A Microsoft staff photo from December 1978 shows, front row from left: Bill Gates, Andrea Lewis, Marla Wood, Paul Allen; middle row: Bob O'Rear, Bob Greenberg, Marc McDonald, Gordon Letwin; top row: Steve Wood, Bob Wallace, Jim Lane. On April 4, 1975, Gates and his longtime friend Allen co-founded Microsoft and initially conducted business out of a hotel room in Albuquerque, NM. Microsoft recently opened an area for creativity at their Seattle-area headquarters campus called the “Garage” in an attempt to rekindle innovation.