Although it was decided to go to the United States to buy Apple, it was not a temporary go. You must know that Lei Weidong now has less than 2 million Hong Kong dollars in cash, which is because Jiaqiao's rent has just arrived.

The rest of the money needs to be mortgaged by the property. At the same time, it will take a while to convert Hong Kong dollars into US dollars.

There is also the details of Apple, I don't know where the specific address is, which will take time to check, but because Wu Bo is here, Lei Weidong doesn't need to worry about the loan being done.

As for the details of Apple, at the suggestion of Uncle Wu, Lei Weidong hired a private detective to investigate.

In the 70s in Hong Kong, private detectives can be said to be booming, the main reason is because the corruption of the Hong Kong police in this period is too serious, the police are the black, the society, at this time, the four major detectives of the white Chinese can be said to be in Hong Kong, and the four major families in the underworld can also be said to dominate Hong Kong.

And the relationship between Inspector 40 and the four family owners is very good, and in Hong Kong it can be said that the soldiers and bandits are a family, and the police are gangsters.

During this period, it can be said that Hong Kong citizens had a serious distrust of the police, and they did not go to the police at all if something happened.

In the words of the citizens, not only does it not work to find the police, but they can also be extorted by the police. It's better to find a big brother on the road.

In this case, Hong Kong's private detectives are developing rapidly, and there are hundreds of large and small private detective agencies in Hong Kong, until the establishment of the Hong Kong Independent Commission Against Corruption, which cleaned up the Hong Kong police force and reversed the image of the Hong Kong police, and the private detective agency slowly declined in the 90s.

Private detectives can say that as long as they give money, they can do anything, not to mention such a simple thing as checking the address of a company, that is, secretly shooting, catching, and raping, Wu Bo just found a private detective to socialize with a deposit of 20,000 yuan, and in just a few days, the details of Apple were sent to Lei Weidong.

On January 22, 1977, Lei Weidong, Wu Bo and Feng Haiyang got on a plane to the United States.

Wu Bo and Lei Weidong don't know English, as for Lei Weidong's last life, Lei Wei had a headache when he mentioned English, except for the first year of junior high school, Lei Wei's English has never passed.

There are a lot of cram schools that don't work, and they can't learn English Lei Wei alive or dead, so it can be said that they are seriously biased. Of the papers with a total score of 680 points in the high school entrance examination, Lei Wei scored 565 points, while the English 100-point paper only scored more than 30 points, crying.

The same goes for the college entrance examination. Lei Weidong would have passed the high school entrance exam, and if it weren't for good luck, it would have been impossible to pass.

(After the students sitting in the front row of Lei Weidong handed in the papers, the invigilator put all the papers submitted in advance on the front row of the table, and the answer sheets were clearly seen. Now that I think about it, why didn't I buy a lottery ticket at that time. ）

On the plane, Lei Weidong flipped through Apple's information, which Lei Weidong bought with money, although it was more expensive, Lei Weidong felt that it was worth it, compared to the value of Apple, the cost of information was only a drop in the bucket.

Apple was founded on April 1, 1976, April Fool's Day, when Steve Jobs, 21, Steve Wozniak, 26, and Ronald Wayne, 41, signed a 10-page contract.

The shareholding ratio of the three is 45%, 45% and 10% respectively. Apple is based in Cupertino, California, the heart of Silicon Valley, a fertile ground for entrepreneurship.

In the early days of Apple Computer, there was a lack of funds, Jobs sold his Volkswagen, and Woz sold his HP computers. They raised a total of $1,250 and began their journey to produce Apple computers, which at the time were Apple I motherboards.

Shortly after its founding, Apple received an order for 50 computers. Jobs and Wads began to get into a frenzy.

But Mr. Wayne, who was 20 years older, found that the company was suddenly heavily indebted — Mr. Jobs had borrowed $5,000 in cash and $15,000 worth of spare parts in the company's name.

Wayne realized that if the partnership went out of business, the debt would weigh on him as well. In this way, he resolutely asked for a withdrawal of shares. In the end, Jobs bought 10% of his shares for $800.

It was April 12, 1976, just 12 days after Apple was founded. (It is estimated that Wayne will regret his suicide in later generations)

This is undoubtedly worse for Apple, which is already short of funds.

After many twists and turns, Jobs searched for investors everywhere, and after being introduced, Jobs met Tang Wallen, an investor in Sequoia Capital.

Mr. Don felt that Mr. Jobs looked like a "human rebel" at the time, and that Apple's start-up plan was childish and therefore uninvested.

However, Don Wallen recommended Mike Markkula.

Makula worked as a marketing manager at Intel Corp. and became a well-known young millionaire in Silicon Valley after reaping huge returns on his employee pre-emptive stock options in the company's initial public offering.

At this time, Macura was 38 years old, had just retired from Intel, lived a leisurely life, and was looking for investment opportunities.

Jobs' passion was quickly spotted by Makulla. Soon after, in August 1976, Makula decided to invest $92,000 in his own name, and together with Jobs, he applied for a bank loan of $250,000 from Bank of America, with Makula as a guarantee.

On January 3, 1977, the new "Apple Computer Co., Ltd." (hereinafter referred to as Apple Computer Inc.) was incorporated, and the shareholding ratio was adjusted to Steve Jobs, Steve Watts, and Marcula with 30% each, and engineer Rod Holt (10%).

In other words, the new Apple has just been established, and Apple's current market value is just hundreds of thousands of dollars.

This time, Lei Weidong brought 800,000 US dollars to the United States, and he could buy Apple, but considering that Apple is not as short of money as last year.

It is estimated that $1 million can buy 50% of the shares. After all, now Apple has entered the path of healthy development.

By '81, that money was worth more than $1 billion. It can be said that it is hundreds of times the profit, and it is estimated that except for Microsoft, there will be no such good investment opportunities in a few years.

Silicon Valley is another name for the Santa Clara Valley in California, USA, where high-tech businesses gather.

Located in northern California, south of the San Francisco Bay Area; It generally includes the cities of Fremont in Santa Clara County and the East San Francisco Bay Area.

It was originally a place where silicon-based semiconductor chips were researched and produced, hence the name.

Although the United States and other high-tech areas around the world have since grown and expanded, Silicon Valley is still a pioneer in high-tech technology innovation and development.

Because there are about 1,500 computer companies in Silicon Valley, it is characterized by relying on some world-renowned universities such as Stanford, Berkeley, and Caltech, which are first-class universities in the United States with strong scientific research strength, based on high-tech small and medium-sized companies, and owning large companies such as Apple, Intel, Hewlett-Packard, Cisco, Lucent, and Nvidia, integrating science, technology, and production.

It can be said that Silicon Valley is the high-tech center of the United States and even the world, and in 1977, Silicon Valley, like Apple, was just starting out, but with the rapid development of Apple, it will become the leader of American high-tech in just a few years.

On January 24, 1977, on the Cupertino Infinity Loop in Silicon Valley, a young man named Li Ming was walking back and forth. From time to time, I raised my hand to look at my watch, and looked anxiously at the intersection not far away.

Li Ming, 29 years old, is a native of Hong Kong. Working as a private investigator in a detective agency in Hong Kong, the company received a strange order a few days ago. A teenager spent 20,000 Hong Kong dollars to find an American company called Apple.

Although the company is strange about such a list, it is in line with the principle that the customer is God's purpose. Li Ming immediately came to the United States to check the information.

Although the information provided by the customer is very detailed. Just say that the company is in Silicon Valley, USA, and the company's name is Apple.

The company has a shareholder named Steve Jobs, who mainly sells several information about the computer company. However, as a detective with seven or eight years of experience, Li Ming only took three days to find the company that the customer was looking for.

It took another two days to get a clear picture of Apple's situation. He also became friends with Steve Jobs.

Today, that strange customer is about to arrive, Li Ming looked at his watch, anxiously looked at the intersection in the distance, it was almost 10 o'clock, and there was no one yet. Is the plane late, or is there a traffic jam on the road? As soon as I thought about this, I saw a taxi not far away speeding towards this direction.

With the sharp sound of brakes, the taxi stopped not far from Li Ming, and three Orientals got out of the car. And the leader was the teenager.

"Hello, Mr. Ray, welcome to Cupertino!" Li Ming hurriedly ran over to say hello: "It's been hard all the way!" ”

"Without your hard work, if it weren't for Detective Lee's help, I wouldn't have been able to find Apple so quickly." Did Jobs agree to my investment? Lei Weidong asked:

"How can you not agree, you must know that the new Apple has not attracted a single foreign investment since its establishment, and now the company is running on all the funds raised by themselves, if Mr. Lei can invest, the company's shareholders will definitely agree."

Li Ming explained, raised his head and pointed to a six-story building in front of him and said, "That's the building, it's coming soon."

Apple now apparently doesn't have the money to build or rent an entire six-story building. It's just a rented office on the first floor. At the door of the company, Lei Weidong saw Jobs. He was standing in front of the company, and not only Mike Makula was there.

Apple has yet to officially launch the first personal computer in human history, and in April this year, Apple unveiled the Apple II at the first West Coast Computer Fair. The Apple II became the first personal computer in human history.

It can be said that Apple has just moved out of the garage and has just had its own office space, and at present, Steve Jobs and Mike Marcula are lobbying for venture fund investment, which is the best opportunity for Lei Weidong.

"Hello, Mr. Jobs, Mr. Mike Macura," Lei Weidong greeted the two in Mandarin and shook hands. Feng Haiyang hurriedly translated the words.

It's really troublesome to communicate with Americans who don't know English, and even if there is a translator, it's not very fluent, but fortunately, everyone doesn't care about this aspect of things, and after some exchanges, Lei Weidong followed Jobs to Apple.