A long, long time ago, a guy I know interviewed at a company. Place was running out of the back of a warehouse, workshop was planks laid on sawhorses, office furniture was lawn folding chairs. Guy took one look and said, "Forget this.....". He threw the interview.
Place turned out to be Dell. He'd have been the 8th or 9th person in. 20-odd (more??) years later, he's still kicking himself over it. :-)
Gateway started in a barn
Place turned out to be Dell. He'd have been the 8th or 9th person in. 20-odd (more??) years later, he's still kicking himself over it. :-)
I knew a VC who entertained a couple of long-haired hippies showing him a motherboard and taking big and asking for money. One of them literally stunk with BO. He was incredulous and got rid of them. Yep - Jobs and Woz.
I knew the guy who turned-down being badge # 9 at DEC. Talk about decades of kicking himself. I also saw an interview on TV of the guy who had the opportunity to buy 1/3 of Microsoft for $50,000. “I think about that a lot,” he said.
Sorry, my point was that he’s still kicking himself, too.
Genius doesn’t look like the movies.
I’ve finally reached the point in my life where I understand why folks turn down wild cards—even if they don’t rightly understand themselves.
Not every frantic warehouse startup makes it to be the next Apple or Dell! Most folks see chaos like that and think “failing start-up.” They may even be right. It takes a keen observer to understand that out of that chaos can emerge a great company.