Microsoft

“For some time now, they had shared the same vision, that one day the computer would be as commonplace in the homes as a television, and that these computers would need software, their software.”

“There is something good here worth saving. I don't quite know how to express it, but it has to do with the fact that Apple is the only alternative to windows and that Apple can still inject some new thinking into the equation.”

“So they get an offer from, Microsoft's just one of these companies. Steve's like, hey, I want a hundred twenty million for Pixar. And, you know, he just made up the number, and Microsoft will give you ninety million.”

“The first 30 employees of Microsoft, there were 28 engineers, Bill Gates, and a secretary.”

“I have no problem with their success. I have a problem that they make really third rate products. Their products have no spirit to them. They are very pedestrian. They are McDonald's.”

“He says a key advantage I had was being fanatical. That is taking all of my capabilities day and night and just focusing on how do you write good software. I loved being a fanatic. Eventually, I reveled in it. I didn't believe in weekends. I didn't believe in …”

“Software is a very unusual business. The development work is not that capital intensive. The first year we generated cash like mad, even though we had many customers who went bankrupt. In other words, we had a wide margin for error. I always wanted to have eno…”

“In the early days, our sales approach was to say, if you had to write the software in-house, your fixed engineering budget would be X amount of dollars. And Microsoft's price is less than half of X dollars. We competed. Against in-house engineering budgets.”

“When we got up to 30 employees, it was still just me, a secretary and 28 programmers. I wrote all the checks, answered the mail, took the phone calls.”

“Four years in, and they had just 11 employees. I think they might have had 12 because they take that picture, that famous Microsoft picture when they're moving from Albuquerque to Seattle. And there's only 11 people in the photo, but I'm pretty sure there was …”

“Gates held meetings that became known around Microsoft as the Borland War Councils, during which him and his staff plotted how to beat the Frenchman being Philippe Kahn. Gates reportedly walked into one such meeting and threw Kahn's picture down on a table and…”

“Bill was obsessed with cost control, and he is constantly hounding everyone in the company about it.”

“Steve jobs said that victory in our industry is spelled survival. It's very clear from his actions that Bill Gates agreed.”

“Ross Perot tried to buy Microsoft in 1979 for quote, mid seven figures. And this is what Bill Gates said. Bill Gates said, no. I want to remain independent. Now keep in mind, Microsoft's revenue that year was just 2.4 million dollars.”

“There are a lot of people in the world smarter than Bill Gates. There are very few people in the world that have his focus and endurance.”

“Now Microsoft, a company with seven million dollars in annual sales, had fewer than 40 employees, and was about to go into business with IBM, an international giant with revenues approaching thirty billion dollars a year.”

“The deal that they signed with MITS gave them the exclusive rights to sub-licensed R software to any other company that wanted to use the AD-AD basic in their products would have to get the source code, which he describes as the recipe to basic, through MITS a…”

“Well, by 1990, Microsoft had become the first software company in history to sell more than a billion dollars worth of software in a single year.”

“Bill sold five percent of Microsoft for a million dollars. Can you imagine? Five percent of million of Microsoft for a million dollars to TVI, which is technology venture investors. Microsoft did not need the venture capital. Gates was essentially hiring the f…”

“A great programmer can outproduce an average one by 10 to one. With a genius, the ratio might be 50 to one.”

“Bill had would go out and he'd memorize the license plates of the cars in the Microsoft parking lot in the early days.”

“Bill believed that if you lost a 50,000 dollar contract, he considered it a 100,000 dollar loss because Microsoft lost to 50 and his competitor gained the 50.”

“He would keep a list of mistakes and it was a top 10 list. And he'd reread that to make sure they don't make the same mistakes in the future.”

“Microsoft software is rarely first rate. They never ever innovate, but they're good copiers.”

“Most people hate to admit they're wrong, but it didn't bother Bill one bit. All he cared about was what was right, not who was right. That is what makes Bill very, very dangerous. If Bill has to choose, he'd rather win the war than win the argument.”

“If you're a fighter, the only way up is through the top fighters in your division. So we picked fights with Microsoft and IBM because they're the ones we had to beat to reach the top. By constantly measuring ourselves against the two top heavyweights, we const…”

“This intentional fight that he picks against Bill Gates and Microsoft and how beneficial the positioning was. That he chose and how this message spread through the media and actually enhanced greatly enhanced not only his individual stature, but the stature of…”

“If you invent a breakthrough in artificial intelligence so machines can learn, that would be worth 10 Microsofts.”