Paul Allen: Inside the World of Venture Capital & Microsoft (copied by Jho Low of 1MDB)

EXCERPTS

Allen, who left Microsoft in 1983, set up investment firm Vulcan Inc in 1986 to manage his multibillion-dollar portfolio.

Allen, who ranked 44th on Forbes magazine’s 2018 list of billionaires with a US$20.5 billion fortune, was a major benefactor in Seattle, funding everything from libraries and universities to brain research.

Allen went on to Washington State University but dropped out in 1974 to take a job with Honeywell in Boston. While there, he pestered Gates, who was studying at nearby Harvard, to quit school and join the nascent revolution in personal computing.

Gates finally agreed and in 1975 the two jointly developed BASIC software for the Altair 8800, a clunky desktop computer that cost US$400 in kit form.

The pair moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico, close to the Altair’s maker, and formed a company. It was Allen’s idea to call it Micro-Soft, an amalgam of microcomputer and software. The hyphen was later dropped.

Allen was in charge of Microsoft’s technical operations for the company’s first eight years, making him one of the handful of people who created early software such as MS-DOS and Word that enabled the PC revolution and thrust Microsoft to the top.

But he had ceased to be on the cutting edge of software development by the early 1980s. He never displayed the commercial instinct of Gates, who generally is credited with powering Microsoft’s rise to ubiquity in the 1990s.

Allen left Microsoft in 1983 after falling out with Gates and his new lieutenant, Steve Ballmer, in December 1982, only months after being diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma. As he recalled in his 2011 memoir Idea Man, he overheard Gates and Ballmer secretly plotting to reduce his ownership stake.

“They were bemoaning my recent lack of production and discussing how they might dilute my Microsoft equity by issuing options to themselves and other shareholders,” Allen wrote.

Gates and Ballmer later apologised but the damage was done and Allen left Microsoft, although he remained on the board until 2000.

Allen, the owner of 42 US patents, liked to cast himself as a technology visionary who drove Microsoft’s early success and saw the future of connected computing long before the Internet.

All the while, the never-married Allen pursued myriad personal projects and pastimes. He owned one of the world’s biggest yachts, the 122-metre Octopus, which was the venue for many lavish parties and the base for scuba expeditions.

[Sidenote: Octopus is a private vessel that is regularly lent out for exploration projects, scientific research initiatives and rescue missions]

Through various vehicles, Allen focused his giving on brain science, motivated by the loss of his mother to Alzheimer’s disease, along with universities and libraries.3. Rating:  #RobertChaenReview (Profile, Venture Capitalist): 7 | 10

4. Hashtag:
#PaulAllen
#VectureCapital
#ChaensAngelVC

5. Source: Reuters – SCMP

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Published:  16th October 2018.
Copyright 2018 ©

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