← Analysis Walkabout — wander by real connection, not category
Portland's Tech Industry Started in a Basement, Not a Defense Contract
Every regional tech hub this site has traced started with federal defense money funneled through a university. Portland broke the pattern: Tektronix started in 1946 in a co-founder's basement, no government contract, and an estimated 300 companies -- including Mentor Graphics and Lattice Semiconductor -- trace their roots directly back to it.
Read this piece →
Where this connects
Silicon Valley's Largest Employer for Decades Wasn't a Tech Company. It Was a Missile Plant.
The garage-startup story leaves out the tenant that mattered most: by 1959, Lockheed Missiles and Space Company employed nearly 20,000 pe...
Boston Got There First. Then It Lost the Lead to Silicon Valley on Purpose.
Route 128, completed in 1956, was the nation's first real high-tech corridor -- built on defense money five years before Silicon Valley. ...
Start a new walkabout