[doktorhladnjak]

> Today’s entrepreneurs would do well to note that Microsoft made minimal use of venture capital. Microsoft’s only VC only owned 6.2 percent of the company. Gates didn’t trust them.

While the article touches on it here, Microsoft was able to avoid venture capital because it was highly profitable from its very early days. They turned their first profit in 1975, the same year they were founded.

It seems like more companies spend longer amounts of time being unprofitable and growing. How much of that is a zero interest rate phenomenon or the new normal?

[Gud]

Microsoft is also an outlier in having the CEOs and founders parent in the board of IBM who licensed Microsofts software.

[wqaatwt]

Didn’t they only get the IBM contract in 1980 (i.e. 5 years after the company was founded)?

[Gud]

Although that is true, my point is that Bill Gates had an extremely privileged upbringing.

Bill Gates had access to advanced technologies in high school only 0.001% of other students would have.

Bill Gates had direct access to people only 0.001% of his peers would(and I’m no doubt being generous to Bill Gates here).

Bill Gates was a smart kid no doubt, but his environment accounts for most of his success.

[canucker2016]

Paul Allen, a high school friend of Bill Gates, read an issue of Popular Electronics. Paul showed Bill the article about a new minicomputer.

They cold-called the New Mexico company to push their non-existent BASIC interpreter. Bill took a leave of absence from Harvard and the microcomputer software business took off with the help of Harvard's computer resources.

see https://archive.org/details/197501PopularElectronics/page/n2...

You don't sink the shots that you never shoot - Bill Gates saw an opportunity and took a big shot from downtown.

But that was in 1975. He's made more shots than not since then.

[Gud]

That is absolutely true. But his upbringing gave him a near limitless amount of arrows in his quiver. You honestly don't think that was a huge advantage he had?

It's easy to "take a big shot" when you have all the support in the world.

[s1artibartfast]

Easier than without support, but not easy. Not everyone born to means goes on to found wildly successful companies.

Environment matters a tremendous amount. In common scientific terms, there is almost nothing that is not environment. DNA, development, parenting, personality can all be framed as environmentally derived.

Sometimes these factors come together to give people huge advantages, both in situation and support, but also talent, knowledge, and personality.

I think the lesson we should take away from this is the importance of good environmental influences in producing good outcomes.

[mrmlz]

Wow what a great point.

[foolfoolz]

it was an outlier then and it’s an outlier now

[frozenport]

Indie dev turning profit first year is part of the typically success story for indie devs.