Steve Case is a well-known name in the business world, and his career is often used as an example of how to run a business. Steve has always been good at business. When he was only six years old, he opened a juice shop. He got his degree in political science and got a job right away with the big company Procter & Gamble. He worked there for a few years and then moved on to Pizza Hut Inc. All of these jobs helped him improve the marketing skills he already had. Steve’s meeting with investor Bill von Meister was helpful because it led him to the company Quantum Computer Services, which had not yet been set up. Bill hired the business owner to work part-time for his company, Control Vido Corporation. But Jim Kimsey, the new owner of the company, saw Case for what he really was and gave him a permanent job there. Jim got better at marketing, and because Case was creative and knew a lot about marketing, Jim chose Case to be his successor. As the head of the company Quantum Computer Services, Steve gave social media new dimensions and helped bring about changes in the way people talk to each other online.
Early years and childhood
The case was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, on August 21, 1958, to Daniel Hebard Case and Carol (Holmes). His parents had four kids, and he was the third one.
When the boy was six years old, he and his brother opened a juice bar together. They later turned it into a business called “Case Enterprises.”
Steve went to Punahou School for his primary education. In 1980, he got his bachelor’s degree in political science from Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts.
Steve Case’s Career
After he graduated from college, Case got a job as an assistant brands manager at the Procter & Gamble Company in Cincinnati, Ohio. He worked there for two years, then moved to Pizza Hut Inc. in Wichita, Kansas, in 1982, where he was put in charge of marketing new pizzas.
The next year, his brother Dan introduced him to Bill von Meister, the CEO of the company “Control Video Corporation.” Steve was chosen to be a marketing consultant for a new project called “GameLine,” which is a spin-off of the “Atari 2600” video game console brand.
But when investor Frank Caufield took over the company, Case was hired as a full-time marketing worker.
Jim Kimsey, an entrepreneur, started the company Quantum Computer Services in 1985. The case was put in charge of marketing at the company.
Kimsey hired the young man as the company’s executive vice president in 1987. Eventually, Jim became his mentor and taught him enough so that when the company’s CEO retired, Case was ready to take over as the company’s new chairperson and CEO.
He changed a few things about the way “Quantum” worked, and one of them was that he and programmer Marc Sheriff made the “Quantum Link” or “Q-Link” service for the “Commodore 64” computer in 1985.
Three years later, the company made the “AppleLink” service, which worked with “Apple” devices, and the “PC-Link” service, which worked with “IBM” devices.
During the same time, the company also made many other services and online games, such as “Habitat,” “Club Caribe,” “QuantumLink Serial,” “Quantum Space,” and “Neverwinter Nights.”
In 1991, he became the CEO of “Quantum Computer Services.” As CEO, he changed the company’s name to “America Online” (AOL) and added “AppleLink” and “PC-Link” to the business.
In the next three years, about a million people signed up for these services. In the end, he was chosen to be the head of the company.
The company “AOL” was a big part of how social media came to be since it focused mostly on instant messaging and chatrooms. The company also tried to make sure that most people could pay for their services.
Unlike many other services available at the time, like Prodigy and CompuServe, and AOL service was easy for the average person to use. This made the services popular with the general public, which gave “AOL” millions of users, and the number of people who used the service kept going up every year.
In 2001, Time Warner, a multinational media company, bought AOL. This created a huge company that works in entertainment, media, and communication.
But the company ran into problems because of the “dot-com” recession. Steve then quit his job as chairman, but he was still on the board of directors.
In 2005, he and Donn Davis, and Tige Savage started an investment company called Revolution LLC. After the failed attempt to combine “Time Warner” and “AOL,” he left “Time Warner” and focused more on his investment company.
He invested in companies like “HelloWallet,” “Revolution Money,” “Zipcar,” “AddThis,” and “Living Social” in the future. These companies became so well-known that they were eventually bought out by bigger ones.
While “Avis Budget Group” bought “Zipcar,” “American Express” bought “Revolutionary Money,” and “HelloWallet” was bought by the company “MorningStar.”
In 2011, this business owner joined forces with investors Donn Davis and Ted Leonsis to start the $450 million “Revolution Growth” fund. The company put its money into businesses like FedBid, Resonate, Bigcommerce, Lolly Wolly Doodle, and CustomInk.
Together with investors David Golden and Tige Savage, he started the “Revolution Ventures” fund in 2013. This company put money into businesses such as Busbud, BenchPrep, OrderUp, RunKeeper, and Homesnap.
Works of note
He was one of the people who started America Online, which was the first social media company of its kind. Steve, who was in charge of the company when it was called “Quantum Computer Services,” changed the name to “America Online” and gave it a new way of communicating with the public.
Awards & Achievements
The case was inducted into the “U.S. Junior Achievement Business Hall of Fame” in 2009.
In 2011, he was chosen by the public to be the “Citizen Regent” of the Smithsonian Institution.
Case and his wife Jean were named “Citizens of the Year” by the “National Conference on Citizenship” in 2011.
In 2014, this successful business owner was given an “Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters” by “Georgetown University.”
Personal History and Legacies
Steve got married to Joanne Barker in 1985, and they had three children together.
But in 1996, he and Barker chose to go their separate ways. Two years later, he got married to Jean Villanueva, who worked with him at AOL. Jean and Case live together with their five children from their previous marriages.
The businessman is also the head of a charity group called “Case Foundation,” which he and his wife started.
Estimated Net worth
As of 2015, “Forbes” said that this smart business person had a net worth of $1.36 billion.
Trivia
This business owner is related to the well-known American politician Ed Case.