🇬🇧 Michael Dell turned $1,000 and a college dorm room into a $302 billion company. His advice to founders seeking validation: ‘Don’t go ask’

Before he built a tech empire, Dell was a teenager selling newspaper subscriptions to newlyweds he tracked down through marriage records. He says the same appetite for risk drove everything that followed.

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Michael Dell turned $1,000 and a college dorm room into a $302 billion company. His advice to founders seeking validation: ‘Don’t go ask’ fortune.com · 01/11/2026