“When Steve Jobs gives you a Porsche at age 23, you know you’re destined for a great life,” Julie Bort writes for Business Insider. “So it is with Craig Elliott, cofounder and CEO of Pertino, a new Valley startup getting ready to emerge from stealth mode.”

“The story begins in 1984, when Elliott, now 52, was living in Iowa taking a year off college,” Bort reports. “‘I ended up working at the local computer retailer and that was the year the Macintosh came out. I sold more Macintoshs than anyone in the United States,’ Elliott told Business Insider. So he got a letter from Apple asking him to come to Cupertino, Calif. ‘I had dinner with Steve Jobs, spent a week with the Apple executives and Steve gave me a Porsche.’”

“The dinner with Jobs was almost a disaster. During the meal, Jobs asked him how many Macs he had sold. Answer: around 125,” Bort reports. “‘Jobs was like, ‘Oh my god! That’s all? That’s pathetic!’ Elliott recalls. ‘I leaned over and said, ‘Steve, remember, I’m your best guy.’ Jobs said, ‘Oh, you’re right.’ And for the rest of the dinner we had a really nice time.’” And that was Jobs in a nutshell, Elliott says. He was intense but when people pushed back, that would ‘reset him.’”

Much more, including a photo of Jobs, Elliot, and that Porsche, in the full article here.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader "Fred Mertz" for the heads up.]