Interval Research, incubator for consumer internet services founded by Paul Allen & David Liddle is a company.
Key people at Interval Research, incubator for consumer internet services founded by Paul Allen & David Liddle.
Key people at Interval Research, incubator for consumer internet services founded by Paul Allen & David Liddle.
Interval Research Corporation was a pioneering technology research lab and incubator founded in 1992 by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and computer scientist David Liddle, aimed at fostering innovation in consumer technologies like broadband, interaction design, advanced devices, and early internet applications.[1][2][3] Operating from Palo Alto, California, it assembled a multidisciplinary team of over 150 researchers—including hardware designers, programmers, social scientists, artists, and interaction experts—to explore ideas beyond short-term markets, explicitly avoiding the 1-3 year horizons dominating the industry.[1][3] Backed by Allen's $100 million investment, Interval sought to emulate Xerox PARC's creativity but with a sharper focus on commercialization through technology licensing or company spin-offs; it announced its first three spinoffs in 1996 but ultimately closed around 2000 without achieving widespread commercial success.[2][3][4]
Interval Research emerged from Paul Allen's vision to recapture the groundbreaking spirit of Xerox PARC, where David Liddle had been a key figure since joining in 1972.[1][3][4] Liddle led PARC's Systems Science Lab, contributed to the POLOS project, and later drove the development of the Xerox Star—the first GUI-based workstation featuring icons, desktop metaphors, dialog boxes, and Ethernet—which influenced giants like Apple and Microsoft, though Xerox failed to capitalize commercially.[1][2][4] In 1991, Allen recruited Liddle to lead this new venture, launching Interval in 1992 as a secretive lab to "stir up new thinking for commercial possibilities."[1][2][5]
The name "Interval" symbolized the transitional period between old and emerging tech paradigms, with Allen committing funds through 2002 (even printed on name tags).[4] Liddle served as president and CEO until 1999, organizing work around fluid, cross-disciplinary projects rather than silos, drawing top Silicon Valley talent.[1][4] Early efforts spanned consumer devices and internet tech, but by the mid-1990s, amid dot-com pressures, it pivoted from pure research to product development, announcing spinoffs in 1996—its first market tests—before Liddle stepped down in 1999 and the lab shuttered around 2000.[3][4]
Interval rode the early 1990s wave of consumer internet and digital interaction optimism, positioning itself as a "1990s PARC" to address industry complaints about desktop-centric stagnation post-PC boom.[3][4] Its timing capitalized on broadband's rise and pre-dot-com hunger for GUI-derived consumer tech, but market forces like accelerating commercialization pressures forced a pivot from exploratory research (e.g., no more music/games) to spin-offs amid skepticism about its secretive outputs.[4] Though it closed without blockbuster hits, Interval influenced the ecosystem by seeding ideas in interaction design and internet devices, validating multidisciplinary incubators, and highlighting tensions between blue-sky research and venture timelines—lessons echoed in modern labs like those from Allen's Vulcan Inc. or AI-focused ventures.[1][2][3]
Interval's legacy as a bold, if unrealized, bet on patient innovation underscores enduring challenges for research labs in fast-moving tech landscapes. Post-closure, Liddle became a venture capitalist at U.S. Venture Partners, while Allen pursued media and spacetech via Vulcan; no direct revivals exist, but their model informs today's deep-tech incubators amid AI and AR/VR trends.[2][1] Looking ahead, similar "interval" periods—between AI hype and practical consumer apps—could revive Interval-style labs, evolving their influence toward hybrid research-VC models that better bridge invention to scale. This echoes the original hook: a Microsoft co-founder's incubator that dared think decades ahead, planting seeds for tomorrow's PARC equivalents.
