Silicon Valley Habitat: building bridges between Silicon Valley and the rest of the world.

Silicon Valley is the world’s paradigm as specialized habitat for create high tech companies. Thousands of people come here every year to learn the secrets of its success. 

C. Lee, from Stanford University, have recently written that <<like a natural habitat for flora and fauna, the habitat of Silicon Valley is one in which all the resources high-tech entrepreneurial firms need to survive have grown organically over time. Silicon Valley’s habitat includes people, firms and institutions –their networks and modes of interaction. And like a natural habitat, it is marked by complex, dynamic, interdependent relationships>>. 

Unfortunately, Silicon Valley is still deeply unknown for most business, entrepreneurs and institutions all around the world. The mission of this project is to help them to know it better and to build bridges to reach its main agents (read more about the project).

Chris Gill: Silicon Valley is a state of mind.

Chris Gill is the President and CEO of the Silicon Valley Association of Startup Entrepreneurs (SVASE). A serial entrepreneur, he has founded 8 companies with 6 achieving successful liquidity events. Author of the book "Learning from Silicon Valley Legends", after 30 years in the Valley he has become a Legend himself for thousands of entrepreneurs around the world. 

<<The real key is the attitude. Silicon Valley is a state of mind, it is not a place. That state of mind says that it is okay not only to try, it is okay to fail. Because failing is part of the learning process>>, says Gill.  

<<We see in SVASE that it typically takes 3 or 4 attempts for somebody to actually get a successful company up and running>>.  

<<In other areas like Europe or South Asia people look down on the entrepreneurs who fail, and that is a significant factor that prevents people from trying. Think about it. How are you going to learn how to ride a bicycle?  You can read all the books you want, but you will not learn until you have practical experience by trying it for yourself.  And almost certainly you will fall off a few times, until you get the hang of it.  That’s standard.  No-one expects you to be able do it the first time.  It’s no different for starting a company, and many other things in life>> (read all the interview).

Bob Goedjen: SCORE Silicon Valley, the most experienced coaches an Entrepreneur can find.

SCORE "Counselors to America's Small Business" is a nonprofit association dedicated to educating entrepreneurs and the formation, growth and success of small business nationwide. 

Founded in 1964, SCORE has 389 chapters throughout the United States and its territories, with 10,500 volunteers nationwide. Both working and retired executives and business owners donate time and expertise as business counselors. 

The SCORE Chapter of Silicon Valley is probably one of the most special Chapters of the organization. Bob Goedjen is the Marketing Chair, a real privilege for the Silicon Valley’s Entrepreneurs .

<<Our difference is that a large number of our members are out of the technical field, Hi-Tech. That changes the dynamics a little bit if you compare us with other SCORE Chapters. Many of us came out to startups, so we know that environment>>, says Goedjen (read all the interview).

The Santa Clara University is located just in the core of Silicon Valley. The 8,000-student, Catholic, Jesuit University has a 155-year tradition of educating the whole person for a life of service and leadership. 

This diverse community of scholars, characterized by small classes and a values-oriented curriculum, is dedicated to educating students for competence, conscience, and compassion. Kevin Holmes, Director of the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, knows that SCU is in the best position to become the #1 University of the World for Hi-Tech Entrepreneurs.

<<We think that because our location and because our focus in Hi-Tech Entrepreneurship, we can be a leading University in Entrepreneurship Education>>, says Holmes. (read all the interview).

Silicon Valley’s habitat specializes in breeding high tech companies. Until now, there have been four strong waves of innovation in the region: electronic, integrated circuits (semiconductors), personal computers and Internet.  

Silicon Valley is now a very special cluster of IT firms, where are most of the world leaders of the main IT fields: integrated circuits (Intel, AMD, National Semiconductors), personal computers (Apple), workstations (Hewlett Packard, Sun Microsystems), 3D graphics (Silicon Graphics), database software (Oracle), network computing (Cisco, 3Com) and Internet (Google, Yahoo!, Ebay).  

The actual firms are in many senses inheritors of legendary Silicon Valley companies, among it must be remarked the case of Fairchild Semiconductor Corporation (read more).

There are few cases of success like TEN in Silicon Valley. Over 90 startups have graduated from this Innovation Center in the last 15 years. Among them, outstanding successes like eBay, iPrint, Xros, Vertical Networks, Right Works, Intruvert Networks, Tukaroo or Sensant. $80 billion in market cap and thousands of jobs have been created by their companies. 27 of their graduates have exited through IPO or M&A. 

Big Corporations, Governments and Universities worldwide can now have access to the most successful system of innovation and growth in the world. Access Growth is the brain of TEN and applies its formula all over the world. 

Mark Godwin is the visionary CEO of TEN (The Enterprise Network of Silicon Valley) and ACCESS GROWTH. Born and raised in Silicon Valley, a highly successful entrepreneur and consultant, with the goal of his life to change the world by spreading the innovation system of Silicon Valley (read all the interview).

Stanford University is recognized as one of the world's leading research and teaching institutions. Stanford's current community of scholars includes 16 Nobel laureates, four Pulitzer Prize winners and 24 MacArthur Fellows. Stanford is particularly noted for its openness to interdisciplinary research, not only within its schools and departments, but also in its laboratories, institutes and research centers. 

Among the famous Stanford Alumni, you can find Steve Ballmer, CEO, Microsoft; Eric Benhamou, Chairman, 3Com; Doris Fisher, co-founder, Gap, Inc.; Joseph Gallo, CEO, E&J Gallo Winery; William Hewlett and David Packard (both deceased), founders, Hewlett-Packard Co.; Philip Knight, Chairman and CEO, Nike, Inc.; Bill and Mel Lane, formerly of Sunset Publishing Corp.; Peter Magowan, President, San Francisco Giants; Scott McNealy, Chairman, Sun Microsystems, Inc.; Robert Mondavi, founder, Mondavi Wines; Charles Schwab, CEO and Chairman, Charles Schwab Corp.; Greg Steltenpohl, co-founder, Odwalla; Jerry Yang and David Filo, founders, Yahoo!; Sergey Brin and Lawrence Page, founders of Google;  Reed Hastings, Chairman and CEO of Netflix; and John Morgridge, Chairman of Cisco (read more).