Go Figure

December 1994

Tiny Villa Crespo software has been publishing products like poker games and blackjack since 1989. It has more than 50 products today, including 10 CD-ROM-based products. The $5 million company seems an unlikely place to find the next 1-2-3, but its ebullient and entrepreneurial president Daniel Sejzer thinks that's just what they're about to bring to market.

He seeks no partners for his Go Figure product, because he thinks the product, built for Villa Crespo by developer Twisted Logic, is too good to share. It needs a publisher who's devoted to its successful marketing. He just wants to make sure that everyone buys a copy.

The funny thing is, he might just be right. Sejzer wanted a quote from us for his pre-launch promotional campaign for Go Figure, a kind of new way of thinking about problem solving, and when we said we couldn't be quoted about products we'd never seen (once burned by virtual software, twice shy), he got on a plane to Philadelphia, found Narberth and showed it to us himself.

Here's your quote, Dan:

Go Figure offers a seductive combination of sophistication and ease of use that users like me -- who fall into the computer attempting things beyond their level of competency -- will find instantly appealing. Think of it as an Intelligent Spreadsheet or a Problem Solving Agent, if you prefer.

The product is so rich that it's hard to know where to start describing it. Basically, it's a problem solving calculator that's preloaded with an enormous encyclopedia of formulas. But it understands certain English words (so the problems can be stated as sentences). Once linkages are established, any changes made in a calculation can allow all the linked relationships to be recalculated.

You can use Go Figure with your favorite spreadsheet, exporting the relationships or you can take Go Figure formulas and carry them into the spreadsheet. We'd expect a substantial part of Go Figure's future business to be providing these formulas to current users since they're a readily identifiable audience and they have an affinity for solving numerically-based problems.

The rest of us will need to see Go Figure to be seduced, so keep an eye out for it. We'd expect it to be showing up at Spring venues.

Comments or Questions: Send Email to opinions@wohl.com

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