Microsoft, perhaps in part by virtue of being outside the Valley, never took venture capital. Like a traditional business there was a little FFF [friends, family, and fools] money, but essentially it was bootstrapped.
This meant that Gates and Allan could essentially make Ballmer a third founder five years after the company's founding - a point where venture capital funds are often looking toward creating an exit and would definitely be disinclined toward diluting equity for the sake of a hire.
The independence of Gates, Allen. and Ballmer allowed Microsoft to structure employee equity and tine the IPO in a way that made 12,000 millionaires and retain enough equity to effectively ignore Wall Street until Gates and Ballmer began reducing their stakes over the last two or so years
Back then MS was a tiny company. 8% wasn't seen as much and they wanted a somewhat older management type with some qualifications. I think BillG might have known of SteveB from his short stint at Harvard.
What Ballmer brought to Microsoft was a different skill set. It was no more about an MBA class or two than it was about the CS classes Gates took during his year at Harvard. Running a business was something that interested Ballmer analogous to Gates interest in programming.
Diversifying the skill set of the core team was probably a key factor in Microsoft's successful growth over the next three decades
This meant that Gates and Allan could essentially make Ballmer a third founder five years after the company's founding - a point where venture capital funds are often looking toward creating an exit and would definitely be disinclined toward diluting equity for the sake of a hire.
The independence of Gates, Allen. and Ballmer allowed Microsoft to structure employee equity and tine the IPO in a way that made 12,000 millionaires and retain enough equity to effectively ignore Wall Street until Gates and Ballmer began reducing their stakes over the last two or so years