Bill Carrico and Judy Estrin, the Goffin & King or Mann & Weil of the computer industry, are at it again. With two successful start-ups behind them, Bridge Communications Inc – sold to 3Com Corp, and Network Computing Devices Inc – which rather seems to have stalled after pioneering the X terminal market, they have now formed Precept Software Inc. According to the San Jose Mercury News, the husband and wife team is being coy about Precept, and are presently prepared to say only that it is a software company, is Internet- and multimedia-oriented, that it will take advantage of their experience with local networking and that its intended customers will be computer manufacturers and other large companies. First products are planned for early next year. This time, Carrico told the paper, we are not dramatically ahead of the market. But we definitely have some modern twists. What we’re doing is not quite avant-garde, but it is different. Ms Estrin adds that a start-up can create a new market, take an existing one and do it cheaper, or like Precept, you can look for a transition point in a market, when changes in technology or market forces provide an opportunity for new companies. The company is based in a multi-tenant two-storey office building in Cupertino, and the pair has majority ownership, having raised $900,000 for Precept from their own contributions and from friends in the industry, with minimal venture capital involvement as yet.
