The Secret History of Silicon Valley

Steve Blank explains how World War II, Stanford, and military intelligence agencies shaped the rise of Silicon Valley through electronic warfare.

Google Tech Talks December 18, 2007 How Stanford & the CIA/NSA Built the Valley We Know Today, presented by Steve Blank. How much does an average Googler know about the history of the place he/she works in - Silicon Valley? Come and test your knowledge. I have seen this talk and I assure you - even seasoned Silicon Valley veterans will find this story interesting. Silicon Valley entrepreneur Steve Blank will talk about how World War II set the stage for the creation and explosive growth of Silicon Valley, and the role of Frederick Terman and Stanford in working with government agencies (including the CIA and the National Security Agency) to set up companies in this area that sparked the creation of hundreds of other enterprises. Steve Blank spent nearly 30 years as founder and executive of high tech companies in Silicon Valley, most recently the enterprise software firm E.piphany. He has been involved in or co-founded eight Silicon Valley startups, ranging from semiconductors to video games, and personal computers to supercomputers. He teaches entrepreneurship at U.C. Berkeley's Haas School of Business, Columbia University and Stanford's Graduate School of Engineering. This talk was hosted by Boris Debic