Eerie coincidence: Coleco, manufacturers of the ill-fated ADAM home computer, which competed with Tandy/Radio Shack, was originally the Connecticut Leather Company.
LarsDu88
Apparently the Ycombinator equivalents of early microcomputer startups were leather hobbyist stores!
JKCalhoun
> their first offerings were surplus military equipment
But then military surplus electronics came along and seem to have kick started a number of businesses, not just Radio Shack.