The “Traitorous Eight” pose under the “Flying F” logo in the company’s Mountain View lobby. From left: Gordon Moore, Sheldon Roberts, Eugene Kleiner, Robert Noyce, Victor Grinich, Julius Blank, Jean Hoerni and Jay Last.
It all started with Shockley, the Godfather of the transistor. Over a boat ride in Newport Beach, Shockley asked Beckman for $1 million to start his lab. Silicon Valley potentially could have started anywhere, but Shockley explained the status of his aging mother in Palo Alto and convinced Beckman to start in Mountain View
Shockley was known as a brilliant engineer but a horrific manager and soon the initial team started losing members. In 1957, 8 (of 30) employees finally said enough-is-enough and decided mutiny.
That group of 8 people started companies like Fairchild Semiconductor, Intel, Teledyne Technologies and AMD.
Without the Traitorous 8, the world would look a lot different (e.g. accordingly to Intel, we are now consuming an estimated sextillion transistors!).
William B. Shockley
Had the group miserably resigned themselves to remain at Shockley Semiconductor, perhaps mankind would not have achieved the giant strides in global standards of living.
About Holborn Consulting
Holborn is a Sales advisory boutique in London, specialised in supporting high-tech firms in the B2B market development.
PS
This story is taken from the book - "The Unbent" - Amazon link
"Great compilation of motivational stories with a business background. A quick read with a friendly tone!" - Reader feedback on Amazon
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