Group. It was not an auspicious beginning – I’d just left my last real job, as Director of Corporate Development for supercomputer company Stardent Computer (the last surviving piece of which is still around, in the form of Advanced Visual Systems) the previous Friday, and, while I has the rudiments of a business plan, I had no clients and no income, but also no doubts. While my wife quite literally asked if I knew in fact what I was doing (we had two young children at the time; who could blame her?), and I wryly responded “um – not as such”, I was, in fact, very certain that the future would be very bright indeed. And, while the first year did see a fair number of supercomputer- and scientific visualization-related projects, my Rolodex being what it was at the time, my very first client was a wireless-LAN company (Windata, later acquired by Allen Telecom) – and the rest is history.

I should mention here that on that very day, 19 August 1991, Hurricane Bob pounded the Boston area, so our first day in business was in fact a half-day, the second half being spent sitting in the dark. And 1991 was a recession year. A less-than-auspicious beginning, indeed.

But I was, again, very, very sure that wireless and mobile would become a hot topic worthy of the time and attention of analyst types like me, and for three simple reasons:

1. I started with a very simple assumption: mobile people with mobile computers need mobile networks. Networking would become essential to IT (and consumers), and those mobile networks would necessarily be wireless. Sure, there wasn’t much available in terms of any form of wireless data, and the cost was high for what was available, but the convenience and, dare I say it, the potential for competitive, market, and financial advantage inherent in mobility, were enormous. Demand, I was sure, wouldn’t be a problem.

2. The concepts behind what would become the World Wide Web were clear – as was the fact that “anytime/anywhere” access to information would become a key element in both the business and personal lives of essentially everyone, and on a global scale. Many, many people, whether working in vertical apps like transportation, sales, service, or the many others that require a mobile workforce, or just typical businesspeople (and, as prices fell, consumers as well) need mobile IT in one form or another. I had worked on the first hypermedia system, FRESS, while an undergraduate at Brown, and it was pretty clear where we were going. Mobile anytime/anywhere access to information would be key – more demand that was certain to materialize.

3. As an engineer, I knew that VLSI would have the same effect on radios that it has on processors and memories – faster, better, cheaper. And those radios would become increasingly digital as well. While I didn’t quite foresee 100 Mbps WWANs and gigabit WLANs, I’m not surprised at these developments at all. Now, mobile in 1991 involved the use of a laptop (not a notebook) that was a serious compromise when compared to a desktop, really good wireless LANs were expensive (unless, by comparison, one considered the installation expense of wire itself) and could do perhaps a megabit or so, and wireless WANs, limited to paging technology or dial-up on cellular, might get to 14.4 kbps on a good day, downhill, with a tailwind, assuming one could even get such to work at all. But it was regardless clear that supply would grow in the same manner as demand, and with that, boys and girls, we’d have an industry. And an opportunity perfect for ADD-driven nerds like me.

In short, I knew it would all come together, and it did. Risk? Not really. And I continue to be broadly optimistic about the future. We should all be such; after all, what’s the alternative? There are always opportunities, and one is always, by definition, optimal.

It is an honor to work in this field. It is a privilege to get to come to work every day. I have enjoyed the past two decades more than I could ever express. And, unlike many aspects of IT and high tech in general, the rate of innovation in wireless and mobile has maintained a very fast pace in deed, and will, I believe, remain such for another three to five years. After that, well, we achieve a high degree of “good enough” and wireless and mobile will be a bit like computing – essential, but with limited evolutionary potential and no need for all that many analysts and consultants. And that’s OK by me. To have had the opportunities I’ve had over the past two decades is a gift that I will always cherish. And to everyone I’ve worked with – clients, colleagues, contractors, industry leaders and start-ups alike, and even my competitors, many of whom are very good friends – a sincere and very big thank you. Business is, after all, primarily about people, not technology. It’s all about serving others. A privilege, indeed.