American computer programmer and co-founder of Microsoft who read about the Altair 8800 in a magazine and convinced Bill Gates to call MITS offering a BASIC interpreter they hadn't yet written — founding Microsoft and the personal computer software industry.
Identified the Altair moment before Gates did and convinced him to act — making the phone call that founded Microsoft before BASIC was written, demonstrating the startup hustle that precedes technical execution — then left Microsoft after a cancer diagnosis and became one of Seattle's most important philanthropists and sports team owners.
No recorded minds influenced.
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