Founded in 1984, PC’s Limited recorded approximately $6 million in sales during its first year of operations, according to the Handbook of Texas from the Texas State Historical Association. Michael Dell’s venture into computers began long before he entered college, when he was just a teenager in Houston, Texas. His interest in business eventually led him to start a computer venture while attending the University of Texas in Austin.
He had started by selling computer components and assembling customized systems, an early venture that later grew into a company competing with established computer manufacturers. His business model focused on selling directly to consumers, allowing them to buy computers at lower prices. His parents encouraged him to study medicine, and he initially intended to pursue that field when he enrolled at the University of Texas at Austin. But his growing interest in computers made him abandon his previous plans for education. During the same period, the company continued expanding its activities by opening international offices and producing more products. A few years later, a company that began with a modest investment and computer sales in the founder’s university dorm had grown into an established computer manufacturer.
Dell was 18 when he registered PC’s Limited in January 1984, while he was a freshman at the University of Texas at Austin . In his biography for the Academy of Achievement , Dell recalled that at age 15, he bought an Apple computer and disassembled it to see how the parts were connected. An article in the University of Texas at Austin Computer Science department discussed Dell’s early business activities during his 2011 visit to the campus. It reported that he had started selling computer upgrades from his Dobie dorm room in 1983. In 1987, PC’s Limited changed its name to Dell Computer Corporation, taking the founder’s surname.
Because demand had increased and he wanted to focus on the company, at the end of his freshman year, he decided to leave the university.
