The group photo of Microsoft's first employees became an iconic image on the company's 50th anniversary.
Microsoft was founded on April 4, 1975. The photo of the first 11 employees was taken in 1978 in New Mexico, before the company moved to Washington later that year.
Bob Greenberg, one of Microsoft's first programmers, won a free portrait with a local photographer for a radio show. "It's iconic and has an impact that goes beyond all of us," Greenberg said.
"The photo captures the atmosphere and the spirit we had in the early days of Microsoft. Everyone was smiling. Everyone was really happy. It was hard for outsiders to understand the state we were in. Some people, especially Bill Gates, used to sleep in the office. There were times when you would come into the office and his feet would hang out the door," founder Paul Allen shared.
Bill Gates
The Microsoft co-founder in the lower left corner of the photo, who served as CEO until 2000, continued to serve on the board until 2020. After leaving, he focused on philanthropy with the Gates Foundation.
Over the years, Gates has given away much of his fortune through the Giving Pledge initiative he created with his ex-wife Melinda French Gates and investor Warren Buffett.
Bill Gates is currently the sixth richest person in the world, with a net worth of $162 billion. He recently said he would leave his children just 1% of his fortune, or about $1.62 billion. "I don't think it would be in their best interest to leave them more than that," he said.
Paul Allen
Paul Allen, who co-founded Microsoft with Bill Gates, is pictured in the bottom right corner of the photo. A talented programmer, he played a key role in developing the MS-DOS operating system for IBM's first personal computer.
Allen was in charge of Microsoft's research and development of new products until 1983, when he left the company to undergo treatment for lymphoma. He served on the Microsoft board of directors from 1981 to 1985 and from 1990 to 2000. He remained a "senior strategic advisor" to the board and remained friends with Gates until his death in 2018 from complications related to cancer. At his death, Allen was worth $20 billion.
Bob Greenberg
Greenberg left Microsoft in 1981, then helped his family's Coleco company develop the Cabbage Patch Kids doll line that dominated stores in the 1990s.
As of 2000, his net worth was $20 million. He is now a startup investor.
Gordon Letwin
Gordon Letwin played a key role in developing the OS/2 operating system, which incorporated a graphical user interface, making it more like a modern operating system than its predecessor. He left Microsoft in 1993.
With his then-wife, Rose Letwin, Gordon founded the Wilburforce Foundation, which funds primarily environmental projects. As of 2000, Letwin's net worth was $20 million.
Andrea Lewis
One of the two women in the 1978 photo, Andrea Lewis was a technical writer for Microsoft and left the company in 1983. She later became a freelance journalist and authored the 2017 book What My Last Man Did.
She also helped found Hugo House, a nonprofit arts and literature center in Seattle. In 2000, Lewis's net worth was $2 million.
Maria Wood
Maria Wood was a Microsoft accountant and sued the company for gender discrimination in 1980. Microsoft settled the case, and Wood focused on raising her two children and volunteering.
She married another early employee, Steve Wood. Their combined net worth was estimated at $15 million as of 2000.
Bob O'Rear
One of the oldest employees at Microsoft when the photo was taken, Bob O'Rear was the chief mathematician and one of the key programmers in the development of the MS-DOS operating system. He later served as the company's global director of sales and marketing.
O'Rear left the company in 1993 and reportedly owned a cattle ranch in his home state of Texas. His net worth was estimated at $100 million as of 2000.
Marc McDonald
Marc McDonald was a programmer and is considered Microsoft's first salaried employee. McDonald left Microsoft in 1984 when he realized he was no longer a good fit for the company's growth path. He then joined Paul Allen's software company Asymetrix, which specialized in online presentations and the e-learning market.
He later joined Seattle software company Design Intelligence, which was acquired by Microsoft in 2000, and McDonald returned to Microsoft. He left the company entirely in 2011. As of 2000, his net worth was estimated at $1 million.
Steve Wood
Steve Wood, Maria Wood's husband, was the company's first general manager. He later helped found several other companies, including Paul Allen's Asymetrix, where he served as CEO and built much of the team.
Wood also founded Wireless Services, now SinglePoint, which focuses on renewable energy to "advance sustainability and public health."
Wood currently works as a volunteer firefighter in Washington state and is the owner of AirNote.
Bob Wallace
Bob Wallace joined Microsoft after seeing Bill Gates post a poster for programmers in the Seattle computer retail store where he was working. In the late 1970s, Wallace and Gates were said to have broke into a construction site and drove a bulldozer, nearly running over Gates' Porsche.
One of his technical accomplishments was helping develop an early version of the Pascal programming language while at Microsoft. He left the company in 1983 to found Quicksoft, which is considered one of the pioneers of the concept of "shareware," which is software distributed freely between users.
His shares from his time at Microsoft were once worth $15 million. Wallace died in 2002 at the age of 53.
Jim Lane
Jim Lane was a project manager at Microsoft and played a key role in establishing the "Wintel" alliance with Intel, which helped both companies dominate the personal computer market for decades.
Lane also helped develop Microsoft's Pascal and FORTRAN compilers before leaving the company in 1985. He later founded his own software company. As of 2000, his net worth was approximately $20 million.