

Starting Up Silicon Valley Style - StudyAnimal
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0fYKnKbM6s

======
AngryParsley
I've never heard of the Santa Clara Valley Historical Association before, but
they've recorded some very interesting interviews. I recommend looking through
their uploaded videos. There are a lot of gems in there.

I've heard some crazy stories about financial difficulties before, but Atari
takes the cake: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BY8GpCCBWWc> . Sheriffs
standing in the lobby to garnish income. Everyone rushing to the bank to make
sure their paychecks didn't bounce. It's totally crazy and I'm amazed they had
the determination and luck to survive that time.

~~~
BrainScraps
This video picks up where Steve Blank's secret history of Silicon Valley left
off: [http://steveblank.com/category/secret-history-of-silicon-
val...](http://steveblank.com/category/secret-history-of-silicon-valley/)

I enjoyed Blank's very thorough description of the military / government
agency technology that originated in the Valley and this clip helps to tie it
very nicely to recent times.

~~~
nikcub
I just watched his entire presentation, which was better than his blog posts:

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFSPHfZQpIQ&feature=relat...](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFSPHfZQpIQ&feature=related)

absolutely brilliant and a must see. Steve's blog is great, but he also has a
good presentation style thick with interesting content.

------
martinkallstrom
I was amazed at some of the deals these founders took. Starting up owning 5%
of the company on day one. Or taking in $7M on a $9M valuation. Are these
kinds of deals still happening?

~~~
pg
No. That's what's so interesting about it for me. The shift in power from
investors to founders isn't just something that's been happening during the
last 10 years. It's been happening throughout the history of VC.

------
danielha
Just spent a little while watching through 5 of those videos. Incredible
stuff... good clips to play in the morning just in case you need that right
kick in the pants.

------
marcamillion
Oracle was started with $2000!

That's insane.

~~~
ThomPete
Atari was $250, crazy stuff.

------
fourspace
Funny to see that some of the buildings shown as various companies in 1998 are
all owned by Google today.

------
pg
This is fascinating.

~~~
rooshdi
Incredible how these world renowned companies we know today started out with
so little and were denied by most of the venture capital firms at the time.
Definitely inspirational and an example to look up to when bootstrapping. I'm
keeping this bookmarked.

------
bitwize
"First you need a buzzword,

Then a second and a third,

Pick at least two industries you'll revolutionize.

Find yourself an engineer,

Feed him pizza, buy him beer,

Give him just a fraction of a fraction of the pie.

Need a good domain name,

Must be cheap, can't be lame,

Something cool like Flickr, Meebo, WikiYou, Mahalo, Bebo,

'Telephone' without the 't',

'Digg' but with a triple 'g',

Make your elevator pitch,

Code it up and flip the switch!"

\--The Richter Scales, "Here Comes Another Bubble"

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6IQ_FOCE6I>

------
mayukh
This is great! About 8 minutes in listen to Bob Graham talk about the
negotiation with a firm that wanted all of the company for 7mm. His response
was classic.

------
rogerjin
Talk about perspective...

------
pitdesi
There's a new documentary coming out about the creation of the VC industry
called Something Ventured

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssR0sdKqNs4&feature=playe...](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssR0sdKqNs4&feature=player_embedded)

Looks pretty good

