Proteron, L.L.C. 

Company Profile

Inside story on a successful software startup company.

 

Now that the millenium celebration fireworks have faded from our radar screens, it seems to be the right moment to size up where Proteron has been with a view to figuring out where Proteron is headed.  We want both the world at large (that is you) and our investors (that could be you) to know a bit about who we are, how it all began, and where we are going.

Digital Pioneers

Two hundred years ago, early American adventurers scanned the great prairies and tall mountains of the New World, seeking a better life in a new place. Well, they found it and here we are. Today we saddle up our processors and head out onto the wildernet to scan far reaches of the digital prairies for undiscovered software. Who knows yet what will be found here. Well, you've found us... a dusty outpost at the edge of the software frontier. Welcome to Proteron.

So how does one become a digital pioneer? In this case it took years of hard work... and a being at the right place at the right time. The first processor on the premises was the venerable 68000 (this chip now drives the PalmOS in handheld devices.) It resided in a large battle-tank enclosure and was known as a Lisa. It was the precursor to the Macintosh and eventually ran the Macintosh operating system, which at the time fit on a single 400k disk. Since hard drives were quite a luxury in those days, we ran the machine from a single floppy and then upgraded to two floppy drives. It wasn't long after the discovery of the power of that little mouse with MacPaint and MacWrite that BASIC and Pascal were attempted. Various software development projects ensued. Some so nefarious that they are best told after a few beers and then only among close friends.  

Before long, a "wicked fast" 1200 baud modem was installed and the digital cowboys set off to ride the range. Not long afterwords, a second Lisa sat on the table and the networking roundup began.  Though the local confines of dialup bulletin boards were the networks of the day, they preceded the vast expanses of the internet and in fact helped to establish it.

To make this long story short, the company now operates on fast PIII's and G4's. We code with MetroWerks CodeWarrior, built this web site with BBEdit and browse it with the latest Mozilla builds. Cable modems, DSL, and T1s have replaced the modems of years past.  The company has continued to expand and now business development sales support are carried on in the Boston and Omaha areas.  In spite of the dramatic changes inevitable for any technical enterprise, the company stubbornly insists upon being driven by ingenuity in engineering, not marketplace entropy.

Mainstream Niche

A lively market is the measure of a successful company. So what market does Proteron fit into, where is Proteron's place in it?

Lets tackle the first question first: the company's market is net-activated software.  Certain software demands are driven by the growth of the internet and these are the priority development targets for the company.  The challenge is to find ways in which the real-world can earnestly benefit from the frictionless speed-of-thought domain of electronic networks.  The capture and transfer of sound and music across networks is one way in which the benefits are real, thus Proteron has committed its resources to the world of audio encoding.  Proteron's audio encoding products are at times visual and graphical, and at times hidden behind-the-scenes.  In all cases, however, they endeavor to put the power of the digital world at your very real fingertips. 

We should note that this market, like most other internet-related markets, is international.  The myriads of satisfied Proteron customers reside in New Zealand and New England, Jamaica and Japan, Montana and Moscow. And even Canada.

Secondly, where does Proteron fit into the net-activated software marketplace? The malt beverage industry provides an apt analogy here. Millions of Americans drink Bud. Why? Because they watch superbowl ads. They see the Bud trucks in their neighborhood and posters in the supermarket.  Bud is on tap seemingly everywhere.  Do millions of Americans like Bud? Only if they haven't tasted anything worth drinking.  Similarly, how many Windows 98 users have ever tried any other OS? Fortunately we have Apple, Sun, SGI and a few other noteworthies. These are the Sam Adamses, the Pete's Wickeds and Red Dogs, all valiantly struggling to produce quality en masse. So where does Proteron fit in? Proteron is, oh, say... an elite Northern Californian pinot noir being sold for somewhat less than ten dollars a bottle.

"This is all fine and dandy," you say, "but we want hard numbers. Our investment dollars will be at stake." After several minutes of intense work, industry experts, having analyzed the current software quality distribution, released the following graph to indicate with precision where the company stands in today's market:

The results are undeniable. The quality coefficient of Proteron's software is several orders of magnitude beyond the other leading brands.

While we may not be seeing Microsoft in the corporate obituaries of the Wall Street Journal any time soon, we believe that they are an astounding example of how entropy drives the software marketplace. The first law of consumer mass-action indicates that you should get what everyone else has... "Bud's syndrome." Thus the marketplace responds favorably to the least innovative and most average product. As technological advances in hardware march on, Microsoft may well be relegated to the status of the third-rate media company. Perhaps AOL and Time/Warner have beat them to that position.  Note how easily a company as small as Netscape shook Microsoft's foundations. We predict this will happen over and over again.  Now we all have front-row seats to watch as the freeware Linux pummels the NT market.  "Open source and crush them!  Ra!  Ra!  Ra!"

Apple, on the other hand, occupies a unique place in the world. One Infinity Loop? OK so maybe it isn't in this world, but the real question here is not where Apple is but whether Apple's thinking different is smart enough to keep it ahead of the pack.  Can MacOS X and Aqua provide serious competition for the hordes of happy hackers who managed to get a window manager and graphical toolkit (GTK) running a look-a-like within three days after Apple made its announcement?  Proteron intends to participate in the development of the evolution of the Linux desktop as soon as a successful consumer-level interface has been established, which should occur within the next eighteen months.  The accelerated pace of the open source programming model must be extremely attractive to any company which depends upon a software product development cycle for its success.  Proteron is no exception here.

The rate-limiting pace of software development and aggressive marketing by competitors are the two greatest barriers to Proteron's success.  Proteron intends to overcome these impediments with a variety of means, including:

• recruitment of top software development talent
• partnering with key audio software players, such as Panic Inc.
• leveraging cross-platform development plans
• novel approaches to advertising and the capture of public attention
• outsourcing of e-commerce obligations
• forays into closely-related MP3 markets such as streaming and output solutions

The Macintosh is a fertile valley for marketshare settlers, and we have staked out our claim and are looking to expand.  The recent success of iMacs and G4's from Apple has emphasized the need for more developers than the Mac market currently has.

Nothin' but noir

So what does it take to run a software company? Brains. Guts. Determination. And as much la noir encre as can be managed. Proteron began operating initially with the help of venture capital and was writing its bottom line in black within a very respectable two months. Aside from the emphatic demand for black ink, there are a few other caveats which distinguish Proteron's software from the crowd:

Constant attention and diligence is paid to the performance of Proteron's software. Every single last bug report is read. End-user feedback is also allowed to place pressure directly on the development team. Though popular demand is not an unmitigated source of design, it is easily one of the most powerful sources for product design goals.  Efforts have been taken therefore, both in marketing and design, to ensure that unlike competing products, Proteron's software remains surgically bug free and as much fun to install as to use.

We are well aware that our greatest company assets are things that money can't buy, let alone influence.  The success of the company is a result of the processing that goes on between the keyboard and the chair.  Humans aren't resources to be allocated like disk drive space.  They are more than resources; men are alive, and as such, are the form and purpose of a company.

What's in a name?

Proteron. What's in it, you ask? The name is an ancient Stagyrite translation of a word which Shakespeare, in his exhortation to reason, places in the mouth of Hamlet. It is ironically found in Aristotle's book on Categories after the ten summa genera are given. So what does it mean? Proteron means prior or before. One thing is said to be before another first by time. As in the MacOS precedes Windows. Secondly by way of consequence as in binary 01 is before 11. Third, what is said to be before is according to an order, like a ReadMe file precedes installation. Fourth is before by being best, as N2MP3 and Audion are before SoundJam. Finally, one thing is said to be before another because it is by nature. We are all, in this sense, before our computers.  We wish to express here our debt to the Wise Elders of the Society for Aristotelian Studies, whose teachings stand unequalled in our time.

And beyond...

So what's in store for Proteron? You will not see Proteron advertising in productivity/edutainment rags or gender- targeted venues aimed at non-techophiles such as Martha Stewart's Living magazine.  Clearly Microsoft has no shame.  The Justice Department of the United States does not yet plan to carve up Proteron into several pieces for the protection of  consumers.  Proteron is not a name you will see plastered on the sides of busses and cabs.  Nor will Proteron place its future into the hands of the degree-pedigreed greedy members of the MBA clan.  Proteron will not engage in Symantec-style campaigns manipulating computer users through fear, uncertainty and doubt.

So what does the future hold for this Lilliputian company perched in the shirtpocket of the corporate American giants? Steady controlled growth. Carefully targeted ventures into non-English- speaking markets. Discovery by the mainstream technology print media.  A foray into the wild world of Wintel is in the works. Close partnerships with open source movers and advocates are foreseeable.  You might see a leveraged takeover or two, or a few years down the road, an IPO on the open market. What you will see for sure is crowds of happy networked computers users crowding around their glowing little (and not so little) monitors to witness the release of Proteron's latest. And what they will see is simply the most functional software. Anywhere.

If you want to be a part of the elite technophile entourage known as Proteron, let us know. We are not only interested in software at the edge of the digital frontier but, more importantly, in the top talent it takes to make a revolutionary product happen.  All great software companies realize that proximity of the chief software architects (we prefer to call them gurus) to the end users and consumers (we prefer to call them fans) is the key to success.  So whether you're a guru in search of a corporate climate to meet your panache or a fan wanting your voice to be heard, do email or write anytime. We're looking for a few good minds.