TMO Background Mode: Interview with Allegis Capital Partner Jean-Louis Gassée

Jean-Louis Gassée is currently a V.C. partner with Allegis Capital. He’s best known, however, for taking over the Macintosh division in 1985, his startup of Be Inc. and his highly respected Monday Note, a technical commentary. Jean-Louis tells the story about how, as a precocious youth in Paris he built crystal AM radios and vacuum tubes. Later, after some “interesting jobs,” he joined Hewlett-Packard (France) in 1968 to launch HP’s first desktop computer, the 9100A. Jean-Louis’s success as an electronics geek eventually led to a job at Data General then the lead executive job for Apple France. Jean-Louis then came to the U.S., and his time in Cupertino is legendary. Join me as this computer pioneer chats about Apple and Macs, past and present.