After writing the new application in Pascal in less than four months Wilson borrowed $15,000 to market it, and formed Lifetree Software with his girlfriend, Honey Williams.

Volkswriter debuted at the spring 1982 West Coast Computer Faire[1][2] and, as Plainwriter, in a small listing in the first issue of PC Magazine.

[3] By the next issue Lifetree described the renamed Volkswriter in a full-page advertisement as "a high performance word processor" with which "you cannot erase data unintentionally".

The new company formed with the name Volkswriter Inc.[9] Fluegelman of PC Magazine wrote that "Like the inspiration for its name, VW doesn't go in for a lot of frills but performs essential functions very well".

[5] In a May 1983 review of several IBM PC word processors, BYTE described Volkswriter as "simple in design ... quite straightforward to use for minor writing projects ... just enough features to get most jobs done".