Founders of Apple
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Founders of Apple
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| Founded | April 1, 1976 — Los Altos, California |
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| Founders | Steve Jobs · Steve Wozniak · Ronald Wayne |
| First product | Apple I ($666.66) |
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Apple Computer was founded on April Fools' Day 1976 by three people: Steve Jobs, the 21-year-old with the vision and the salesmanship; Steve Wozniak, the engineer whose Apple I and Apple II were essentially solo masterpieces; and Ronald Wayne, the older colleague who drew the first logo, wrote the partnership agreement — and sold his 10 percent stake back within twelve days for $800, the most famous cold feet in business history.
1 Legacies✎
Jobs's arc — founder, exile, savior, icon — became the company's defining mythology and ended with the iPhone-era Apple he rebuilt from near death. Wozniak left day-to-day work in the 1980s but remains the beloved conscience of the garage era, still technically an Apple employee by his own telling. Wayne's foregone stake, worth hundreds of billions at Apple's peaks, made him the patron saint of hindsight; he never expressed regret.