
The Traitorous Eight - montgomm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traitorous_eight
======
sndean
> Their starting salaries ranged from $13,800 to $15,600 per year.

Adjusting for inflation from 1957, that's not a bad salary: ~$128,000 [1].

[1] [http://data.bls.gov/cgi-
bin/cpicalc.pl?cost1=15%2C000.00&yea...](http://data.bls.gov/cgi-
bin/cpicalc.pl?cost1=15%2C000.00&year1=1957&year2=2016)

~~~
telotortium
Especially considering that the SF Bay Area wasn't the most expensive housing
market in the country at the time.

------
georgewsinger
The Traitorous Eight. The PayPal Mafia. Any other cohorts famous in Silicon
Valley for producing disproportionate excellence?

~~~
baristaGeek
Former Facebook founders and employees have started Asana, Quora, Cloudera,
Path, etc.

~~~
cududa
Quora is almost 10 years old and has no business model. Asana is profitable
but no longer growing. No knowledge on Cloudera. And Path was a bust.

------
matchagaucho
We underestimate how stigmatized these 8 gentlemen were for leaving their
employer.

They were literally labeled "traitors" by their peers.

Their technical contributions are equaled by their company culture
contributions.

It was "okay" to take an idea, open up a small start-up next door, and attempt
to innovate faster than the parent companies.

And this concept is really core to the spirit and DNA of Silicon Valley today.

~~~
pop8row9
The Wikipedia article seems very biased in their favor.

~~~
nickbail3y
I'd say that's because Wikipedia largely exists due to them.

------
fzzzy
The PBS movie "Silicon Valley" is an excellent documentary that discusses them
at length.

~~~
jgalt212
I agree. I'd also add inspirational to the list of adjectives about this
documentary.

------
perfmode
> Arthur Rock and Alfred Coyle from Hayden, Stone & Co. became interested in
> the offer, believing that trainees of a Nobel laureate were destined to
> succeed.

Perks of pedigree

------
atombath
> He also combed through all records left by The Eight, basing patents, held
> as Shockley Labs' intellectual property, on any important ideas.[67]
> (Technically, in accordance with U.S. law, those patents were issued to the
> respective inventing employees.)

I'll assume this is true. My jealousy cup runneth over.

------
todd8
Very interesting, now I don't feel so bad about my own limitations.

