Founders · Jun 3Steve Jobs in Exile
Burned $39 million in a year against a planned $3 million loss, launched a $10,500 computer and shipped only 205 machines. It sold hardware to Canon in 1992, kept the software, posted a $1 million profit on almost $50 million in revenue, and was bought by Apple for $10 a share.
Tips
- Ross Perot said giving Steve Jobs too much money was his mistake at NeXT▶ 35:26NeXT burned $39 million in a year when it planned to lose $3 million, and without IBM and Perot's money it would have been dead long before.
- Steve Jobs spent lavishly at NeXT while preaching cost discipline, the opposite of early Apple▶ 9:15Apple had none of this before it had a product or customers, and NeXT's burn rate climbed year after year.
- Steve Jobs let perfectionism and indecision delay NeXT's computer while blaming others▶ 17:50Competitors caught up while NeXT had no product and no revenue, and a series of manufacturing VPs was fired along the way.
- Steve Jobs ignored the $3,000 price universities demanded, and NeXT shipped a $10,500 computer▶ 25:09NeXT shipped only 205 computers by the end of the year it launched, against a need to sell 16,000.
- Steve Jobs overruled his engineers on the magnesium matte black cube and could not scale production▶ 25:54The plan was 16,000 machines in a year, but the factory made about eight a day.
- Nobody at NeXT told Steve Jobs the truth, and it cost the company years▶ 30:07When distributors could not sell the machines, NeXT was owed over $10 million and reported sales tumbled.
- Steve Jobs started NeXT partly for revenge on Apple and later said motives matter▶ 13:49
- Steve Jobs built his own factory to keep control and imagined customers flying in to buy computers▶ 15:45
- Andy Grove showed NeXT's leaders could not say what business they were in▶ 35:56
- Steve Jobs sold NeXT's hardware division to Canon in 1992 and kept the software▶ 40:24Canon had put in $100 million for 16.67% of NeXT, then $40 million more.
- Steve Jobs followed Larry Ellison's advice to add a professional services group at NeXT▶ 42:56That year NeXT made its first profit, $1 million on revenues of almost 50 million, after 9 years of losses.
- Steve Jobs burned the boats on WebObjects in 1995 and sold it with consultants▶ 43:53IBM quoted Michael Dell two years for his configure and buy website, NeXT said one week, and Dell's online sales grew to $3 million a day within a year.
- Steve Jobs came out of exile saying the CEO is at the bottom of the hierarchy▶ 47:19Early NeXT had wanted a permanent ensemble instead of George Lucas's 'blow them out' model, but it churned through people.
- Steve Jobs hired for people who would fight him and fired board members who did not▶ 6:36
- Steve Jobs would wait for the best hire and refused to compromise on talent▶ 39:20
