These days, it’s hardly revolutionary or even original: A group of brilliant tech-heads in Santa Clara, CA leave the security of their current corporate situation to form their own start-up. The difference here was the time. It was 1957, a time when a man was expected to stay with the same company for thirty or forty years. There was no leaving to start one’s own company.
Then came this traitorous group of eight genii, led by Robert Noyce (center, foreground), who felt stifled by the leadership, direction and vision of their current company, Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory. They formed their own company, called Fairchild Semiconductor, and became known as the “Fairchild Eight.” This was the first start-up. In this photo and in the company they started were the seeds of what would eventually become Intel.
In our current climate of the uber-casual slob, the well-dressed man is the rebel. These revolutionary bastards were the very first of their kind. As they created work that would forever alter the tech-scape of the country and the world, they weren’t in sandals, shorts, t-shirts or hoodies. They re-wrote the script of corporate life and forever changed the trajectory of technology in suits and ties. And they looked damn good doing it.
Comments are closed.