Pixar was almost sold for scrap
Steve Jobs kept writing the cheques.
When Steve Jobs bought Pixar from Lucasfilm in 1986, it was a hardware company that couldn't sell its computers. Year after year he covered the losses — reportedly more than $50 million of his own money — while a small team quietly perfected computer animation. In 1995, Toy Story opened. Pixar went public a week later and Jobs became a billionaire again.
Editor's Note
Patient capital, paired with a team obsessed with craft, rarely fails on a long enough timeline.
