The Entrepreneurs of Silicon Valley

by John McLaughlin

4 hours and 34 minutes

California’s San Francisco Bay Area is home to an incredible renaissance to rival that of the Italians in the 15th and 16th centuries. But instead of working with oils and marble, creators like Tim Cook, Sergey Brin, and Mark Zuckerberg work with code and computer chips.

In 10 episodes written by John McLaughlin, president of the Silicon Valley Historical Association, The Entrepreneurs of Silicon Valley reveals the fascinating story of entrepreneurship, invention, and innovation in the most risk-friendly place on the planet. Bringing together three decades of research and interviews, McLaughlin takes you inside the minds of the founders of giants like Hewlett-Packard, Apple, Intel, Adobe, Intuit, and other revolutionary companies. It's these innovators themselves who can bring the stories of Silicon Valley to life better than anyone, and in their own words they’ll recount their struggles, their successes - and even their failures.

You’ll also come to see this stretch of Northern California as a place of constant transformation, a region with perpetual ties to science, wealth, and power. Spanning over 100 years of history, these episodes recount the rise of Stanford University and the valley’s first high-tech company, Federal Telegraph; and they continue through world-changing innovations in times of war and peace, right up to the birth of the internet, the dot-com bubble, and beyond. The episodes also include the history of video gaming, the emergence of cell phones and search engines, and the invention of social media networks that continue to shape how we live today.

Apple, Google, Adobe, Facebook - you use products and services by these and other tech giants every single day. Guess what? They all started right here.

Genres: Audiobook, Business, History, Nonfiction, Autobiography, Biography, Technology

5 pages, Audible Audio

Published July 21, 2020

Reviews

[Ihor Burlachenko · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn’t expect to enjoy this book as much as I did. I also didn’t expect the story to begin in the 18th century with the founding of Stanford University. The historical perspective made it stand out from other Silicon Valley stories that focus on more recent years. It’s good and inspiring.

[Danielle McCoin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great historical overview while being oddly inspirational.

[Alex Shrugged · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a history audio course about Silicon Valley and how several great companies got started like Apple, Google, HP and the like. It is also about how Stanford University got started... which remains the central theme throughout. If it hadn't been for Stanford (husband and wife) establishing that college in name of their dear departed son, and pushing for its theme of practical education and practical solutions then I doubt Silicon Valley would have become the powerhouse that it is.

Included are quotes from key people (such as Steve Jobs) in their own voices.

The course ended with some preaching about global warming and saving the planet. It was mild. Apparently, the solution to all of our problem is Silicon Valley and the idea that failure is definitely an option. Just keep trying until you succeed.

I'll probably listen to this audio course again.

[Max Patiiuk · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short, but great

When it comes to selecting "favorite quotes", half a book felt very quote-worthy, but I tried to resist the temptation)
"The dot com boom in the Silicon Valley had people recklessly driving in cars though stop signs, because a few minutes might cost them a million dollars, housing and office space seemed impossible to find, easy going northern California was no more"
"This is a field where one does not write a Principia that holds up for 200 years. This is not a field where one paints a painting and it would be looked at for centuries. This is a field where one does one's work and in 10 years it's obsolete, and really would not be usable in 10-20 years." (quoting Steve Jobs)
"Silicon Valey is a distinctive place to work - it's a culture that is all about meritocracy. The work that you do, the advancements you make and and the wealth that you acquire is more about your knowledge and work ethics than about who you know, or about your family's standing in society"
Mentioned Integral Fast Reactor - really interesting, and really sad
"It's odd that the successful business cultures in the past seemed to think 'it is a wonderful thing to always do the same thing' - well, in this world that's not the truth - the new idea, the new insight creates something new, but time changes, the problem changes, you move on to something else"

[Chad Schultz · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is quite short for an entry in the great courses. It provides an interesting history of the origins of Silicon Valley, starting with how Stanford University was founded in the gold rush days.

I like that it makes use of archived audio snippets from some of the relevant entrepreneurs.

There's nothing particularly exciting or memorable here. It's fine, but not a stand out. It also paints an extremely rosy picture of Silicon Valley, praising all the benefits of innovation (and making a brief nod towards efforts to fight climate change). It doesn't portray any other side of the story. Not that I think Silicon Valley is a bad thing overall, mind you, but I certainly think there are more complications. At one point Silicon Valley is praised for being incredibly meritocratic, where nothing matters except the quality of your work - but only white men are discussed and interviewed. A few anecdotes of founders engaging in rule-bending or law-breaking to get their businesses off the ground are mentioned as humorous anecdotes, without any mention of potential consequences... or of privacy concerns or possible monopolies, for that matter.

Anyway. Not a bad history, but not terribly exciting, and it really needs to present a more comprehensive view.

[Nathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

My biggest takeaway from this quick listen was how Silicon Valley benefitted from a mindset about failure that saw it as a right of passage; something that needed to be experienced en route to success. I've often thought that was the biggest hindrance to entrepreneurship in my community. We tend to view the bankruptcy of a business as something bordering on the criminal.

There were several other worthwhile nuggets in the book and the live interview clips from some of the entrepreneurs made it surprisingly enjoyable.

[Tehteh · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've quite enjoyed this. They call it a course, it feels more like a docu to me, but whatever, same difference. It was good. Lots of information and testimonials in a relatively short production.
Of course nerds like me had already heard some of these stories and anecdotes, but there is always room to learn and grow - a very SV idea there - and there are definitely people I didn't realize were part of this environment, and POVs we as a while mught not have considered.
Plus, this includes some pretty amazing soundbites from SV's greats, so it's worth listening for that alone.

[Matt Hutson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I got a kick out of this short history of Silicon Valley. I especially love the recorded interviews of several people from the '90s including Steve Jobs. I learned quite a bit about how Silicon Valley was started through Stanford University which is something that I did not know before.

If you're interested in the history of Silicon Valley this is a good introduction and gives you a few kernels of information that you can dig deeper into if you wish.

[Manoj Saha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nice compilation. It was great to hear from the entrepreneurs themselves. Thanks much.

[Jeff J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good overview of the topic.

[Andrew McLaughlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting podcast/interview series about the history of Silicon Valley and start ups. A bit outdated or else would have rated it higher. Good to learn about the past

[Cristóbal Sepúlveda Cobo · Rating 2 out of 5]

5/10

(Audible)