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Here is a #THREAD summarizing a great book I recently read: The Code by @margaretomara, telling the history of #SiliconValley w/ great analysis & tons of insights on the key success factors and the dynamics at play @noiret_victor @Nicolas_Colin @Cvllr https://amzn.to/2Znqq5c
"No single thing is responsible for the economic phenomenon of #SiliconValley [...] It is neither a big-government story nor a free market one, it came from a perfect storm of luck and circumstance, geopolitics and macroeconomics, talent and leadership." /1
"The high-tech game works like a horse race. The horse is the technology. The race is the market. The entrepreneur is the jockey. And the fourth and last ingredient is the owner and trainer—the high-tech investor." /2
California has a long history with technology, from the first (large) electronic computers developed to decrypt German codes during WWII to today's search, social media, mobile computing and cloud behemoths, with many ups and downs in between /3
@Stanford has played a key role, beginning as an outsider but visionary university & becoming hotbed of the best startup founders, thanks to state-of-the-art tech curricula, strong integration with private companies, constant encouragement of tech transfer & startup creation /4
Government has largely financed #SiliconValley, with #DoD’s contracts booming during WWIII & Cold War, @NASA’s largess to reach America’s spatial goals, @DARPA, @NSF, @dodsbir & others outsourcing tons of R&D contracts to universities, research labs, companies competitively /5
#SiliconValley’s relation to politics has changed over time, with ups and downs in understanding & collaboration on regulation, tax, industrial strategy. At first tech companies didn’t spend much efforts lobbying for their interests, but they have increasingly done so. /6
The rivalry between #SiliconValley and other tech hubs in the US has always been fierce, in particular Boston’s #Route128 which progressively got outpaced, with Texas ( @Dell...), and with Seattle ( @Microsoft, @amazon...) /7
Other long-lasting trends include the #gender imbalance, the strong role of #immigrants, the very different management style, closed social circles, workaholism, tech founders' naivety on the fact that their products would get exploited by bad actors /8
The book of course also tells the very insightful story of tech giants, their business models and their investors. Did you know that @Google's first financing came from a government's research subsidy (the Digital Libraries Project)? /9
