Katipunan Forum
OPINION
Wagon Wheel – the Fountainhead of Silicon Valley
by Dennis Posadas
“Every year there was
some place, the Wagon Wheel, Chez Yvonne, Rickey's, the Roundhouse, where members
of this esoteric fraternity, the young men and women of the semiconductor
industry, would head after work to have a drink and gossip and brag and trade
war stories about contacts, burst modes, bubble memories, pulse trains,
bounceless modes, slow-death episodes, RAMs, NAKs, MOSes, PCMs, PROMs, PROM
blowers, PROM blasters, and teramagnitudes, meaning multiples of a million
millions.” - quoted from
AnnaLee Saxenian’s article as secondary source – taken from Tom Wolfe,
"The Tinkerings of Robert Noyce: How the Sun Rose on the Silicon
Valley", Esquire (Dec. 1983) 346-374.
After Stanford’s Frederick
Terman started the pattern of commercializing academe research through his
grant of a few hundred dollars to his graduate students Bill Hewlett and David
Packard, the Valley had to find a way to sustain its growth. While today it is
biotechnology and Internet related research that fuels it, during the 1950’s it
was the contracts with the US Department of Defense that gave it business
potential. Companies like Fairchild Semiconductor were producing chips
primarily for the US military.
Geographically, Silicon Valley
is located in Northern California but the term itself is a misnomer. The valley
itself is nondescript, with typical suburban flavor. What enables the Valley to
churn out innovation is the proximity to two major sources of new technology –
Stanford and UC Berkeley. The venture capitalists, on the other hand, have
typically setup shop along what is known as Sand Hill Road. Venture
capitalists, or “VC’s” as they are often times known, are willing to invest in
technology startups – most often for equity in the startup. Traditional
banks will often not touch these tech startups, as this is a risky venture –
but VC’s will. VC’s often minimize their risk by investing in several
companies, with the hope that losses in 90% (or more) of their investments will
be offset by that “great startup” – the Apple’s and Intel’s of the world.
Actually, many people already
have this picture of Silicon Valley – a center of research excellence (ex.
Stanford and Berkeley, MIT, etc.) coupled with venture capital and an excellent
place to live which will jumpstart the new ideas. I mean, what could be so
difficult as to place research, VC’s and all the other ingredients in one place
and hope for the best.
Plenty. In AnnaLee Saxenian’s
book, “Regional Advantage”, AnnaLee (an oft quoted UC Berkeley planner) quotes
from famous novelist Tom Wolfe, who described how tech startups often started
with meetings in restaurants. Business plans for companies like Compaq were
written on a napkin, with the founders trying to decide whether to start a
restaurant or a high tech company. One such restaurant is the Wagon Wheel,
which was often the site where technology startups were first conceptualized.
If you look closely, we
as Filipinos can learn a lot from this. No matter what people say, we have
pockets of isolated excellence in technology research in our academe labs.
Local universities such as UP are already designing VLSI chips and have advanced
wafer fab processes that can handle materials like SiGe and GaAs. We also have
an industry looking for local sources of technology much like the US military
looked for technologies in the Valley in the 1950’s. Capital exists locally,
and foreign VC’s have already started to setup shop here. However, something is
missing. We Filipinos have 7,100 islands and we seem to have made it our motto.
What is missing ? It is the local
equivalent of the Wagon Wheel – a venue where people can meet
regularly to discuss opportunities and find solutions. The way we do it
is for each of these two groups (academe and industry) to visit each other once
a year during luncheons or dinners at expensive hotels. Ooohs and ahhs will of
course emanate from the industry people, and academe will feel pleased that
they have linked with industry. After that, they will go back to their
traditional chores and forget about each other until the next luncheon comes
again next year, hopefully for free.
Katipunan Forum is our
attempt to be that Wagon Wheel. No
longer will academe need to visit industry in hopes of seeking collaboration
opportunities – industry will come to the academe on a regular basis. Instead
of once a year visits, why not once a month. Instead of just internships and
scholarships (which are still VERY important), why not elevate it to a certain
level and form startups.
The possibilities are endless
IF we all believe it is possible. Katipunan Forum is that start.