[2] For the first two years of its existence, the company was named Ithaca Audio—an homage to Edelman's original business of reselling Hi-Fi audio gear to his fellow peers at his alma mater of Cornell University in the early 1970s.

[2][5]: 48 [6] Edelmen and two others founded InterSystems with $6,000 in startup capital; its initial headquarters was a small rented space in Sheldon Court, within the Collegetown neighborhood adjacent to Cornell University's main campus.

[8] The computer sold very well, the company soon earning big-name customers such as Bank of America, CBS, General Electric, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and NASA.

[10] Struggling with cash flow in 1980, InterSystems was able to raise venture capital in multiple rounds, with Olivetti S.p.A. of Italy and Oak Management of Connecticut.

He left the company on amicable terms in early 1981, taking a sabbatical for the next three years before founding SuperMac Technology, a hardware vendor for Macintosh computers, in 1984.

[15] The year 1983 started off promising for InterSystems, the company receiving $1 million in their latest round of venture capital from Olivetti and Oak Management in February 1983.