Steve Ballmer

Yeah, that's true.

Yep. So on this venture investment, it's pretty fascinating. None of these are terribly compelling reasons other than like, I guess it would be nice to have a little bit of capital associated with us formalizing the corporation, but they don't need money at all. They're printing cash. They've been printing cash ever since that one tight period in Albuquerque. Dave charmed them.

Yep. So on this venture investment, it's pretty fascinating. None of these are terribly compelling reasons other than like, I guess it would be nice to have a little bit of capital associated with us formalizing the corporation, but they don't need money at all. They're printing cash. They've been printing cash ever since that one tight period in Albuquerque. Dave charmed them.

I think that's kind of the answer.

I think that's kind of the answer.

It's pretty crazy. I think part of it too had to do with the fact that Microsoft was up in Seattle. So the VCs just weren't traveling. Right. And Dave was young and he was single.

It's pretty crazy. I think part of it too had to do with the fact that Microsoft was up in Seattle. So the VCs just weren't traveling. Right. And Dave was young and he was single.

It's crazy. Dave Marquardt, I think most weekends is flying up to Seattle to hang out with Bill and Steve. It was a real sell. And he said, I was young and I was single and I had nothing better to do. And it was really fun and intellectually interesting. So I did it.

It's crazy. Dave Marquardt, I think most weekends is flying up to Seattle to hang out with Bill and Steve. It was a real sell. And he said, I was young and I was single and I had nothing better to do. And it was really fun and intellectually interesting. So I did it.

And that resulted in, depending how long TV I held, one of, if not the best venture capital return in history. Hard to argue with that one.

And that resulted in, depending how long TV I held, one of, if not the best venture capital return in history. Hard to argue with that one.

And it's quite telling. It's called the consumer products division to make applications. Even though they're competing to make these applications that today we would view as business tools, spreadsheets and word processing, that is not how they referred to it.

And it's quite telling. It's called the consumer products division to make applications. Even though they're competing to make these applications that today we would view as business tools, spreadsheets and word processing, that is not how they referred to it.

Yes. If you ask anybody in our ecosystem, save for the 1% of people who actually know this, what happened at Xerox PARC? they will tell you they invented the mouse. They invented the graphical user interface. And then Steve Jobs walked in and he saw it all and he said, oh my God, we have to have it. And then he went off and he made the Lisa, which had a graphical user interface and a mouse.

Yes. If you ask anybody in our ecosystem, save for the 1% of people who actually know this, what happened at Xerox PARC? they will tell you they invented the mouse. They invented the graphical user interface. And then Steve Jobs walked in and he saw it all and he said, oh my God, we have to have it. And then he went off and he made the Lisa, which had a graphical user interface and a mouse.

And then that failed. But what succeeded was the Macintosh. And it's a wholesale ripoff of Xerox PARC that lives on today in Apple. And that is the story that you will hear from basically everyone.

And then that failed. But what succeeded was the Macintosh. And it's a wholesale ripoff of Xerox PARC that lives on today in Apple. And that is the story that you will hear from basically everyone.

Yeah, the value of a network scaling proportionally to the square of the number of inputs. Right.

Yeah, the value of a network scaling proportionally to the square of the number of inputs. Right.

It's the Mac with the monitor turned on its side.