3 ms·

The Luckiest Address in Silicon Valley

17 points by jaybol 17y ago

samratjp 17y ago
I thought this was the luckiest: http://maps.google.com/maps?oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&q=450+Serra+Mall+Stanford,+CA+94305&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=450+Serra+Mall,+Stanford,+CA+94305&gl=us&ei=N53KS7WuM4Oy9gSS_pTGBA&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&ct=image&resnum=1&ved=0CAgQ8gEwAA http://maps.google.com/maps?oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-...
- mikeytown2 17y ago
  Care to explain? :)
  - samratjp 17y ago
    The physicist Werner Heisenberg was once asked if he knew where Stanford University was located. "I believe it is on the west coast of the United States, not far from San Francisco. There is also another school nearby, and they steal each other's axes," he replied, referring to Stanford's rivalry with the University of California, Berkeley. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_University http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_University) Lucky? Sun, Yahoo, Google, Loopt as a small sample. For god's sake, there is a Sequoia Hall on the map! :-)
    - wonsungi 17y ago
      Also highly relevant to why 165 University would be lucky: downtown Palo Alto is within walking distance from "the quad" on Stanford campus (just down Palm Drive).
      - samratjp 17y ago
        nostrademons, you have a terrific memory and you are right. But, this particular thread calls for Silicon Valley. Let the poor school have it's moment in the SUN :-)
        nostrademons 17y ago
        Actually, I just looked at the "famous alumni" lists on Wikipedia and filtered for a.) companies that we've heard of where b.) the founder's MIT degree was somewhat relevant to the company. There was some fascinating...TIL that Campbell Soup took off through the skills of an MIT-trained chemist who invented condensed soup, and that the National Enquirer was turned into a tabloid by an MIT-trained engineer who had worked for the CIA's psychological warfare unit. I can just see the conspiracy theories fly on that one.
        samratjp 17y ago
        Definitely, MIT has spun off some great companies to be sure. What caught my attention the most was Campbell's soup - thanks for that share. Wouldn't have ever guessed that.
        jaybol 17y ago
        Wow that is pretty incredible to hear the story of the National Enquirer. I just thought it was where Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith got their leads for hunting down aliens!
        hga 17y ago
        Underwood went to MIT to solve their problems with canning and the result was making the process scientific and safe and the birth of food science and technology: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Underwood_Company#Involvement_with_MIT http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Underwood_Company#Invol... MIT's Food and Nutrition department was very successful until it became Applied Biology and committed the sin of raising more money than the Chemistry and Biology departments, at which point administrators who were professors in those departments figuratively killed it in the dead of night (although recently another Applied Biology department was evidently started).
        cperciva 17y ago
        I think you mean "let the poor school have its moment in the ORACLE". :-)
    - nostrademons 17y ago
      Couldn't you make the same argument about Harvard (Microsoft, Facebook, Broderbund, Electronic Arts, OKCupid, not to mention Polaroid, Merck, and Weezer) or MIT (Hewlett-Packard, Thinking Machines, Texas Instruments, Qualcomm, Visicalc, Lotus, Akamai, Fairchild, Intel, 3Com, DEC, ETrade, Bose, Kurzweil, and iRobot, not to mention McDonnell Douglas, Campbell Soup, Boston, and the National Enquirer)?
      - srini 17y ago
        Hewlett-Packard: I'd give that one to Stanford way more than MIT. From Wikipedia: "Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard graduated in electrical engineering from Stanford University in 1935. The company originated in a garage in nearby Palo Alto during a fellowship they had with a past professor, Frederick Terman at Stanford during the Great Depression. Terman was considered a mentor to them in forming Hewlett-Packard." If anyone's interested, here's a fuller list of SV companies founded by Stanford-affiliated people: http://www.stanford.edu/group/wellspring/economic.html http://www.stanford.edu/group/wellspring/economic.html
        hga 17y ago
        Hmmm, you're right, their formal education at MIT only includes Hewlett getting his Masters there with his BS and Ph.D. at Stanford (Packard got his BS and Masters at Stanford, all this according to Wikipedia). As far as I know they did feel some affinity with MIT, but it sounds like the Stanford connection is overwhelmingly dominant.
nostrademons 17y ago
Wasn't this also FaceBook headquarters until their very recent move? Or is that across the street?
- wonsungi 17y ago
  I was told FaceBook HQ was at 150 University Ave; just down the street: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=165+university+ave&daddr=150-university-ave,+palo+alto&hl=en&geocode=FU1bOwIdvO-3-CmtpEpWN7uPgDErPkPqYjaeqA%3BFUpaOwIdze-3-CnHIGX-ObuPgDHoZstek_NTTg&mra=ls&dirflg=w&sll=37.444261,-122.163189&sspn=0.001339,0.00284&ie=UTF8&z=19&layer=c&cbll=37.444174,-122.163271&panoid=xX6P8Tg9QosbgvwOW75KfA&cbp=12,94.19,,0,5 http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=165... But they may have very well leased space in 165 University Ave; I was also told by the time they moved, they had a complex shuttle system to get between their many office spaces in Palo Alto.
helwr 17y ago
actually i was looking to rent a garage in the area. there is something special about palo alto garages
teaspoon 17y ago
Obvious questions: how many other, less successful businesses did this building host?
pkaler 17y ago
I don't believe in luck. There is only work ethic and understanding the probabilities.
rit 17y ago
Slightly aside, but worth noting is that much of the founding team of Danger went on to create a small startup known as Android, later acquired by Google.
- jaybol 17y ago
  "Before Google grew here, PayPal did. Later came Danger, the phone innovator that Microsoft Corp. acquired for $500 million before its founder, Andy Rubin, took a leading role in Google's Android project." - http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-milo6-2010apr06,0,3496210.story http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-milo6-2010apr06,0,3496...

17 points by jaybol 17y ago

I thought this was the luckiest: http://maps.google.com/maps?oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&q=450+Serra+Mall+Stanford,+CA+94305&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=450+Serra+Mall,+Stanford,+CA+94305&gl=us&ei=N53KS7WuM4Oy9gSS_pTGBA&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&ct=image&resnum=1&ved=0CAgQ8gEwAA http://maps.google.com/maps?oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-...

mikeytown2 17y ago
Care to explain? :)
- samratjp 17y ago
  The physicist Werner Heisenberg was once asked if he knew where Stanford University was located. "I believe it is on the west coast of the United States, not far from San Francisco. There is also another school nearby, and they steal each other's axes," he replied, referring to Stanford's rivalry with the University of California, Berkeley. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_University http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_University) Lucky? Sun, Yahoo, Google, Loopt as a small sample. For god's sake, there is a Sequoia Hall on the map! :-)
  - wonsungi 17y ago
    Also highly relevant to why 165 University would be lucky: downtown Palo Alto is within walking distance from "the quad" on Stanford campus (just down Palm Drive).
    - samratjp 17y ago
      nostrademons, you have a terrific memory and you are right. But, this particular thread calls for Silicon Valley. Let the poor school have it's moment in the SUN :-)
      - nostrademons 17y ago
        Actually, I just looked at the "famous alumni" lists on Wikipedia and filtered for a.) companies that we've heard of where b.) the founder's MIT degree was somewhat relevant to the company. There was some fascinating...TIL that Campbell Soup took off through the skills of an MIT-trained chemist who invented condensed soup, and that the National Enquirer was turned into a tabloid by an MIT-trained engineer who had worked for the CIA's psychological warfare unit. I can just see the conspiracy theories fly on that one.
        samratjp 17y ago
        Definitely, MIT has spun off some great companies to be sure. What caught my attention the most was Campbell's soup - thanks for that share. Wouldn't have ever guessed that.
        jaybol 17y ago
        Wow that is pretty incredible to hear the story of the National Enquirer. I just thought it was where Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith got their leads for hunting down aliens!
        hga 17y ago
        Underwood went to MIT to solve their problems with canning and the result was making the process scientific and safe and the birth of food science and technology: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Underwood_Company#Involvement_with_MIT http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Underwood_Company#Invol... MIT's Food and Nutrition department was very successful until it became Applied Biology and committed the sin of raising more money than the Chemistry and Biology departments, at which point administrators who were professors in those departments figuratively killed it in the dead of night (although recently another Applied Biology department was evidently started).
      - cperciva 17y ago
        I think you mean "let the poor school have its moment in the ORACLE". :-)
  - nostrademons 17y ago
    Couldn't you make the same argument about Harvard (Microsoft, Facebook, Broderbund, Electronic Arts, OKCupid, not to mention Polaroid, Merck, and Weezer) or MIT (Hewlett-Packard, Thinking Machines, Texas Instruments, Qualcomm, Visicalc, Lotus, Akamai, Fairchild, Intel, 3Com, DEC, ETrade, Bose, Kurzweil, and iRobot, not to mention McDonnell Douglas, Campbell Soup, Boston, and the National Enquirer)?
    - srini 17y ago
      Hewlett-Packard: I'd give that one to Stanford way more than MIT. From Wikipedia: "Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard graduated in electrical engineering from Stanford University in 1935. The company originated in a garage in nearby Palo Alto during a fellowship they had with a past professor, Frederick Terman at Stanford during the Great Depression. Terman was considered a mentor to them in forming Hewlett-Packard." If anyone's interested, here's a fuller list of SV companies founded by Stanford-affiliated people: http://www.stanford.edu/group/wellspring/economic.html http://www.stanford.edu/group/wellspring/economic.html
      - hga 17y ago
        Hmmm, you're right, their formal education at MIT only includes Hewlett getting his Masters there with his BS and Ph.D. at Stanford (Packard got his BS and Masters at Stanford, all this according to Wikipedia). As far as I know they did feel some affinity with MIT, but it sounds like the Stanford connection is overwhelmingly dominant.

nostrademons 17y ago

Wasn't this also FaceBook headquarters until their very recent move? Or is that across the street?

wonsungi 17y ago
I was told FaceBook HQ was at 150 University Ave; just down the street: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=165+university+ave&daddr=150-university-ave,+palo+alto&hl=en&geocode=FU1bOwIdvO-3-CmtpEpWN7uPgDErPkPqYjaeqA%3BFUpaOwIdze-3-CnHIGX-ObuPgDHoZstek_NTTg&mra=ls&dirflg=w&sll=37.444261,-122.163189&sspn=0.001339,0.00284&ie=UTF8&z=19&layer=c&cbll=37.444174,-122.163271&panoid=xX6P8Tg9QosbgvwOW75KfA&cbp=12,94.19,,0,5 http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=165... But they may have very well leased space in 165 University Ave; I was also told by the time they moved, they had a complex shuttle system to get between their many office spaces in Palo Alto.

helwr 17y ago

actually i was looking to rent a garage in the area. there is something special about palo alto garages

teaspoon 17y ago

Obvious questions: how many other, less successful businesses did this building host?

pkaler 17y ago

I don't believe in luck. There is only work ethic and understanding the probabilities.

rit 17y ago

Slightly aside, but worth noting is that much of the founding team of Danger went on to create a small startup known as Android, later acquired by Google.

jaybol 17y ago
"Before Google grew here, PayPal did. Later came Danger, the phone innovator that Microsoft Corp. acquired for $500 million before its founder, Andy Rubin, took a leading role in Google's Android project." - http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-milo6-2010apr06,0,3496210.story http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-milo6-2010apr06,0,3496...