Jon Hirschtick
Jon Hirschtick is a mechanical engineer and entrepreneur who founded two companies that each transformed the CAD software industry. An MIT graduate who served as a manager at the MIT CADLab and a player on the MIT Blackjack Team, he used blackjack winnings to seed SolidWorks Corporation in 1993, developing the first affordable 3D parametric CAD system for the Windows platform. SolidWorks was acquired by Dassault Systèmes in 1997 for $310 million; Hirschtick later co-founded Onshape in 2012, the first fully cloud-based CAD system, which PTC acquired in 2019 for $470 million. His work democratized engineering design software and established Boston as a global center for CAD innovation.
The Links Between the Space Program, Defense, Tech, and Government
Learning from Dad that Engineering and Business are also about Business and People
A Then-vs-Now Perspective on Space Program Popularity
Observations on, and Inspiration from, Star Trek
An Apollo Space Capsule Opening His World
His First Tech Immersion Experience
Having Almost No Tech Exposure in His Childhood Home