Apple wasn't alone in 1976 -- these companies helped define an era
1976 wasn't just the year Apple got its start -- it was a moment when experimentation, risk-taking, and small ideas briefly had room to make waves in US business. As Apple turns 50, we look back at other notable companies founded that year, that stood the test of time.
Five notable U.S. companies founded the same year as Apple
While Apple turns 50 this year, it wasn't the only company founded in 1976 to push into uncharted territory. From biotechnology and personal computing to craft beer and music hardware, these five companies each helped shape their industries -- even if they didn't survive the test of time.
April 7, 1976 - Genentech
Less than a week after Apple was founded, Robert A. Swanson founded Genentech. Genentech, for those unfamiliar with the company, is often credited as the world's first biotechnology company.
The company primarily works in, as the name would suggest, genetic research and medicine. It was the first to discover targeted antibodies for cancer treatments, and the first to create medicine for primary progressive multiple sclerosis.
In 2009, Roche, a Swiss multinational holding company in the healthcare sector, acquired Genentech as a wholly owned, independent subsidiary. Genentech appears to be establishing a base in Wake County, North Carolina, the same place where Apple hopes to build another campus.
June 1976 - North Star Computers
Founded in Berkeley, California, North Star Computers started its relatively short life as a mail-order IMSAI computer seller. Its first product was the Floating Point Board, a S-100 bus card with a floating point coprocessor for 8080-based machines.
While they did well in the 1970s, when IBM introduced the IBM Personal Computer in 1981, things went downhill quickly. The industry began to standardize around IBM's machine, making North Star's CP/M machines much less desirable.
As the 1980s marched on, North Star held on for a time, though it quickly became obvious that it couldn't compete at price point or scale with IBM PCs and their clones. North Star Computers would not live to see the 1990s and dissolved in 1989.
October 1976 - New Albion Brewing Company
In the early 1970s, Jack McAuliffe had begun homebrewing beer, inspired by beer he had drunk a decade earlier during his military service in Scotland. And out of that quest to bring home a bit of Scotland, the New Albion Brewing Company was born.
New Albion is currently regarded as the first post-prohibition microbrewery in the United States. And, for a time, the company did well.
Despite his brew's popularity, McAuliffe's company would shutter its doors in November 1982. It sat dormant until the name was purchased by the Boston Beer Company, the same company that owns Samuel Adams, in the late 2000s.
In 2012, Boston Beer announced that it would be brewing New Albion Ale for the first time in 30 years, as well as transferring all of the New Albion assets to McAuliffe.
When McAullife finally retired, it didn't spell the end for New Albion. Instead, his daughter, Renee DeLuca, would take up the mantle -- she's still brewing her dad's original recipes in Columbus, Ohio.
1976 - Heritage Auctions
Launched in 1976, Dallas-based Heritage Auctions was founded by Steve Ivy and Jim Halperin, two collectors who dealt mostly in coins and memorabilia. Fifty years later, it's now the largest American auction house; in 2024, it boasted sales of more than $1.8 billion.
We at AppleInsider are familiar with the name for another reason. In March 2020, Heritage Auctions sold Apple-branded sneakers for $9,687.
Interestingly enough, RR Auction, based in Boston, was also founded in 1976. It it known for selling some of the rarest Apple-related products, including a functional Apple-1 in March 2025.
1976 - Seymour Duncan
In 1966, Seymour W. Duncan lent his Fender Telecaster to a fellow musician, Sally Starr, for a show. When she returned it, he found that the pickup had been broken.
Duncan didn't have time to search for a replacement, so he improvised and rewound his own using a turntable. And it's a good thing that he did, because he'd soon change the guitar and bass industry forever.
A decade later, Duncan, along with his wife Cathy Carter Duncan, began Seymour Duncan, the company, in a $300 trailer in the Californian desert. Initially, the business dealt with pickup repair, rewinding pickups that had been damaged or needed a tune-up.
Eventually, the company would go on to make pickups for nearly every major guitar format. It would later expand into effects pedals.
Artists like Nirvana's Kurt Cobain, Guns N' Roses' Slash, Fallout Boy's Pete Wentz, The Smashing Pumpkins' Kiki Wong, and Peter Frampton have all proudly used -- or are still using -- Seymour Duncan Pickups.
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