It was the Dream Team of computing. Andy Hertzfeld, one of the original developers of the Macintosh. Bill Atkinson, inventor of the GUI. And CEO Marc Porat, creator of one of the world’s first satellite networks.
Their mission: make a computer you can hold in your hand.
The story of the company they built, General Magic, is the subject of a great documentary from 2018. When I sat down to watch it last week, I felt like I was there with them, building the future.
Build a New World
The team had incredible camaraderie.
Engineers sat on the floor for meetings. When you see the old footage of these confabs, you’ll notice that just about every person is smiling.
General Magic was the real, old Silicon Valley.
No catered lunches and massages here. Just nonstop coding and bunk beds for those few hours of sleep the team managed to get.
“It became my entire life. I shunned even my family to a certain extent. I just wanted to make this company General Magic happen.”
Just about the only companies doing this today are run by Elon Musk. No wonder they’re so successful.
Demo Day
After years of intense work, General Magic released the Magic Cap OS in 1994.
The device they created was incredible for its time. You could send e-mail, take notes, and make phone calls — all in a package that weighed just over a pound.
While Magic Cap was a breakthrough, the company struggled to find the right customer.
Who’s Gonna Buy This Thing?
Some employees at General Magic said the best customers would be businesspeople. Others insisted Joe Sixpack was the right market — the computer for everyone.
But can Joe Sixpack afford an $800 device? Does he even have e-mail?
I don’t think so.
The ideal market would have been people like themselves — early adopters who work in tech. But for some reason, they ignored the customer base that was right under their nose.
General Magic’s Blind Spot
Despite its cutting edge tech, Magic Cap had a strange limitation: it couldn’t access the World Wide Web.
The web came out during Magic Cap’s development. The team underestimated its importance and failed to integrate it into Magic Cap.
Customers were left with a device that was cutting edge in some ways, and woefully behind in others.
“No One Came”
The General Magic devices didn’t sell.
“My stomach turned sour and I thought ‘we’re doomed.’ No one came. No one bought it. Nothing.”
Bill Atkinson
As the product the team worked so hard on floundered, the team became demoralized.
Bleeding cash, General Magic went through layoffs. The company continued to flounder for several years, releasing a string of products including a voice-based assistant.
Although the company failed, every smartphone on the planet traces its lineage back to General Magic.
Tony Fadell, one of General Magic’s top engineers, went on to invent the iPod and iPhone. Another General Magic engineer, Andy Rubin, created Android.
The iPhone and Android interfaces are surprisingly similar to the old Magic Cap. Magic Cap’s touchscreen with little icons for phone and e-mail would be familiar to any current iPhone user.
“Fail early, fail often, but always fail forward.”
If anyone defined failing forward, it’s General Magic. The first experiment by these wild engineers may not have been successful, but their next ones were!
This is how technology progresses. Ambitious people try things, fail, and grope their way toward success.
General Magic teaches me a lot as an investor. If I find the best teams and back them repeatedly, I have a chance to be a part of something big.
What do you think of General Magic? Leave a comment and let us know!
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