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realized these are really creative people,” he recalls. “I began to realize I could work with them as independent artists, and treat them as artists.”
Enter the crocodile
    At just this time, Trip read in an airline magazine about venture capitalist Don Valentine of Capital Management (which would soon become legendary Silicon Valley firm Sequoia Capital). The article related that Valentine was so intimidating that one young entrepreneur actually fainted in his office during a pitch. His management style was likened to that of a crocodile, lying in wait and listening and then rearing up to rip everyone’s ideas apart.
    While this might have cued most would-be business owners to pitch someone else, the article prompted Trip to call Valentine and ask for a meeting. He admired Valentine’s attitude and thought he could get frank advice from him, which was exactly what Trip wanted. He wasn’t afraid of Valentine’s bite.
    Knowing Trip’s track record at Apple, Valentine readily agreed to a meeting, and Trip arrived at the Sand Hill Road office with some trepidation. He had no written business plan yet for the company he had christened Amazin’ Software, and Apple was gearing up to launch the Lisa computer. He thought Valentine would urge him to fulfill his commitments at Apple and finish his launch work. But that wasn’t Valentine’s opinion at all.
    “He said I should quit Apple right away,” Trip says. “He offered me free office space, which is like saying, ‘If you pull this together, I’ll want to fund it.’ It was the encouragement I needed to take the final step.”
Amazin’ software in the hall
    Trip quickly wrapped up his work and left Apple in April 1982. Before taking Valentine up on his offer of free office space, Trip spent several months working out of his house, refining the business plan. He incorporated the company in May 1982 and funded it initially with $200,000 of his own Apple stock profits.
    During this time, Trip worked on learning about the music-industry business model he planned to emulate. He flew to Los Angeles after a venture contact introduced him to legendary A&M Records co-founder Jerry Moss. Trip also spoke with a music-industry lawyer and got a copy of a recording contract to learn how to structure contracts for his software “artists.”
    While still working from home, Trip made his first few hires. The first was experienced PR man Richard Melmon, whom Trip knew from a stint at Apple. Melmon left his job at VisiCorp, maker of early spreadsheet product VisiCalc, to join the nascent company.
    “He was by far the most important and highest-ranking guy I hired that year,” Trip recalls. “I hired him because I felt I should have someone older than me around to provide a little adult supervision.”
    Melmon and Trip would turn out to clash, and their versions of events differ—Melmon’s biography suggests that he, not Trip, raised the funding money for EA, for instance. In any case, Melmon would end up departing EA after just a few years.

    The budding company quickly outgrew its one small room in the back of Valentine’s office suite, with some staff camped at card tables in the hallway.
    From Apple, Trip drew product manager Dave Evans, gaming fan Joe Ybarra, and one of the rare women in tech at the time, Pat Marriott. The trio would be Amazin’ “producers,” working with talented game designers to create products and bring them to market.
    The team was rounded out by an office manager, Stephanie Barrett. In August, the small troupe took up residence in Valentine’s Sand Hill Road offices. The budding company quickly outgrew its one small room in the back of Valentine’s office suite, with some staff camped at card tables in the hallway.
Playing hardball
    Trip kept paying the bills: for payroll, equipment, and software development in-house, as well as fees to outside software “artists.” He had the resources to keep going in this fashion for another year or so but