NATHAN MYHRVOLD PhD ORAL HISTORY - The Computerworld ...

Then we discovered while we were working on this graphical operating system that
IBM was working on something similar. We knew Microsoft was working on
Windows. There were other things, but this IBM thing was very close to what we
did, because ours designed to be a real time system. You could use it for taking data
and other things scientifically, and we just kept plunging ahead.
People have a lot of metaphors for entrepreneurship. I like two of those metaphors.
One is white water rafting, and I say white water rafting because you have a skill in
rafting that counts for something. I know a number of people that are great rafters.
But you’re also going on this wild river, and the current is going, and you’re going to
get splashed, and wet and thrown, and even the best rafters have been thrown out of
the raft and capsized and everything else. It’s partially under your control, and it’s
partially not under your control. And a lot of people don’t realize that.
I talked to a lot of people when I first started this company. There was a venture
capitalist who had been an entrepreneur, and he was full of sage advice. I remember
I was in his office, which was in the Bank America Tower in San Francisco. It was
on the 50th floor with this stunning view. And he says, “You know, having a
company is like having a baby.”
I said, “Okay.” He says, “No, no, no, it’s not like what you’re thinking. You’re
thinking it’s like the man’s role in having a baby, a half hour of fun, and nine months
later you pass out cigars and you’re a proud father.” He said, “No, it’s like the
woman’s role in having a baby. It’s nine months of incredible discomfort and pain
and all this; and then the hard work starts.” And I have to say he was right. You
know at the time I listened to him. I heard him out. I didn’t realize how true that
was.
DA: So you had what, some venture capital and some PCs?
NM: We had a very shoestring operation. We were not a very well funded start
up. We were funded mostly by enthusiasm. We rented an attic of a derelict house
that was being renovated, and while they were renovating the basement, we were
working in the attic. The walls were so bad that almost the plaster was gone. You
could see through and see the outside. And at night there would be this wind that
would clip through there. We finally bought tarps and nailed them up to try the
keep the place a little bit weather tight.
Nathan Myhrvold
Oral History
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