The Most Important Silicon Valley Company You've Never Heard Of

How 4 short pages built the modern tech world. Kindly sponsored by Incogni. They can't harm you if they can't find you! Use code InGenius at the link below and get 60% off an annual plan: https://incogni.com/InGenius Developed by the team behind ‪@veritasium‬, InGenius is a new channel dedicated to surprising human stories about global systems and how the world works. Watch Veritasium’s video on Power Laws here:    • You've (Likely) Been Playing The Game Of L...   For more content follow us on our social media accounts: Instagram - https://in49.s.gy/Instagram TikTok - https://in49.s.gy/TikTok FaceBook - https://in49.s.gy/FaceBook X - https://in49.s.gy/X Spotify - https://in49.s.gy/spotify ▀▀▀ 0:00 The worst boss in history? 4:17 Arthur Rock - The Father of Silicon Valley 7:59 The First Ever Venture Capital Deal 10:20 The Traitorous Eight 16:35 The Rock Memo 23:26 The Founding of Intel 27:27 How Venture Capital Relies on Power Laws 30:51 How Silicon Valley Created Entire Industries 35:50 What is ensh*ttification? 40:34 The Problems With Big Tech ▀▀▀ Special thanks to our interviewees for their time and expertise: Prof Robert Bartlett (Law and Business, Stanford Law School) Sebastian Mallaby (Author, The power law: venture capital and the making of the new future) Dr Henry Lowood (Curator, Silicon Valley Archives, Stanford University Libraries) Dag Spicer (Senior Curator, Computer History Museum) Elizabeth Jones (Historian and Museum Director, Intel) Dr Bill Janeway (Author, Doing Capitalism in the Innovation Economy & Distinguished Affiliated Professor, Cambridge University) Prof Ilya A. Strebulaev (Finance, Stanford Graduate School of Business) Catherine Bracy (Author, World Eaters: How Venture Capital is Cannibalizing the Economy; Founder and CEO of TechEquity) Benjamin Shestakofsky (Author, Behind the Startup) Additional thanks to Prof Ilya Strebulaev, Iana Pavlovskaia and Rustam Abuzov for providing advice and consulting on the script. Huge thanks to Silicon Valley Archives at Stanford University, the Computer History Museum and the Intel Museum, for their expertise, filming and access to their collections. ▀▀▀ References: Geller, D., & Goldfine, D. (Directors). (2011). Something Ventured [Film]. Miralan Productions. Mallaby, S. (2022). The power law: Venture capital and the making of the new future. Penguin Press. Lécuyer, C., & Brock, D. C. (2010). Makers of the microchip: A documentary history of Fairchild Semiconductor. MIT Press. Berlin, L. (2005). The man behind the microchip: Robert Noyce and the invention of Silicon Valley. Oxford University Press. Bartlett, R., & Grundfest, J. (2023). Arthur Rock's Intel memo: The Magna Carta of venture finance. Stanford Lawyer. Retrieved October 19, 2026, from in49.s.gy/ArthurRockSIntel InGenius. (2026). Combined market capitalisation of Fairchild-lineage technology companies [Data set; author’s calculations based on CompaniesMarketCap and Crunchbase data]. http://in49.s.gy/CombinedMarketCap The rest here: https://in49.s.gy/SVReferences Visual references: https://in49.s.gy/SV-VisualRefs ▀▀▀ Writer, Producer & Director: Tom Heyden Presenter: Latif Nasser Editors: Spencer Wright & Tom Heyden Camera Operators: Jesse Chandler, Wingel Buendia & Tom Heyden Technical Animators: Little Shadow Historical Illustrator & Art Director: Maria Gusakovich Historical Illustrator: Caine Esperanza Historical Animator: Arturo Bravo Peña Researcher: Naomi Dinmore Designers: Ben Powell, Dan Ellacott Thumbnail Designers: Daniel Ellacott, Patryk Ziolkowski, Ren Hurley & Ben Powell Production Team: Katy Southwood, Anna Milkovic, Matthew Cavanagh, Josh Pitt & Christian la Brijn Executive Producer: Zoe Heron Additional video/photos supplied by Getty Images and Storyblocks Music from Epidemic Sound