Happy Birthday, Apple!
The company that defined Silicon Valley and pushed into a national spotlight is approaching its 40th birthday on Friday.
To commemorate the milestone, a group of employees got together to reminisce about the ups and downs of the past, and look ahead to the future.
Some who showed up to the shindig were there in Apple’s infancy and in the years following its 1976 founding.
“There was this feeling, even back then, that we were doing something that would change the world, and change how people related to their computers," said Bud Tripple, who joined the company in 1980 to work with the original Mac team. "We had big ideas:
Greg Joswiak, who joined Apple in 1986, remembered when Mac hit hard times in the mid 1990s.
“There was a short time that we lost sight,” he said. “We were really trying to make macs like PCs." He credits the return of Steve Jobs in 1997 with reinvigorating the spirit of innovation that has fueled the company.
U.S. & World
The longtimers also have seen many changes to the company headquarters – especially its neighbors.
As the years passed, the Apple veterans had to get used to sharing its Silicon Valley with new generations of tech giants, from those that lived (and died) during the dot com boom, to today’s growing technology infrastructure in the South Bay.
“It is definitely a big company…but the feeling is so much like a startup,” said Divya Nag, who joined on in 2014.
And now, with customers hungry for new products, Apple is preparing to move into something only they would have designed.
“Apple approaches everything like a product,” said Joswiak with a smile “This new campus is a product.”