Bill Gates, Paul Allen and the Beginnings of Microsoft

Summary

At a young age, Bill Gates shows great interest in science and mathematics. His wealthy parents’ home allows him to attend Lakeside School private school in Seattle. There he becomes friends with Paul Allen, who was two years older. Together they deal with the school’s own computers and learn programming languages like BASIC.

In 1973, Gates entered Harvard University, where he met Steve Ballmer. Allen chose Washington State University, but the two friends stayed in touch. Two years later, they discussed a Popular Electronics article about the Altair 8800. They wanted to develop a BASIC interpreter and offered manufacturer MITS a demonstration. There was one problem: they had only eight weeks, and neither owned the computer. They first had to create an Altair emulator on Harvard’s PDP-10.