5 things you may not know about Bill Gates: Did he really create his first company at 15?

Bill Gates is well known as a co-founder of Microsoft Corporation MSFT. The entrepreneur is also a major philanthropist who established the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in 2000 to help spread medical technology and advancements around the world and alleviate poverty.

Here are five things you might not know about Bill Gates.

1. First company at 15: At Lakeside School, Gates befriended Paul Allen, his future Microsoft co-founder. The two spent much of their free time together despite strong disagreements and clashes. At age 15, Gates and Allen created "Traf O Data", a computer program that monitored traffic patterns in Seattle. The duo raised $20,000 for their efforts and have continued to work together.

2. The magazine started it all: Allen showed Gates an article about the Altair 8800 minicomputer kit in Popular Electronics magazine. This article led the two to contact the company and develop software. Both were hired by MITS and founded Microsoft after showcasing their work and creating products for MITS. Microsoft's name was a combination of the words "microcomputer" and "software". The first Microsoft product was BASIC software for the Altair computer.

Related link: Bill and Melinda Gates divorce after 27 years of marriage

3. Richest Man in Many Years: Building a company like Microsoft helped Gates build up great wealth along the way. In 1986, Microsoft finalized its initial price offer for $21, making Gates a millionaire with 45% ownership of the company. In 1987 Gates was a billionaire after the shares split multiple times and soared to new highs of $90.75. From 1993 to 2007, Gates topped the Forbes list of the world's richest people before being beaten by Warren Buffett in 2008. Gates topped the list a total of 18 times. In 2022, Gates is now ranked fifth on the list with a wealth of $105 billion.

4. Monopoly Accusations: As a child, one of Gates' favorite games was Monopoly. Ironically, Gates spent part of the 1990s defending Microsoft against corporate monopoly charges from the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice. Many of the accusations came from Microsoft making deals with computer manufacturers to have Microsoft stuff pre-installed and only compatible with those programs. Microsoft was almost split into two companies, one covering operating systems and the other software. Microsoft settled in to avoid a break.

5. Mother on the board: Gates' mother, Mary, became a role model in the business world for the Microsoft co-founder and may have helped pave the way for a future collaborator. In 1975, Mary Gates became the first female president of United Way in King Country and the first female director of First Interstate Bank in Seattle. Gates also served on the executive committee of United Way with John Opel, IBM's chairman of International Business Machine. The connection helped Gates establish a connection with IBM that would play an important role in Microsoft's rise.

Photo by Kuhlmann/MSC via Wikimedia.

Original publication: 2021-05-04

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