How I Founded a $2B Company with a 95 Cent Book from RadioShack

Maybe, maybe not; sure it's possible that they might have found a book for free at the library, hired an audio engineer, etc. - but it would be foolish to believe that singular events are often not at the roots of many companies finding success.

>> "Without RadioShack, there’s no Blue Box. And as Woz tells it, without the Blue Box there’s no Apple.”

The point is that "small things matter." (1) For them, that was getting the speaker right.

As for the references to RadioShack, I think he makes a good point: RadioShack was important in helping people build those small things. (not necessarily indispensable, but certainly important).

(1) That point is repeated many times, including the subtitle.

For many years, Radio Shack was one of the few convenient places for consumers to quickly pickup random small parts related to electronics, audio, ham radio, etc.

On the other hand, there's a very rose-tinted nostalgic view of Radio Shack in many circles. The chain's main business as far back as I can remember was selling a lot of overpriced and low quality audio gear and other consumer electronics. It was far more a shopping mall location for unsophisticated consumers to buy their stereos than it was a makerspace of some sort.

I agree, this post really does not have any concrete lessons. It has a few nice cliches but nothing that is truly a lesson you can use on your own projects. But that's probably also because it doesn't really get into any details of how they truly made a compelling product. Those details are glossed over as "talents" and "trial and error." That's where the interesting details are.

Not what you'd associate with the current trend of SV startups. But Companies like HP, Apple. Started small. Actually kind of started as life style businesses, and then grew.

I'll take this opportunity to point to the real history of SV:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTC_RxWN_xo

Lecture by the Computer History Museum in Mountain View. The first half doesn't seem to be about SV at all - except that it is.

Bottom line: Huge spending on R&D during WWII (based mostly on debt, by the way) by government is the true foundation of SV, private capital only came in when the field had been prepared and fertilized.

I keep posting this video when the context seems appropriate because it was an eye opener for me who had a CS and a business education and had always thought SV was the proof of private capital's success.

How else do you start without millions in the bank?

SV is a lot different than it used to be.

Right, and unsurprisingly someone called it out in the comments. Not sure why it wasn't edited.

I found the use of 2000s-era "RadioShack" branding distracting. It was "Radio Shack" when it mattered.

Also surprised that Woz points to RS at all. I wasn't there, but I had the impression that there were better options in SV even back then.

It isn't a bkueprint, but I totally se it as an investment. Had they not seen the book & read it, they wouldn't be having their company. So it is an indirect investment.

"How 100,000 people bought a 95 cent book from radio shack and made nothing".

Looking forward to "How I drink six cans of Coke a day, yet still run Berkshire Hathaway".