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Moore Lect PDF
Moore Lect PDF
There is such
a thing as a
natural-born
entrepreneur. .
But the acciden-
tal entrepreneur
by Gordon E. Moore
like me has to fall
into the opportu-
nity or be pushed
into it.
Like many other scientists and engineers who if I could get myself back to California.
have ended up founding companies, I didn't leave Lawrence Livermore Laboratory interviewed
Caltech as an entrepreneur. I had no training in me and offered me a job, but I decided I didn't
business; after my sophomore year of college I want to take spectra of exploding nuclear bombs,
didn't take any courses outside of chemistry, so I turned it down. Then one evening I got a
math, and physics. My career as an entrepreneur call from Bill Shockley, who had gotten my name
happened quite by accident. from Lawrence Livermore's list of people who had
And it ran counter to early predictions. When turned them down. Now, Shockley is a name
I was graduating from Cal tech with my PhD in that has a Cal tech association. After earning his
chemistry in 1954, I interviewed for jobs with BS here in 1932 he went on to invent the
several companies, one of which was Dow Chemi- transistor. He had been working at Bell Labora-
cal. Dow was interested in setting up a research tories, and now he wanted to set up a semicon-
laboratory in California, and they thought I ductor company our on the West Coast (a lot of
might be someone they could send to headquar- Cal tech connections here-the operation was
ters in Midland, Michigan, to train to come back financed by Arnold Beckman) with the idea of
here in some kind of managerial role. So they making a cheap silicon transistor. Shockley knew
sent me to a psychologist to see how this would that a chemist was useful in the semiconductor
fit. The psychologist said I was OK technically business; they had chemists at Bell Labs, where
but I'd never manage anything. Dow did end up they did useful things. And I was a chemist, so
offering me a job in Midland, but the transfer Shockley caught up with me. Still not an
back to California was no longer a part of it. entrepreneur, I decided to join this operation.
I didn't go to Midland after all, but went in- I was employee number 18. This was a start-
stead to the Applied Physics Laboratory at Johns up operation. All of us except Shockley were
Hopkins University, which has roughly the same young scientists, in our late twenties. I had no
relationship to Johns Hopkins that JPL has to management experience or training. Unfortu-
Caltech, and where I could continue to do basic nately, neither did Shockley. He had run a re-
research in areas related to what I had done be- search group at Bell Laboratories, but this was to
fore. But I found myself calculating the cost per be an enterprise rather than a research group, and
word in the articles we published and wondering he had no real experience in running a company.
if the taxpayers were really getting their money's I suppose maybe I should have been suspicious
worth at $S per word. Just as I was starting to when none of the people who had worked with
worry about the taxpayers, the group I was work- him at Bell Labs joined his new venture, but I
ing in was, for various reasons, breaking apart. didn't even begin to think about that then.
So I decided to look for something that had a bit Shockley was phenomenal from the point
more of a practical bent, and at the same time see of view of his physical intuition. One of my
ones we thought might be interested in support- hired him, and he taught us a variety of things
ing a semiconductor venture. We identified 30- that we hadn't learned before-since most of us
some companies, and Arthur and Bud went out had not even worked for a successful manufactur-
and contacted every one of them. They all turned ing company. He taught us that the different
it down without even talking to us. Then, quite parts of the organization should be established
by accident, Arthur and Bud ran into Sherman with different responsibilities; for example, you
Fairchild, who happened to be a technology buff; have to set up the manufacturing operation
Each of the eight he really loved new technology. He introduced separate from the development laboratory. You
them to the chairman of Fairchild Camera and have to engineer and specify manufacturing
of us invested Instrument, who was willing to take a shot at processes, which is completely different from
$500 in this supporting this new company. getting something to work once in the laborato-
Each of the eight of us invested $500 in this ry. He even taught us that we should bring in a
startup. ... start-up. That may not sound like much now, marketing manager, which we did. And every-
Fairchild put up but it was a month's salary in 1957. Fairchild thing was working fine: the development and
some $1.3 mil- put up some $1.3 million to get us going, and we preproduction engineering for our processes and
started Fairchild Semiconductor Corporation. first products was complete; we had a thick
lion to get us We still weren't really quite entrepreneurs, but process-spec book that recorded all the detailed
going, and we we had learned something along the way . We recipes; and we had interested customers. Then
had learned from the Shockley experience that one day we came to work and discovered that
started Fairchild none of us knew how to run a company, so the Baldwin, along with a group of the people that
Semiconductor first thing we had to do was to hire our own boss he had suggested we hire, were leaving to set up
--essentially hire somebody to run the company. a competing semiconductor company down the
Corporation. We advertised for a general manager. Now, road. This was the first of the Silicon Valley
when you advertise for a general manager for spin-offs that we suffered.
something like this, what you find is that every We never really quite understood this. Bald-
salesman in the country is convinced that he can win had the same potential equity participation
run a company. But buried among all the re- that we did; but he never invested his $500 so he
sponses from salesmen was one from Ed Baldwin, never got the stock. He didn't consider Fairchild
the engineering manager for the Hughes semi- Semiconductor his company, and since he wanted
conductor operation. In the mid-fifties, Hughes his own company, he left llS. (He and his group
was making diodes and was one of the largest also left with the "recipes"; eventually they had to
semiconductor companies in the world. return the copy of the spec book to us.) After our
Baldwin came and told us a lot of things we initial feelings of shock and betrayal, we sat down
didn't know, so we decided that he was the right and discussed what we should do. Should we go
guy to bring in to run our company for us. We out and hire another guy to come in and run the