It's one of the most iconic photos in American business.
A ragtag group of bearded weirdos assembled for a family portrait in Albuquerque.
Usually, there's a question above the photo: "Would you have invested?"
It's a trick question. You're supposed to answer no – because well, look at those people – but then you learn it's a company portrait of Microsoft from 1978.
It was taken just before the then-startup left Albuquerque for Seattle. (Microsoft couldn't find anyone willing to move to New Mexico.)
Early employee Bob Greenberg, pictured in the middle, won the free portrait after calling in a radio show and guessing the name of an assassinated president. The gang reluctantly gathered together in some of their finest attire, and American business legend was made.
We all know what happened with the two guys in the bottom left and bottom right corners -- Bill Gates, and Paul Allen. But what about the rest? We saw the question pop up on Hacker News recently, and decided to find out.
Bill Gates is now giving away the billions he made from Microsoft
We all know what happened with this guy. Bill Gates founded and built Microsoft from nothing into the most valuable technology company in the world. Along the way he amassed a fortune, which he's now giving away to all sorts of good causes.
Andrea Lewis became a fiction writer and freelance journalist
Andrea Lewis was the only person at the company that was from Albuquerque. She was a technical writer for Microsoft, which meant she wrote documents explaining Microsoft's software. She left Microsoft in 1983, eventually becoming a freelance journalist and fiction writer. Thanks in part to her Microsoft options, her net worth was estimated at $2 million by the AP.
Maria Wood sued Microsoft just 2 years later
Maria Wood was a bookkeeper for Microsoft, and married to another one of the early Microsofties in the picture. She left the company just two years later, suing it for sexual discrimination. Microsoft settled the case. After that, it doesn't look like she did much else. She raised her children and became a volunteer.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider