How Many Times Does the Train Pass?

Throughout our professional careers, we sometimes encounter coincidences in the form of unexpected opportunities that profoundly change our personal trajectory or that of our companies.

These opportunities may arrive like a train you were not waiting for, at a station where you may just be passing through, by chance, or even waiting for another train. Sometimes you decide to get on that train and take the journey it offers. You may not even be entirely sure of the destination, but that train and that journey often become a fundamental part of your professional path.

I had the opportunity, quite a few years ago, to get on one of those trains by joining and leading the technical department in Spain of a SolidWorks distributor, the 3D design software that is still today the market leader in 3D CAD.

Few people are fortunate enough to have the same train pass by twice—or more—and to get on board each time. I am one of those lucky ones, and I feel truly grateful for it.

After spending several years developing my career in areas outside CAD, in 2014 we created a startup whose primary goal was the Optimization of design and manufacturing processes.

"Joliet" Jake Blues: "How many times does the train pass?"

"Elwood Blues: "So often that you won’t even notice."

- Blues Brothers - Elwood's appartment

We then encountered a happy coincidence: the original SolidWorks team, after leaving the company over the years, had come together again to develop Onshape, a cloud-based 3D CAD application that aimed to become “the future of CAD.” Borrowing the phrase from the Blues Brothers, they were “getting the band back together”.

"“I didn’t hesitate—I got back on board to join the Onshape band"

As Dave Corcoran, VP of R&D at Onshape, mentioned in his blog post “Recruiting Onshape’s Dream Team went far beyond CAD”: “This is not about a nostalgic journey; it is about an unexpected opportunity to work together again on what we love most and do best.”

Today our startup has evolved into C2i – Change 2 improve | Process Optimization, significantly expanding our portfolio of products and services. In the same way, Onshape has grown from a promising collaborative cloud CAD application into a powerful, full-featured CAD system that already surpasses many traditional CAD tools.