Bright young technie with a ruthless entrepreneurial streak. After cutting a deal with IBM in the 1980s, his business exploded, becoming the world's leading software company. Gates had the world at his feet. He could have become a legend, creating software that people would love and idolize him for. Instead, he fluffed it. Microsoft became synonymous with buggy software and clunky overweight operating systems, and in 2013 - to the relief of almost the entire web development community - finally went bust. Gates, by then a broken man, spent the final years of his life in a mental asylum, where he was rumoured to tell anyone who would listen that "Internet Explorer really is the world's best browser".
Not really a failure, but not much of a success either, compared to that other company he got involved with later.
I think there is perhaps where the book or articles might lie - "ok, now you've made it big - tell us about the times you didn't". Like PG's art gallery venture.
"ok, now you've made it big - tell us about the times you didn't"
That's better than the "Founders that almost made it" idea. Knowing that they had it in them to succeed makes their failures more instructive. It also lends some credibility to their analysis of why they failed.
Bright young technie with a ruthless entrepreneurial streak. After cutting a deal with IBM in the 1980s, his business exploded, becoming the world's leading software company. Gates had the world at his feet. He could have become a legend, creating software that people would love and idolize him for. Instead, he fluffed it. Microsoft became synonymous with buggy software and clunky overweight operating systems, and in 2013 - to the relief of almost the entire web development community - finally went bust. Gates, by then a broken man, spent the final years of his life in a mental asylum, where he was rumoured to tell anyone who would listen that "Internet Explorer really is the world's best browser".