Apple’s forgotten cofounder Ronald Wayne sold his 10% stake, now worth $300B, for just $800, and has no regrets

In most accounts, Jobs and Wozniak are remembered as the two college dropouts-turned-geniuses who launched the Apple Computer Company. Yet in the company’s earliest days there was a lesser-known third partner who played a critical role in getting the business off the ground.

On April 1, 1976, Wayne, an engineer with experience at Atari, was invited by Jobs and Wozniak to join their fledgling venture, according to U.S. business magazine Inc. The partnership agreement was signed after a two-hour discussion. Jobs and Wozniak each took a 45% stake, while Wayne received 10%. His involvement was partly to serve as a mediator in case the two younger co-founders disagreed.

Then in his forties, Wayne, who described himself as "the adult in the room," provided a sense of balance to the Steves. "He was the voice of reason amid the youthful exuberance of his co-founders, providing valuable insights into business and legal matters," business and tech publication The Silicon Review said.

Ronald Wayne, Apple's cofounder. Photo from Wayne's Facebook

Wayne was also responsible for drafting Apple’s first contract, according to tech site Cult of Mac. He outlined the roles of each co-founder: Wozniak would handle electrical engineering, Jobs would oversee marketing and he himself would manage mechanical engineering and documentation.

However, less than two weeks later he made a pivotal decision: he left Apple and sold his 10% stake for $800, later receiving $1,500 in exchange for relinquishing any further claims to the company. "A decision that might be one of the biggest missed financial opportunities in history," Fortune magazine wrote. That 10% stake is now worth $300 billion due to Apple’s $3 trillion current market value.

He told the Steves that while he wished to help where possible, he could no longer be part of the company. One of his lasting contributions was designing Apple’s first logo, an ink drawing of British scientist Isaac Newton sitting under a tree with an apple hanging above his head. He signed the image, but Jobs had it removed to erase any ties he still had to the company.

Wayne’s decision to leave the company is often scrutinized in hindsight, but he believed it was the right move at the time. In a 2016 interview with BBC, he defended his decision, stating that it was based on sound reasoning. He said he "felt the enterprise would be successful," but also that there could be "bumps on the road" to that success.

In Apple’s early days Jobs borrowed $15,000 to supply "50 or 100 computers" to the Byte Shop, a retail outlet with a history of not paying its bills, Wayne told Business Insider in 2017. "If we didn’t get paid, how are we going to pay back $15,000?" he said.

"Jobs and Woz didn’t have two nickels to rub together."

"I, on the other hand, had a house, a car, and a bank account—which meant that I was on the hook if that thing blew up."

In addition to the financial risks, Wayne was also concerned about his career trajectory. He believed that Apple’s success would propel Jobs and Wozniak forward, while he would be "standing in the shadow of giants" and would never have a project of his own, he told Business Insider.

Steve Jobs, Ronald Wayne and Steve Wozniak (left to right). Photo from Instagram

"If I stayed at Apple, I would have probably ended up the richest man in the cemetery," the now 91-year-old said. "I would wind up in the documentation department, shuffling papers for the next 20 years of my life, and that was not the future that I saw for myself."

For that reason he said he "never had the slightest pangs of regret." "Because I made the best decision with the information available to me at the time. My contribution was not so great that I felt I have been [cheated] in any way."

While he expressed no remorse about walking away from the U.S. tech giant, Wayne admitted to at least one regret: selling his copy of the original signed contract for $500. In 2011, that same document sold for $1.6 million at auction, another "what if" added to his story.

These days, to make ends meet, he relies on renting out part of his property and collecting his monthly Social Security check. "I’ve never been rich, but I’ve never been hungry either."