I-Cubed + 25 years = business success

Grant Williard remembers what his college professors told him. Armed with an engineering degree from NC State, they said, you can do anything you want.

Since then, Williard has become what he calls “living, breathing proof” of that statement. He went on to found I-Cubed, a company that develops the computer-aided-design (CAD) software that assists in the creation of drawings and specifications. The company is now located on NC State’s Centennial Campus and is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year.

“Twenty-five years ago most design was done with pencil and paper,” Williard said. “What CAD does is allow you to do that with a large computer screen, database, mouse — all that other cool stuff that we all take for granted.”

Today, I-Cubed has 14 owner employees, and the company has expanded by focusing not only on CAD and CAD products, but on diversifying those products, growing both revenue and profits. I-Cubed has developed partnerships with several other businesses over the years, including Adobe Systems and, recently, Convertigo, for whom Williard now works as the head of the U.S. branch.

But when Williard first came to NC State, he hadn’t planned on founding his own business. In fact, he hadn’t even planned on becoming an engineer. A native North Carolinian from Winston-Salem, Williard originally started at NC State as a forestry major.

While in forestry, he learned more about the opportunities available to engineers and decided to change majors. After earning his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering and working at a design engineering firm for a few years, he decided to go back to school. This was when CAD was just emerging, and for his graduate work, Williard explored his interest in that technology.

There were only about three companies that sold CAD software at the time, Williard said, and that software was designed for larger, corporate computers.

“They really required literally millions of dollars to get started, so only the largest of the large companies had it,” Williard said.

So Williard began research to determine whether the technology could be translated to personal computers, which were still in their infancy.

The idea of turning this personal interest into a business came to Williard after he presented a paper about CAD technology to the American Society of Mechanical Engineers at the National Design Engineering Show in the spring of 1984. After his presentation, Williard was approached by two men who asked him to quote a price for his product. With that question, the company was born.

At first, I-Cubed was based out of the spare bedroom of Williard’s house in the Five Points area of Raleigh.

“In the early days it was just me,” Williard said. “I would write software in the morning, and I would try to sell it in the afternoon.”

As the company grew, it moved — first to a building across from the NC State Bell Tower, and then eventually to Centennial Campus, where it is located today. About 10 years ago, I-Cubed began taking on interns, and its location near the new engineering buildings makes it prime for NC State students seeking internship experience.

As CAD software became more popular, companies were having their product manufactured in places they were unfamiliar with. I-Cubed saw this as an opportunity to develop technology that made collaborating with trading partners more secure.

“We could effectively put a digital security wrapper around designs as they were sent around the world,” Williard said.

It wasn’t long after making these security wrappers available that Adobe, a company based out of California, said it wanted to purchase the technology from I-Cubed.

With Adobe’s purchase of I-Cubed’s security technology in December 2005 came the end of Williard’s tenure with the company. Williard and four other engineers headed out to California to work with Adobe, and the company was sold to the remaining I-Cubed employees. Williard remained at Adobe until he began his new entrepreneurial adventure with Convertigo, a company that focuses on web mashups – the seamless integration of multiple applications into one Web site.

But as Williard continues to move forward in his professional career, he says he won’t forget what enabled him to come as far as he has.

“It goes back to a strong engineering education from a land grant school,” Williard said. “You’re equipped to do anything you want to do.”