Bill Bither leads MachineMetrics to Drive Decisions with Machine Data

What makes a leader? There have been inspirational quotes and motivational books written and published about leadership. But ask any CEO, entrepreneur or a founder- you’ll hear a different story about their journey, challenges and how they were able to reach their sweet success. However, certain things about a leader remain the same- leaders make the hard choice and sacrifice immensely to enhance the lives of those around them.

We have an inspiring leader with us today. Meet Bill Bither, the co-founder and CEO of MachineMetrics. A serial software entrepreneur and product visionary, Bill Bither is a seasoned manufacturing technology leader. Behind his charming persona is a strong and ethical foundation built during his childhood. As a young kid, Bill began his first ‘business’ mowing lawn. For this business, he would use his Commodore 64 computer and track his customers, sales, and other data on a spreadsheet.

At an early age, he figured his deep passion and interest in math, science, and design. He was influenced by his father’s profession as a mechanic and spent his time dreaming and visualizing cars and airplanes. This interest pushed him to attend the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where he graduated with a BMSE in Mechanical Engineering from there. While he dreamt of these mechanical beasts and worked on his lawn-mowing business, he built a strong base of work ethics. Later in life, this foundation molded him to be the pioneer he is today.

Vested Interests

Leading your life as a leader/entrepreneur isn’t the life of complete leisure. The risks and pressure a CEO goes through are sometimes inexpressible. However, our passionate leader Bill has interests in other diverse areas as well. Bill is keen on running and absolutely loves to spend his time outdoors running. While he was building Atalasoft in 2002, he would train with a colleague and would love the time he spent in this activity. Bill has conquered many trails and has successfully completed marathons. Along with running, his interests also extend to cycling, skiing, and cross-fit as well. 

Making of a leader

With his BMSE degree, Bill set out to make his mark in the world. His career started from Hamilton Sundstrand where he joined as a mechanical design engineer. Here, he worked on designing commercial and military aircraft engine hydraulic systems and was an important part in the development of software to automate the design of hydraulic valves.

The next major step in his career path was Atalasoft, which he founded and bootstrapped. Atalasoft was like the turning point for Bill as he was the prime visionary behind Atalasoft’s strategic planning, customer and partner relationships, and employee management. In 2011, Kofax acquired Atalasoft and his role changed to moving forward with the company’s vision in providing the world’s best document imaging SDKs.

A couple of years later, Bill moved ahead to co-found MachineMetrics in 2014. He played a vital role in realizing the company’s visibility and predictability to the manufacturing floor with an Industrial IoT analytics platform that collects data from machines. MachineMetrics is established as the industry’s first ever predictive analytics platform driven with AI. The platform caters to all from discrete manufacturers to machine builders.

The data derived from the platform is used to benchmark performance, drive efficiency, improve equipment uptime, and enable automation. The solutions from MachineMetrics have won several awards and the Industry 4.0-ready solutions work out-of-the-box to increase equipment productivity and efficiency through Industrial IoT edge connectivity. Real-time visibility, deep manufacturing analytics, and predictive and prescriptive alerts are part of the solutions.

Recently, MachineMetrics was awarded the “Smart Manufacturing Solution of the year” by IoT Breakthrough Award. “We're on a mission to make working life simpler, more pleasant and more productive — for everyone,” Bill says about MachineMetrics. Under the leadership of Bill, MachineMetrics is growing and expanding to new horizons.

Bill is the best!

Here’s what people who have worked with Bill have to say about him:

“Having worked with dozens of high-tech company founders over the past 15 years, Bill stands out as one of the brightest and most effective. He is an inspiring, diligent and hardworking entrepreneur that strikes an excellent balance between innovating and following sound business principles. Should you be fortunate enough to have the opportunity to work with him in the future, go for it!”

–Matthias Leitzmann, Director, Talent Acquisition at SessionM. Back in 2011, Bill was a client of Matthias.

“From the meager beginning's of running a company from his living room Bill has managed to grow the best company to work for in the Western Massachusetts area. Like the greatest of leaders, he surrounds himself with talented people and gives them the resources they need to get the job done. Most important of all, Bill actually cares deeply about his employees and it shows in both company policies and his personal interactions with them. Thanks again for over three great years at Atalasoft.”

–Richard Minerich, CTO at Safe Banking System. Bill was a senior to Richard in 2012.