Microsoft

04/04/1975

Microsoft Corporation was founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen.

It began when the two childhood friends with a passion in computer programming, were seeking to make a successful business utilizing their shared skills. After Allen suggested that they could program a BASIC interpreter for the Altair 8800 microcomputer from what he saw in a January 1975 issue of Popular Electronics, Gates and Allen demoed an interpreter to MITS in Albuquerque, New Mexico in March 1975.

The demo was successful and MITS agreed to distribute it, marketing it as Altair BASIC. With that successful mission, Gates and Allen officially established Microsoft as a company.