Bill Gates Sr. Helped Howard Schultz Buy Starbucks In 1987 By Towering Over A Rival Investor: 'This Kid Is Going To Realize His Dream'

Starbucks Corp. (NASDAQ:SBUX) might never have grown beyond six Seattle coffee shops if not for Bill Gates Sr., the towering attorney, who stepped in when Howard Schultz lacked the cash and the clout to buy the company in 1987.

What Happened: Schultz, then 33, had 60 days to raise $3.8 million after Starbucks' founders offered to sell the chain. One month in, he had only half the money, and a deep-pocketed investor from his previous venture, Il Giornale, swooped in with a higher $4 million bid. "I had no money. Nothing," Schultz later recalled at a Summit event in 2018.

A lawyer friend sent Schultz to meet his firm's senior partner, six-foot-seven Bill Gates Sr., father of Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) co-founder Bill Gates. After hearing Schultz's story, Gates Sr. marched him across the street to confront the rival bidder. ...