Microsoft did take venture money, albeit when it was further along. Microsoft began its hypergrowth in 1981, after they contracted with IBM to provide the PC's

Microsoft did take venture money, albeit when it was further along. Microsoft began its hypergrowth in 1981, after they contracted with IBM to provide the PC's operating system. It wasn't until then that they needed outside capital to support their growth. Bill Gates' high-school classmate David Marquardt invested through Technology Venture Investors (TVI) and joined Microsoft's board of directors in 1981. (He just stepped down last year.) This was several years after the company was founded in 1975, but well before the 1986 IPO. [edit: substantiation. If you check Microsoft's IPO prospectus (available in pdf here: http://www.lannigan.org/pdf/Microsoft_prospectus.pdf http://www.lannigan.org/pdf/Microsoft_prospectus.pdf), you'll see on page 30 that TVI owned 6.1% of the company just prior to the IPO.]