The Wagon Wheel Restaurant's Role in Sharing Silicon Valley Technology
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 Published On Apr 4, 2012

In this 1995 interview, Robert Graham, founding Intel employee, tells the story of the Wagon Wheel Restaurant's role in sharing Silicon Valley technology. This is a segment from the full unscripted interview.

Robert Graham 1995 Interview
Interview date: January 19, 1995
Interviewer: John McLaughlin, Historian and President of the Santa Clara Valley Historical Association

Interviewer's question:
"Could you explain the exchange of ideas in Silicon Valley?"

Transcript:
"One of the reasons that we were able to risk, really, in the early days particularly, and I think it is still true today in semiconductors, only one company solved each problem. Because they went to the Wagon Wheel after work. They got drunk and they bragged about it. They told everybody. So, that one was solved for everybody in the area. So, very quickly, as a problem arise in semiconductors, it was resolved, because all these companies were working on it. And, when one of them found the answer, they all stopped working on it. They all did that, and they went to the next one. And, so, it was an incredible growth. That's why it out-distanced the East Coast, because you didn't find that on the East Coast. They didn't have this energy. This guys were all competitors and they fought like hell, but they all drank together, and they were all young and they all liked to brag about what they were doing. In many cases, they just exchanged information, because they felt it was better to get the damn problem behind them, get some help, and then when they got help, they gave help the next time."

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