Howard Schultz

I see. So he could install some professional management from some other venture.

I see. So he could install some professional management from some other venture.

Yeah, it would have been over. But the thing about Bill Gates is I saw him socially a hundred plus times. He never, ever said anything public about what he did.

Yeah, it would have been over. But the thing about Bill Gates is I saw him socially a hundred plus times. He never, ever said anything public about what he did.

He never took credit for it. So for listeners, Howard's told this elsewhere, but you spoke at the Microsoft CEO Summit. You recounted this story to the Fortune 500 CEOs. And Bill Gates III, Microsoft founder, comes up to you afterwards and says, yeah, who was the guy? But Bill did not know the whole story. He didn't know any of it. He didn't know what his father had done for me.

He never took credit for it. So for listeners, Howard's told this elsewhere, but you spoke at the Microsoft CEO Summit. You recounted this story to the Fortune 500 CEOs. And Bill Gates III, Microsoft founder, comes up to you afterwards and says, yeah, who was the guy? But Bill did not know the whole story. He didn't know any of it. He didn't know what his father had done for me.

He's hearing it for the first time. And this is, you know, 2015 or something. So Starbucks, like, you would think someone would want to tell their family I played some significant role in this, but that's not the type of guy he was. Bill Gates Sr.

He's hearing it for the first time. And this is, you know, 2015 or something. So Starbucks, like, you would think someone would want to tell their family I played some significant role in this, but that's not the type of guy he was. Bill Gates Sr.

never told a soul what he did for me.

never told a soul what he did for me.

Again, the humility. Humility. incredible lesson about humility it's amazing yeah and so were bill gates senior and bill gates the third investors in that 3.8 million dollar round bill senior was but i don't know if it was part of bill or but yeah microsoft interesting um so i asked sherry about this when i was preparing for the episode and her recollection was it was something like

Again, the humility. Humility. incredible lesson about humility it's amazing yeah and so were bill gates senior and bill gates the third investors in that 3.8 million dollar round bill senior was but i don't know if it was part of bill or but yeah microsoft interesting um so i asked sherry about this when i was preparing for the episode and her recollection was it was something like

one to two weeks before the three-month exclusivity for you was going to be up. And so you're basically like, this event happens, but now you need to come up with the money. And you have this unbelievably short period of time to do so. And so she said that you were calling everybody you knew.

one to two weeks before the three-month exclusivity for you was going to be up. And so you're basically like, this event happens, but now you need to come up with the money. And you have this unbelievably short period of time to do so. And so she said that you were calling everybody you knew.

She was calling her clients, because she's a designer, calling her clients, trying to just find pockets of 50K here, 100K there, anywhere you could to make it happen.

She was calling her clients, because she's a designer, calling her clients, trying to just find pockets of 50K here, 100K there, anywhere you could to make it happen.

But I had another angel. who helped me by the name of Jack Rogers, who became a lifelong friend who passed away a couple of years ago. He was part of an investor group, and he brought them along. So the acquisition goes through. Yeah. August of 87, we bought the six Starbucks stores. We had the three Il Giornalis, and there were two stores under construction.

But I had another angel. who helped me by the name of Jack Rogers, who became a lifelong friend who passed away a couple of years ago. He was part of an investor group, and he brought them along. So the acquisition goes through. Yeah. August of 87, we bought the six Starbucks stores. We had the three Il Giornalis, and there were two stores under construction.

So at the end of the calendar year, we had 11 stores and 100 employees in 1987.

So at the end of the calendar year, we had 11 stores and 100 employees in 1987.