11/01/12: You heard it first here! Earlier today I received a call from John McEleney, the former CEO of SolidWorks. John explained that he and five of the original founders of SolidWorks started a new company that will explore and develop solutions for the product development space. He shared with me that this includes: Jon Hirschtick, Dave Corcoran, Scott Harris, and Tommy Li.
Hirschtick, Harris, and Li were among the original founders of SoldWorks. McEleney joined a few years later. Corcoran led product development, while Harris was a key architect. In the early years, I was most impressed with the way the entire team was focused on a single perspective and all pulled together to accomplish their common goal. Since then I have seen many a company flounder, not because their product was flawed, but because the team was unable to work cohesively together.
McEleney further explained that the company has just been initiated today. They are obviously, in the super early stages of development. John would not discuss their products. He said they are still exploring many alternatives.
He went on to say that he was contacting many of the people in the CAD and product development space who will be able to promote the fact that their company was beginning its development. People like myself.
With a team like this, I don’t doubt that they can be successful. Hmmm, but what will they turn out? Keep tuned for further information.
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Ray Kurland's Blog 
Nice scoop, Ray!
Thanks Roopinder. I was as surprised as anyone to hear the news.
It’s not clear to me why they would contact the CAD media and then have no product, no direction, no goals to announce. Did they want to hire you? Otherwise, the information is just not that interesting.
Not exactly sure myself. Perhaps they want the buzz to begin. I only wish that they wanted to hire me. Who wouldn’t want to work with such a dynamic, successful bunch of exciting dudes like this?
I guess it will be another great success story to come out in the media., but the only fact is when large corporates again purchase these dynamic people, the entire momentum is lost. Glad that they are starting all over again.
I’m more eager as you 😉
There is still a lot of innovation to come in engineering software. It will be interesting to see what they do. Thanks for sharing it Ray.
I could not agree with you more.
Wow. This will be fun to watch.
Very interesting. It does sound like they are simply attempting to generate buzz to attract investors, product ideas, etc.. Did I miss the name of the new company? Very odd there would be an announcement, and no company name. Well, I for one, support their efforts and wish nothing but the best for their endeavors. They are a truly talented team.
Right you are about the name. They announced it subsequent to speaking with me. It is Belmont Technology Inc. McEleney is the CEO. John Hirschtick is Chairman. David Corcoran is Vice President of Research and Development. Scott Harris is co-founder and VP. Looks like everyone there is an executive.
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That kind of begs the question “With this happening, what’s going to become of Solidworks?” Development stopped and rolled in Catia???