Catalyst outlined how Civo’s CEO, Mark Boost, chose Tampa’s Armature Works as a perfect location for Civo Navigate due to its budding tech community. It then leads to how Steve Wozniak is widely considered a pioneer due to his role in the personal computer revolution and the topics he covered as he kickstarted Navigate.

“Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak kicked off Civo Navigate Tuesday morning and provided attendees with an inside look into how he developed and designed the Apple I and Apple II, which became one of the first mass-produced and highly successful microcomputers, in the mid to late 1970s He discussed misconceptions promoted by feature films based on the life of his former business partner, the late Steve Jobs.”

Like many great friendships in life, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak were connected through a friend of Wozniak’s; his name was Fernandez, who played different parts throughout the life of Woz and Apple. The founders first met in 1971 and discovered a shared interest in Bob Dylan through Wozniak’s collection.

“He (Fernandez) said, ‘he (Jobs) likes pranks and electronics,’” relayed Wozniak. “And Steve wasn’t that much of a prankster or creator. I took Steve to my house – he was 16 years old – and he didn’t have any albums. I showed him all the Bob Dylan albums … and this became a big part of our lives. We would drive long distances to get Dylan memorabilia, go to concerts and things like that. That was the start of it.”

Who would have ever thought a basic, black-and-white game of Pong in a bowling alley would spur on such creativity and imagination within Wozniak to replicate the game at home, which played a very important part in the Apple I journey.

“One day, I went into a bowling alley with a girlfriend, and there was a game called Pong sitting there,” Wozniak said. “A little black and white TV and paddles for two people to play. I said, ‘oh my gosh, a television could be an output device. I said I was going to build Pong, and I built it out of 28 $1 chips. I took it and showed it to my friends, it was kind of impressive, and I played it on a TV set. That was my first time finding an output device that cost $0. You already owned a TV.”

After the successes of Apple I, Jobs and Wozniak created the Apple Computer Company in 1976, and the rest was history.

Click here to learn more about how Apple Co-founder Steve Wozniak kicked off Civo Navigate.