
How I Founded a $2B Company with a 95 Cent Book from RadioShack - thewhitetulip
https://backchannel.com/how-i-founded-a-2-billion-dollar-company-with-a-95-cent-book-from-radioshack-8143e0d9607d#.nx3j2x3q2
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biot
Discussed a few weeks ago:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12159844](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12159844)
(same URL, minus the unique hash)

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louwrentius
It's a fun title and a fun story, but I'm not sure if any real lessons can be
derived from it.

They needed information on how to get the best audio quality and volume from a
relatively small speaker and enclosure.

And they found a cheap booklet about building speaker enclosures. If it wasn't
for radio shack, they probably would have found it somewhere else.

I'm not sure what to read into this.

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ghaff
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.

~~~
_asummers
I really enjoyed this recap of a manager's time at RadioShack.

[http://www.sbnation.com/2014/11/26/7281129/radioshack-
eulogy...](http://www.sbnation.com/2014/11/26/7281129/radioshack-eulogy-
stories)

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merkleme
The standout sentence for me: "Because it supported the soul of Silicon
Valley, the generations of tinkerers and builders who started small." Starting
small is not what I associate with SV!

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

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

~~~
merkleme
Just got around to watching the lecture. Fascinating, thanks for posting.

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Turing_Machine
_At the heart of the Jobs and Wozniak blue box was the TRS-80, “one of the
first affordable personal computers and one of the first computer devices
RadioShack ever produced.”_

This can't be right. ATW, the first TRS-80 was released on August 3, 1977.
Jobs and Wozniak were long past their blue box by then. They incorporated
Apple on April 1, 1976, released the Apple I on April 11, 1976, and released
the Apple II on June 10, 1977.

~~~
quesera
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.

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cableshaft
That book was more like the inspiration for the company, not the actual
investment itself. They had to make those devices, and the cost for those
isn't less than 95 cents.

A modern analogy would be someone finding some interesting tutorial or video
online (for FREEEEEEEE probably) that gave them some information and sparked
an idea that they decided to found a business on.

This is basically just a way to attach a cute, marketable, "humble" story to
their company. It's useful that they have one, but it's not a blueprint for
how to start a successful company.

~~~
thewhitetulip
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.

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konschubert
"How I Founded a $2B Company with a 95 Cent Book from RadioShack and a decent
amount of time and and money"

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lomnakkus
"How I tried to start a company with a $AMOUNT book from $OTHER_RETAILER...
and failed misarably"

Survivorship bias is a _huge_ deal in this type of thing.

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

