From Heartbreak to Triumph: How Bill Gates Sr. Rescued Howard Schultz’s Starbucks Dream Against All Odds

From Underdog to Coffee King: The Untold Story of How Howard Schultz Bought Starbucks—With a Crucial Assist from Bill Gates Sr.

SEATTLE, May 16, 2025 — Long before Starbucks became a global icon, before its green mermaid logo adorned street corners from Seattle to Shanghai, its future teetered on the edge of collapse. At the centre of that uncertain moment stood a young dreamer from Brooklyn and an unexpected saviour—William H. Gates Sr., the towering figure in Seattle’s legal community and father of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates.

Early Days of Howard Schultz

In 1987, Howard Schultz was chasing more than coffee. He was chasing a vision—one born from humble beginnings in the working-class housing projects of Canarsie, Brooklyn. Howard Schultz had scraped his way to a college degree on an athletic scholarship and landed a job in sales at Xerox. But his life changed forever in 1981, when he discovered a small Seattle-based coffee bean company called Starbucks.

“I met the founders and spent over a year persuading them to hire me,” Howard Schultz later shared on NPR’s How I Built This. As director of marketing, he saw not just a brand but a movement—one that could bring the communal energy of Italy’s espresso bars to the American mainstream. But the founders, led by Jerry Baldwin, weren’t interested in transforming Starbucks into a chain of coffeehouses.

So Howard Schultz leapt. In 1983, he launched his own café venture, Il Giornale, to bring his vision to life. The gamble worked. And when Baldwin decided to sell Starbucks four years later, Schultz received the first call—along with an exclusive 90-day window to raise $3.8 million to buy the company’s six stores and roasting plant. “I was extraordinarily excited,” Howard Schultz recalled. “This was my shot.”

But dreams, especially big ones, rarely come easily.

Fist leap

As a first-time entrepreneur in the 1980s, finding millions of dollars was a Herculean task. And just when Howard Schultz thought he was building momentum, he was blindsided. At a high-stakes investment meeting, he discovered that one of his investors was secretly trying to hijack the deal, making a backdoor bid to buy Starbucks and cut him out entirely.

Betrayal

“I felt betrayed. I was crushed,” Schultz said. His dream was slipping away, fast.

That’s when Bill Gates Sr. stepped in.

A respected attorney, civic leader, and towering presence in Seattle’s community, Gates Sr. saw something in Schultz that others missed: a fierce determination, a relentless belief in something bigger than himself. “Howard had this infectious passion,” a former colleague of Gates Sr. recalled. “Bill recognised it and chose to act.”

And act he did.

Support from Gates Sr.

Gates Sr. not only offered legal expertise but opened his personal Rolodex, connecting Schultz with key investors and lending the credibility that helped seal the deal. His presence gave Schultz’s pitch new weight, and his guidance helped navigate the complex path to acquisition.

“Bill Gates Sr. was a giant,” Schultz later said. “His belief in me, when I was at my lowest, gave me the strength to keep going.”

With Gates Sr.’s help, Schultz scraped together the $3.8 million just in time. In August 1987, he officially acquired Starbucks and merged it with Il Giornale, laying the foundation for what would become a coffee revolution. Today, Starbucks boasts over 38,000 locations worldwide, serving millions daily and reshaping global coffee culture.

But behind that success lies a lesser-known story—not just of business brilliance, but of resilience, betrayal, redemption, and the power of a helping hand.

Bill Gates Sr., who passed away in 2020, never sought recognition for his pivotal role. Yet Schultz never forgot. “Without him,” he said simply, “there might not be a Starbucks.”

As the company reflects on its extraordinary journey, Schultz’s story serves as a powerful reminder that even empires can be built on fragile beginnings—and sometimes, all it takes to turn the tide is one person who believes in your dream.

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