![\"Vern](\"http:\/\/engagingedu.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/Vern-Blog-Post-2-Image.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n[Note: I turned down this offer before signing a non-disclosure agreement (NDA). So unlike the licensing deals<\/a> I have made, I am actually able to, I believe, show this email.]<\/p>\n I wasn\u2019t exactly sure what the email meant, although I did have some inklings. Being as it was AutoDesk<\/a>, I quickly got in touch with the author of the email message. Dina was very straight forward. In our first phone conversation,\u00a0she said that AutoDesk wanted to \u201cbuy my company\u201d \u2014mainly due to our graphing calculator. It turns out\u00a0that AutoDesk wanted to incorporate the calculator into its flagship product, AutoCad.<\/p>\n Cool, right? I mean, who hasn\u2019t used\u00a0AutoCad! What an awesome\u00a0idea\u2013a program that I know and have used, AutoCad, would include a button\u00a0to pop up meta-calculator! Such were the first thoughts that swam\u00a0through my inflated head.<\/p>\n My lawyer Booker, who has a lot of experience representing small companies\u00a0negotiating with big ones, advised me to quickly be upfront\u00a0about any non-negotiables in order to quickly identify any potential\u00a0deal breakers. Well, a deal breaker did soon emerge. After a few more phone calls, I was told that I would need to be part of the purchase and work at AutoDesk. And, upon reflection, my head cleared. I realized that my idea of hitting a button in AutoCad and seeing meta-calculator was not realistic. Instead, meta-calculator would be wiped off the face of the Earth and replaced with AutoDeskCalculator<\/em>!<\/p>\n The thing is, I didn\u2019t have the calculator created simply for it to become a small\u00a0widget in a larger product; no matter how big and impressive that could be. My vision\u00a0for meta-calculator was to create an online student calculator<\/a> that could be\u00a0used as a replacement for the TI-89 graphing calculators that are a) very\u00a0expensive and b) ubiquitous in schools. Why should students have to shell out $100\u00a0to get a quality calculator. You might be saying to yourself that there are\u00a0lots of online graphing calculators. Well, that was not the case when I first had the calculator\u00a0created. At that time, there were a few shoddy Flash apps; none that could graph\u00a0implicit equations like meta-calculator. Though that has changed\u00a0and other online calculators can now graph implicit equations. To my knowledge,\u00a0there still is no other credible online replacement for the TI-86\/Ti-85 handhelds except our own. Meta Calculator was and continues to be a resource for\u00a0the needs of a typical high school or college student. As such, it can do\u00a0the common types of formulas and calculations that these students need.<\/p>\n In the end, I just didn\u2019t see myself being happy as AutoDesk\u2019s \u201ccalculator widget\u00a0guy.” It was clear that meta-calculator would be completely re-purposed. Even though it would be part of a large international product, the calculator would no longer have anything to do with \u00a0the original vision I had for it – to be a free online replacement for the monopoly\u00a0of the TI hand calculators in schools<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Not too long ago, I got the following email: [Note: I turned down this offer before signing a non-disclosure agreement (NDA). So unlike the licensing deals I have made, I am actually able to, I believe, show this email.] I … Continue reading