What will come after the great CEO

1

One day Mr. Geoff Perlman, CEO of XoJo, will retire. And I am asking my self: what will come after this period? Will somebody lead the company in the future? Is there somebody taking care of XoJo after he will retire? Will Xojo be available for further 20 years?

This questions nobody can really answer at the moment. While there is no communication. The CEO is in the right age to retire. And I guess he could retire without any problem. But there is no after Perlman information to find. May be he will work till being 80. Or not. nobody knows anything about the future.

2

I understand the concern, but I think the question may be a bit misplaced.

Many privately owned software companies do not publicly communicate succession plans. That doesn’t necessarily mean there is no plan; it simply means it is not discussed publicly. In fact, this is quite normal for founder-led companies.

Also, the future of a development tool rarely depends on a single person alone. A company like Xojo has engineers, product managers, support staff and an existing code base. Founders eventually retire everywhere. That does not automatically mean the technology disappears.

Another point is that predicting the state of any software platform 20 years from now is almost impossible. Even major platforms have changed dramatically over the last two decades.

In my opinion the more relevant questions are different ones:

  • Is the product still improving?
  • Is the developer community active?
  • Does the tool still solve problems efficiently?

If those answers remain positive, a platform can survive for a very long time even as a niche tool. There are many examples of development tools that have existed for decades without being mainstream.

So while it is reasonable to think about the future, I personally think the real indicator will always be the usefulness of the tool itself rather than the age of the current CEO.

3

The entire problem is that XoJo is a really small company. And this kind of companies sometimes disappearing. That’s the problem when there is no planning. And the next thing is: it is not like in bnigger companies with many people- here we have a ceo driven companie and the most decisions and also the most ways the development takes are driven by the ceo.

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4

well I do not see that answer to your 3 questions as being “positive”, at least not to a large degree.

  1. I do not see improvement.. changes? sure, but mostly changes for the sake of change, not as improvements

  2. Active community? ok, there is movement, not much compared to 10 years ago, but it is still breathing

  3. that is a matter of opinion

And yeah in the case of Xojo, it DOES depend of a single person alone. If Geoff says NO , its no..

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5

That’s exactly the point why I see that there is a need of communication.

7

The reason for this question is: people are relying their entire business on it. That makes it relevant to know how it will go forward and if. If it ends up it would be the end for all of the products on XoJo platform. There would possibly no licensing anymore. All licensing is relied on XoJo license servers. So it would be a dangerous story. may be that all of you having different view on it. From my perspective that is an interesting information. C# or Java for example have known lifetimes. Something what can be calculated.

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8

I give Xojo < 5 years, the company may still exist after that, but it will just be an ink stain.

C# and Java have known lifespans, and in VERY LONG, mostly because they are backed by huge communities, not the few hundred that Xojo has

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9

yes, they are based on millions not hundreds. Exactly. And that makes it even more dangerous not to know what will come up in the near future. Except Geoff Perlman wants to work till he will become 100 there is a solution needed. he is not 40 anymore.

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10

I personally don’t think you need to worry, I think Xojo will go before Perlman

Google Gemini gave Xojo 3 years. It’s simply not competitive enough in today’s market, has a high entry price and a declining user base.

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11

TBH I have a strong suspicion that Travis will be the CEO upon Geoffs departure

12

Not really

Geoff, Jason, Alyssa - thats all the Admin staff

Travis, Javier, William, Paul, Ricardo - that is the entire engineering & support staff

And Robin toiling away trying to keep up with incoming bug reports & QA stuff

and thats it

The company has never been very big

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13

Lets just say there ARE ways to NOT rely on Xojo license servers but I wont publish that publicly

14

Geoff is 60+ now

15

not anymore

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16

take a look on what happend with PowerBasic when Robert Zale died.

17

That may count for you but for others it is like I said. That is a big problem at all.

And yes, it looks a bit like PowerBasic looked before. A slow dead could come up. Refreshment is needed.

18

Geoff is 62 years old. The company seems to continue to run just fine.

It would be nice to announce something like Travis becoming CEO and Geoff becoming president.

To show people that they continue.

19

Xojo is dead, so who cares?

Those of you who still rely on it, you were warned long ago.
How long has this forum been around?

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20

Something similar to what happened to Power Basic after its creator died.

21

The difference he IS that Geoff isnt the author of much of anything in Xojo’s products

So his passing wouldnt be fatal to the knowledge of how to make the product the way Roberts was

I do believe that my assumptions about who would head the company up are correct

Geoff’s passing though might aggravate an already steady decline

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