Apple lost $1B in 1997 — Jobs' WWDC answer on where strategy starts
petesena · x · 2026-11-07
Pete Sena revisits Apple's darkest hour — a $1.045B net loss in FY1997 on $7.081B in sales — and Steve Jobs' May 1997 WWDC answer on where Apple's strategy starts.
- "You've got to start with the customer experience and work backward to the technology, not the other way around."
- The test: hold the product up and ask "Do you want this?"
- Jobs owned the mistake: "I've made this mistake more than anyone in this room, and I've got the scar tissue to prove it."
A reminder for today's AI-first founders to invert the usual tech-first approach.
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