[Chapter 4: Trip to Silicon Valley]
Sitting in the car and gazing out the window, John Leighton couldn't help but think about the place he was about to reach.
San Francisco is located in an earthquake-prone area, so many of the residential buildings there were primarily wooden structures. The great San Francisco earthquake had nearly destroyed the entire city back in the day, and what stands now is a city rebuilt from those ruins.
There wasn't time to properly explore San Francisco; Zach drove straight out of the city towards Silicon Valley. On the way, they passed the Golden Gate Bridge, catching a quick glimpse of this world-famous landmark. John knew that the Golden Gate Bridge had been featured in countless movies. Sometimes it was destroyed by earthquakes, transformed by robots, attacked by aliens, or served as a battleground for battles involving the Hulk. In films, the Golden Gate Bridge seemed to endure all kinds of disasters.
From San Francisco to Silicon Valley was only a few dozen miles. With Silicon Valley's global fame, the route between the two places was a well-known travel path.
Speaking of Silicon Valley, one cannot overlook an extraordinary individual: the talented Stanford University professor, Fred Terman. Originally, Silicon Valley was a renowned educational zone. While college graduates moved to developed areas, Professor Terman noticed this trend. He chose a piece of land on the Stanford campus dedicated to student startups and established an investment fund encouraging students to develop their ventures locally.
Under his guidance, two of his students started a great company, Hewlett-Packard, out of a garage with just $500. This marked the origin of Silicon Valley's "garage culture." For example, Apple was started in a garage, Google began in a garage, and numerous other companies followed suit. HP's garage is considered a historic landmark, recognized by California as the birthplace of Silicon Valley, becoming one of its most famous sights.
In the 1950s, Professor Terman envisioned something bigger -- leveraging Stanford University to create a campus technology park, laying the foundation for Silicon Valley's development. Subsequently, many great companies were born there, including Fairchild Semiconductor, followed by AMD, Intel, Apple, Cisco, and Oracle among many others.
As biotechnology, marine technology, aerospace, and energy materials grew, Silicon Valley became synonymous with high-tech industries. When people talk about high-tech hubs, Silicon Valley in the San Francisco Bay Area is the first thing that comes to mind. Around the world, other tech centers are often nicknamed "the Silicon Valley of such-and-such."
In America, there were two places nicknamed "the American Silicon Valley": Silicon Valley itself and another tech hub modeled after it.
...
Less than an hour later, Zach drove John to San Jose, the capital of Santa Clara County, marking their official entry into Silicon Valley. Their purpose was clear -- to reconnect with Jerry Yang and David Filo. Knowing they were both there, they didn't stop to linger but headed straight to Yahoo's then-current location on the Stanford campus, where both were still students.
After about ten minutes, they reached Stanford's campus gate during winter break when the campus was quite empty. They drove directly inside and went straight to the electrical engineering building, filling John with anticipation.
From a distance, John spotted the familiar faces. Jerry Yang and David Filo, both neatly dressed in suits and ties, clearly having dressed up a bit -- they had heard an angel investor was coming.
Before the car stopped completely, John jumped out and strode toward them. Jerry and David barely reacted, likely because they could tell John was still a minor. His youthful face gave him away.
"Hello, are you Jerry and David?" John smiled as he approached and extended his hand.
"Oh yes, who are you?" Jerry quickly shook John's hand, then asked with curiosity.
"Hello, I'm the investor coming to meet you today. My name's John, John Leighton."
"Oh my god, Jerry, pinch me, I must be dreaming," David said.
"Alright, David, hello, Mr. Leighton."
Just then Zach parked the car and joined them.
"This is my personal lawyer, Zach Johnson," John introduced. They exchanged greetings.
"Mr. Johnson, is it true that Mr. Leighton really intends to invest?" David asked Zach, showing some skepticism about someone so young being an angel investor.
"I can confirm it. While we were online, he saw your web directory and got inspired to invest. You can see I was hired by him to bring him here," Zach replied.
"Oh my god, Mr. Leighton, first of all, thank you for liking our web directory and your kind recognition, and also for your investment," said David.
"David, Mr. Leighton hasn't invested yet," Jerry reminded him. John knew very well, coming from the future, that while both of Yahoo's founders were technical talents, David was more focused on technology, whereas Jerry was more versatile.
"Of course, David. If I didn't want to invest, I wouldn't have traveled all the way from Los Angeles to Silicon Valley to meet you."
"Let's head upstairs and discuss the details in the room," Jerry gestured.
...
The four entered the building. At the time, the two were still working in a small room inside their electrical engineering department. Their servers were those of the school, showing how modest their setup was as students.
The cramped room was only about 200-300 square feet. Pizza boxes tossed in a trash bag signaled a bit of tidying up, but it still felt untidy. Two computers and a server hummed loudly, and the four nearly filled the space.
"Sorry, Mr. Leighton, we're still students, using the school servers, so it's not much," Jerry explained when he noticed John frowned slightly.
"No worries. Every startup begins like this. This is Silicon Valley, the place where miracles are born. Those garage legends all started just like this," John said.
"Yes, exactly! This is Silicon Valley," David replied enthusiastically.
Of course, John came here to strike gold. Before investing in Yahoo, he had to discuss seriously with them -- every single percentage point could mean billions in business later on. He intended to show them the unique advantages and strengths he brought as someone who had been reborn.
*****
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