Apple’s third founder sold his 10% stake for $800 in 1976. He has no regrets at 91

Ronald Wayne was there at the very beginning of Apple — and then he wasn’t.

The 91-year-old is often called the company’s “forgotten founder,” the third name on a partnership agreement signed alongside Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak on April 1, 1976, that formally established Apple Computer Company. Just 12 days after putting his signature on that document, Mr. Wayne walked away, selling his 10% stake back for $800. He later received an additional $1,500 to formally forfeit any future claim to the company, bringing his total payout to $2,300.

With Apple’s market capitalization now hovering around $4 trillion, that 10% stake — had it never been diluted through incorporation, funding rounds and subsequent stock issuance — could theoretically be worth more than $400 billion today. In practice, early investors typically see their ownership percentage shrink considerably as a company grows.

Mr. Wayne, who now lives quietly in Nevada and has relied heavily on Social Security while occasionally selling rare stamps and coins, told Fortune he has no regrets.

“My success has never been defined by money,” he said in an emailed statement. “It’s been defined by acting with clarity, integrity, and sound judgment, given what I actually knew at the time.”

His exit was driven by fear of financial ruin, not indifference to Apple’s potential. The company was structured as a general partnership, meaning each partner faced unlimited personal liability for the firm’s debts. Mr. Wayne, then in his 40s, already owned a house, a car and personal savings — assets he feared could be seized if the venture collapsed. The anxiety was not unfounded: Apple’s first major order required a $15,000 loan from Jobs, and the buyer, a Bay Area computer store, had a shaky reputation for paying its bills.

Mr. Wayne had been an engineer at Atari when Jobs recruited him to help persuade Mr. Wozniak to take the leap into a commercial venture. He described himself as the “adult in the room” among the three founders — drafting Apple’s original partnership agreement and even designing the company’s first logo, a detailed illustration of Isaac Newton sitting beneath a tree, far removed from the minimalist icon the brand uses today.

Now, half a century later, he is offering that hard-won experience as counsel to a new generation of entrepreneurs. Nearly 38% of graduates in the classes of 2025 and 2026 said they are considering launching their own companies, according to a ZipRecruiter graduate survey.

“Understand exactly what you are agreeing to, particularly in a general partnership, where liability is not limited to your ownership percentage,” Mr. Wayne told Fortune. “Each partner can be held responsible for the full amount of any obligation.”

He added a blunt warning: “Never assume your exposure ends at your percentage, because it doesn’t.”

As for the decision that has followed him for five decades, Mr. Wayne has said he made the best call available to him given the information and risks he understood at the time — and that staying might have meant being “the richest man in the cemetery.”

He has also leaned into the irony of his story in a more literal way. Mr. Wayne recently partnered with Anheuser-Busch to promote the return of Busch Light Apple, a limited-edition beer whose name offered an obvious hook. In a promotional video, he gestured toward a garage stacked with cases of the brew.

“Let me show you where a man’s wealth really lies,” he said. “Yep, still a really good investment.”