Please tell us, what important connections did Bill Gates and Paul Allen have when they founded Microsoft in 1975?
Thanks for asking. I not ever met Bill Gates personally but did come into personal contact with Paul Allan on several occasions and Steve Ballmer on another. Paul Allan was quite a character and very likable. My wife and I met Steve Ballmer and two of his sons at a play where he was giving more attention to his laptop than his children.
You probably should read a biography about Gates or history of Microsoft to get the most complete picture, but Bill's mother had important connections that led directly to the deal with IBM that got the whole thing going. I am quoting from an obituary of Mary Gates that appeared in the New York Times.
“Mary Gates, a prominent Seattle businesswoman who helped her son, William H. Gates 3d, get the contract that led to a lucrative relationship with I.B.M. for his fledgling Microsoft Corporation, died at her home early today. She was 64.”
“Mrs. Gates was a director of several companies, including First Interstate Bancorp, U S West Inc. and KIRO-TV of Seattle.”
“She had been a regent at the University of Washington since 1975, the same year she became the first woman to serve as a director of First Interstate Bank and the first to serve as the president of the King County's United Way. She was later appointed to the board of the United Way of America; in 1983, she became the first woman to lead it. Right Time, Right Place”
“Her tenure on the national board's executive committee is believed to have helped Microsoft, based in Seattle, at a crucial time. In 1980, she discussed with John R. Opel, a fellow committee member who was the chairman of the International Business Machines Corporation, the business that I.B.M. was doing with Microsoft.”
“Mr. Opel, by some accounts, mentioned Mrs. Gates to other I.B.M. executives. A few weeks later, I.B.M. took a chance by hiring Microsoft, then a small software firm, to develop an operating system for its first personal computer.”
https://www.nytimes.com/1994/06/11/obituaries/mary-gates-64-helped-her-son-start-microsoft.html
CNBC:
How Bill Gates’ mother influenced the success of Microsoft
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/08/05/how-bill-gates-mother-influenced-the-success-of-microsoft.html