behind the towers

theme

Stories about the people who made Wellfleet Communications, the best technology startup, ever.

synopsis

Few people today have heard the name “Wellfleet Communications”, and likely fewer are familiar with the role that Wellfeet played in the development of router technology that has given us today’s Internet. The purpose of this blog is to provide insight into the people of Wellfleet, their accomplishments, and their “router war” with Cisco that made Wellfleet, for a time anyway, the fastest growing technology company in the country.

 author’s note

I have contemplated writing a history of Wellfleet Communications for some time, and recently a few of my former colleagues have asked me if I would consider doing it, finally. After giving the idea some more thought, I concluded that if I could present my version of the history of Wellfleet in a series of blog posts, the result might attract an audience beyond former “Wellfleetians”. Or not. Besides, it should be more fun to write and hopefully more interesting to read than yet another tome of technology. You be the judge.

And, just so you know, I alone am responsible for any errors or omissions in writing this blog. The views expressed are exclusively my own, based on my recollection of events and conversations.

introduction

First, let me explain the title, “Behind the Towers”. The original logo of Wellfleet Communications incorporated an artist’s stylized rendering of the antenna structure built by Gugliermo Marconi on the dunes of Cape Cod near the town of Wellfleet, Massachusetts. The antenna was constructed for the purpose of making transatlantic radio communications a practical reality. The name “Wellfleet Communications” was chosen to both identify where the company was located (sort of – our first office was in Bedford, Massachusetts, nowhere near Cape Cod), and to not-so-subtly suggest the mission of creating a generational advancement in data communications much like Marconi’s. “Behind the Towers” is intended to tell the stories of and document the many contributions made by so many of Wellfleet’s not-so-well-known individuals.

From his station on Cape Cod, Marconi sent the first transatlantic radio transmission from the United States to Great Britain on January 19, 1903. The message body – transmitted in Morse code and addressed to King Edward VII from President Theodore Roosevelt – contained 48 words:

His Majesty King Edward VII., London:

In taking advantage of the wonderful triumph of scientific research and ingenuity which has been achieved in perfecting a system of wireless telegraphy, I extend on behalf of the American people most cordial greetings and good wishes to you and to all the people of the British Empire.

Theodore Roosevelt
Wellfleet, Massachusetts, January 19, 1903 

Ironically, the Ethernet “blue book” specification authored by DEC, Intel and Xerox and released in September, 1980, provided for destination and source address fields that are each 48 bits in length. The symbolism was too good to ignore – after many hours of discussing alternatives, we named the company “Wellfleet Communications” in the summer of 1986 after securing our Series A funding in late May.

The towers that formed Marconi’s antenna array, drawn in abstract, became the company’s logo. Behind the name and the logo – “behind the towers” – were the people that made Wellfleet such a unique experience and highly successful enterprise.