The area in which Silicon Valley is located was farming and rural land before the 1950s. While the term ‘Silicon Valley’ was only coined as late as 1971, the solid-state ‘silicon’ origins date back to 1957, when a group of brilliant young scientists working in a company headquartered in rural farmland in California changed the world as we know it.
Eight young scientists defected from the Shockley Semiconductor Company – the first company to work in the field of silicon semiconductors - in order to start their own transistor company. The ‘Traitorous Eight’, as they were dubbed, were unhappy with William Shockley’s management style and decided to go it alone.
Their leader was 29-year-old Robert Noyce, a physicist. Others in the eight were Julius Blank, Victor Grinich, Jean Hoerni, Eugene Kleiner, Jay Last, Gordon Moore and Sheldon Roberts. At that time it was unusual for scientists to leave large companies or research institutes, so it wasn’t easy to get funding. But a letter from the eight to an investment firm in New York seemed to find its way to Arthur Rock, who out of curiosity flew out from the east coast to California to meet the group. He was convinced that this venture was worth backing, and so he approached numerous companies to raise the required funding for the eight scientists. While every investor rejected the offer to invest, one investor, Sherman Fairchild, decided he would take the risk. This is how Fairchild Semiconductor was born.
Over the next decade, Noyce ran the new company and co-invented the integrated circuit, which would become an essential component of modern electronics including computers, motor vehicles, cell phones, and household appliances.
The beginning of Silicon Valley – helped on by Sputnik launch
On October 4, 1957, the young founders of the newly minted start- up heard some startling news: the Soviet Union had just launched the first artificial satellite, Sputnik, into orbit around the earth. With the United
14 entrepreneurcountry
States scrambling to catch up, the timing was ideal for the young Fairchild Semiconductor.
Eisenhower quickly launched NASA and the nation’s new obsession with technology provided the opportunity of a lifetime. In less than two years, Noyce co-created a ground-breaking invention that would help put men on the moon – the integrated circuit (IC). This had an impact far beyond the Apollo program – it evolved to re-shape the future, making possible today’s smart phones and digital video recorders, pacemakers and microwaves.
The ‘Fairchild-ren’
While Shockley is where the silicon was invented, it is the birth of companies that arose from staff leaving Fairchild that created the huge crop of commercially successful Silicon Valley companies. Two of the traitorous eight, Gordon Moore and Robert Noyce, left to form ‘Intel’ in 1968. By this time, Arthur Rock had opened one of the first venture capital firms in California, and when Intel approached him to raise $3m, it was much easier – according to Rock, by this time, investors were lining up to put money into the venture, given the track record of Noyce and Moore, and he had to turn people away.
Noyce’s management style launched the unique business culture for which Silicon Valley would come to be known - openness over hierarchy, risk over stability.
It was at Fairchild that the
concept of stock options for employees below the senior executives became commonplace. It was under Noyce that Intel, in 1971, introduced the world’s first microprocessor, the driving force of every digital product we use today.
Other companies that emerged as a result of spin-offs from staff leaving Fairchild include AMD, Intersil, LSI Logic, National Semiconductor and many others.
The culture of Silicon Valley
So what is the culture that the traitorous eight - Noyce, Moore, Fairchild, Intel, the investors and many others like Hewlett Packard, Texas Instruments, created that made Silicon Valley what
it is today? This is easily observed with a business visit to Silicon Valley, as one immediately becomes aware of the connectedness and closeness of people – everyone seems to be connected in some way – whether it’s engineers, entrepreneurs, VCs or universities; and it’s easy to get from one place to another. This proximity puts together a melting pot of ideas, talent and money, enabling people to interact constantly.
But there is much more than just the melting pot. There is a willingness to share ideas and help each other. There is a strong ‘can-do’ attitude.
A sense of collective trust for the common good
The sense of collective trust and fairness is the basis for the success of the ecosystem in Silicon Valley. This nature has allowed Silicon Valley to become a centre for innovation, inherent perhaps in its very inception with the collaborative journey of the
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