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Interview first posted
12 February 2002

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q & a

five minutes with 
GiveMePower

 Give Me Power

Ste. 230
5925-12th Street S.E.
Calgary, AB, Canada
T2H 2M3

Tel: 1-888-97-POWER (1-888-977-6937) or (403) 287- 6001

Fax: (403) 287-6002

www.givemepower.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

  

Bill Walton is president and ceo of GiveMePower, which was founded in June 2000. He has 18 years experience at hi-tech companies.

 

upFront.eZine: The GiveMePower business is new for you. What were you doing before?

Bill Walton: I founded GiveMePower after serving as director of sales and marketing for a software manufacturer who had licensed the core technologies contained in our PowerENGINE software development system for a line of stand-alone surveying software. Sales grew over 1,000% and we quadrupled the company size in two years, with most of the growth directly attributable to this decision.
        After seeing first-hand the amazing reaction we received from the surveying community, I decided to form GiveMePower to change the way general purpose CAD is used. After nearly two years of careful planning and development, I'm convinced GiveMePower represents the future of CAD for a large number of end users and developers.

 

upFront.eZine: And the name, where did it come from?

Bill Walton: GiveMePower was an instant hit when presented to a focus group prior to incorporation. The name represents what we offer to the design/build community, and ties in perfectly with the PowerCAD brand name.

 

upFront.eZine: How much of PowerCAD is yours, and how much was done by Mr Graebert and his programmers over in Germany?

Bill Walton: Our products are based on core technologies developed and defined by the Graebert Group over an eight-year period. A team of GiveMePower developers worked with Mr. Graebert's core programming group for about 18 months enhancing and re-branding FCAD technologies for the North American market. The resulting product line includes:

  • PowerCAD Pro (US$495): 2D/3D CAD system for the desktop computer.
  • PowerCAD LT+ (US$99): Reduced function CAD package for desktop computers.
  • PowerCAD CE Viewer (US$99): Viewing and markup for Windows CE devices
  • PowerCAD CE Classic (US$249): AutoCAD-compatible for CE devices.
  • PowerCAD CE Pro (US$495): Adds LISP and C development.
  • PowerSymbols (US$99): 7000 symbols and hatch patterns.
  • Email support (US$49 per year): for PowerCAD LT+ and CE.
  •         PowerEngine: (US$1,000 and up): software development system and Power Developer Network membership.

Aside from providing us with core technologies, Mr. Graebert is a registered architect and a director of GiveMePower. We're pleased to have his substantial business acumen and over 20 years of CAD industry experience.

 

upFront.eZine:  What's with "$99 Million PowerCAD LT+ Promotion With Distribution of Up to One Million Free Full Function 2D CAD Systems" campaign? Isn't that a bit silly? You're in danger of TurboCAD-izing yourself -- a good product that suffers from being marketed too cheaply.

Bill Walton: Our PowerCAD LT+ promotion is patterned loosely after Adobe's Acrobat product distribution model, and is designed to propagate PowerCAD use and brand awareness in a crowded desktop market. What better way to prove ourselves than to deliver a full-featured 2D CAD free for up to 1 million users? You're correct that some people may assume because it's free, PowerCAD LT+ doesn't do much. If early results are any indication, this notion is being dispelled.
        Aside from getting out the name out, PowerCAD LT+ serves as the perfect companion to PowerCAD CE or PowerCAD Pro, and as an introduction to a broader line of Power applications and solutions scheduled for release in months and years to come. Once the promotion ends, PowerCAD LT+ will be priced at $99.

 

upFront.eZine: PalmPilots and PocketPC are great for text entry, but slow at graphics. Convince me that people should want to run a CAD system on what is essentially a miniaturized 286.

Bill Walton: The Windows CE operating system is taking significant market share mainly due to its advanced graphics capabilities and the higher horsepower devices being made for it. Having remote access to designs and drawings on a handheld/wireless platform represents a major advancement in CAD processing.
        We've spent two years optimizing PowerCAD CE for efficient operation on Windows CE devices, and the results are very encouraging. People are consistently surprised at just how fast and how little space is needed to run PowerCAD CE on these lesser powered devices. Speed will only improve over time as vendors clamor to meet the large demand forecast by virtually every major industry analyst..

 

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