Ronald Wayne

In 1976, Ronald Wayne built the internal corporate documentation systems at the three-year-old Atari,[6] where he met coworkers Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak.[7] To help settle one of their typical intense discussions about the design of computers and the future of the industry, Wayne invited the two to his home to facilitate and advise them. In the ensuing two-hour conversation about technology and business, Jobs proposed the founding of a computer company led by him and Wozniak. Those two would each hold a 45% stake so that Wayne could receive a 10% stake to act as a tie-breaker in their decisions.[8] As the venture's self-described "adult in the room"[6][9] at age 41, Wayne wrote a partnership agreement, and the three founded Apple Computer on April 1, 1976. Wayne illustrated the first Apple logo[10] and wrote the Apple I manual.[6][9][11]

Wayne's business attitude was already risk-averse due to his experience five years prior with the "very traumatic" failure of his slot machine business, the debt of which he had spent one year voluntarily repaying.[6][9] Jobs secured a US$15,000 line of credit to buy product materials for Apple's first order which had been placed by The Byte Shop, whose reputation as a notoriously slow-paying vendor gave Wayne great concern for his future.[6][8] Legally, all members of a partnership are personally responsible for any debts incurred by any partner; unlike Jobs and Wozniak, then 21 and 25, Wayne had personal assets that potential creditors could possibly seize.[11][12] Furthermore, his passion was in original product engineering and in slot machines, and not in the documentation systems he assumed Jobs and Wozniak probably wanted him to do indefinitely at Apple. Believing he was "standing in the shadow of giants" of product-design talent and avoiding financial risk, he quit the company.[6] Reportedly, "Twelve days after Wayne wrote the document that formally created Apple, he returned to the registrar's office and renounced his role in the company", therefore relinquishing his equity in exchange for US$800 on April 12, 1976.[11][13] This period of time however has been disputed by Steve Wozniak, who in an interview said that Wayne left the company after a few months.[14]

Wayne has stated in following decades that he does not regret selling his share of the company, as he made the "best decision with the information available to me at the time".[15] He said he had originally believed that the Apple enterprise "would be successful, but at the same time there would be significant bumps along the way and I couldn't risk it. I had already had a rather unfortunate business experience before. I was getting too old and those two were whirlwinds. It was like having a tiger by the tail and I couldn't keep up with these guys."[10] Although Apple ended up at one point becoming the most valuable company in the world, he said that with the stress of staying with Apple he "probably would have wound up the richest man in the cemetery."[6] He summarized, "What can I say? You make a decision based on your understanding of the circumstances, and you live with it."[13]

After leaving Apple, Wayne resisted Jobs's attempts to get him to return, remaining at Atari until 1978, when he joined Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and later an electronics company in Salinas, California.[15]

In the late 1970s, Wayne had run a stamp shop in Milpitas, California, for a short time; it was called Wayne's Philatelics. After a number of break-ins, he moved his stamp operations to Nevada. The logo for the business was a wood-cut design, with a man sitting under an apple tree, with the "Wayne's Philatelics" name written in a flowing ribbon curved around the tree. This had the same basis as the original logo he designed for Apple Computer.

Steve Jobs approached him again as a business contact for Apple, but Wayne refused to even forward Jobs's proposal to purchase a friend's company. Wayne's principle was that his friend should retain ownership under exclusive license to Apple instead of selling, but he would later express regret for having blocked the contact instead of allowing the decision to be made directly.[6]

In the early 1990s, Wayne sold the original Apple partnership contract paper, signed in 1976 by Jobs, Wozniak, and himself, for US$500. In 2011, the contract was sold at auction for $1.6 million.[16] Wayne has stated that he regrets that sale.[5][6][17]

Wayne retired to a mobile home park in Pahrump, Nevada, where he sells stamps and rare coins, and plays penny slots at a casino.[8] Wayne never owned an Apple product[9][18] until 2011, when he was given an iPad 2 at the Update Conference in Brighton, England.[19] He holds a dozen patents.[20]