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The pioneers. 40 years later. Where are they now? Philippe Kahn, Borland's Genius

By Christian Vago

Header photo credit: Philippe Kahn, Fullpower®. https://fullpower.com/

Enormous! Going through the biographical notes of this breathtaking pioneer of modern computing, in preparation for this article, brought me many laughs of admiration, and many exclamations!

Original article on https://tellhandel.blog/les-pionniers-40-ans-plus-tard-que-sont-ils-devenus-philippe-kahn-le-genie-de-borland/

The Santa Cruz Tech Beat Journal describes him as "one of the five figures who have had the greatest impact on the history of new technologies".(source : https://www.santacruztechbeat.com/2017/08/16/philippe-kahn-named-one-mossbergs-five-influential-technologists/ )

Philippe Kahn's saga is an extraordinary adventure. I had to integrate this article into no less than 12 categories and 44 keywords to do it justice. An editorial record. And I could have put more! You're about to find out why.

It all began in 1952. Or earlier. For it was an incredible destiny that awaited little Philippe, who was born on that Sunday, March 16, 1952, in Paris, France.

His parents were Jewish immigrants of modest means. Philippe's mother was a survivor of the Nazi camp at Auschwitz, a violinist and a colonel in the French Resistance army. No doubt she was the one who instilled a taste for music in her son. Papa Kahn, on the other hand, is a self-taught engineer, an important hereditary detail if ever there was one, to understand the rest of the adventure.

Philippe grew up in Paris. As a student, he made a stopover in Switzerland to study mathematics at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zürich, the benchmark university for future mathematicians and scientists. He obtained another Master's degree, again in mathematics, this time at the University of Nice. From student to teacher in Cagnes-sur-Mer, France.

Departure for a Californian adventure

In 1982 Philippe Kahn decided to leave France for the United States. He left with $2,000 in his pocket. All his savings. He settled in California's Silicon Valley. Unable to find a job because he lacked the requisite legal status, he decided to found his own company with the aim of marketing a software program he had developed.

Rather like Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak in the early days of Apple, Borland's first employees - including a former Japanese restaurant manager, a cocktail waitress and the man who was the last Campbell's soup vendor in Mexico - didn't necessarily give the impression of a very serious company. Years later, in an interview with the Wall Street Journal, they themselves described their business practices as "hardly on the right side of the law".

But Kahn sees them as resourceful people. For example, when the company is short of cash to buy office equipment, it prints impressive letterhead and sends letters to equipment manufacturers, asking to receive copies of their products for evaluation in preparation for a possible large order. Manufacturers then send dozens of pieces of equipment and computer supplies to Borland. An unusual way to benefit from a loan without its name, until the company finds more conventional sources of financing.

Philippe Kahn is 31 years old when Borland becomes an incorporated company. The year was 1983. The company would have an atypical career, climbing the high-tech ladder to become the 3rd largest software company in the world, with nearly half a billion dollars worth of software sold, and 986 employees to its credit. Philippe Kahn was CEO until 1995, when he was probably forced to resign, an event not unlike a similar episode in the life of Steve Jobs.

In a terse statement, Philippe Kahn remarked that it was "clear that my position as CEO has become a distraction at a time when Borland most needs to focus on the future and the challenges ahead (...) The Board and management have confidence in Gary Wetsel (his successor, Borland's Vice President Finance) to develop and implement a new restructuring plan".

Anthology of products that have shaped computing today

Borland's first big success was probably its Turbo Pascal, created by Anders Hejlsberg, the man who would later develop .NET and C#, as well as the TypeScript programming language, a JavaScript created for Microsoft.

Turbo Pascal is sold in Scandinavia under the name Compas Pascal. The year is 1983.

1984 saw the launch of Borland Sidekick, a suite of personal management tools including a calendar, text editor (with a WordStar-style command interface), calculator, ASCII graphic symbol integration, address book and telephone dialer. Although a text-based program, Sidekick's window-based interface echoes that of the Macintosh, and anticipates the graphical appearance of Microsoft's Windows 2.0.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the most popular office tools on the market were WordPerfect for word processing, and Lotus 1-2-3 for spreadsheets. The Office Suites, which grouped together various software programs into a single coherent package, did not yet exist (they would emerge later, towards the end of the 80s). At the time, the respective developers and owners of WP and Lotus 1-2-3 were Brigham Young University (Utah's Mormon Church) and Lotus Software.

With its exceptional Quattro-Pro spreadsheet, Borland completely undermined the office homogeneity of the time, to the point where it earned itself a few lawsuits, including a resounding one with Lotus, the Massachusetts company criticizing the Californian company for taking too much inspiration from its product. Too little too late, the Borland steamroller was launched.

As the epilogue to this "word processing - spreadsheet" season, Lotus 1-2-3 was eventually taken over by IBM, and WordPerfect by Novell (which closed its doors in 2014) and then by Canadian publisher Corel ( Corel Draw software), which continues to market it to this day.

In 1991, Borland acquired Ashton Tate, then the 3rd largest software publisher in the world. It was then that Philippe Kahn's company took its place in the big three, in addition to owning the rights to the dBase database management system.

Borland is also synonymous with a host of other software solutions that have had a lasting impact on an entire industry. Examples include Paradox, Delphi, Jbuilder, Interbase J2EE and AppServer.

The company will remain active 20 years after the departure of its co-founder in 1995. It closed its doors for good in 2015, more than three decades after its creation. The Canadian company Corel - still Corel - acquired Quattro Pro and renamed it Corel Quattro Pro.

A boss far removed from the narcissistic entrepreneur

Under his leadership, Borland became the first software company to offer private customers all the benefits of a professional suite. Philippe Kahn is also a pioneer of gay rights in Silicon Valley. He was one of the keynote speakers at the gay rights conference held on October 19, 1993 on the Apple campus.

Those who had the opportunity to meet him can testify to his character.

Philippe Kahn belongs to this category of brilliant, modest and accessible people.

Michel Massain, Sales Director for the Europe-Africa Region at CredoLab

A great man, a pioneer, a visionary with whom I started Borland's French subsidiary in 1985. I'm proud to have been part of this great human and technological adventure.

Joel Poggiale, Executive Business Advisor IT & Digital Markets

I had the opportunity and honor of working with Philippe, and it remains one of the most memorable professional and human experiences for me. An extraordinary person!

Sébastien Tornassat, Vice President of Strategic Operations at Medtronic

I was lucky enough to work for Philippe. Not only was he pleasant to deal with, but he also showed enormous respect for the whole team. He took the time to meet and thank everyone on site. He's humble and a real gentleman.

Darren Kelly, founder of CALNRG, San Rafael, California

An incredibly gifted and generous man. He had a huge impact, not only on technology but also on people's lives.

Andrew Van Valer, Chief Operating Officer, Esaiyo Inc., Santa Cruz, California

Serial entrepreneur, husband and father

He's the inventor of instant sharing via the on-board cameras on our cell phones and tablets.

In addition, there are over 230 patents related to new technologies (in artificial intelligence, IoT, innovative motion detectors, wearable technologies, GPS positioning systems, telecommunications, telemedicine and sleep monitoring).

Philippe Kahn has four children. Married to Sonia Lee, he founded three companies with her: LightSurf, Starfish Software, a firm specializing in the design of mobile communication systems, and Fullpower Technologies, also co-founded with Arthur Kinsolving, himself a graduate of Yale University with a degree in science and mechanical engineering.

Fullpower, MedTech company

Fullpower®is a complete platform for medical-grade algorithms powered by Artificial Intelligence, from contactless biosensing to end-to-end engineering services. The https://fullpower.com platform is backed by a portfolio of over 125 patents.

Fullpower's main areas of expertise are therefore non-contact biosensing, remote monitoring and PSG-level non-invasive sleep technology (or polysomnography, a type of sleep study, multi-parametric testing, used as a diagnostic tool in sleep medicine).

Fullpower's markets include medical solutions, remote monitoring of vital signs, clinical trials and portable platforms.

The adventure continues!

Christian Vago