Jobs, Gates...Sen. Klobuchar? Almost a tech entrepreneur

If fate had steered her differently, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) might have had a career in Silicon Valley instead of on Capitol Hill. 

According to a story she told at a broadband conference at the University of Minnesota on Tuesday, the senator briefly founded a technology start-up before abandoning the industry for other pursuits.

Klobuchar spent some of her senior year at Yale College trying to monetize her tech skills. 

"I had this special know-how of how to use the computer for typing," Klobuchar said.

No slouchy skill "a decade before these freshman were born," Klobuchar noted. 

"I remember, this is a true story, being one of the first non-computer geeks to learn the labyrinth of the Yale computer center," she said. 

Three days in computer training and a mile-long walk to the computer lab each day allowed Klobuchar to finish her senior essay ahead of her peers. 

Which provided time to launch a tech start-up.

In perhaps a near-miss for the next Microsoft or IBM, Klobuchar said she "embarked on this career because I had this special know-how," and began charging other students to type up their essays.

Not a money-maker, she found, but the problem may have been cost structure.

"One dollar per page," Klobuchar said. "Not so lucrative."