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An Anti-Virus Empire and Lawless Antics š¾
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Finlay Williams
October 25, 2024
2 minute wacky businesses, you can tell your buddies about š§
You know how most antivirus software is just quietly humming in the background, keeping your laptop from going full Terminator on you? Well, John McAfee created that whole world. McAfee Antivirus was basically the Wild West of cybersecurity. At its peak, the company was making over $500 million annually, just for keeping your grandmaās Windows XP virus-free. There is a twist: John wasnā like most founders and had someā¦ eccentricities.
Anti Virus and Criminal Antics š§
John McAfee wasnāt your average tech founder, he was the kind of guy who lived like he was in an action movie. Born on a U.S. Army base in the UK, John was a brilliant, chaotic mind who drifted through careers before landing in Silicon Valley. Before McAfee Associates, he was a NASA programmer, a door-to-door salesman, and even a coder at Xerox. His career was a bizarre montage of odd jobs and risky ventures. But one thing was clear: he was a hustler.
In 1987, when nobody really knew what a computer virus was, John saw the potential. He figured, āHey, I bet companies would pay big bucks to make sure their shiny new PCs didnāt get bricked by a floppy disk virus.ā So, he started McAfee Associates out of his Santa Clara home.
What are the nuggets? š
š® Origin: McAfee Associates kicked off in 1987, right in John's living room. Instead of building a big office, he kept it scrappy and agile, which allowed him to move fast. He didnāt have venture backing, just his own capital and a drive to make antivirus software mainstream. Most didnāt even know what a virus was at that point, but John was selling the cure before anyone knew they were sick.
š® Inflection Moment: The Morris Worm in 1988. It was like a digital wildfire, and McAfee Antivirus was suddenly in high demand. John had the product everyone needed, and he capitalised hard, making sure McAfee became synonymous with āvirus protection.ā This was his big break. He was in the right place at the right time, with the right solution.
š® Funding: John didnāt go the traditional route of seed rounds or Series A. He bootstrapped until 1992, then hit the public markets with an IPO. $80 million was secured, and just like that, McAfee was playing in the big leagues. No VC breathing down his neck, just a fat stack of cash to scale the business aggressively.
š® Big Moves: The cash injection allowed him to do what smaller competitors couldnāt, he outspent and out-marketed them. There were no flashy ads, just relentless positioning as the go-to for virus protection. He even made deals to pre-install McAfee software on PCs, which was practically unheard of at the time. The freemium model was the real killer. Let companies try it for free, and once they realised they needed it, they were locked in.
š® Post-McAfee Madness: After cashing out his stake in 1994, John went full rogue. He invested in all kinds of ventures, from yoga retreats to herbal antibiotics. His Belize escapade was potentially the pinnacle: he moved there, set up a jungle compound, surrounded himself with armed guards, and got deep into experimenting with drug manufacturing (he was trying to create a "natural Viagra," no joke). Accusations flew about illegal labs, he was wanted for questioning in connection with his neighbour's murder, and John went on the run. He swam across a river, fled to Guatemala, faked a heart attack to buy time, and somehow escaped to the U.S. Later in life the SEC came after him for āpump n dumpā schemes. When they came for him, he was on a yacht in the Caribbean.
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