No. 010 · 1986 · San Rafael

Pixar

A $135,000 computer nobody wanted. Then a short about a lamp.

Sold to Disney for $7.4B

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Make my startup a legend
  1. 1 A film studio sells off its computer division.
  2. 2 Steve Jobs buys it for about $5M. Then funds it.
  3. 3 The plan: sell $135,000 computers.
  4. 4 To sell them, the team makes shorts.
  5. 5 He keeps paying. Millions. For years.
  6. 6 1995. A full film about toys.
  7. 7 The first fully computer-animated feature. A smash.
  8. 8 The side project was the company.
Founders
Ed Catmull and Alvy Ray Smith, backed by Steve Jobs
Founded
1986, San Rafael
What they do
Animated films, from Toy Story to Inside Out.

The story

Jobs bought Lucasfilm's computer division and tried to sell its expensive graphics hardware. The short films made to show it off turned out to be the real business, and Toy Story proved it in 1995. Disney bought the studio in 2006.