The Brains Behind the Operations: Tech Nerds, Before They Were Stars!
You're using one now to click through this gallery, but did you ever wonder about the history of the computer? Or the iPod, or Twitter? Snakkle looks back at some of America's most influential tech nerds—spitball targets who became business magnates. Remember, bullies, one day those nerds will run the world! By Brittany CarsonThis blackmail-worthy senior photo of Michael Dell at Memorial High School in Houston, Texas, gives no indication of the computer mega-mogul Dell would become. When everyone else was begging their parents for an allowance, Michael Dell was making thousands by the age of 12 setting up a direct marketing company for stamp auctions. When he was a premed student at the University of Texas at Austin, he started a business upgrading computers from his dorm room and saved money by not paying for computer store overhead. In 1984, he started a company called PCs Limited, which he ran from a condo. The company sold upgrades, kits, and add-ons. Four months later, PCs Limited became the well-known Dell Computer Corporation.
Did you know: PCs Limited offered the first toll-free technical support and on-site service in the computer business in 1986, a practice which later became the industry standard.