Editing Hayes Microcomputer Products (section)

==Before Hayes==
[[Image:Dale Heatherington with 80-103.jpg|right|300px|thumb|Dale Heatherington with the prototype '''80-103A''']]
[[Dennis Hayes (businessman)|Dennis C. Hayes]] left the [[Georgia Institute of Technology]] in the mid-1970s to work at an early [[data communication]]s company, [[McKesson Corporation|National Data Corporation]],{{sfn|Shannon|1999}} a company that, among its many businesses, handled electronic money transfers and credit card authorizations. Hayes' job was to set up modem connections for NDC's customers.

Hayes also worked for a time at [[Financial Data Sciences]], which sold [[automated teller machine]]s to the [[savings and loan]] (S&L) market, modifying machines sold by larger companies to large banks with the branding of the smaller S&L. From this company, he learned the value of selling into niche markets the larger players ignored.{{sfn|Mallett|1999}}

Hayes was a computer hobbyist, and felt that modems would be highly compelling to users of the new [[8-bit computer]]s that would soon be known as [[home computer]]s. However, existing modems were simply too expensive and difficult to use or be practical for most users. He felt that this market was likely to be ignored by the larger modem vendors like [[IBM]].{{sfn|Mallett|1999}}