Startup: A Silicon Valley Adventure

As a veteran of many layoffs at Apple, she understood the importance of a swift announcement and decisive action. “Let everyone know that their voice mail will remain active while they look for a new job, and I’ll be setting up a placement center where they can work on their resumes and check job listings.”

Well over a billion dollars had gone into developing this operating system, an investment that continues today with no realistic possibility of a return. The technique works well as long as enough money pours in to buoy up moribund projects. But by mid-1989, IBM was so laden with the walking dead that its highly profitable mainframe monopoly could

Bill could suffer just about any indignity with grace, except when someone had abused his trust.

I could see that something had changed in him. He seemed less intense, more at peace with himself. “Where did you park the jet?” He sighed. “Sold it. I’m also selling our vacation house in Hawaii.” “Too bad, I never got to mooch a vacation there,” I said. “How come?” “We just decided to get our priorities straight. All this stuff—our material posse

Although they had just walked in, Gates immediately slouched in front of a new Macintosh that sat unattended on the receptionist’s desk, to see what software was loaded.

Almost like clockwork, every ten years since the beginning of the computer revolution, a new class of computers had unexpectedly emerged.

This incongruous assortment of engineers, reminiscent of the diverse characters of a Passion play, had one thing that bound them together: a deep, almost spiritual conviction that a good idea and some hard work can make a difference. They believed in the power of a concept to change people’s lives for the better, and felt a moral imperative to make

“OK, let’s get started,” I said. “How do you like our new offices?” The room broke out in cheers and applause. “Now we look like a real company. We have a nice reception area, new furniture, a real phone system, computers . . . But we’re missing one thing. Do you know what it is?” “A company masseuse!” Todd Agulnick yelled. “No—revenues,” I said. T

A master of promotion, Sculley knew that the secret to success was to change the name of the field and find a new audience.