Jim Mayall an icon on in the shareware industry started a small software company in college, developing award winning grade book programs for the Apple II and PC. After college and working at a real estate software startup, he again struck out on his own.

In 1988 Jim Mayall and his partners at MicroVision Development began developing applications for the PC and Windows. They started as a pure development company. Licensing products to 3rd party publishers, never considering the possibility of marketing products on their own. This was generally before online sales were common, and software was primarily sold in retail stores.