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bill gates
Bill Gates has started a new company called bgC3 LLC. There is still little information regarding motives of the company. New tech blog TechFlash scored an inside scoop:
Public documents describe the new Gates entity — bgC3 LLC — as a “think tank.” It’s housed within a Kirkland office that the Microsoft co-founder established on his own after leaving his day-to-day executive role at the company this summer.
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However, bgC3 will also oversee Gates’ personal pursuit of breakthrough ideas in science and technology. The insider said the goal isn’t necessarily to create new companies, although ideas could be passed along to Microsoft, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation — or others – as it makes sense.
Other coverage:
Bill Gates Has Started a New Company, bgC3
Gates isn’t done just yet; preliminary bgC3 details emerge
Bill Gates Has Started a New Company, bgC3
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Yes… I had the president of a software development company tell me (in anger), “It’s not rocket science” after asking me why a deliverable was late. “I only see one form here, how can it be that hard?”, he said. At that time I was Project Manager and Software Engineer at a product development firm here in Des Moines. The president was not a programmer.
That brings up a question posed today by Mary-Jo Foley as Bill Gates prepares to leave Microsoft: “Do you need to be a programmer to run a software company?“. This is reference to Bill’s attention to detail to the software being built by his engineers.
Joel Spolsky wrote about it today, asking “How Hard Could It Be?” in his Inc.com column. Joel was a program manager of the Excel team in the early 1990′s and tells a great story that, to me, sums up Bill’s passion and persistence as the leader of a software company. Joel summed up my frustration (and likely many other developers’) of working for a software development company whose leaders know little to nothing about software devlopment:
“Watching nonprogrammers trying to run software companies is like watching someone who doesn’t know how to surf trying to surf. Even if he has great advisers standing on the shore telling him what to do, he still falls off the board again and again. The cult of the M.B.A. likes to believe that you can run organizations that do things that you don’t understand. But often, you can’t.” – Joel Spolsky
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This week my idol, Bill Gates, will retire leaving behind the company that he helped build more than 30 years ago. Last year he announced his planned retirement, and I publicly thanked him… I would like to reiterate one of the points I made in that post: “I don’t care who you are — a Mac fanatic, a Linux geek, or a Windows follower – Bill Gates deserves the utmost respect from business and technology persons of all kinds.”
“Bill embodies the spirit of entrepreneurship that has grown to help define the American economy. He became a hero for millions of geeks all over the world by showing them it is possible. You can do it yourself, sitting in your basement, garage, or kitchen. Through the technology he has created at Microsoft along with the business lessons he has taught us – the idea of entrepreneurship and running your own small business is now a matter of motivation rather than capital expenditure.” – Andy Brudtkuhl
It’s time for the next generation – you and me to follow in the footsteps of the original Pioneer. Bill – thank you for all you have done. I hope you can be a pioneer in the charitable industry and be as successful as you were with Microsoft.
More on Bill’s Legacy:
The secret of Bill Gates’ success – BBC (great videos)
Bill Gates: how a geek changed the world – BBC
Tech luminaries good-byes to Gates – CNET
Bill Gates’ big send-off – CNET
Thanks Bill – GetANewBrowser
Technorati Tags: bill gates, microsoft
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