Netscape was founded April 4, 1994.
Microsoft was founded April 4, 1975. Here’s how it got started...
1981:
Bill Gates and Paul Allen were high school friends in Seattle. They had a passion for programming. It inspired them to build a business before Microsoft.
It was called Traf-o-Data.
It analyzed traffic on the roads. And it set the stage for an even bigger software opportunity.
They read about the Altair 8800, made by an Albuquerque company called MITS.
It didn’t look like much, but it would become the first successful PC.
Gates and Allen pitched Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS) on an idea.
They felt users should be able to program Altair in BASIC. Gates and Allen pitched MITS on developing a BASIC interpreter. A deal was struck and they moved to Albuquerque.
This was company headquarters in Albuquerque, NM
And Microsoft began creating BASIC versions for other computer makers.
Gates had a minor setback when he was arrested for a traffic violation. But Microsoft’s lucrative software licensing business kept growing.
The team was growing too. Here’s a staff photo from 1978.
Another turning point came in 1981. Microsoft created the operating system for IBM’s new PC. IBM had hoped to sell about 240,000 computers in its first 5 years. It ended up selling 3 million.
A decade after launch, Microsoft’s sales topped $140 million. Bill Gates told his Harvard professor that he would be a millionaire by the age of 30. He became a BILLIONAIRE at 31. By 1987, Gates had become the world’s youngest billionaire.
Microsoft was founded April 4, 1975. Here’s how it got started...
1981:
Bill Gates and Paul Allen were high school friends in Seattle. They had a passion for programming. It inspired them to build a business before Microsoft.
It was called Traf-o-Data.
It analyzed traffic on the roads. And it set the stage for an even bigger software opportunity.
They read about the Altair 8800, made by an Albuquerque company called MITS.
It didn’t look like much, but it would become the first successful PC.
Gates and Allen pitched Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS) on an idea.
They felt users should be able to program Altair in BASIC. Gates and Allen pitched MITS on developing a BASIC interpreter. A deal was struck and they moved to Albuquerque.
This was company headquarters in Albuquerque, NM
And Microsoft began creating BASIC versions for other computer makers.
Gates had a minor setback when he was arrested for a traffic violation. But Microsoft’s lucrative software licensing business kept growing.
The team was growing too. Here’s a staff photo from 1978.
Another turning point came in 1981. Microsoft created the operating system for IBM’s new PC. IBM had hoped to sell about 240,000 computers in its first 5 years. It ended up selling 3 million.
A decade after launch, Microsoft’s sales topped $140 million. Bill Gates told his Harvard professor that he would be a millionaire by the age of 30. He became a BILLIONAIRE at 31. By 1987, Gates had become the world’s youngest billionaire.
“World War III is a guerrilla information war with no division between military and civilian participation.” — Marshall McLuhan, from Culture Is Our Business, 1970