40 Stories: Joe Lininger of MESCIUS

The name may be new, but the company has long been a Pittsburgh staple – as of 2023, GrapeCity is now MESCIUS!

The Tech Council’s Jonathan Kersting recently spoke with Joe Lininger, Head of Global Marketing at MESCIUS, about the story behind the new name, keeping up with product trends, and potential changes in the Pittsburgh tech industry:

JK: First off, your big news is the brand-new name! Most people may know your company as GrapeCity, which I always thought was a fun name. You’re now MESCIUS – what is MESCIUS?

LININGER: We’re basically the same company; the name change is because of a capital investment that happened in early 2023. Because of that, we’re looking forward to some big growth. We decided to reboot and through that, also rename ourselves. MESCIUS comes from two Latin words – one meaning harvest and the other meaning social – basically, getting the most out of a social connection. We build components for developers, and we’re hoping to build that network and grow our community.

JK: That’s what I find most fascinating about your company – you build the tools that developers use. They can’t make cool stuff without your stuff!

LININGER: It’s super cool. We build industry-leading, award-winning tools for JavaScript and .NET, across a wide range of needs. We try to stay on top of what developers are looking for, where the industry is going, and what trends are out there. We have charts, graphs, grids, spreadsheets, reporting tools, and a separate business unit that we started about three years ago, which is our enterprise solution.

JK: Something that I think people don’t often know is that MESCIUS started in Japan 40 years ago. It established its Pittsburgh presence after buying ComponentOne over a decade ago.

LININGER: MESCIUS has acquired a number of other U.S. companies. Some of our products have been developed internally from the start, and others have come through acquisitions.

JK: You have deep roots in the Pittsburgh tech sector. Where do you see things moving forward here?

LININGER: Obviously, the big talking point of the past 12-24 months has been AI. How is AI going to affect developers? How is it going to affect our products?  We’re already seeing a lot of advancements in what is publicly available and are excited about how AI can help developers write better code faster and help build better products. I think integrating that not only in our products but in the tech industry here in Pittsburgh is a big thing.

For us specifically, we’re continuing to move our products more into mobile. Mobile has been king for 10-15 years now, but surprisingly a lot of products are still desktop-first. We’re moving more into that, as well as SAAS.

JK: Why did you join the Pittsburgh Technology Council?

LININGER: The biggest reason is the tech network – it’s a great opportunity for us to keep our finger on the pulse of technology here in Pittsburgh. The events and opportunities that the Tech Council provides are unmatched. It’s a no-brainer for us to be a member.