My Life at Apple: And the Steve I Knew

by John Couch, Jason Towne (Contributor)

In 1978, John Couch was working as a software engineer at Hewlett-Packard when a young, ambitious entrepreneur named Steve Jobs unexpectedly showed up on his doorstep. It was Steve’s second time trying to persuade John to join him at his promising startup, Apple Computer, where he needed help building a “revolutionary computer.” John was one of UC Berkeley’s first fifty computer science graduates and a leader at HP, working under the tutelage of its iconic founder, Bill Hewlett, so Steve knew he was one of the few people in the world capable of achieving such a task. He was thrilled when John agreed to help, becoming Apple’s 54th employee and, ultimately, its first VP of Software and first VP of Education. Over time, John and Steve’s business relationship would grow into an unbreakable, decades-long friendship.

Genres: Technology, Biography, Nonfiction, Business, Apple

254 pages, Hardcover

Published July 13, 2021

Reviews

[Muhammad Khan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautifully sincere retrospective

Got to learn about Apple's early day pirate adventures through the words of an experienced, visionary and humble leader, John Couch.
Lovely storytelling, dotted with some back stories on corporate challenges, most importantly sincerely paying tribute by enlightening the reader on "the Steve I knew". Just reading this book made me wish I could work at Apple or have a leader like John!

[John W Fontyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Generally interesting, although the author does reference an awful lot of information from Steve Jobs’ autobiography and the various films about his life and Apple that just about everyone already knows. The last section of the book focuses on education and I found that mostly uninteresting. I would not say it is a must-read.

[Jack Graves · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great book. Has lots of amazing lessons and funny stories from John’s life. The book is very easy to read as well. Would give this book a 3.5 if I could.

[Kristin Harkin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyable Book - Highly Recommend!!!

I’m an IT guy who is hybrid(PC and Macs) I really value the inside scoop of the times and John Couch wrote perfectly!