This is Untold Silicon Valley, the podcast dedicated to exploring the forgotten and almost-forgotten histories from Silicon Valley's first decades with one part history, one part storytelling, and a pinch of snark.
In this podcast, we will be sitting ringside and examining the times, the events, and most importantly, the people who shaped the industry now known as "Silicon Valley." We'll meet the founders, funders, scientists and innovators who played pivotal roles in the transformation of a little known agricultural valley in Northern California known mainly for its oranges and plums to the home of the global technology industry.
By breaking open the commercial integrated circuits market, Fairchild’s stock skyrockets… but the breakthrough also seals its fate.
In our final episode of Season 1, Fairchild Semiconductor’s success is short-lived, as its meteoric rise is only matched by its crashing downfall. One-by-one, more key figures jump from the sinking ship.
Things are no better at parent Fairchild Camera & Instrument, where plenty of blame is going around. When CEO John Carter is finally ousted, the obvious candidate to take over is Robert Noyce… or is it?
As more founders leave, another company is about to rise from the ashes of Fairchild Semiconductor. And Steve Jobs takes the stage as two Silicon Valley legends are finally about to meet in “Something Wonderful.”
19 Jul 2022
008: "A Fast Horse"
By the early 1960s, Fairchild Camera & Instrument may have been the hottest stock on Wall Street, but internally, trouble was brewing.
In this episode, refusing to become “just another employee working in a research lab for somebody else,” Semiconductor co-founder Jay Last takes a stand, and inadvertently launches an entirely new Silicon Valley phenomenon, the “Fairchildren.”
Also, in this episode, Arthur Rock launches the first venture capital fund on the West Coast… and spots a new opportunity to play matchmaker.
Bob Noyce and Fairchild Semiconductor have one last card to play. It could be “corporate suicide.” Or it could be a massive success. Or it could be both.
12 Jul 2022
007: Showing the Flag
Fairchild becomes the David to Texas Instruments’ Goliath, as integrated circuits take the semiconductor stage.
In this episode, a young engineer named Jack Kilby causes a stir when he invents the first integrated circuit, and the team at Fairchild springs into action to keep pace with industry leader Texas Instruments.
Also, in this episode, Fairchild Camera & Instrument exercises its option to buy out the eight Fairchild Semiconductor founders. Overnight, the eight young men become wealthier than they’ve ever dreamed.
They may not have started Fairchild Semiconductor to become rich, but it changes their lives. And it changes the company.
6 Jul 2022
006: "We Can Do That"
Sputnik sparks the Space Race, and hysteria ensues in the United States. In the meantime, the Fairchild Semiconductor founders get to work.
In this episode, the Traitorous Eight have barely moved into their new space, when the Space Race presents an opportunity that has the potential to catapult the fledgling startup to the forefront of the semiconductor industry..
Pouncing on the opportunity, they make an audacious promise to deliver a device that’s never been done before.
The may have just turned on the lights at Charleston Road, and they still may not have had a working bathroom in the building, but it’a make or break time for Fairchild Semiconductor.
28 Jun 2022
005: "A Shameful Act"
Despite the boom in the semiconductor industry, the renegade Shockley research scientists and the bankers of Hayden Stone get nothing but the cold shoulder in their search for a backer… until they catch the ear of an eccentric millionaire inventor.
In this episode, the renegade Shockley research scientists and the bankers from Hayden Stone discover how difficult it really is to fund a tech startup in the conformity-conscious 1950s.
It takes a lot of creativity and persistence, but we watch as brains, capital, and financial know-how come together to finally hammer together a deal to set-up a new kind of business.
22 Jun 2022
004: The Affair of the Luau Pig
After the meeting with Arnold Beckman, the state of Shockley Semiconductor just continues to deteriorate, and the Shockley research staff finally makes their own appeal to Arnold Beckman that something has to change.
In this episode, the Shockley research staff takes a shot in the dark and writes a fateful letter to a New York investment banking firm. The letter asks if the firm knows of any companies who might be interested in hiring the semiconductor research staff as a group because they would like to continue working together if possible.
But the letter lands on the desk of a young banker named Arthur Rock who has another idea for what they can do.
15 Jun 2022
002: A Start on My Own
Having left Bell Labs to strike out on his own, William Shockley had some important decisions to make: Who would be the backer for his fledgling company? Who would be on his staff? And where would it launch?
In this episode, William Shockley begins to assemble the key pieces of the company that would become Shockley Semiconductor, including its investor, Arnold Beckman, and the its soon-to-be-famous research staff.
We are also learn how close Silicon Valley came to being located in Pasadena, and how a few quirks of fate (and a certain Stanford professor) made all the difference.
15 Jun 2022
003: 126
With a backer, a location, and the support of the ambitious Stanford Engineering Department, William Shockley recruiting efforts started in earnest. But having burned his bridges at Bell Labs (and them some!), Shockley resorts to some unorthodox methods to find the scientists and engineers who will make up his research staff.
In this episode, William Shockley lures 20 of the country’s best and brightest young scientific minds to California to help him set-up the new company. We meet those young men, most not even thirty years of age yet, who will be pioneers in the Silicon Valley revolution.
And we watch as the story of Shockley Semiconductor unfolds with the highest of highs when Shockley is awarded the Nobel Prize, only to tumble to the lowest depths as his “erratic behavior” alienates the research staff which has idolized him.
7 Jun 2022
001: Glory Enough for Everyone
In the wake of World War II, Bell Labs was committed to solving one of the most pressing technological problems of the day: how to control an electrical current without the clumsy, expensive, and fragile vacuum tubes then in use.
Sparing no expense to find a solution, Bell assembled a brilliant all-star scientific team to tackle the problem.
In this episode, we meet the brilliant minds, personalities and egos of the team behind one of the most important innovations of the Twentieth Century, the transistor.
And we also watch as personal jealousies, professional paranoia and and an overwhelming clashing of egos leads to the downfall of “one of the greatest research groups ever put together on a problem”… and ultimately sends one man westward to seek his fortune as the Moses of Silicon Valley.
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5.0 / 5
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