Strategy: The Secret History of Silicon Valley

How Stanford the CIA/NSA Built the Valley We Know Today

How much does an average Googler know about the history of the place
he 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.

Speaker: Steve Blank
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.