Most people picture the birth of Apple as two geniuses sitting in a clean garage, dreaming of changing the world while soldering circuit boards under a single hanging lightbulb. It’s a nice image. It’s also mostly a myth. When you ask how did steve jobs start apple company, the answer isn't a straight line of brilliance. It was a chaotic scramble involving a blue box that made free long-distance calls, a sold Volkswagen bus, and a guy named Ron Wayne who owned 10% of the company before getting cold feet and walking away for $800.
If you want to understand the actual mechanics of how it happened, you have to look past the black turtleneck. It wasn't about "innovation" in the way we use the word today; it was about two friends—one who could build anything and one who could sell anything—finding a tiny gap in a market that barely existed.
The Blue Box and the First Spark
Before there was an iPhone, or even a Mac, there was a gadget that cheated the phone company. This is the real origin story. In 1971, Steve Wozniak read an article about "phone phreaking" and figured out how to replicate the tones used by AT&T to route long-distance calls. He built a "Blue Box." It was illegal. It was technical. And Steve Jobs immediately saw it as a product.
Jobs didn't build the box. He didn't understand the circuitry the way Woz did. But he was the one who said, "We can sell these." They built them for about $40 and sold them for $150. This is the fundamental DNA of Apple. Wozniak provided the engineering wizardry; Jobs provided the audacity to think people would pay for it.
They eventually stopped because they almost got caught by the police, but the lesson stuck. They could build a business out of thin air.
That Infamous Garage
Let's address the garage. It was at 2066 Crist Drive in Los Altos. Steve Wozniak has famously said that the garage is "a bit of a myth" because they didn't do much actual building there. They didn't design the boards there. They didn't do the manufacturing there. Most of the heavy lifting happened at Wozniak’s cubicle at Hewlett-Packard (HP).
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However, the garage served as the headquarters. It was the place where they felt they owned something. To get the initial capital, Jobs sold his VW Microbus for about $1,500 (though he only got half that because the engine blew up shortly after). Wozniak sold his HP-65 calculator for $500. Honestly, selling the calculator was probably a bigger sacrifice—it was Woz’s most prized possession.
They had about $1,300 in working capital. That was it. No venture capital. No "seed round." Just a van with a bad engine and a calculator.
The Apple-1: A Computer for Hobbyists
The Apple-1 wasn't a computer in the sense that you could buy it, plug it in, and start typing. It was just a motherboard. You had to provide your own keyboard, your own monitor (usually a TV), and your own power supply.
Wozniak originally designed it just to show off at the Homebrew Computer Club. He was a "hacker" in the purest sense. He wanted to give the schematics away for free. Jobs was the one who stepped in and said, "No, let's build these and sell them to the club members."
They officially incorporated Apple Computer, Inc. on April 1, 1976. They brought in Ronald Wayne, an older colleague of Jobs from Atari, to provide "adult supervision" and write the partnership agreement and the manual. Wayne even drew the first logo—a Victorian-style drawing of Isaac Newton under an apple tree. It looked nothing like the sleek Apple we know today.
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The First Big Break: The Byte Shop
The turning point for how did steve jobs start apple company wasn't a tech breakthrough. It was a sales call. Jobs walked into The Byte Shop in Mountain View, one of the first computer stores in the world. He was barefoot. He was probably smelling a bit ripe (Jobs had some unique ideas about hygiene and fruit-based diets at the time).
He pitched the Apple-1 to the owner, Paul Terrell. Terrell didn't want the kits. He told Jobs he would buy 50 computers, but only if they were fully assembled. He offered $500 per unit.
This was a $25,000 order. For two kids in a garage, that was a fortune. But they had a problem: they didn't have the money to buy the parts to build 50 computers.
Jobs used the purchase order from Terrell to convince a parts supplier to give him the components on 30-day credit. This is classic Jobs. He leveraged a debt to create a product he hadn't built yet. They spent nights in the garage (and at the kitchen table) stuffing parts into boards. They delivered the 50 boards just in time, paid off the supplier, and suddenly, Apple was a real business with a profit margin.
Why Ron Wayne Quit (And Why You Should Care)
Twelve days after Apple was formed, Ronald Wayne quit. He was scared. He had assets—a house, a bank account—while Jobs and Wozniak were basically broke. Under the partnership, he was personally liable for the company's debts. When Jobs started spending money they didn't have, Wayne bailed.
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He sold his 10% stake for $800. Today, that stake would be worth hundreds of billions of dollars.
People use this as a cautionary tale about "missing out," but it actually highlights how risky the early days were. Apple wasn't a guaranteed success. It was a shoestring operation run by a 21-year-old who didn't like wearing shoes.
Transitioning to the Apple II
The Apple-1 was a niche product for hobbyists. The Apple II, released in 1977, was the first real "personal computer." It had a plastic case. It had color graphics. It looked like a consumer appliance rather than a science project.
To get the Apple II off the ground, they needed real money. They met Mike Markkula, a retired Intel executive. Markkula saw the potential that others missed. He invested $250,000 and, more importantly, provided the business structure. He taught Jobs about marketing and "empathy"—the idea that the company should truly understand the customer's needs.
The Surprising Truths About the Start
- The Name: Jobs chose "Apple" because he was coming back from an apple orchard and thought the name sounded "fun, spirited, and not intimidating." It also put them ahead of Atari in the phone book.
- The Coding: Jobs didn't write code for the Apple-1 or Apple II. He was the product manager and the visionary. Wozniak wrote the BASIC dialect and the operating software himself.
- The Rejection: They offered the Apple-1 design to HP five times. HP turned them down every single time, saying a hobbyist computer wasn't a "professional" product.
How to Apply the Apple "Start" Mentality Today
When people look at how did steve jobs start apple company, they often try to mimic the "design" or the "secrecy." But the real lessons are much more gritty.
- Find your "Woz" or your "Jobs": If you’re a builder, find a seller. If you’re a seller, find a builder. Apple happened because of a specific chemistry between two polar opposites.
- Leverage what you have: Jobs didn't wait for a bank loan. He used a purchase order to get credit. Look for ways to use your current wins to fund your next steps.
- The "Box" test: Can you make something small and sell it first? The Blue Box proved they could work together. The Apple-1 proved they had a market. Don't try to build the iPhone 16 on day one.
- Focus on the "Whole" product: Paul Terrell didn't want parts; he wanted a finished board. Customers don't want tools; they want solutions. Apple succeeded because they eventually moved from selling parts to selling "experiences."
The start of Apple was a series of "lucky" breaks created by relentless persistence. It was about being willing to look foolish, sell your belongings, and work in a cramped space until the vision became a reality. It wasn't clean, but it was effective.
To truly understand the trajectory, your next step should be researching the Homebrew Computer Club minutes. Reading the actual notes from those 1975-1976 meetings reveals just how primitive—and exciting—the landscape was before Apple defined it. Look for the technical newsletters from that era to see the exact problems Wozniak was trying to solve. This gives you a front-row seat to the birth of the digital age, beyond the polished marketing stories told today.