[2] In their off-time in the early 1970s, the duo built a device that would warn computer operators when a data tape was close to the end of its reel,[2] founding Ahlstrom LaMarche & Co. to market it.
[3]: 1-E They decided to invite several top executives of companies who ran large mainframe computer networks to dinner at a restaurant.
When Ahlstrom and LaMarche asked them what troubles they frequently encountered, network management was cited as the most challenging task.
These conversations inspired the duo to raise the capital to incorporate Avant-Garde Computing in Cherry Hill; in order to secure adequate financing, the two also put second mortgages on their homes.
[8] In the time between the product's development and their first sale, the duo sold a 45-percent stake of Avant-Garde Computing, worth US$500,000, to Northern Telecom's United States subsidiary in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1980.
With the help of Spectron,[5] Avant-Garde won clients such as Citibank, Xerox, Cigna, MetLife, Chase Manhattan Bank, Shearson/American Express, and Air France within two years of Net/Alert's introduction.
[8] Following a profitable third quarter of 1983 in which the company saw their sales double and revenues triple and received five new orders (including one from the IRSST, a government institution of Quebec),[19][14] Avant-Garde moved their headquarters from Cherry Hill to a larger 36,000-square-foot building in Mount Laurel, New Jersey.
Although they had reached 52nd place in the Inc. 500 and gained even more clients as disparate as Target, Union Bank of Switzerland, Raytheon, MasterCard International, Ford, and Southern Company Services, the company realized fewer sales than in previous years, attributed to the gutting of Avant-Garde's senior sales staff.
[31][32] A lawsuit filed against Avant-Garde's European sales division in 1983 also penalized the company's earnings, through settlement costs and legal fees.
[37] In an attempt at turning around the company's fortunes,[38][39] Ahlstrom appointed Michael L. Sanyour, formerly the CEO and director of Subaru of America, as president and COO of Avant-Garde in October 1985.
[40] In January 1986, British Telecom signed an agreement with Avant-Garde to become the exclusive distributor of the company's products within the United Kingdom,[41] The following month, Sperry Corporation won a non-exclusive distribution agreement to resell Avant-Garde's software in the United States.
[58] Concurrent Computer Corporation later agreed to distribute Avant-Garde's products to the American federal government, as well as in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan and other countries in Southeast Asia, in August 1988.
[59] Following a $1.6 million loss in the first quarter of the following fiscal year,[60] Ahlstrom resigned from Avant-Garde, citing health reasons.
[64] After six months of deliberation, Boole & Babbage, a software company in San Jose, agreed to purchase Avant-Garde and assume certain liabilities for $4 million in cash.
[4][67] The company lost $4.5 million between April and July 1989, nearly double that of their losses for the entire prior fiscal year.