From Microsoft’s mail room to the board room

Raymond Chen

In the early 1980’s, Microsoft moved its headquarters from downtown Bellevue to Northup Way in Bellevue, a building which later served as a training center (Microsoft University) and is now the North Campus of Bellevue Community College. This is the building in which the infamous Bill Gates Tiger Beat-style photo was taken, and the one I told a story about some years ago.

At the time, the company was still very small, and the task of managing the relocation was shared among all the employees. After everybody settled in at the new building, it became apparent that the mail volume was barely a trickle. In particular, checks were not coming in, which is kind of an important part of running a business.

In the excitement of moving, nobody remembered to file a Change of Address form with the Post Office. A visit to the old Bellevue offices revealed a huge mound of mail at the old location.

A Change of Address was quickly filed, but in the meantime, Steve Ballmer became the company mailman. Every day, he would drive to the old offices, pick up the mail that had accumulated, dump it in the trunk of his car, then deliver it to the Northup offices.

(Today’s story is in recognition of the 238th birthday of the United States Postal Service.)

Raymond Chen

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