Mr. Bill Fernandez, who was a member of Apple when he joined Jobs and Wozniak, talks about that time

ByFabio Bini

It is famous that Apple's predecessor Apple Computer was founded by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, but not much is known about Mr. Bill Fernandez, who brought the two together. Besides being a childhood friend of Wozu, he is also a close friend of Jobs, not only brought them together, but Fernandez who worked at Apple Computer, which was founded in the near future, interviewed him in detail at the time.

Employee # 1: Apple · The Macro
http://themacro.com/articles/2016/07/employee-1-apple/

Fernandez:
When I was five years old, my parents moved to Sunnyvale in the USA. Three across the street was Woz (Steve Wozniak) 's house. Woz 's father, Jerry, is a mathematician and a technician, and is exactly a genius. I worked at secret project of Lockheed. He has two sons and one daughter, and the older son is Woz.

Both Woz and I went to a local Homestead high school and he was 4 years older than I, so I graduated from high school a year ago when I entered. I grew up along the street, so I knew well with him. Since both electronic devices were a hobby, we soon became friends, we did a project of electronic work together. In one summer I hindered the radio interference of the television, I messed with the computer with a garage. This is connection with Woz.

Steve Jobs came in as a seventh grade when I was seventh or eighth grade of Cupertino junior high school. Both he and I were very shy and philosophical, they were drawn to each other and they started swinging quickly.

Q:
Do you have any special occasions such as being angry about Jobs' character?

Fernandez:
I can not remember this especially. When I was a junior high school student, I often came in and out of each other's house, my mother thought of him as my fifth son. It was my home that Jobs learned about Japanese art. Japanese woodgrain pattern, clean lines and so on. This had a great influence on his way of thinking and preference.

Q:
How did you get to know Jobs and Wozniak?

ByMac_filko

Fernandez:
I am familiar with Woz since I was five years old. Is it about 12 or 3 years old when I became friends with Jobs? After that, I and Jobs decided to attend Homestead High School. When I was a sophomore in high school I started a project with Woz.

The house opposite Woz was Taylor's house. Mr. Taylor operated a shop that sells electronic parts, but when he finished the store he moved the electronic parts to the garage. So I said "Taylor, you need transistors and capacitors," Taylor helped.

One day, Jobs came by bicycle and went to Taylor's shop for a two-seater and got the parts I wanted. Afterwards crossing the street, Woz and the electronic workmates were washing the car, at that time I introduced Jobs to them.

Q:
Great. Will the two of you immediately be friends?

Fernandez:
Although it is not a light stone fire. As you know, they got over each other and started the project together. I knew that Woz likes punk, and Jobs was also thinking anti-systematically. What they first worked on together was like "to make a middle finger" (laugh) I put a huge poster on the roof of the school.

Q:
Woz is four years older than you, is not it? What was he doing at that time?

Fernandez:
Certainly, he went to Colorado province and should have been kicked out. After that, I worked at a company that lent his computer for a while for a while. After that, I went to the University of California at Berkeley, and then I am in the era of the famous Blue Box (a gadget that makes phone calls for free).

Q:
What were you doing at that time?

Fernandez:
I graduated from high school, worked at Siliconix, then at Antex. Then I went to college and worked at HP but quit in three years.

Q:
What on HP?

Fernandez:
He was an electronic engineer at HP's Electronics Laboratory. That was the department responsible for the computer. The $ 395 device called "HP-35" was a big hit when I was a high school student. Although it was a huge terminal, it was portable with battery drive. At that time, Woz worked as an engineer at HP. I have a call from Woz about when I was a university and I am asking whether I will participate in HP's summer job (internship). During the summer I worked at HP and worked for HP for 3 years as it was. Both Woz and I were developing electronic computers.

Q:
At what point did Woz and Jobs come together and decided to start Apple?

Fernandez:
I was with Woz in the HP era. Woz was developing the game "Pong" after working hours had ended. Pong who was extremely popular at pizzerias and restaurants, Woz designed the circuit to display on TV.

After that, Woz started making computers for himself and joined the computer club of Stanford University's Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC). Several things happening at the same time, he showed off his computer at the meeting. Jobs also became interested in this computer at some point. Jobs and Woz do not know whether Jobs and Wos talked about his own computer, but Jobs always said that "we make electronic circuit of printed circuit board, build up computer parts and get your own computer I think that I will sell it as a finished product to those who can not do.It proves how closely people with computer love are connected and we want to do for them. This is the beginning of Apple Computer.

Q:
At what point did they invite you to the Apple Computer?

Fernandez:
It is as soon as they set up a company. Is it 1976 or 1977? I established a company and need an employee. "I quit HP and work in the job garage of Jobs?" I asked.

Q:
How was it to compare wages between HP and Apple?

Fernandez:
I thought that even if I could not get any money. I can not remember clearly, but I think I got a sufficient amount. The problem is that HP is a special electronics company. Wonderful company on a huge, salary is good, it was a very stable company more than anything else. However, I felt that Apple's work was very interesting, at that time I lived in my parents house and had to let go of the car, so I was in financial freedom. Even if I failed, I thought it would be okay if I looked for another job.

Q:
At that time, how old are you?

Fernandez:
I am 22 years old.

Q:
I see. So you said "OK". How was the public thinking about the technology startup of those days? Why did you want to jump in to Apple?

Fernandez:
At that time it was the age of "hardware" nothing. Basically there is no software startup. It was because it was called "Silicon Valley" because there were many small shops that sell hardware startups and parts.

Of course, there were huge companies that had many engineers like HP. And there were plenty of people to raise new business independently from big companies like HP. Its movement has been in the 1940s and 1950s, and Apple's founding in the 1970s. In other words, at least for over 30 years, the hardware business has been kept ongoing. In such an environment, both Woz, Jobs and I grew up.

Q:
The environment fostered your sensibility. Is there anything special like Jobs or Wozu that made you think "let's work with them, okay?"

Fernandez:
I have been doing various projects with Woz and Jobs for a long time. They are my closest friends to me, my childhood friend. And my best friends tried to do a very great job. The wonderful opportunity to build a computer with our own hands was exactly great.

ByFabio Bini

Q:
What was the first job you did when you entered Apple?

Fernandez:
My title was "electronic engineer". The original meaning of a title represents an intelligent and competent person. However, what I actually did was chores. Jobs was always given directives to clean up and deliver parts.

Q:
How long did you finish such a chore?

Fernandez:
We worked in the garage, then moved to the first building. The address was surely "20863 Stevens Creek Boulevard Suite, B3".

Q:
It's amazing memory.

Fernandez:
It is right next to the 1st store in the Good Earth restaurant. He always was there.

Soon the company got narrowed and made the second move. I rented a building in Bandley Drive, two blocks away. Over the course of several years, the company gradually grew bigger and began to rent eight buildings to Bandley Drive. But at the time Woz, Jobs and I were in the garage. Woz still lives in an apartment and has been working at HP. He did not want to quit HP.

Q:
I did not know.

Fernandez:
Ultimately, Mike Marka says, "Woz, you have to quit HP and work full time at Apple, we are investing.I am also investing money and you do so I should persuade him.

Q:
How long did such a situation last?

Fernandez:
It's about a year and a half. After moving to a small office, I became more serious and hired secretaries, accountants, engineers, industrial designers, and manufacturing engineers. Just pulled out Rod Holt from Atari at that time, he designed a great power supply for Apple II.

In just one and a half years, Apple has grown and diversified in every way. It has many buildings, many departments, many employees, and the international color has become rich. However, my work has hardly changed, I am a little tired of it.

Q:
After quitting Apple, I went to Japan and then returned to Apple again.

Fernandez:
Apple has changed a lot. It really was a different company. I was looking for a job and Jobs put me in the Mac team. I soon realized that the Mac team was a very cool group.

Q:
You were in the Mac team until the 1990s.

Fernandez:
It was 1981 back to Apple, until 1994. Unlike before, I was in charge of UI design work and I found something very interesting. In the 1990 's, UI design work seems like a very new job. The UI design that still remains in the viewer of the Mac OS is what I was in charge at the time.

Q:
How do you feel about looking back to Apple?

Fernandez:
It was a very complicated event, but basically I think "it was good."