The names of Steve Jobs and Steven Wozniak will forever be guided in gold in the world of tech, as they were the founders of Apple.
But, have you ever heard of Ronald Wayne?
He along with steve’s founded Apple back in 1976. But, why is Ronald's name not taken with both the steve’s? What has happened to him? What’s he up to?
Today we will give you all these answers as today we will talk about Ronald Wayne…
Ronald Wayne, Apple’s third co-founder
Ronald Wayne, a three-year-old Atari programmer, built the corporate documentation systems for the company's internal operations.
In 1976, Wayne invited his coworkers Steve Job and Steve Wozniak to his house to help them settle their heated discussions about design and the future. Jobs and Wozniak had a two-hour discussion about technology and business.
They would each own a 45% share, so Wayne could get a 10% stake to break the tie. As the venture's self-described "adult in the room" at age 41, Wayne wrote a partnership agreement, and the three founded Apple Computer on April 1, 1976. Wayne illustrated the Apple logo and also wrote the Apple I guide.
Due to the five-year-old "very traumatic" bankruptcy of his slots machine company, which he had voluntarily repaid for one year, Wayne's business approach was already very risk-averse. Jobs was able to secure a US $15,000 line credit to purchase product materials for Apple's initial order. This was after he had experienced the "very traumatic" failure of his "slot machine" business.
However, unlike Jobs and Wozniak (then 21 and 25), Wayne had assets that could be seized by potential creditors. He was passionate about slot machines and original product engineering, not about the documentation systems Jobs and Wozniak wanted him to do at Apple indefinitely.
He quit the company, believing he was "standing among the giants" in product-design talent.
According to reports, Wayne quit the company after writing the document that officially created Apple. He returned to the registrar's offices and "renounced" his role in the company. This resulted in him giving up his equity for the US $800 on April 12, 1976. Steve Wozniak has disputed this period, saying that Wayne had left the company within a few months.
Wayne stated that he did not regret selling his share in the company over the years. He stated that although he believed the Apple enterprise would succeed, he knew there would be major bumps and he couldn't take any chances. "I had had a very bad business experience.
I was getting old, and these two were whirlwinds. It was like having a tiger at my tail. I couldn't keep pace with them. ", he stated.
Apple was at one time the most valuable company on the planet, but he stated that if he had stayed with Apple, he would have been the richest man in the cemetery. He concluded, "What can you say?" You make a decision based upon your understanding of the circumstances and then you live with it.
After leaving Apple, Wayne refused Jobs' requests to have him return. He remained at Atari from 1978 until 1978, when he joined Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and later, an electronics company in Salinas (California).
For a brief time in the late 1970s, Wayne owned a stamp shop in Milpitas, California. It was known as Wayne's Philatelics. After several break-ins, Wayne moved his stamp business to Nevada.
The business logo was a wood-cut design with a man sitting beneath an apple tree and the name "Wayne's Philatelics" written in flowing ribbons that wrapped around the tree. This logo was the same as his original Apple computer logo.
Steve Jobs approached Wayne again to be a business contact for Apple. However, Wayne declined to forward Jobs' offer to buy a friend's business. Wayne believed that his friend should keep ownership under an exclusive Apple license. However, he later regretted not allowing the contact to proceed.
Wayne sold the original Apple partnership paper in the 1990s for the US $500. It was signed by Jobs, Wozniak, and himself in 1976. The contract was auctioned in 2011 for $1.6 million. Wayne regrets the sale.
Wayne retired to a mobile park in Pahrump (Nevada), where he sells rare coins and stamps and plays penny slot machines at a casino. Wayne had never owned an Apple product before 2011, when he received an iPad from the Update Conference in Brighton, England. He is the holder of a dozen patents.
Winding-up
He sold his 10% share of the company to Jobs and Wozniak 12 days later for the US $800, which is equivalent to $3,810 by 2021, and one year later he accepted the additional US $1,500, which is equal to $7,143 by 2021, to forfeit any future claims against the newly formed Apple.
And this ends the story of Ronald Wayne.
