Based on the experiences of HP, Apple and Facebook what elements of skills and expertise do you think a new venture requires?Hewlett Packard The entrepreneurial team William Hewlett and David Packard, founders of the famous computing and printer company HP, are oft-quoted examples of the garage stereotype. But digging beneath the stereotype soon reveals a more complex story, in which relationships with large companies can be important right from the start. Often entrepreneurs have worked for large companies beforehand and continue to use relationships afterwards. While Hewlett came fairly directly out of Stanford University’s laboratories, Packard worked at General Electric and Litton Industries. They built extensively on their previous social relationships and ties when setting up HP. The company used Litton Industries’ foundries early on, and later used relationships at General Electric to recruit experienced managers.

Apple Steve Jobs has often been celebrated as the heroic innovator and entrepreneur behind Apple, but he too relied heavily on external relationships. From the very beginning Apple computer did not only involve Jobs, but his founding partner Steve Wozniak. They too started in a garage, but similar to HP built heavily on their experiences with more established organisations. Wozniak worked at HP and Jobs at Atari and this helped them gain access to crucial knowledge and contacts for the development of the start-up.

When their venture had become more established, they left their employers and incorporated Apple Computer. Apple’s much later successes with the iPod and later the iPhone and iPad have also relied on important external relationships.

The music player application SoundJam MP was externally acquired early on and an external entrepreneur was vital for developing iTunes. Apple also initially worked with the then leading mobile telephone maker Motorola to develop a smartphone.