Hanging out with your best friends can lead to all sorts of fun and chaos 🥳

But, for Bill Gates and Paul Allen, their joint passion changed the world 🙈

Gates and Allen were college friends at Harvard University 🎓

They both had a passion for computers, and together they could build amazing things 🤑

In 1975, when Gates was 19 yrs old and Allen was 22, the two dropped out of Harvard 🤯

Then, they immediately started Microsoft in Albuquerque, New Mexico 🌵

Their first project was developing software for personal computers, including the pioneering MS-DOS operating system 💻

In the early years, Microsoft faced fierce competition including companies like IBM and Apple ⚔️

Everyone wanted a piece of the personal computer space 💻

Microsoft also had to navigate legal challenges and patent disputes with other tech giants 👨‍⚖️

In the early 1980s-90s the government accused Microsoft of stealing software 👀

That’s like plagiarizing an essay, except with code 🫢

But Gates and Allen persevered and released new products, including the popular Microsoft Office suite 💼 and the Xbox gaming console 🎮

Even though we don’t know exactly how much these early products made, the products became super popular 🤩🤑

The popularity of the products allowed Microsoft to raise over $61 million in its 1986 IPO! 🚀

The rest is history, and the company continues to grow and innovate today 💼