To Pixar and Beyond: My Unlikely Journey with Steve Jobs to Make Entertainment History by Lawrence Levy proves to be a wonderful read. Levy, the former Pixar CFO reveals significant financial challenges Pixar faced upon his arrival.
Steve Jobs purchased Pixar from George Lucas for $5 million and then invested $5 million into the company. Steve brought Lawrence to Pixar in 1994. Lawrence Levy shares how Disney really put the screws to Pixar. Disney played hardball with a small company struggling and got away with it.
Lawrence shares how he and Steve took walks around their neighborhood around Palo Alto on Saturdays. He described many of the topics of their walks. This reveals much about Steve’s view of the company. Steve was growing Pixar to be a rockstar animation company.
My insights gained from To Pixar and Beyond is that Steve always saw the company holding an amazing future. There were roadblocks with Disney at times, yet Pixar was unknowingly growing into a change agent for Hollywood.
Much has been written about Steve’s control of Pixar stock. This included a negative image held among Pixar staff when he purchased the company. To be blunt, Jobs burned over $10 million of personal money to keep Pixar afloat. At the time the company really did not have a solid business revenue model for many years.