History of InterCon - Part 1

From The First Employee Manual

It all began with a 128k Macintosh.  It smiled at us.  It made us feel comfortable.  Then, we tried to connect it to the Arpanet and, guess what?  It looked just like any other VT100.  That was ok for us, since we had lots of mainframe experience.  But, the same people who would want to buy "the computer for the rest of us" had no idea what the difference between "Mail" and "mail" was, nor did they want to learn Emacs or VI.  And as for transferring files...well, they could just forget it.

Kurt didn't like that idea.  He figured that there had to be a better way.  After all, there was something out there for the IBM-PC that was based on MIT's FTP (File Transfer Protocol) code.  We both knew the people who started FTP Software based on that code. So Kurt approached them, asking if they wanted him to do a port to the Macintosh.  They would have the right to sell the product.  Kurt just wanted either a royalty, or money for the port.  The response was....well...there really was  no formal response.  He heard through word of mouth that FTP didn't think that the Macintosh market would ever be viable, so why "waste" money on it.  Their loss.

Kurt then heard of a wonderous program being given away by the University of Illinois - NCSA Telnet for the Macintosh and for the PC.  Upon investigation, Kurt found it to be a serviceable product, did the basic stuff, and, best of all, it was free.  He began talking to one of NCSA Telnet's original authors, Gaige Paulsen, then an undergraduate student at the U of I, in hopes of getting the rights to commercialize the product.  Of course, I thought he was crazy.  Unix was just fine for me.  Kurt prevailed (thank goodness).  The U of I granted permission, and InterNet Systems Corporation was born offering the first commercial TCP/IP product on the Macintosh platform.

InterNet began it's life by offering support to corporations and individuals who wished to use NCSA Telnet.  We would send them a diskette, a rewritten manual, and hold their hands as they tried to figure out how to configure it.  (Note: nobody had to configure MacTCP at the time, because it didn't exist then.  NCSA Telnet had (and TCP/Connect II *has*) it's own TCP/IP stack).  At the time, InterNet lived in a small 1000 square foot office space in Reston, and had a major celebration whenever the phone rang, even when it was Kurt's mother.  Three of us worked for InterNet at the time.  Kurt Baumann, myself (Mikki Barry) and a third player who will remain unnamed, since he didn't last very long which was very fortunate because Gaige didn't like him very much and probably wouldn't have come to work for us if he was still here.

After a short time, InterNet hired Avery DuBay, who answered an ad asking for a "Multi talented office slave", and Amanda Walker, a Macintosh networking goddess from Ohio. By now, Gaige had developed an insurmountable curiosity about what we were doing with his product.  So he came out to MacWorld in Boston in 1988. One look at our plans, a little bit of sushi, some sake, and a taxi ride from hell and he was convinced. Gaige signed onto InterCon when he completed school at the end of 1988.  Being a shrewd negotiator, Gaige twisted our arms into giving him InterCon's first "moving package".  This splendid package included Kurt and I flying out to Illinois, renting a U Haul, and driving Gaige from there back to Virginia with me sitting between them in a truck that didn't have a middle seat. We made one stop along the way and stayed at the worst truck stop this side of Alpha Centauri, made our way through Kurt's "short cuts", sang horrible songs, and arrived at InterNet, a bit worse for the wear, and vowing to make enough money to stay at a better truck stop next time.

Unfortunately for us, another company contacted us, claiming we had infringed their trademark by calling our company InterNet Systems Corporation.  They used many large words and frightened us very much. Since I hadn't gone to law school yet, and didn't know the latin for "get lost", we decided discretion would be the better part of valor, and changed our name to InterCon. At about the same time, we changed our location too, as we ran out of money and had to move out of our 1000 square foot office space.  InterCon packed itself up into a moving van (we had experience by then) and moved itself into our house at Sugarland Run in Sterling, VA.  Gaige and Amanda shared the loft, I was in the dining room, Kurt had his office in one bedroom, and Avery was in the other. We took turns pretending to be a big company, pretending that each one of us was a different "department", putting people on hold and changing our voices pretending we were different people.  We also had to explain to customers what "that noise" was, since we were sharing the house with a master bedroom full of breeding parrots.

After an entirely too long time, we finally figured out that being in the house was hazardous to everyone's health and well being.  By this time, InterCon had saved up some money (thanks Wollongong!) and moved into a modest suite in the Ford Center in Herndon.  Suite 390 was a wonderful place (except for the *PINK* walls that our decorator insisted were some as yet unknown manifestation of rose).  We never, ever thought we would expand to a point where we would fill this magnificent space. We picked up some more employees along the way.  Rick Kaseguma, recently graduated from MIT, staked us out and decided he wanted to work with us.  Jim Geddes hired on as VP of Sales.  Rick's friend Dave Saunders signed on.  Jim hired Clint Heiden and Amyn Meruani as our sales crew. We found we needed a receptionist, so we contracted with Volt downstairs, who sent us Gloria Williamson.  When she started playing with the Macintosh and reading the manuals, we knew we had to have her as a full time employee. 

During this time, we assembled our first real packaging for our product, rewrote the manual many many times, did all shipping, sales, technical support and engineering with this small hard working crew, and even had time for a few InterCon Derfs™. Dave Saunders received a gaggle of differently wrapped containers of Dippity Doo for his birthday.  A horrid rumor that Brian Lichorowic was coming to work for us started.  And Gaige was tormented by the thought of having to do tech support for the rest of his life. 

All to soon, however, it became clear that we had outgrown our little pink suite and had to find something larger.  More and more wonderfully talented people were hiring on, and more and more wonderful product was being shipped to more and more wonderful customers.  We moved to our current location, Suite 420, where we have recently signed a lease to take over the 4th floor of this building, and retain part of the 3rd floor too.

It has been through a constant evolution to meet customer needs that InterCon has grown to the company it is today.  Our standards are high, and we continue to meet them thanks to the people who make up this company.  The future is tomorrow.  (sorry, I couldn't resist)

Written somewhere around 1991