Getting the Money to Start a Business

The stories from Silicon Valley company founders

"When we raised the venture capital for Adobe, we had a very different business plan than the one that we eventually executed and I've often remarked, "Thank God we did not pursue that plan because we probably would not have survived."
Charles Geschke
Founder, Adobe Systems

"I funded Atari with $250 and grew it, not because I thought that was a nifty way to start a company, but because venture capital was not available to me. I mean, it may sound ludicrous at this point in time, but people thought the idea of playing games on a television set was the stupidest idea they'd ever heard of."
Nolan Bushnell
Founder, Atari

"We talked to over 25 venture capital firms. And no one wanted to fund us. And no venture capital firm did."
Scott Cook
Founder, Intuit

"In 1980, 1981 and even up to 1983, there was a great deal of increase in venture capital funding, and Lam Research was born at that time -- and we were funded a hundred percent by venture capitalists."
David K. Lam
Founder, Lam Research

"When we went and talked to venture capitalists and none of them would give us any money, one of them referred to me as a "renegade from the human race" because I had longer hair then. And you know, none of them would give us any money. Thank God! Because then they would have ended up owning most of our company. So, I think that Apple and a few other companies were good examples to the venture capitalists that great ideas are not the exclusive providence of people with gray hair."
Steve Jobs
Founder, Apple Computer

"For 15 million dollars we were going to get 30 percent of the company and we went home that night and said, "You know we really don't need 15 million dollars to get this thing started. All we need is five." So we went back to the venture capital people the next day and said, "Listen, can we have 70 percent of the company if we only get 5 million?" And they laughed and said, "Okay, fine. Okay, we'll do that."
Robert Swanson
Founder, Linear Technology

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Silicon Valley

Strong waves of creative energy have flowed in recent decades from a place known as Silicon Valley, encircling — and changing — the world. How it happened is explored through this website.

The phenomenon known since the 1970s as Silicon Valley can be traced to origins in the 1890s when Leland Stanford established a university in Palo Alto and urged that its students not only gain knowledge but be able to apply their learning in the real world.

Books & Films about Silicon Valley

SILICON VALLEY: 110 Year Renaissance
SILICON VALLEY:
110 Year Renaissance

The constellation known today as Silicon Valley represents the choicest achievements of America's high technology through the 20th Century and now into the 21st. The purpose of this book is to collect and pass on to the future generations an understanding of how this phenomenon came to be. Silicon Valley is unique in many ways, but its character found roots more than a hundred and ten years ago. Dozens of high technology founders and inventors provide personal perspective thoughout the pages.

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SILICON VALLEY: A 100 Year Renaissance [DVD] introduces viewers to the inventors, scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs whose visions created the Silicon Valley phenomenon and its limitless consequences for the future.

Santa Clara Valley Historical Association

Recording Silicon Valley's History and the High-Technology Revolution