Microsoft: Creative Companies - Sara Gilbert and Nell Musolf

Discover the incredible, high-energy story of how two childhood friends turned a passion for computer code into Microsoft—the global tech giant that put a computer on every desk and permanently changed the world.

In Microsoft: Creative Companies, authors Sara Gilbert and Nell Musolf deliver a fascinating look into the early days, chaotic breakthroughs, and enduring legacy of one of the most influential companies in human history. The journey began in a Harvard University dorm room in 1974, where a young math major named Bill Gates and his brilliant friend Paul Allen spent eight frantic weeks writing strings of programming code by hand on yellow legal pads. Fuelled by pizza, sporadic naps, and sheer determination, they successfully created their first programming language, BASIC. Decades later, that same relentless drive continues to power the Microsoft empire, though today's programmers trade yellow legal pads for cutting-edge computers, high-tech espresso machines, and a full-service corporate cafeteria.

The book highlights the pivotal, real-world moments that shaped Microsoft's founders long before they became billionaires. Readers will go back to 1968 at Lakeside School in Seattle, where a group of mothers raised $3,000 at a rummage sale to lease time on a Teletype Model 30 computer. It was this rare, limited access that allowed young Gates and Allen to become childhood computer experts. Decades later, Gates would return to his high school to state: "If there had been no Lakeside, there would have been no Microsoft."

From Gates dropping out of Harvard to build the company, to his humorous return in 2007 to receive an honorary Doctor of Laws degree—where he proudly told his father, "Dad, I always told you I’d come back and get my degree"—this book is an exceptional case study on vision, timing, and innovation. It is an essential read for tech lovers, business students, entrepreneurs, and anyone fascinated by the architects of the digital age.