I had built the first 80-column video card but I still hadn’t decided on a name! Grant (Jasmin), my business partner, and I put our heads together and came up with SmarTerm®, an amalgamation of “Smart Terminal”.
Things were moving rather quickly with respect to our cash needs, and it became clear that we needed capital for growth. One day it hit me: it’s time I approached Woz for money – he had a couple hundred million dollars from Apple’s IPO, and I was certain he’d be willing to invest some into ALS. I called Woz and asked him to lunch and he said he was happy to join me. I kept the reason for the meeting undisclosed. Woz showed up at our office and Dick, Bob, Grant and I all accompanied him to a 5-star French restaurant called Le Papillon. Reservations were handled by our purchasing agent, Johnny Viega. Johnny was one of Apple’s savvy purchasing agents, was extremely excellent at his job, and I’d lured him away from Apple to join ALS (Johnny had helped with the original purchasing Apple provided when we built our first batch of SmarTerm®s).
Johnny was good friends with the owner of Le Papillon and arranged for us to be booked into the restaurant’s private dining room. Lunch went very smoothly with special dishes prepared just for our private function. Wait staff would appear and tidy up our table, swapping dirty ashtrays for clean ones and constantly topping off our water, wine and other drinks. When dessert was served, Woz took one bite and proclaimed with a wrinkled expression on his face: “well, whatever it is, it’s inedible!”. Upon which I blanched, thinking no, please God, don’t let me blow this! I asked Woz if he’d care for anything else, but he declined. Now I was starting to feel desperate.
I had planned on asking Woz for money at the end of dessert while we were sipping espressos. But now I wasn’t sure if the timing was right. So, I said nothing. Lunch concluded, costing us $250, and we piled into our car to return to the office. I was in a near panic state now. Our meeting with Woz was nearly over and I could see the concern on my partner’s faces: it was time to fish or cut bait! As I walked Woz back to his car back at the office, I blurted out: “Woz, I’m raising expansion capital for ALS. Could I get you to invest $250K into us?” Woz smiled and said: “Yes! What took you so long? I’ve been waiting our entire lunch meeting for you to ask!” I think my heart might have stopped for 2 or 3 seconds and a wave of relief coursed through me. Woz promised a check for $250K which came later in the week.
I offered Woz a seat on the board, which he accepted.
Excerpt from https://books.by/john-buck
