John Cullinane founded Cullinane Corporation, the first successful software products company in the computer industry.  Ironically, at the time, industry gurus said there was no future in software and that it could not be done. Others had tried and failed, predicting that he would, too.  However, the great success of his company would prove to Wall Street and the computer industry that a great deal of money could be made from treating software as a product.  Many software companies followed, and an industry was born.