Not long after
their initial visit, Towers gave Jones a check for 200 thousand
dollars. The rest was history.
Another "Fortune" story was the first among several of the more
recent articles to raise in Matthew a curious caution. According
to Nicholas Whitley, a science teacher at Sunnyvale High School,
"Jones was a rebel. He never wanted to participate in what the
rest of the class was focused on. He wanted to do everything
himself, on his own." Whitley admitted, however, that had Jones
been like the rest of the kids, Sunnyvale High would never have
become, thanks to its simple all-in-one design, one of the
biggest education customers of the Mate computer - or any
computer, for that matter. His main concern was Jones's
leadership skills: "I wonder about Wallaby's long-term success.
He's a bright kid, with a knack for divining opportunity, but as
a company grows, I'm wondering if he'll be able to handle it."
A month-old "Business Week" article crystallized Matthew's
caution. A profile on Jones commented on his biting rivalry with
ICP, the world's largest computer manufacturer. When Jones was
queried about whether Wallaby was developing communications
features in their products that would make them more compatible
with ICP's mainframe, desktop, and portable computers, he had
replied adamantly, "Never. We do it our own way.
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