9 thinkers, books, and ideas connected to this field.
American software engineer and researcher — former Apple and Khan Academy — who works on tools for thought and transformative educational software — co-creator of Quantum Country (the first mnemonic medium combining spaced repetition with longform text).
Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak's Cupertino technology company — creator of the Mac, iPod, iPhone, iPad, and App Store — the first company to reach $1 trillion in market capitalization — defining the integration of hardware, software, and services.
American entrepreneur who co-founded Microsoft with Paul Allen — building it into the world's most valuable company through Windows and Office — and who became one of the world's most influential philanthropists through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, focusing on global health, education, and climate.
American PC software company founded by Philippe Kahn in 1983 — which produced Turbo Pascal, Delphi, and briefly acquired Ashton-Tate and its dBase database — competing directly with Microsoft before declining in the 1990s.
Canadian software holding company founded by Mark Leonard in 1995 — which acquires vertical market software companies (mission-critical software for niche industries like parking, marinas, transit) and holds them permanently — generating 30%+ annual returns over 25 years.
American entrepreneur who co-founded Oracle — the dominant enterprise database company — and built it through relentless sales aggression, competitive brinksmanship, and a genuine technical conviction that relational databases would become the core infrastructure of every large organization.
Canadian entrepreneur who founded Constellation Software in 1995 — and built it into a $40B+ company by acquiring vertical market software companies and never selling them — becoming one of the greatest capital allocators in history through a simple, consistent strategy.
Bill Gates and Paul Allen's Redmond, Washington software company — creator of Windows and Office — the dominant enterprise software company — transformed under Satya Nadella into a cloud computing and AI leader through its OpenAI partnership.
French-American entrepreneur who founded Borland International — the PC software company that competed with Microsoft through Turbo Pascal, dBase, and Lotus 1-2-3 — and who invented the camera phone by connecting his digital camera to a mobile phone at his daughter's birth in 1997.