Who is Ronald Wayne?

ron_wayne Ronald Gerald Wayne (born 1934) is the often forgotten “third founder” of Apple Computer (in addition to Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak). He illustrated the first Apple logo and wrote the Apple I manual. While at Apple he also wrote their partnership agreement.

Wayne worked with Jobs at Atari before co-founding Apple Computer on April 1, 1976. He was given a 10% stake in Apple, but relinquished his stock for $800 only two weeks later because legally all members of a partnership are personally responsible for any debts incurred by any of the other partners.

Later that same year, venture capitalist Mike Markkula helped develop a business plan and convert the partnership to a corporation. In its first year of operations (applelogo1976), Apple’s sales reached US$174,000. In 1977 sales rose to US$2.7 million, in 1978 to US$7.8 million and in 1980 to US$117 million. By 1982 Apple had a billion dollars in annual sales Wayne’s stake could have been worth as much as US$1.5 billion; he claimed that he didn’t regret selling the stock as he made “the best decision available at that time”.

According to CNET, as of 1997 Wayne was working as an engineer for a defense contractor in Salinas, California. From Wikipedia here:

A logo he sketched out is to the right. So Ronald was a guy who was risk adverse, to the extreme. He was worried that he would be somehow responsible for the debts of the partnership, and baled. Cost him more than a little. Hank


One Response to “Who is Ronald Wayne?”  

  1. 1 Gregory LaFavers

    Not to Hi-Jack this topic but I just thought that I would show readers the competition to the Pulse Pen that Hank introduced about a month ago to my Entre200 Maymester. I liked the Pulse pen which allowed for digital recording of not only your notes but also audio-great for lectures! But, you had to have the special paper with you for it to work. Well, David Pague of CNBC introduced two new digital pens that hold promise. The Iogear and the Zpen are promising competitors! Simple idea-you transcribe your notes-load them to a computer and print them off and your done! Each comes with a tiny receiver that lets the pen have bearings as you write.
    Check them out the article at http://www.cnbc.com/id/25513764/site/14081545
    I liked the Zpen. Just thought you would find this interesting Hank! BTW-they both use the same software and both run on Hearing aid batteries that apparently last 40-80hrs.

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