In 1974, Fred Ode quit his job teaching high school math outside Buffalo and took off in modified Ford Pinto with a bed beside the driver’s seat. Foundation Software wouldn’t start for another ten years, but it never would have happened without a year-long trip across the country. After two years of teaching, Fred simply knew the classroom wasn’t for him, so he left with $400 and a whole lot of idealism, stopping only briefly to join the oil boom in Odessa, Texas. By the following fall he took another teaching job, but it wasn’t long before Fred sold everything that couldn’t fit in an old steamer trunk and began hitchhiking — across the U.S. Then, a month playing full-time blackjack in Vegas. By 1980 Fred still didn’t know what he wanted to do with his life, but traveling marked a turning point for him and reinforced his ideals and his suspicion of the normal way of doing things. It wasn’t until he enrolled in an MBA course at Cleveland State University that he discovered his true passion — programming. After working for several years as the lead programmer analyst for a large contractor, Fred designed and wrote the original version of his construction accounting software, Foundation Accounting System for the Wang minicomputer, and the rest is history. Fred took the long route to founding Foundation Software, but every experience has shaped the company’s unique style of business. The restless spirit that kept turning Fred onto the road until he found his passion is the spirit that drives us to always improve in what we do.
