Before co-founding Apple, Steve Jobs’ first business venture was selling “blue boxes”—illegal devices that allowed users to make free long-distance phone calls by exploiting loopholes in the telephone system.
The Blue Box Venture:
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In 1971, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak (his future Apple co-founder) learned about “phone phreaking,” a hacking technique that manipulated the AT&T phone network using specific frequency tones.
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Inspired by John Draper (Captain Crunch), a famous phone hacker, Wozniak built a blue box that could generate the necessary tones to make free calls.
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Jobs saw the commercial potential and convinced Wozniak to produce and sell them.
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They sold blue boxes for around $150 each, making a decent profit.
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This early venture gave Jobs a taste for entrepreneurship and taught him the importance of marketing, product design, and sales.
Although illegal, this experience laid the foundation for their future business collaboration, ultimately leading to the creation of Apple Computer in 1976.
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