January 3, 1977: Apple Goes Corporate

Apple had been a loose partnership for six months but there was a definite need for funding if they were ever going to go beyond the decidedly modest Apple I. Sure, the Apple I had netted a profit of $8,000, but if the Apple partnership wanted to make a bigger impact in the world, and their wallets, they would need funding to pursue the next project: the Apple II.

The Steves didn't start out thinking big. One of their first moves was to try to sell the nascent partnership to Commodore for $100,000 and a promise of employment. To lure Commodore into buying the partnership they relied on the strength of a demo of the Apple II. Commodore watched the demo and passed. Fortuitously, Mike Markkula, a former Intel employee, saw the promise of the Apple II and invested $92,000 of his own money. Markkula then boldly secured a quarter million dollar line of credit from Bank of America.

Now that they had adequate funding they could finally get around the obstacles holding them back from producing the Apple II. Obstacles Steve Wozniak summarized by asking: "How do you build 1,000 of something that costs a lot of money?" Money may no longer been a problem but legalities were so on January 3, 1977, Apple Computer went from a partnership with modest hopes to a corporation with even greater aspirations.