Despite its scale, Microsoft is one of the most overlooked companies in tech.It is not a beloved consumer brand like Apple, Facebook, Amazon, or Google.It was not a venture capital success story: Microsoft was too profitable to raise real VC money, so the founders owned 70% at IPO.It is the oldest of FAMGA, hidden away in a different state.
Maybe there is a lesson to be learned here for creators, entrepreneurs, builders, and craftsmen and women—for anyone who takes pride in their work and does it with excellence. If people want to pay you a premium price to put themselves in your hands and let you create what you truly want to create, then you’ve done something truly special.
And so I ask, what are we sacrificing in this potential design and subsequent cultural acceleration? From my tweet above, I probe that perhaps we lose a sense of hospitality. A coming to the table, without a notion of transaction value.