Ronald Wayne: Apple’s 3rd Co-Founder

You've heard of Steve Jobs & Steve Wozniak, but how about Apple's 3rd co-founder, Ronald Wayne?

After 45 years, his Apple investment was worth a grand total of $2800.

Time for a crazy story:

Wayne was born in the Midwest, but trained as a technical draftsman in NY.

At the age of 22, he headed west to California.

At the time, Steve Jobs was a year old, & Wozniak wouldn't be born for another 3 years.

In 1971, Wayne started his first company selling slot machines.

The company failed but Wayne felt bad & spent the next 15 years personally repaying his investors.

This experience made Wayne more risk-averse, & he realized his strengths were in engineering, not business.

Next, Ronald Wayne got a job at 3-year-old Atari, building internal documentation systems.

2 others who worked there? Steve Jobs & Steve Wozniak.

The three would have frequent intense discussions about the future of computers.

In April 1976, after one particularly intense debate, Wayne invited Jobs & Wozniak to his house to finish their discussion.

During a 2-hour conversation, Jobs suggested they found a computer company.

And Apple Computer was born.

Wayne didn't care about making decisions & so settled for a 10% stake. Jobs & Wozniak each got 45%.

At 41, Wayne was the "adult in the room" & oversaw engineering & documentation.

He wrote up their partnership, illustrated the first Apple logo, & wrote the Apple 1 manual.

But just 12 days later, Wayne sold back his 10% stake for $800 & renounced the partnership.

A year later he would receive an additional $1500 to forfeit any future claims.

What happened?

The break-up was caused by a few things:

Wayne was in his 40s & Jobs & Wozniak were in their early 20s.

At vastly different career stages, the trio had different tolerances for risk.

Steve Jobs had borrowed $15,000 for a contract for a client with bad credit.

And in a partnership, each person can financially be held personally responsible.

Wayne had spent years getting out of debt & building his savings. Did he want to risk it all with a few 20-somethings?

In addition, Steve Jobs' now famous mercurial personality was beginning to show.

The trio got along, but Wayne's wisdom told him it wouldn't last forever.

Wayne would stay at Atari for a few years, but bad luck seemed to follow him.

At a stamp shop he ran in the late 70s, he had multiple break-ins.

And at the age of 70, Wayne was robbed of his life savings, $90,000 in gold & silver worth $300k+ today.

Wayne had kept the original Apple partnership document, signed by Jobs & Wozniak, & sold it in the 1990s for $500.

But in perhaps the weirdest twist, that contract went at auction in 2011 for $1.6 million.

Wayne's one regret is selling the contract, not leaving Apple.

In total, Wayne received $2,800 for his involvement in Apple.

Before dilution, his 10% stake would be worth $200B+ today.

Today, Wayne holds 12 patents & lives in a mobile home park in Pahrump, Nevada, where he sells stamps and rare coins.

Fun fact: Wayne didn't own an Apple device until 2011, when he was gifted an iPad at an Apple conference.

That's all! If you enjoyed, please:

P.S. I’ll share a free goodie in the DMs to 3 people who retweet the first tweet!