In the end it worked out for Apple but not for Vector.
Did it? It very nearly did not.
Unlike Vector, Steve Jobs always had a focus on something very special in mind: the very best design, of course (perhaps similar to the Vector CEO), but, more importantly, technical things that would re-define the industry, like windowed OS's and mice.
And, even that relentless focus on having the best user experience was not enough to save Apple! The only thing that did save Apple was bringing Steve Jobs back, who immediately did the only thing he could. In a stroke of sheer genius (and/or luck), he wrangled a huge investment out of... Bill Gates, who was probably the name most associated with PC compatibles!
The Vector story has none of these attributes, except for the nearly (or completely) going out of business part.
Based on this article, Lore Harp of Vector doesn’t seem so different from Steve Jobs. She also prioritized design and ease-of-use. She also was an industry outsider with enough charisma to reach national magazine covers.
It’s not like Jobs invented GUIs himself — he happened to be in the right place to learn about all the work already done at Xerox and bring it home. If things had been slightly different, maybe it would have been Lore Harp who went to PARC instead.
The personality cult around famous founders is 99% selection bias. Sure, they were talented. So were hundreds or thousands of others in the same industry.
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Did it? It very nearly did not.
Unlike Vector, Steve Jobs always had a focus on something very special in mind: the very best design, of course (perhaps similar to the Vector CEO), but, more importantly, technical things that would re-define the industry, like windowed OS's and mice.
And, even that relentless focus on having the best user experience was not enough to save Apple! The only thing that did save Apple was bringing Steve Jobs back, who immediately did the only thing he could. In a stroke of sheer genius (and/or luck), he wrangled a huge investment out of... Bill Gates, who was probably the name most associated with PC compatibles!
The Vector story has none of these attributes, except for the nearly (or completely) going out of business part.
Based on this article, Lore Harp of Vector doesn’t seem so different from Steve Jobs. She also prioritized design and ease-of-use. She also was an industry outsider with enough charisma to reach national magazine covers.
It’s not like Jobs invented GUIs himself — he happened to be in the right place to learn about all the work already done at Xerox and bring it home. If things had been slightly different, maybe it would have been Lore Harp who went to PARC instead.
The personality cult around famous founders is 99% selection bias. Sure, they were talented. So were hundreds or thousands of others in the same industry.