The origin of silicon valley
Now, the whole world knows that Silicon Valley is the world's high-tech center, and almost all the super companies in the world are from Silicon Valley. Silicon Valley has played a pillar role in the whole American economy, and it is also the engine of scientific and technological innovation in the world, and the cradle of scientists and engineers in the world. But, you know, in the 1950 s, there was no Silicon Valley in California. Because there were a large number of chip-related companies in the San Francisco Bay Area at that time, "silicon" was one of the components of chips. At that time, the Bay Area was still a "village, a village valley" because of this association. Until 197 1, a reporter named Dan Hofler wrote a news article entitled "Silicon Valley Technology". Since then, people have gradually called the gathering place of high-tech companies in the entire San Francisco Bay Area "Silicon Valley": it mainly refers to the area from the south of San Francisco to the north of San Jose, surrounded by San Francisco Bay (east) and Pacific Mountains (west).
The origin of silicon valley
Before the 1950s, that part of Silicon Valley was still rural. At that time, the United States hardly developed the western coast. Except for the previous gold rush era, its status in the United States was so ordinary, even backward. After the immigration tide in the next 60 years, some immigrants from Southeast Asia, Africa, the Middle East and America began to gather there, but the number of immigrants was still very small, about 10%.
From 1930 to 1950, Stanford helped Silicon Valley accumulate a little human resources, but at that time, Stanford hardly studied chip technology, and there were no venture capital institutions at that time. At that time, Silicon Valley's chip industry ranked sixth and seventh in the United States, and the most developed areas of chip technology were Boston, new york, Dallas, Philadelphia and so on.
Speaking of the origin of Silicon Valley, we have to mention an important figure, william shockley, the Nobel Prize winner of chip technology. After winning the lottery, he wants to set up his own company through his own achievements. At that time, he was at MIT in Boston, USA. People thought he would go to Boston or new york, because Boston and new york were the most developed cities in chip technology at that time, but he didn't. He finally chose to return to his hometown of Southern California to set up his own laboratory, but it is still a little far from Silicon Valley.
Three elements of company development
We know that the three basic elements of establishing a company are capital, talents and customers. But when shockley was in California, it was very hard. At that time, the chip technology industry was mainly funded by the government. At that time, there was no venture capital. At that time, California ranked very low among the cities in the chip technology industry, and it was impossible to pass government funding. In terms of talents, it is also very scarce, especially there are few local scientific and technological talents. However, at that time, shockley first personally selected eight scientific and technological talents in American scientific and technological circles, including the later famous Gordon Moore, to start a business together. Not to mention customers, there are still few companies there.
However, shockley is really unfit to be a leader. He has all the bad habits of the current leader, including denouncing employees, distrusting employees and listening to employee events, which is the most famous. Later, these eight geniuses chose to leave shockley and set up their own technology company. They searched for investment institutions all over the country, and more than 35 investment institutions turned them down. Fortunately, Fairchild is willing to support them and make them a subsidiary of Fairchild, called Fairchild Semiconductor Company.
Please click here to enter a picture description.
Remember, it was these eight people who founded Fairchild Semiconductor Company, which laid the foundation of the whole Silicon Valley. At present, the talents of well-known companies in Silicon Valley are almost all from Fairchild Semiconductor, including almost all world-class technology companies such as Apple, facebook and Tesla. This Fairchild company was once called the world's first startup with more than one trillion dollars. If you count those companies that are not listed, it must exceed $1 trillion. It can be said to be the Whampoa Military Academy in the United States. The earliest venture capital, Sequoia Capital and hong kong Huaying, were founded by semiconductor companies from Fairchild. Why? How did Fairchild Semiconductor do it?
Fairchild Semiconductor Company first adopted the company breeding, that is, the subsidiary model, through which a new company was hatched. Among them, Gordon Moore came out with bob noyce to establish Intel, and Intel was also very difficult. Fortunately, with the financial support of Arthur Locke, the father of venture capital, and the business support of Fairchild, it achieved a revenue of $20 million in 1960, and then it developed rapidly in Intel and won unanimous praise in the industry. Then they will follow this "company farming model". As long as there are good ideas in the company, they will immediately let the corresponding talents set up their own companies to realize them. Now it looks like an internal adventure of a big company. From this point of view, Fairchild Semiconductor is essentially a company, and it is the first giant company worthy of the name to break through one trillion dollars.
1970, Silicon Valley is no longer the original countryside. At that time, Fairchild Company had been divided into 30 companies with 12000 employees, all of which were attributed to Fairchild Semiconductor Company, which was originally founded by eight scientific and technological geniuses at that time. The picture below shows the listed companies originated from Fairchild Semiconductor Company in the world today.
All listed companies in the world today originated from Fairchild Semiconductor Company.
The famous silicon valley model "accelerates the entrepreneurial cycle"
If we refine the above-mentioned Silicon Valley model, then this "startup acceleration cycle" has four steps: ambition, growth, mission and reinvestment.
Ambition is the first step. Those technological geniuses who came to Silicon Valley are very ambitious and ambitious. They are determined to change the world and contribute to the world economy. When they chose Silicon Valley, they had already decided to stay in Silicon Valley for a long time, so they could start their own businesses without any worries.
Growth is the second step. They use their skills to push the company to grow. Among them, the famous case spread by Intel is Intel. In order to survive, bob noyce made three most correct judgments:
1. Introduce new products to the market as soon as possible to gain the first-Mover advantage and the right to speak in the market.
2. Develop revolutionary ultra-low-cost new technologies as soon as possible to prevent being defeated by giants by taking advantage of scale and cost.
3. Get big customers and form a benchmarking effect.
In this way, Intel not only survived, but also quickly became the second in the industry, second only to Fairchild.
The task is the third step. Originally, these successful scientific and technological talents could choose to retire early or live a relaxed and comfortable life, but they didn't. They choose to help more startups as their mission.
Reinvestment is the fourth step. They use their company's capital, resources and technological advantages to help those startups that have been spun off from their own companies and promote their rapid growth.
Enlightenment and Value of Silicon Valley to the World
Silicon Valley is so successful that now the whole world is learning Silicon Valley. To sum up, there are three important revelations:
1. A great company promotes the development of this area. We found that if there were no Fairchild Semiconductor Company at that time, there would be no Silicon Valley today.
2. A few entrepreneurs can have a great influence. The history of Silicon Valley is inseparable from shockley, Arthur Locke and eight talented entrepreneurs. Especially the three musketeers behind Intel: Gordon Moore, bob noyce and Andy Grove, which laid the management foundation of the whole Silicon Valley.
3. The mode of Silicon Valley can be used as a classic framework. Fairchild's subsidiary model and the "startup acceleration cycle" have become a version.
?