The Dallas Morning News - Dallas Entrepreneur Perseveres
The Dallas Morning News
As founder of 3 software firms, Dallas-area entrepreneur perseveres through the ups and downs
By Sheryl Jean
10/10/2010
Linda Hayes wanted to be a tax lawyer but realized she didn't like accounting.
Along the way, she stumbled upon her passion: writing software.
Since the early 1980s, she has founded three software companies and is working on a fourth venture.
Her first business was Petroware Systems Inc., a Dallas company that created software for the oil industry.
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She became a consultant, helping to create a testing program that didn't need programming knowledge. That led to her co-founding Worksoft Inc. in Addison, TX in 1998. Fidelity and Charles Schwab were its first two customers.
This time, Hayes hired a CEO and became chief technology officer.
"I'm good at conception and getting a company up to about $7 million [in revenue], but I'm not a good manager," she said.
"That's the wisdom of being a serial entrepreneur," said John Borchers, a general partner at Crescendo Ventures in Palo Alto, Calif. "Oftentimes, people do hang on. It's the rare and introspective [founder] who can find their right role going forward."
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