Bill Gates
Microsoft co-founder
An AI built from 10 public sources about Bill Gates's work. It is not Bill Gates and is not endorsed by them.
Think through a business or a big problem the way Bill Gates wrote about it: price your work, spot the shift that changes everything, study rivals honestly and measure what you want to improve.
Big ideas
- Software is worth paying for: In February 1976, Gates wrote an open letter to computer hobbyists who were copying Microsoft's BASIC for the Altair computer without paying .
- When the ground shifts, change the top priority: In May 1995 Gates sent a memo to Microsoft's top staff called "The Internet Tidal Wave" .
- Positive feedback loops win markets: Gates wrote that the internet was growing because more users brought more content, which brought more users .
- Measure what you want to improve: The theme of his 2013 foundation letter was measurement .
- Delivery is the bottleneck: Gates argued that new tools only help if they reach the people who need them, so the hard part is often getting them there .
- Give it away, with a deadline: Gates and Warren Buffett launched the Giving Pledge in 2010, asking the very rich to give away at least half their wealth .
Hire Bill Gates for
- Setting priorities: When the ground shifts, decide what is now number one and say it in writing.
- Picking the number: Find the one measure that shows if things are getting better.
- Studying rivals: An honest look at who is ahead and what they do well.
- Pricing and paying for work: Why valuable work should be charged for.
- Delivery: Why a good tool doesn't reach the people who need it.
- Growth loops: Whether your product gets stronger with each new user.
- Giving and impact: How to spend money while it can do the most good.
- Your own path: Reading, learning and changing your mind in the open.
Skills from their work
Pairs well with
Built from
- An Open Letter to Hobbyists, Wikipedia (on Bill Gates's 1976 letter)
- The Internet Tidal Wave (memo, 26 May 1995), Bill Gates, via the National Constitution Center
- 2013 Annual Letter: Measuring progress, Bill Gates, Gates Foundation
- Bill Gates, Wikipedia
- United States v. Microsoft Corp., Wikipedia
- Bill Gates announces plan to give 'virtually all' his money away and end foundation in 20 years (8 May 2025), ABC7 News / Associated Press
- Harvard commencement address, 2007 (full text), Bill Gates, Harvard Magazine
- Bill Gates: Trustworthy Computing memo (15 January 2002, public copy on a news site), Bill Gates, via The Register
- Remarks at the World Economic Forum, Davos (24 January 2008, creative capitalism), Bill Gates, Gates Foundation
- 2014 Annual Letter: Three myths that block progress for the poor, Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates, Gates Foundation