Pirates of Silicon Valley

Pirates of Silicon Valley

Essential Learnings

Apple Computer, Inc.

1.  What two people founded Apple Computer, Inc.?

2.  Which of the men was adopted?

3.  What university did they attend together?

4.  What state were they from?

5.  What were their hobbies?

6.  What was the first gadget they invented? What was it called? What did it do?

7.  One of these men did occasional work for a big corporation. He had signed a contract that gave ownership rights to the corporation for anything he built. What was the name of the corporation? How did he solve his dilemma?

8.  What was the name of the first public event where these two people showed their first computer? How many did they sell?

9.  What was the biggest challenge these two people faced when they tried to borrow money to build their computers?

10.  Who stepped up to lend them the money they needed to really get started?

11.  What did they call their very first Apple computer?

12.  What big corporation did these men visit to “steal” the mouse and graphic interface software?

13.  Why were these men successful in getting what they wanted from this big corporation?

14.  During their early days, what big corporation was Apple most afraid of?

15.  What was the name of the second computer that Apple made?

16.  What was the name of the third computer that Apple made?

17.  What was the work culture at Apple like in its early days?

18.  Who is John Scully?

19.  Why did Scully have to fire one of the original founders of Apple?

20.  What are some of the recent products developed by Apple in the past 5 years?

Microsoft Corporation

1.  Who were the original founders of Microsoft?

2.  What university did they attend?

3.  What state were they from?

4.  What were their hobbies?

5.  What was the name of the first computer that these men received from MITS?

6.  What was the Altair 8800 missing that Microsoft had to offer?

7.  Where did Microsoft get started?

8.  What was the key founder’s philosophy about enemies?

9.  How was the key founder of Microsoft able to convince the key founder of Apple to trust him?

10.  What bold move did the key founder of Microsoft make at his meeting with IBM?

11.  Where did Microsoft purchase the original operating system? How much did they pay for it?

12.  To what country did Microsoft ship its first Windows operating systems?

13.  What key strategy helped Microsoft grow beyond Apple in the personal computer business?