How Bill Hewlett And I Wound Up In A Palo Alto Garage
[Ed. note: In January 1939, five years after he graduated from Stanford, David Packard cofounded Hewlett-Packard Co. with former classmate William Hewlett. The two friends’ original partnership arrangement was so informal that neither man is sure what date it was signed. And like many new companies, Hewlett-Packard teetered on the brink of financial disaster. During the first year, Hewlett paid for parts to build the firm’s first product, and Packard lived off his wife’s earnings. Both men were trained as engineers. Packard, for example, earned his master’s degree from Stanford at the same time he was trying to get his fledging company off the ground. But Hewlett did most of the actual marketing, while Packard did most of the design work for the firm’s early products. After a rocky start, the combi notion eventually proved fruitful, and the ...
