❝Story03:30
Bill Gates' Household: A Seattle Power Couple's Prodigy
Bill Gates grew up surrounded by CEOs, senators, and governors thanks to his powerhouse parents, Bill Sr. (a top Seattle attorney) and Mary Gates (a trailblazing corporate board member).
- Bill Gates Sr. co-founded the law firm now known as K&L Gates and later joined Costco's board
- Mary Gates broke norms by joining major corporate boards despite not working full-time
- Young Bill absorbed business conversations at family dinners from age 9-10
“Mary Gates became one of the most powerful business people in the Pacific Northwest period”
“everything Bill did he did competitively and never simply to relax”
#Bill Gates#Microsoft origins#Seattle
❝Story09:30
Lakeside School and the Founding of the Lakeside Programmers Group
At 13, Bill Gates got rare access to a shared DEC PDP-10 through his middle school, where he met Paul Allen and formed a teenage group that turned programming skill into real income.
- Lakeside's Mother's Club funded computer time on a GE-owned DEC PDP-10
- Bill met Paul Allen while teaching himself to program at the high school computer room
- The Lakeside Programmers Group later negotiated a royalty deal instead of hourly pay
“you could tell three things about Bill Gates pretty quickly he was really smart he was really competitive he wanted to show you how smart…”
#Paul Allen#Lakeside School#early programming
❝Story26:00
Traf-O-Data: Building an Emulator Before the Chip Even Existed
Before the Intel 8080 microprocessor was available, Paul Allen wrote a full instruction-set emulator from the manual alone so he and Bill could start coding for hardware that didn't exist yet.
- Traf-O-Data aimed to sell traffic-counting machines to municipalities
- Paul Allen built an 8008 emulator on a PDP-10 using only the manual
- This experience directly seeded the idea for a BASIC interpreter business
“it's just like Nvidia you know and like when jensson was like no we got to build an emulator and simulate this and then we're…”
#Traf-O-Data#emulation#microprocessors
❝Story37:30
The Popular Electronics Cover That Sparked Microsoft's Founding
Paul Allen spots the Altair 8800 on the cover of Popular Electronics and rushes to tell Bill Gates the revolution they'd been waiting for had finally arrived.
- The January 1975 issue featured the Altair 8800, the first commercially available microcomputer
- Bill and Paul feared they were already behind, though the market hadn't really started yet
- This moment directly precedes the founding of Microsoft
“in December 1974 Paul is walking across Harvard Square and he sees in a news stand the January issue of popular Electronics on Whose cover…”
“oh my God it's happening without us we need to get on this right now”
#Altair 8800#Microsoft founding#Paul Allen
❝Story45:00
Paul Allen Hand-Codes a Bootloader on the Flight to Albuquerque
With no bootloader written, Paul Allen hand-coded the octal instructions on paper during his flight to demo BASIC for MITS founder Ed Roberts.
- Bill and Paul had never touched a real Altair before the demo
- Paul wrote the bootloader by hand in raw octal on the plane
- The demo succeeded on the second attempt, printing '2+2=4'
“he writes the boot loader on the plane on paper by hand he is hand coding octal not even Assembly Language instructions”
#MITS#Altair#Ed Roberts
❝Story1:06:00
The MITS Dispute and Microsoft's Only Cash Crunch
After MITS was acquired by Pertek, a licensing dispute over BASIC nearly bankrupted young Microsoft before arbitration freed them to license software to anyone.
- MITS' exclusive license capped Microsoft's total BASIC revenue at $180,000
- Pertek underestimated 21-year-old Bill Gates and his attorney father
- Winning arbitration let Microsoft license BASIC broadly, including to Apple
“pertek kept telling me they could deal with this kid it was a little like Roosevelt telling Churchill that he could deal with Stalin”
#MITS#licensing dispute#arbitration
❝Story1:16:30
Going Global From Albuquerque: The Japan Distribution Deal
A cold call from Japanese computer enthusiast Kazuhiko Nishi led Microsoft to become an international company by year three, with Japan soon generating half its revenue.
- Nishi became Microsoft's exclusive Japan distribution partner
- By 1979, roughly half of Microsoft's revenue came from Japan
- Early internationalization became a permanent structural advantage
“by the next year in 1979 half of Microsoft's revenue is coming from Japan which is wild”
#internationalization#Japan#distribution
❝Story1:40:00
The IBM PC Deal: Gary Kildall's Missed Meeting
IBM's Project Chess team flew to meet Digital Research about an operating system, but a scheduling mishap with founder Gary Kildall sent the deal back to Microsoft instead.
- Bill Gates initially referred IBM to Digital Research for an operating system
- Gary Kildall was unavailable when IBM's team arrived, and his wife wouldn't sign IBM's NDA
- IBM concluded Digital Research couldn't deliver and returned to Microsoft
“IBM sort of leaves this interaction with the belief that Gary and digital research aren't up for working with them and like aren't capable of…”
#IBM#Gary Kildall#Digital Research
❝Story3:18:00
Windows 95's Movie-Premiere-Style Launch
Microsoft turned an operating system release into a global cultural event, complete with a Jay Leno-hosted keynote, licensed Rolling Stones music, and landmark light-ups worldwide.
- Windows 95 sold a million copies in its first week and 7 million in the first month
- Microsoft licensed 'Start Me Up' by The Rolling Stones as the official launch theme
- Coca-Cola reportedly asked Microsoft for marketing advice after the event
“there is no other word to describe the Windows 95 launch besides glorious”
“Microsoft licensed Start Me Up famously from the Rolling Stones”
#Windows 95#product launch#marketing