Archive notice: This article was originally published on April 30, 2012. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
April 26, 1982 was the day on which the founders officially registered as a stock corporation and from then on called themselves Autodesk Inc. Autodesk developed from a handful of employees who met in John Walker’s(founder and programmer) workshop to work into today’s company with approximately 7,800 employees distributed around the world.
Tradition
Autodesk has maintained a tradition from its early beginnings to the present day. While working in the workshop, the founders often went home to walk their dogs. John then told them that they should simply bring the dogs along. To this day, dogs are allowed in the San Rafael office.
Naming
The name Autodesk arose from the founders’ basic idea. They wanted to equip businesspeople’s workplaces with spreadsheets and word processing. Today, this functionality is familiar from, for example, Microsoft Office or Open Office. While they were striving for a solution, they created an engine that made it possible to display data visually on the screen. That changed the course of the company.