Biography of daniel bricklin
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Their flagship product, VisiCalc, transformed the personal computer industry by providing an electronic spreadsheet for business users. Jan. 1, 2026.
Dan Bricklin | |
| Bricklin, Daniel Singer | |
| Born | July 16, 1951 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
Career
Dan Bricklin, often hailed as the “father of the spreadsheet,” is a computer programmer and entrepreneur whose work fundamentally changed the landscape of personal computing.
A new version of the product, "Dan Bricklin's Demo II Program", was announced in December of 1987 and won the 1987 award. In 1977 he returned to school, this time receiving an M.B.A.
Dan Bricklin
Daniel Bricklin
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Developed together with Bob Frankston the worlds first successfull spreadsheet program.
Bob Frankston (standing) Dan Bricklin, cofounders of Software Arts inc
Biography
Daniel Bricklin, a software designer, is best known as the co-creator of VisiCalc, the first electronic spreadsheet.
After leaving Software Arts, Bricklin continued to innovate. Together, they founded Software Arts, Inc., in 1979, where Dan served as chairman from 1979 to 1985.
VisiCalc's impact was profound. He also launched a podcast, wrote essays on technology, and continued speaking at conferences about the intersection of computing, society, and creativity.
For many such users, VisiCalc was the program that convinced them to purchase a PC. Prior to forming Software Arts, Bricklin was a market researcher for Prime Computer Inc., a senior systems programmer for FasFax Corporation, and a senior software engineer for Digital Equipment Corporation, where he was project leader of the WPS-8 word processing software.
In 1990, Bricklin cofounded Slate Corporation to develop application software for pen computers.
His programs always had some interesting flair, be they for marking entrance tests at an Ivy League university or extending FORTRAN as a science-fair project.
He attended college at M.I.T., receiving a B.S. in Electrical Engineering/Computer Science in 1973. It demonstrated that personal computers were not just hobbyist tools or curiosities, but essential productivity machines.
There he worked at the Laboratory for Computer Science, programming various interactive systems, and where he met Bob Frankston.
After M.I.T., Dan worked at Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), where he was involved in computerized typesetting and some editing hardware. He was project leader of the WPS-8 word processing software, helping to specify and develop one of the first standalone word processing systems.
With the lackluster sale of pen computers, Slate closed its doors after four years, and Dan returned to Software Garden.
Upon returning to Software Garden, Dan developed "Dan Bricklin's OverAll Viewer", an innovative tool for displaying data visually, published by Software Garden, and "Dan Bricklin's demo-it!", a new program for demonstrating software on Microsoft Windows, published by Lifeboat Publishing.
In late 1995, Dan founded a new company, Trellix Corporation, where he currently serves as Chief Technology Officer.
In addition to the spreadsheet, he helped develop one of the first word processing systems in the mid-1970's, programmed the most popular prototyping tool of the MSDOS world, and helped introduce the world to the capabilities of electronic ink on pen computers.
Bricklin has received numerous honors for his contributions to computing.
In 1994, he was elected a Fellow of the ACM and is a member of the National Academy of Engineering. These programs reflected his ongoing interest in making computing more accessible and powerful for a broad range of users. He later received his MBA from Harvard Business School in 1979—an educational pairing that would uniquely position him to create a software product that bridged the worlds of business and computing.