On this day in 1976, Apple was founded in Los Altos, CA 🍎
Steve Jobs & Steve Wozniak were the primary founders. But they weren't alone.
Business mastermind Jobs and the brilliant inventor Woz brought on the much older Ronald Wayne, the third co-founder of Apple, to act as an adult supervisor and provide business guidance.
Wayne had previously worked with Jobs at Atari.
As part of the agreement, Wozniak and Jobs each had a 45% stake in the new company, while Wayne held the remaining 10%.
What's interesting is that Wayne not only drew up the formal partnership agreement but also designed Apple's first logo featuring Isaac Newton under an apple tree 🌳
However, Wayne rapidly grew concerned about the financial risks of this venture and his potential liability if the company failed, since Jobs had taken out a $15,000 loan.
More importantly, Wozniak and Jobs were young and had no assets while Wayne had a house and feared the burden would fall all on him.
So after just 12 days, Wayne had his name taken off the contract and sold his 10% stake back to Wozniak and Jobs for a mere $800, plus an additional $1,500 later on to seal the deal.
If Wayne had kept his 10% stake, it would be worth over $220 billion today.
Expensive.
P.S. for more great stuff, check out 🔔linas.substack.com🔔, it's the only newsletter you need for all things when Finance meets Technology. For founders, builders, and leaders.
Network Systems Engineer
7moI see ads on Instagram and on Facebook - both of which have hundreds of comments... But there's no information on how this technology works. HOW DOES IT WORK?? More importantly, Why is it kept so secretive?