The Ledger
Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks. Mix any filter with any other: certainty 1/5, debate potential 5/5, or both at once.
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Michael Dell Realized the $3,000 IBM PC Contained Only $600 in Parts
“And so when you took apart this IBM PC, you That was selling for about 3000 dollars. As far as I could tell, it was about 600 dollars worth of parts.”
Michael Dell realized the $3,000 IBM PC contained just $600 in parts
“When you took apart this IBM PC that was selling for about 3000 dollars, as far as I could tell, it was about 600 dollars worth of parts.”
Michael Dell generated $50,000 to $80,000 monthly from his dorm room
“I was doing about 50 to 80,000 dollars a month in business when I was in my dorm room.”
Dell introduced a PC twice as fast as IBM's for half price
“IBM at the time had a six megahertz, two 86 computer that they sold for 3995 dollars. So, you know, we introduced a 12 megahertz two 86 base computer and we sold it for 1995 dollars. So our computer was twice as fast and was half the price.”
Michael Dell: Most early Dell sales came from businesses, not consumers
“A lot of people thought, oh, only consumers buy from Dell. That's actually not what was happening. We were selling to all sorts of companies and governments and small and medium-sized businesses, and that was most of our business, even from the beginning.”
Michael Dell's company reached $66 million in revenue when he was 21
“I think it was sixty-six million that, that year, and I was 21.”
The FCC ordered Dell to halt all computer production around 1986
“I remember one time we got this letter from something called the Federal Communications Commission, the FCC, and apparently, ah, you know, computers fall under something called the Federal Communications Commission Class B device, which means they have to be a…”
Dell: IBM's dominance in IT around 1981 was historically unprecedented
“You know, this company IBM had a leadership of the part of the economy referred to as information technology, unlike any other company at any other time in history. They were by far the dominant company.”
Michael Dell admits Dell underinvested in innovation prior to 2007
“There were definitely some areas where we could have been investing more in innovation.”
Michael Dell made $18,000 at age 17 selling newspaper subscriptions
“I think I was about 17 years old, and I made a little over 18,000 dollars that year.”
Dell began building PCs internally because buying them became too expensive
“And by this time, we had actually been assembling our own computers just to format the hard drives, because it became too expensive to buy them from other people.”
Michael Dell prioritized marriage after seeing unmarried contemporaries Jobs and Gates
“I did, a couple years later, You know, take a little time off and, you know, manage to find a fantastic partner and get married and, you know, have kids and all that, and that's been an amazing part of my life, and I was actually motivated to do this in part b…”
Michael Dell Made $18,000 Selling Newspaper Subscriptions at Age 17
“I think I was about 17 years old, and I made a little over 18,000 dollars that year.”
Dell: Few people and almost no students bought PCs in 1983–1984
“Students weren't really buying computers at the time, and most of the students that I knew, they weren't really interested in computers at the time.
That sounds like crazy right now, but this is back in 1983, 1984.
There weren't very many people that had perso…”
Michael Dell Reached $80,000 in Monthly PC Sales From His Dorm Room
“I was doing about 50 to 80,000 dollars a month in business when I was in my dorm room.”
Dell Initially Assembled PCs Just to Format Hard Drives Cheaply
“And by this time, we had actually been assembling our own computers just to format the hard drives, because it became too expensive to buy them from other people.”
Dell Launched a Computer Twice as Fast as IBM's for Half Price
“So, you know, we introduced a 12 megahertz two 86 base computer and we sold it for 1995 dollars. So our computer was twice as fast and was half the price.”
Michael Dell: Most of Dell's early business came from B2B and government sales
“We were selling to all sorts of companies and governments and small and medium-sized businesses, and that was most of our business, even from the beginning.”
Dell's Sales Doubled Three Months After Introducing On-Site Technical Service
“And, you know, we thought the minute we announced this, our sales will double, you know, because it was, like, so much better than what we were doing before, and they didn't double instantly, but after about three months, they doubled, so.”
Dell Reached $66 Million in Annual Revenue When Michael Was 21
“I think it was sixty-six million that, that year, and I was 21.”
Seeing Steve Jobs and Bill Gates Unmarried Motivated Michael Dell to Marry
“Yeah, and the reason I was motivated to do it because of them was because they were not married. And they were about 10 years older than I was, and having had the experience that I had as a child with my family, that's what I wanted. I wanted that family. I wa…”
The FCC Ordered Dell to Stop Manufacturing Computers in 1986
“I mean, I remember one time we got this letter from something called the Federal Communications Commission, the FCC, and apparently, ah, you know, computers fall under something called the Federal Communications Commission Class B device, which means they have…”
Michael Dell: Dell's 1989 engineering initiative 'Project Olympic' failed
“You know, around the same time, we also had a wildly ambitious engineering program that our team had cooked up, and It was too big of a technical leap, and the project failed. It was a project called Olympic.”