Twenty years ago at an ISA show (remember those?) my boss, the publisher of Automation World, called me and told me to come to our stand. There was a guy who there who had started a new industrial software company using Java and all the latest IT-friendly technology. He was going to change the industrial software world. His name was Steve Hechtman.
I found my way back to the booth and had a good conversation. But, I had interviewed too many CEOs like that with visions they couldn’t back up. But I reported. And continued to report as Inductive Automation began business and found initial success with a solid technology and a great pricing model.
A few years later we gathered around a conference table in the Inductive Automation offices in Sacramento. My podcast series was only three years old. It was still a new media effort for trade press. I laid a recorder on the middle of the table. We had Glen Gudino, the Automation World media sales person, Steve Hechtman, CEO/founder, and Colby Clegg (now CEO) and Carl Gould (now CTO) then both original developers. I turned the recorder on and this podcast was the result. It is episode 112. A hint about Steve’s personality. He had the vision, so I expected him to do all the talking. I think he said nothing. He let Colby and Carl tell the story.
Since then they grew enough to build a building in Folsom and then a couple of years ago moved into yet another new building. All without ever taking outside investments.
A couple of years ago, I recorded another podcast with Don Pearson, chief strategy officer of Inductive Automation. Here is that recording.
