Steve Jobs in Exile

Geoffrey Cain tells the story of the twelve years, from 1985 to 1997, that Steve Jobs spent building NeXT after he was fired from Apple, the company he had founded. Cain treats it as a time of spectacular failure, brutal humiliation and a brush with bankruptcy, and as the time that redefined Jobs as a designer and a leader before his return to Apple. His material includes many hours of never-broadcast film of Jobs at NeXT gatherings and retreats, fresh interviews, oral histories of Jobs and those who worked with him that had never been published, and internal company documents. The book presents it as the missing piece in the Jobs story. It was published in 2026.

David Senra put it on his list for Founders Podcast episode #420, Steve Jobs In Exile.