If you ask a random person on the street who started apple company, they’ll probably bark "Steve Jobs" before you even finish the sentence. They aren't wrong. But they also aren't exactly right. It’s like saying Paul McCartney started The Beatles—sure, he’s a massive part of the soul and the face of the thing, but without the others, you just have a guy playing bass in a basement in Liverpool.
Apple was actually the product of three very different men who signed a contract on April 1, 1976. Most people forget the third guy, Ronald Wayne, who famously bailed out after only twelve days because he was scared of going broke. Then you have the two Steves: Jobs, the visionary who couldn't code his way out of a paper bag but could sell ice to people in Antarctica, and Steve Wozniak, the engineering wizard who actually built the machines.
The Garage Myth and the Blue Box
We’ve all heard the garage story. It’s become this sacred piece of Silicon Valley folklore. But honestly? Wozniak has gone on record several times saying the garage is a bit of an exaggeration. They didn’t really "design" the computers there. They mostly used it as a place to hang out, feel productive, and eventually move finished products to the store. The real magic happened at Wozniak’s desk at Hewlett-Packard and in the meeting rooms of the Homebrew Computer Club.
Before there was an Apple I, there was the "Blue Box." This is a crucial, often overlooked piece of the puzzle. Wozniak figured out how to mimic the tones used by the telephone company to make free long-distance calls. Jobs saw the profit potential. They sold these illegal little boxes to dorm mates at Berkeley. This was the first time they realized they were a powerhouse team: Wozniak made the tech work, and Jobs made the tech a business. Without that illegal side hustle, Apple probably never happens.
Steve Wozniak: The Soul of the Machine
If Wozniak hadn't existed, the personal computer revolution would have looked completely different. He wasn't trying to change the world or become a billionaire; he just wanted to show off his engineering chops to his friends at the Homebrew Computer Club. He designed the Apple I because he wanted a computer that had a keyboard and a screen—at the time, most hobbyist computers used switches and flashing lights.
It’s hard to overstate how brilliant his design was. He used a fraction of the chips that other engineers required. He was an "engineer’s engineer." While Jobs was busy worrying about the aesthetic and the "experience," Woz dealt with the logic gates and the hand-soldered motherboards. Even today, if you look at the schematics of the early Apple boards, they are considered works of art in the engineering community for their efficiency.
Ronald Wayne: The Man Who Walked Away
Let’s talk about Ronald Wayne for a second. He’s the "third founder" who basically became a trivia question. When Apple was incorporated, Wayne held a 10% stake. He drew the original logo—a weird, Victorian-looking etching of Isaac Newton under an apple tree—and wrote the partnership agreement.
But Wayne was older. He had assets. Jobs and Wozniak were young, broke, and had nothing to lose. When Jobs started taking out massive loans to fulfill an order for the Byte Shop, Wayne got cold feet. He was worried that if the company failed, the creditors would come after him personally. He sold his 10% share back for $800.
If he had held onto it, that stake would be worth hundreds of billions of dollars today. Ouch. But he’s stayed remarkably humble about it in interviews, often saying he made the best decision he could with the information he had at the time. He didn't want to spend his life in a whirlwind of stress, and Jobs was, by all accounts, a very stressful person to work with.
The Byte Shop and the First Big Break
Apple didn't just explode overnight. It started with a guy named Paul Terrell. He ran the Byte Shop in Mountain View, one of the first computer stores in the world. Jobs approached him to sell the Apple I motherboards. Terrell told them he didn't want motherboards; he wanted fully assembled computers.
This was a massive pivot. Jobs scrambled. He sold his Volkswagen bus. Wozniak sold his HP-65 calculator (which was a big deal back then, those things were expensive). They used the cash to buy parts, assembled the boards in the garage, and delivered them to Terrell. This move—from selling a kit for hobbyists to selling a "finished" product—is arguably the moment Apple became a "consumer electronics" company rather than just a hobbyist group.
Mike Markkula: The Grown-up in the Room
By 1977, the "Two Steves" were struggling to scale. They were kids. They needed money and they needed someone who knew how a real company functioned. Enter Mike Markkula. He was a retired Intel executive who saw the potential in what Wozniak had built.
Markkula wasn't just an investor; he was the one who provided the business structure. He invested $250,000, which was a fortune at the time, and helped write the business plan. He also taught Steve Jobs about marketing. He famously wrote "The Apple Marketing Philosophy," which focused on empathy, focus, and "imputing"—the idea that people judge a book by its cover, so the product’s packaging and presentation must be flawless. If you love the way it feels to unbox a new iPhone today, you can thank Markkula’s influence on Jobs.
Why the "Who Started Apple" Question is Complicated
Technically, the founders are Jobs, Wozniak, and Wayne. But if you're looking at who actually built the company into a titan, you have to include people like Markkula and even Bill Fernandez, who was the guy who introduced the two Steves in the first place.
There’s also a common misconception that Jobs was a technical genius. He wasn't. He couldn't write code. He wasn't a hardware engineer. His genius was in "curation" and "vision." He knew what the future should look like, and he was brutal enough to make people build it. Wozniak provided the "how," and Jobs provided the "why."
The Evolution of the Logo and Brand
That original Isaac Newton logo Ronald Wayne drew? It lasted about a year. Jobs realized it was too complicated and didn't look good when it was shrunk down. He hired Rob Janoff to design something more modern. Janoff came up with the bitten apple.
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There are all sorts of myths about the bite—that it’s a tribute to Alan Turing (who died after eating a cyanide-laced apple) or a pun on "byte." Janoff has debunked these, saying he just put the bite in there so people wouldn't mistake the apple for a cherry. The rainbow stripes were Jobs’ idea, intended to highlight that the Apple II was the first personal computer that could display colors on a screen.
Critical Turning Points
- The Apple II (1977): This was the first "real" personal computer for the masses. It had a plastic case (Jobs hated the look of raw metal) and was quiet because Wozniak designed a clever power supply that didn't need a noisy fan.
- The Xerox PARC Visit: In 1979, Jobs visited Xerox’s research center. He saw a Graphical User Interface (GUI) and a mouse for the first time. He basically stole the idea (legally, in exchange for Apple stock) and used it to build the Lisa and then the Macintosh.
- The Ousting of Steve Jobs: By 1985, Jobs was pushed out of his own company. He was too volatile. The company almost went bankrupt in the 90s without him, leading to his triumphant return in 1997.
What You Can Learn from the Apple Founders
The story of who started Apple is really a story about the intersection of different types of talent. Wozniak by himself would have been a happy engineer with a few patents. Jobs by himself would have been a charismatic salesman with nothing to sell.
Identify your "Woz" or your "Jobs." If you're a builder, find a storyteller. If you're a storyteller, find a builder. Rarely does one person possess both traits in equal measure.
Understand that early "failures" don't define the end. Ronald Wayne left because he was scared of debt. He missed out on billions, but he lived a quiet, stress-free life. Apple itself almost died several times before the iPhone saved it.
The power of "Imputing." Treat your presentation as seriously as your product. Jobs learned early on that a great computer in a crappy box feels like a crappy computer.
To really wrap your head around the early days, you should look into the "Homebrew Computer Club" newsletters or read Walter Isaacson’s biography of Jobs. It gives a much grittier, less polished view of how these three guys—a phone phreaker, a college dropout, and an older illustrator—accidentally changed how every human being on earth communicates.
Next Steps for Deep Research:
- Search for "The Apple Marketing Philosophy": Read the three-point memo Mike Markkula wrote in 1977. It’s a masterclass in branding that Apple still follows.
- Watch Steve Wozniak’s early interviews: Check out footage from the late 70s to see the pure excitement he had for the hardware itself.
- Examine the Apple I price tag: It was famously $666.66. Wozniak liked repeating digits, but it caused a stir with religious groups—a classic example of the "Two Steves" not really caring about conventions.