When employees at Measurex submitted "Digital Drive" as the name for the street where their new Cupertino headquarters would stand, founder Dave Bossen overruled them. Digital, he argued, was a technology with only temporary relevance -- what if the street had been named a few years earlier as "Analog Ave"? He chose "Results Way" instead, embedding his company's philosophy into the very address. Decades later, when Apple Inc. leased the 20-acre campus in 2011, the address remained. One of Silicon Valley's most famous companies now operates from a street named by a paper-industry pioneer most people have never heard of.
Dave Bossen conceived Measurex in 1967 while working as a sales manager at Industrial Nucleonics. The company opened on January 18, 1968, with a mission to bring computer control to the paper-making industry -- an ambition that required developing not just software but the physical sensors to measure paper properties like basis weight, moisture, caliper, and whiteness during continuous production. Early sensors used radioactive source materials, a hands-on approach to measurement that would be difficult for a startup to attempt today. Measurex went public on March 28, 1972, trading on NASDAQ. By 1973, it had expanded to a plant in Waterford, Ireland, and added 41,000 square feet to its Cupertino campus.
Measurex built its reputation on an unusual business strategy: the Result Guarantee. Customers could return the entire system if it failed to deliver promised improvements. This was not bravado but calculation. Bossen understood that paper mills were conservative buyers, reluctant to invest in unproven computer systems. The guarantee removed the risk, and the confidence it inspired drove repeat sales that fueled growth for 25 years. The company's service operation, which accounted for 40 percent of annual revenue, was equally distinctive. Measurex stationed dedicated technicians on-site at customer mills, providing the expertise that mills lacked to maintain 99 percent uptime on complex computer-controlled equipment.
By the time of its acquisition, Measurex had 2,250 employees in 30 countries and annual revenue of $254 million. Honeywell bought the company and kept the Measurex name for years, branding the subsidiary Honeywell-Measurex. The Cupertino campus at 1 Results Way eventually became the Results Way Corporate Center. When Apple leased the property in 2011, it was one of several satellite campuses the company used as it outgrew its Infinite Loop headquarters and awaited the completion of Apple Park. The campus that Dave Bossen built to measure paper now housed designers and engineers working on products that rendered much of paper obsolete -- a transition that captures Silicon Valley's relentless habit of consuming its own past.
The former Measurex campus is at 37.32°N, 122.05°W in Cupertino, near the intersection of Stevens Creek Boulevard and De Anza Boulevard. Apple Park is visible nearby. Nearby airports: San Jose (KSJC), Moffett Federal Airfield (KNUQ). Best viewed at 2,000-4,000 ft AGL.