June, 1991. Wellfleet marked its five-year anniversary since the closing of the founding funding. We had a large outdoor celebration with most of the company’s employees in attendance. A lot of beer flowed, plenty of food was devoured, and the atmosphere was a mixture of satisfaction and anticipation. We had a lot to celebrate – Continue reading

Even given the optimism exuded by our southern flank, the fact remained that sales remained difficult owing in no small part to the propaganda emanating from our principal Left Coast competitor. Today we would call this campaign one of spreading “misinformation”. Cisco launched its IPO in February, 1990. The stock increased in value from the Continue reading

Bringing Gary Bowen on-board as the Vice President, Sales & Marketing, proved to be a seminal milestone in Wellfleet’s evolution as a leading player in the router market. He had come from Masscomp, a Westford, MA based manufacturer of engineering workstations that competed with products from Apollo Computer, Sun Microsystems, and Digital Equipment.  Gary had Continue reading

The first public appearance of our products was at the Comnet trade show in Washington, D.C. in January, 1988. As the recently anointed Chief Technology Officer, I was shipped off to the event with the marketing folks. It was an inauspicious beginning as we attempted to demonstrate the products in a modest operational setting. It Continue reading

Jeff Lindholm joined Wellfleet in early 1989 as Director, International Sales. Jeff wrote an excellent, comprehensive business plan designed to introduce Wellfleet to international markets starting in Europe. Unlike the U.S. market, Jeff had identified several European distributors who were competent and capable of selling our products. Most were focused on specific countries, so Jeff Continue reading

The direct sales operation officially launched in the spring of 1989 with the hiring of Ben Minsk by Paul Sylvia to augment our efforts in the Eastern Region of the U.S.  Ben was a perfect fit for Wellfleet – he was highly motivated, eager to learn about the products, and was relentless in his pursuit Continue reading

Every startup technology company has a set of customers willing to assume the risks of purchasing products from them. Geoffrey Moore terms them “early adopters” because they aspire to be among the first to explore the costs and benefits of new technologies. In Wellfleet’s case, we were offering a new product category, one that the Continue reading