CAJ#2_The Timeline

In this post I would like to give you a first impression of how fast technology companies established in the first few years of the Silicon Valley. To make it easier for you to read I highlighted some the most important facts. In here, you can also find links to some companies, which are located in the Silicon Valley or to people who influenced its development. 

Bill Hewlett and David Packard

1938 after graduating from Stanford University, the two classmates Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard started working together in a garage. Current total: $ 500.

Their first successful product is a precision audio oscillator. In 1939, Hewlett-Packard becomes a company after a coin toss to determine the order of their names. The two would have never come so far if it would not have been for their professor Fred Terman who encouraged his students, to work for local companies and to start businesses of their own. He helped attracting federal funding and purposed the leasing of the university’s land to make it affordable for young entrepreneurs. He established the Stanford Industrial Park in 1956. Due to the spirit of optimism towards the uprising industry, William Shockley (he also won the Novel Prize for co-inventing the transistor) moved from the East-Coast to California. In February 1956 he founds a semiconductor lab to work on improving his silicon-based transistors. His work attracts some of America’s best young engineers and scientists also because the nearby Stanford University was doing federally funded electronics research. The university started connecting with the industry and created a terrific atmosphere for entrepreneurship.

In 1959 Robert Noyce and JeanHoerni file patents that will lead to the first commercially successful integrated circuit made of silicon. It becomes the standard and gives the Valley its name. In the same year Draper, Gaither & Andreson considered the first West Coast venture capital firm. Their plan is to invest in small technology companies, which establishes key principles that define the modern venture capital industry.

First Apple Computer (1976)

With the foundation of Intel in the year 1968, Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore create the world’s first company producing commercially available microprocessors. They become the leading semiconductor chipmaker. The name “Silicon Valley” is first published in Electronic News in 1971. In 1972, the Global Positioning System (GPS) is invented by the US military. Three years later, in 1975, Bill Gates and Paul Allen found Microsoft. Only a year later Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs form Apple Computer and build the first microcomputer in Job’s garage in Cupertino. In 1980, after having launched a project to design a personal computer with a graphical user interface, apple goes public for a record $1.3 billion. At the same time Kevin MacKenzie invents symbols such as :) (emoticons), in order to mimic the cues of face-to-face communication. Five years later in 1985, Hewlett-Packard introduces the LaserJet, a printer for the home market. In the same year Jobs and Wozniak leave Apple (Jobs rejoins in 1996).

Well I could continue this list for probably another hundred pages and if you are interested in more detailed timeline have a look at this: http://www.scaruffi.com/politics/silicon.html

What I wanted you to show with this post, is how fast the Silicon Valley established from 1938 until today. In about 60 years, a whole new generation of technology developed in the Silicon Valley. Of course these were not just any companies. These companies are the market leaders in technology. The question that comes to my mind at that point is:

Why are especially the companies in the Silicon Valley so successful? Is the Silicon Valley the perfect place for start ups?

Read more about it in my next post :)