Here's How The Founders Of Apple Actually Met

Life would be very different if Apple had never been founded. The smartphone as we know it would not be a thing, smartwatches would not have become as widely available to the public, and the personal computer you're most likely reading this article on may not even exist. Steve Jobs first founded what would be one of the largest tech companies in 1976 with his business partner, Steve Wozniak. The two met on a chance occasion, and it's a good thing fate was in their favor, or we might not have had the iPhone, the MacBook, or the iPod.

A mutual friend initially introduced Jobs and Wozniak before they founded Apple together. Although the two didn't always get along in their partnership, they respected each other for the different skills they contributed to the company. "I only want to know interesting people, like Steve Jobs, for instance," Wozniak said during an interview on Guy Kawasaki's Remarkable People podcast.

Jobs was only 21 at the time when he met 26-year-old Wozniak. According to Mental Floss, Bill Fernandez, a mutual friend of the two, thought that they would get along because of similar interests in electronics and practical jokes. Fernandez and Jobs were walking around the neighborhood they grew up in when they came across Wozniak washing his car in his driveway. The two were introduced and became friends almost instantly.

The first project they worked on together was a 1971 design called the "Blue Box," as explained in The Atlantic. The project was a phone-hacking device that allowed you to make long-distance calls for free — think Skype before Skype.

After founding Apple Computer, Inc. in Jobs' family garage, Wozniak became the technical genius behind Apple while Jobs focused on product design and marketing the company. Their mutual friend, Fernandez, wasn't left behind either and became one of the first employees at Apple as a technician, according to TechRepublic.