About Softletter
The Software Industry’s most trusted source for primary research and information that provides the benchmarks, metrics and business insights that executives need to maximize growth and profitability.
Softletter is a twice-monthly industry newsletter that reports on business issues and trends in software publishing. Written for an audience of senior level industry executives, product managers, and key industry consultants, Softletter tracks new marketing and distribution tactics, company operations, finance, pricing models, product management, and emerging technologies in the desktop, enterprise, Open Source and Software as a Service (SAAS) market segments.
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Softletter's managing editor and publisher is Merrill R. (Rick) Chapman. Rick is the author of The Product Marketing Handbook for Software, In Search of Stupidity: Over 20 Years of High-Tech Marketing Disasters and the just released SaaS Entrepreneur: The Definitive Guide to Succeeding in Your Cloud Application Business. Rick has worked and consulted in the industry for such industry pioneers as MicroPro (WordStar) and Ashton-Tate and consulted for a wide variety of software and high technology firms such as IBM, Novell, Microsoft, Sun and many others. In his career Rick has worked as a programmer, sales engineer, salesman, product manager, and VP of marketing and sales. His latest book is the fifth edition of The Product Marketing Handbook for Software, due for an autumn release.
Randal J. Hujar is an contributing Editor for Softletter. Mr. Hujar’s background includes over 25 years experience with companies ranging from self-funded and venture backed start-up’s to Fortune 100 companies in the areas of enterprise, software as a service, entertainment and productivity software for Internet and PC to mainframe platforms, as well as biometric security, computer, and gaming controller hardware. Mr. Hujar has been a successful entrepreneur having built and sold three companies during his career.
Mr. Hujar’s functional strengths are in Marketing & Sales and General Management with assignments as President & CEO for Katerra Corporation, Miacomet, Inc, Stromberg, Inc, and LYRIQ International; General Manager for USWeb/Cornerstone; Managing Partner of The LYRIQ Consulting Group; Director of Product Line Marketing for Lotus Development Corporation; Product Marketing Manager for IBM Corporation; Director of Marketing for Ashton-Tate Corporation; Product Line Manager and International Marketing Manager for Hewlett-Packard Company; and Programmer for I.P. Sharp Associates. During his career Mr. Hujar has successfully brought over 75 commercial software and hardware products from design to marketplace. He has also successfully bought and sold several companies in his efforts to expand the ventures he has built and managed over the years. Mr. Hujar has a B.S. in Finance and Marketing from the University of Santa Clara and did pre-graduate work in International Law and Business at the University of Vienna.
Softletter was founded in 1983 by Jeffrey Tarter, a well-known industry analyst who has been described as "quietly powerful" by Marketing Computers. In his career Tarter has been twice named "Best Industry Analyst" by the Software Industry and Information Association, and is widely quoted in the business and trade press.