You never know who you will run into or rub elbows with in places like House of PIes.
three senior engineers from Texas Instruments sat down to dinner at a House of Pies on Westheimer Road in Houston. Rod Canion, James Harris and William Murto each had $1000 to invest. They discussed the possibility of managing a Mexican restaurant, making storage devices for minicomputers or, perhaps, a beeping device to help locate lost items. Instead, on the back of a HOP placemat, they did their initial sketch of an IBM-compatible PC that was small enough to be transportable. In the days before technology allowed for components to be shrunk to 'laptop' size, the Compaq luggable had its first design.
tshaonline.org/handb ook/online/articles/ dnc01