Silicon Cowboys Page #2

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Chris cantwell:
Ibm

said, we're going

To go from selling

million dollar computers

To a few thousand people,

to $1000 computers

To a few million people.

Announcer:
Ibm's

personal computer

Is designed for office,

school, or home use.

It's aimed at exactly the same

market as its competitors.

It's expected to be

sold very aggressively.

Rod canion:
And the race was on.

This was going to cause

that market to explode.

Tom brokaw:
Sales of

personal computers

Are so hot this christmas,

santa claus may have to replace

His reindeer with microchips.

Announcer:
850,000 people

bought home computers

In the United States last year.

The industry expects, this

year, more than 3 million will.

Announcer:
We're no

longer on the verge

Of the personal

computer revolution,

We're right in the midst of

it with more and more people

Jumping aboard every day.

Jim harris:
Osborne was

being very successful

With an extraordinarily

ugly portable.

And rod had

purchased the ibm pc,

So he could write

business plans on it,

And it became obvious

to him that that pc,

If it was portable, that

would be a good product.

What popped in

my head was, well,

If we could take this

idea for a portable,

And we could make it

run the software that

Was written for the ibm

pc, ooh, that's when

The chill went down my spine.

It's like, oh, man,

would that sell.

Welcome to the

computer chronicles.

I'm stewart cheifet and

this is gary kildall.

And, gary, our subject today

is ibm and the dominant role

They play in the

computer world in general

And the pc world in particular.

Matter of fact, they've

taken over the phrase pc.

It doesn't mean personal

computer anymore,

It means an ibm

personal computer.

Ibm has always had

this mentality that it

Is the king of the world.

What do you think would be

the biggest threat to ibm's

Position in this situation?

Well, I don't think

that anything is really

A threat to the

ibm position, and I

Don't anticipate that they

will begin to decline.

Ibm didn't care.

If you weren't xerox, if you

didn't have that massive, new

York, type presence that

loomed over the entire country,

You didn't matter.

Rod canion:
We weren't really

good at writing business plans,

But we knew that the

way a product looked

Was important to people.

Jim harris:
Ted papa john

was an industrial designer,

And we got him, and we drove

over to the house of pies

For two things.

One, a piece of

pie, and the other

Was to convey to ted

our ideals for what

The unit may look like.

Rod canion:
We walked in,

looked around, picked a booth

That was kind of by itself.

Unfortunately, we hadn't thought

to bring anything with us,

So we turned over the

placemat and borrowed a pencil

From the waitress, and proceeded

to describe to ted papa john

How we wanted it to look.

Jim harris:
What he

drew was something that

Was very professional looking.

We knew where the monitor

would go, what the size was,

How the keyboard would go in.

Rod canion:
Laid out

somewhat like an osborne

But with much smoother

lines, plastic molded case,

Keyboard just like an ibm pc.

As I saw that sketch coming

together on the paper,

There was an excitement.

We're going to make this work.

I didn't know how yet, but

it was headed that way.

This is something we

can get funding for.

Alec berg:
Post mark

zuckerberg inventing facebook

In high school, there is

this different path which

Is oh, if I study this

stuff and I learn computers,

I can move to palo alto

when I graduate college,

And there's just money

raining from the sky.

Announcer:
Uber growth at uber.

Reuters has learned that

the ride sharing service see

Its global bookings more

than tripling this year

To nearly $11 billion dollars.

Announcer:
A picture is

worth a thousand words,

And for instagram,

a billion dollars.

Announcer:
Snapchat, the

barely three-year-old company,

Raised almost half a billion

dollars in investment funding.

Roger mcnamee:
There's just

so much venture capital.

Back then, there

wasn't that much.

Alec berg:
If you wanted to

start a computer company,

There was literally nobody.

You had to go get a bank loan,

you had to have collateral.

Chris cantwell:
If you

weren't walking in,

In a suit-- a nice

suit, and a tie,

And you had this education,

and you had this background,

And this many decades

of experience,

Nobody wanted to

even listen to you.

Ben rosen:
We received

an introduction to meet

Rod, bill, and jim in houston.

Their business plan had a

sketch of the portable computer

On the back of a placemat

from the house of pies.

And they showed for first

year sales of $30 million.

Now, that was absurd.

You're taking a chance on

somebody from a big company

Starting a new company.

It's whether it's a gut

feeling or something

About the discussion

you have with them

That you feel is going

to help differentiate

Them from other people.

Roger mcnamee:
Rod

obviously had some skills,

But he had clear weaknesses.

He wasn't a public speaker.

He didn't have the brash,

over-the-top demeanor

That we now associate

with tech entrepreneurs.

He was modest, he was

extremely clean cut,

He was thoughtful-- almost

like a boy scout, right.

Pretty much everybody who

met him was drawn to him.

Karen walker:
We were basically

in this class b office space,

And it was right next

to a field full of cows.

: We

had no furniture.

Rod canion:
There

was one phone line.

Gary stimac:
I brought

my card table and chairs.

Rod canion:
So we put

a very long cord on it.

It didn't matter who did what.

I don't even know

who reported to who.

I ain't

jivin' when I say houston,

Here's the action town.

Karen walker:
The people

that I wanted to work with

Were the people that were

coming to this company

That was making a product,

and I didn't know what it was.

Bill murto:
I couldn't tell

them what the product was.

It was secret.

Charles lee:
I assumed it

was in the electronics.

I didn't know if it

was a toy, I don't

Know if it was a computer.

Kim frandois:
Was

it a sewing machine?

Or a pc?

It really didn't matter.

Once I signed a nondisclosure,

and I walked the halls,

They showed me what the

product looked like.

Steven ullrich:
They

showed us the picture

Of the compaq computer

that we were gonna build

And that did it.

Steve flannigan:

It was exciting.

It was like, ok, we can do this.

This is a cool thing.

I would like to own that thing.

I would love to have that,

that's better than anything

I've seen on the market.

man,

houston's the town.

Here's the action town.

Roger mcnamee:
Get your iphone,

you look at the half million

Apps that each of

us has on there,

And you look at

all of the products

Designed for other platforms

that miraculously seem to work.

And we now take

that for granted.

Before compaq, nobody took

compatibility seriously.

Gary, the subject

today is the ibm clones,

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