PTC’s Jon Hirschtick on Founding SolidWorks and Onshape, Plus 2021 Robotics Start-Up Favs

Jon Hirschtick, PTC’s General Manager for the Onshape Division, discusses founding SolidWorks and Onshape, and what is necessary to build and sell (twice) companies offering product design software. Also, “What is your favorite robotics and automation start-up of 2021?”

By RBR Staff | October 15, 2021

Welcome to Episode 54 of The Robot Report Podcast, where each week Robot Report editor Steve Crowe and Mobile Robot Guide editor Mike Oitzman review the latest robotics, automation and intelligent systems news and announcements, and interview leading roboticists, leaders of innovative robotics companies, and other key members of the robotics community.

You can subscribe to The Robot Report Podcast on Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts, Google Play, SoundCloud, Spotify and more. Please subscribe to the podcast and leave us a review!

If you would like to be a guest on an upcoming episode of the podcast, or if you have recommendations for future guests or segment ideas, contact Steve Crowe or Mike Oitzman.

Sponsorship Opportunities
For The Robot Report Podcast sponsorship opportunities, please contact Courtney Nagle.

In Episode 54 of The Robot Report Podcast, Steve Crowe and Mike Oitzman interview Jon Hirschtick, founder of two popular product development companies: SolidWorks and Onshape. In 2019, Jon sold Onshape to PTC and works now as the General Manager for the Onshape division at PTC. Crowe and Oitzman talk to Jon about his days at MIT (where he was involved with the MIT Blackjack Team), and what it takes to build a software company (twice) and sell the businesses.

Also on the show, Crowe and Oitzman discuss recent robotics news, and respond to voicemails from listeners. The key question this episode: “What’s your favorite startup of 2021?”