Founder Focus | Ron Fritz, Tech Soft 3D
Welcome back to a new feature in our Founder Focus series. Our goal here is to chat with the amazing minds we have built relationships with over the last decade, and share their insights with you. We hope you glean some valuable information from our friends who have built amazing companies.
This issue features an interview with Ron Fritz, founder of Tech Soft 3D, client of Jon Summers, here at White Summers!
When it comes to business, it’s obvious that Ron’s integrity and genuine interest in his partners success are of extremely high importance. That, paralleled with his strong sense to build things others deem useless, has enabled Ron to create a company that can be described as nothing less than resourceful and rich in integrity. Take a peek at this interview to see what I mean!
SAMANTHA:
Tell me a little bit about Tech Soft 3D and how it started.
RON:
Tech Soft 3D actually began in 1996, but our roots go back a little further than that. Our core technology is a visualization engine called HOOPS Visualize, that was developed in a lab at Cornell University in the mid to late 80’s. They created a little software company, called Ithaca Software, around that and commercialized it. Ithaca was ultimately acquired by Autodesk--a big player in the CAD software world. In fact, one of the early Ithaca team members became a long time CEO at Autodesk. Autodesk took the HOOPS technology, branched the code and customized it for what they needed. But they didn't really care about the idea of licensing out the software development tool kit to other software companies. So, we put together a team, mostly of former Ithaca software people, plus myself, and spun that technology out of Autodesk in 1996. That's really how we got started.
The mission of the company is fueling innovation with unmatched 3D technology. What that means for us is that we're basically putting powerful technology in the hands of other developers. They create applications and every time they sell a seat of that application or they get a user of that application, they share a little bit of the revenue back to us. Our technologies are kind of under the hood in hundreds of applications, used by millions of engineers, every day, all around the world. People just don't know that we're inside--in much the same way that we both drive a car, and neither one of us probably knows who makes the catalytic converter or the spark plugs—we’re like that for 3D.
SAMANTHA:
How did you get into the software space? Is your background in software?
RON:
I actually studied business and I just happened to know these Ithaca Software folks because we overlapped at Cornell, just by chance. I actually worked in the hospitality industry after school in hotel management but continued to be in touch with all of the folks from Cornell. When this opportunity came up to spin the technology out of Autodesk; the other people who were involved got in touch with me and said, “Hey, there's this business opportunity, we need somebody with more of a business background rather than a technology background.” And that's when I got involved.
SAMANTHA:
Was the idea of spinning out this software part of your concept or was that something that came to you?
RON:
It wasn't really part of a grand plan. The product manager for this technology was a good friend of mine. We had talked about a number of different business ideas, none of which really were the right ones to pursue, and when this one came along, we thought it was the right one. I was definitely looking to get into the technology sector. In fact, I was just about to accept a job with the sales training program at Oracle when this came along. I thought I’d try this out instead--not knowing whether it would last very long or whether we'd make it; whether we’d be done in a year, two or five. I didn't anticipate it going strong after 25+ years.
SAMANTHA:
What were some of the first steps that you took to actually get this concept into play and make it legitimate?
RON:
There were a few things. The product, HOOPS Visualize, existed already, but Autodesk hadn't really been investing in it or pushing it very hard. There were some existing customers depending on it, and they were generating royalty income. So, there was some money coming into the business. Our first order of business was to secure the existing customers before trying to enter a new market or sell to new people.
We immediately set about rebuilding the engineering team, and finding out what those few remaining customers needed so that they would gain confidence that they could stick with us. First step was to secure these customers and prove to them that we can be a reliable technology partner. As soon as we were in that position, we realized we couldn’t just have a visualization engine or we would be exposed to new competitive threats that could make something free and suddenly we'd be in big trouble. So, we had to shift from being a company with a little visualization engine, to helping companies build commercial grade engineering software. That meant we had to get other components beyond just the one--we had to integrate them together and have a more complete mature offering. So, the second step was to broaden our portfolio of products.
SAMANTHA:
I'm assuming that you made some mistakes along the way and it was a learning process. It’s always interesting to hear about entrepreneurs’ journeys through their mistakes. Are there any particular mistakes that you think really helped you along the journey, what were those lessons?
RON:
There were many. One was that I actually believed that I needed to understand the technology much more deeply than I really did. I spent a lot of time on really understanding how the technology worked, because I was the main salesperson. I think more of the conceptual level of the product, and what its value proposition is would have been enough, at least to start. When we started hiring sales people, I was much more aware of the fact that we needed them start out with a big concept of what this technology is, what it does and what it's good for, and then they'd fill in the details along the way.
I also should have been having a higher expectation about getting the right people on the team. Some people don't really fit the culture or some people really aren't up to the job that they have. I probably would have been a little more aggressive about making changes to the team. Over the course of the history of the company I changed the leadership team about three times. We're kind of on our third generation of that now. The switch from the original team to the next was a long one and I waited too long to do that. Once I did, we really started to accelerate.
SAMANTHA:
What were some of the clicking points in realizing that your team needed to be structured differently? What was it that made you realize that those shifts needed to be made?
RON:
These numbers aren't really precise, but the team that was leading the way was the right team until we got to maybe 20 people and it really needed to be changed. Then we doubled to 40, and we needed to reorganize. And again, when we got to 80 people. We’re about 120 now. Hopefully we're a ways away from needing to change that again.
What made me realize changes needed to be made, was seeing people struggle and spinning their wheels, not knowing what to do with a bigger team. I found that people are not really able to change very easily. They can learn a lot of skills, but their executive function doesn't move that much. The people who are right when you're small are good because they get stuff done. The best of them, also have a longer-term view, and they're the ones that continue in leadership roles. As you're growing, you need somebody with a longer line of sight.
SAMANTHA:
What differentiates you from the competitors in the industry? What are you doing different?
RON:
The first thing is our approach to business. We really position ourselves as a strategic technology partner to the companies that we work with. There's a lot of technology that if, let's say, a developer sits down to create an application, they can find a lot of things out there, some open source. They can find little tools here and there. There’re definitely other technologies out there that people can use. What they really need is a strategic technology partner that can sit down and say, what are you trying to build and what are your main problems? A partner is someone that really cares about your business success and is going to be there for you over the long term. That approach of being a partner allows us to serve small companies, like startups, that need someone they can depend on. But even the biggest companies need a reliable partner.
The second thing is the breadth of our product portfolio. The biggest challenge is building a trusting relationship with our customers, who we call partners. Let's say you were starting a company and you were going to build some 3D software and you wanted to find the right tools to use. You know that once you build your application, you are quite reliant on your tools provider, so you're going to be careful about whether if it’s the right technology and if it’s the right team. You need to be able to trust them. That's the thing that takes the longest to build. Once we have that, someone is quite happy to license more modules from us. Our second key advantage is the breadth of things that we can say yes to. If I sat down with you and you were describing the things you needed in your application or the problems you were trying to solve, we want to be able to say--yes, we can help you with that--and not ever have to say--sorry, we don't have anything that does that.
SAMANTHA:
What would you say is the driving force behind the success of your company?
RON:
The people and the culture are really critical to this strategic technology partner approach. It's made possible by the people that we hire and how strongly we reinforce our core values. When we bring people together for our annual sales kick-off, there's this real common thread of people that are friendly, supportive of each other, that have long-term focus, and never a short-term focus. The people in the culture are strongly aligned with our strategy and our positioning. That, I think, is key.
The other thing is, it's going to sound a little bit strange and no one's ever going to write a Harvard Business Review strategy paper on this, but the three key positive moments for the business all really happened because we asked somebody a simple question:
You’re not going to throw that out, are you?
For instance, Autodesk. They were going to let our initial product die but we got our hands on it and breathed life back into it and built a company out of it. We did that again with some technology from Adobe years later. And we did it again with some other stuff from Autodesk where they had something, it wasn't working, it was kind of small. They were just going to kill it. But we knew about it and we said--hey, hang on a second, we know what to do with that, we can make a business out of that. We're like the Sanford and Sons of technology, we see that there's value in something and we make a business around it because of our unique position that bigger companies would give up on, they'd say--oh, this market's not big enough.
SAMANTHA:
Going back to ensuring that the people in the culture are aligned with your values as a company, what are some common practices that you have taken to ensure that that's happened?
RON:
One of the things you have to do is repeat it over and over again and have it show up for people in all sorts of places. Most particularly where they need to see it is how the leaders behave. When I talk about a company's core values, I think that there are three ways it can go.
One, it could be a really powerful unifier and clarifier for people. Like this is how we are, this is important to us and this is how we make decisions. That's the positive side. Or it can be neutral--maybe there's posters on the wall, but no one really talks about it. And then there’s the side where you have words that you use but leadership doesn't walk the walk and they don't follow it themselves. Then you're a Dilbert cartoon and you don't ever want to be a Dilbert cartoon if you can avoid it.
The way to get it across is, one, setting an example. Two, reinforcing it when we see it. We have a program called the Three Ring Club, where members of the team get nominated by colleagues for putting our core values into action. It’s a great opportunity to share stories of great examples of people living out the company’s values.
SAMANTHA:
You mentioned that a part of communicating your values is making sure people know how you make decisions. How do you make decisions as a company?
RON:
I try to make as few as possible. If a decision has come to me, it means that the answer is not obvious. That of course has changed over time as we've gotten bigger, but we try to push all decisions as close to the issue as possible—pushing it down the org chart.
Where our core values come into play is really for the hard decisions; when you're making some really difficult tradeoffs. For example, our core values include building positive relationships. Continually pursuing excellence--always trying to get better and better--knowing that you never quite reach perfection. Remaining agile and responsive--we do not want to, as we grow, become calcified and bureaucratic and slow. We always want to be willing to change how we do something or change direction. And finally, have fun. Just enjoy what you're doing. In aligning with our core values, in say, building positive relationships--let's say we've got a new partner and there's something that they need from us that's going to cost a lot more than we realize when we promised it. That would be a case where we'd say--OK, we're going to lose money on this. If we're serious about building positive relationships, you can't build a positive relationship if someone can't trust what you say. So, we have to do it. It comes into play on the most difficult of decisions.
SAMANTHA:
What would you say is your favorite part of being a leader?
RON:
Being able to impact people, and coach people. You know, there's the occasional leader you run into where it's really all about themselves and they are basically drunk with power. But I think for me, it's the ability to help other people be the best they can be, like being a coach. Everybody has had this experience in their life, or I hope they have, where there's been a teacher, a coach, or somebody in their life that expressed confidence and belief in them and was able to guide them to whatever that next level is for them, whatever the endeavor. For me, watching people and helping people get better and be their best selves is definitely the most rewarding part.
SAMANTHA:
Is that something that came naturally to you or was that a learned practice?
RON:
I think that spirit came naturally, but the mechanics of how to do it well came more slowly. Reading a lot about leadership and leaders lives or getting dedicated leadership coaching helped. The intent to impact is one thing, but actually having the right skills to do it right is another thing. It's a combination of always having that right spirit, but actually learning how to do it.
I used to jokingly say that in earlier days of the company, we got by with good instincts and good intentions--in terms of how we treated people and establishing the culture. But we didn't try to put words to it and start putting in HR processes that solidified those good intentions until many years later. You can have good intentions and good instincts and still make pretty big mistakes. Some of them can even get you in legal trouble.
SAMANTHA:
Do you have a couple of leadership books that you recommend for new entrepreneurs?
RON:
I have a list that I recommend for anyone who's new to a management position. I don't remember the whole list, but I do remember the first two. One is a book called Leaders Eat Last. The reason I always recommend that book first is that I want someone new in a management role to realize that they're there to serve their team, not the other way around. I want to establish that first for them. The next one is called The Coaching Habit, which really puts people in the right frame of mind for realizing that their job is to help the people on there team, not to judge, rank and rate them. The goal is to help them get better. The book helps in figuring out how to ask the right questions, how to make one-on-one meetings about coaching instead of just ticking through a list or asking if they got things done. Another good one is called Radical Candor, which is a newer one. It’s a great one for learning how to give feedback.
SAMANTHA:
What are you most excited about for the future of the company?
RON:
Well, thanks in part to White Summers, we finalized an investment. We've made a couple of acquisitions, so our growth is accelerating because there is a lot more that we can do now with a strong financial partner. I'm definitely excited to see our mission through to build an even broader set of components, to be able to say yes to more of the problems our customers face and to fuel more innovation.
A lot of times people ask what Tech Soft is going to be in five years or ask about what we envision five years from now—and largely it’s the same. It's going to be the same core values, mission, and vision as a company, just bigger, stronger and capable of much more than we were before.
SAMANTHA:
Was there anything else that you would like to highlight in your moment in the spotlight with this article?
RON:
I don't know who will be reading this, but one thing that is important for any entrepreneur is to have the confidence that you can do anything, but the humility to know that a lot of the good things that come your way are related to luck—luck or privilege. Good luck happens. Be as prepared as possible for those moments and learn to recognize them when they come along. When in doubt choose action. If you're on the fence about what do, if there’s an argument for or against something, choose action and trust yourself to make the right decisions. Choosing action won't lead to regret, but not choosing action and passing on things that might be a close call could lead to regret. So, choose action.
SAMANTHA:
Words of wisdom. Thank you so much for taking the time to chat. I really enjoyed all of your insight.
Original Post:
By Samantha Gee
White Summers