ENTECH30
TECHNOPRENEURSHIP
GO, KATE CATHERINE D.
BSCE201B
JEFF BEZOS
Jeff Bezos was born in 1964 to a struggling teen mother in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
When he was 17 months old, his parents divorced, but his mother found menial work to
keep the lights on and the family fed. Bezos' mother remarried, and their lives would
return to normal after his adopted father finished college and found work as an engineer
in Texas. Bezos had an interest in mechanics, machines, and especially computers, which
he may have inherited from his stepfather. At Princeton University, he majored in
computer science and electrical engineering.
SUCCESS STORY:
Amazon was founded on a never-ending quest to create a high-quality organization. Amazon
was founded on the pillars of character strength, single-minded focus, and a desire to provide
the best possible consumer experience to everyone associated with the company. While the
world was still wondering how the internet could work, Jeff Bezos went on to build a web-based
retail system. Amazon's primary goal has never been to defeat competitors. Rather, it focuses
on assisting customers and creating value for them. This keeps them engrossed in
implementing their plans and policies. There are many ventures that Jeff experimented with
and initiated that failed terribly. But that is the culture of development. If you're not failing and
making mistakes, you're not doing anything worthwhile. One example of Bezos' experiment is
the Fire Phone. This project resulted in a loss of $170 million. Despite its best efforts, the Fire
phone fell short of competing with Android and iPhone. Amazon Local was another major flop.
This was an attempt to provide a daily deal that did not go well. Amazon Wallet, Amazon Local
Registers, Music Importer, Test Drive, Amazon WebPay, Endless.com, Askville, and many more
are also on the list. Bezos claims that successful experiments, such as Amazon Kindle, Amazon
Prime, AWS, and others, are so profitable that they pay for failures.
DIOSDADO "DADO" BANATAO
Diosdado "Dado" Banatao, a Filipino entrepreneur and engineer, was born on May 23, 1946 in the
remote village of Iguig, Cagayan Valley. Salvador Banato, a rice farmer, and Rosita Banatao, a
housekeeper, are his parents. Given the nature of his parents' jobs, one can imagine Dado growing
up in a simple life with no luxuries or extraneous material possessions. As a child, he would simply
walk barefoot along the roads on his way to primary school. He attended Mapua Institute of
Technology after high school and passed the board exam. He began looking for work after college
but was unable to find the right fit. Furthermore, he declined a job offer from Manila Electric Co., a
traditional employer of electrical engineers. Instead, he found an interesting job as a trainee pilot
with Philippine Airlines.
SUCCESS STORY:
His career as a pilot, however, was brief. Dado relocated to Seattle to work as a design engineer
in the systems integration department for Boeing's new commercial airliner. He wanted to study
again and return to graduate school when he became bored. He attended the University of
Washington's Graduate Study Program for 18 months, where he was a full-time student earning
full pay for two hours of work. Then he transferred to Stanford University, where he earned a
Master's Degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, which helped shape who he is
today. He founded his first company six years later as a design engineer. Unfortunately, the
company failed due to a lack of funds. He, however, did not give up. He improved the second
company and offered it to the public with the same idea and starting from scratch, and this is
the beginning of his successful rise in the computing world. He studied the PC thoroughly and did
not give up when faced with difficulties. The more difficult the problems, the more time they
spend working on design solutions in their offices and labs.
NIKLAS ZENNSTROM
Zennstrom, who was born in a small town north of Stockholm, was always
interested in computers and telecommunications. After graduating from college
with a B.Sc. Zennstrom began working for Tele2, a European telecom company,
after completing the final year of his degree in the United States. He was in charge
of product promotions and other significant business developments.
SUCCESS STORY:
After becoming dissatisfied with his job, the vivacious Zennstrom decided to launch his
own business. He founded Kazaa, a revolutionary peer-to-peer sharing application, with
the assistance of his friend Janus Friis. Kazaa was the world's most downloaded software
in 2003, propelling Zennstrom to the stratosphere of wealth. He was the CEO of the
company until complains from music and the motion picture syndicates started pouring
in, due to which he sold the company to Sharman Networks. After another start-up,
Joltid, Zennstrom went on to find Skype, another peer-to-peer internet software that
allowed clients to video chat with anyone via the app. The application was a massive
success and stands as one of the most famous internet inventions. Skype was sold to
eBay for about $3 billion with further bonuses, and Zennstrom was the CEO until 2007.
BILL GATES
Bill Gates is a businessman, programmer, investor, and philanthropist from the United
States. He and Paul Allen co-founded Microsoft, the world's largest software company.
Their revenue in 2015 was $110.4 billion. With a net worth of $100.6 billion, Bill Gates is the
world's second richest man. He was the CEO of Microsoft until January 2000, and he is now
the CEO Satya Nadella's Technology Advisor. He devotes much of his time to the Bill &
Melinda Gates Foundation, which is why he has taken a less demanding role at Microsoft
in order to devote more time to philanthropy.
SUCCESS STORY:
After reading an article in Popular Electronics in January 1975 that demonstrated the Altair 8800,
Gates contacted MITS, the creators of the new microcomputer, to inform them that he and
others were working on a BASIC interpreter for the platform. They met with the MITS president
and within a few weeks had developed an Altair emulator to demonstrate on a minicomputer,
followed by the BASIC interpreter. The success led to a deal with MITS to distribute the
interpreter as Altair BASIC, and Paul Allen was hired by MITS in November 1975 to work
alongside Gates. They named their partnership Micro-Soft, dropped the hyphen a year later,
and registered the trade name Microsoft on November 26th, 1976. Microsoft is engaged in
developing, licensing and supporting a range of software products and services catering to
different requirements. In 2000 Steve Ballmer was appointed the new CEO of Microsoft. Bill
Gates had met Steve Ballmer at Harvard University before he left. Although there was some
concern over Ballmer’s ability, Microsoft retained its top spot in both business and personal
computer markets. Microsoft’s primary strengths and most of its profits were obtained from the
business side. Although the company recognised that they had a major presence in consumer
markets as technology advances.
ELON MUSK
Elon Musk is the billionaire entrepreneur and business magnate responsible for co-
founding the cutting-edge companies PayPal, Tesla, and SpaceX, amongst others. Over
the years, he has been compared to the likes of Steve Jobs and Henry Ford, and even Iron
Man, with actor Robert Downey Jr allegedly modelling his portrayal of Tony Stark off of
the SpaceX and Tesla CEO.
SUCCESS STORY:
Elon Musk had dabbled in several businesses and helped them to success. After being fired from
PayPal, Elon went on to realize his vision of futuristic electric cars. He began raising funds for
Tesla and launching the company in 2003. The main aim behind Tesla Motors was to shift the
automotive industry from using combustible energy to clean and green energy. Tesla Roadster,
the first electric car was eventually launched. In 2007, Eberhard, a co-founder of Tesla Motors,
was ousted from the company following several disagreements with Elon Musk. Musk then
overtook the management of the company as CEO and product architect. Elon Musk's success
grows as he continues to push the boundaries with Tesla, SpaceX, Twitter, and the handful of
other cutting-edge companies he has invested in and co-founded along the way.
