1993. A Denny's booth in San Jose.
NVIDIA
Three guys at a Denny's. 30 days from dead. Then AI.
Sold the shovels
Visit NVIDIA ↗Go meet the legends.
Read how each one started, then go try the real thing.
Chips & Spreadsheets
1982–1994 Software learns to invoice.
Stanford, 1994. Two PhDs avoiding their theses.
Yahoo
Two grad students bookmarked the entire internet.
Passed on buying Google
Visit Yahoo ↗
1994. A Wall Street exec sees the web growing.
Amazon
Quit Wall Street. Typed the plan in a moving car.
Now also your server
Visit Amazon ↗The Bubble
1997–1999 Everything is a dot-com until it isn't.
Two founders on a Santa Cruz commute.
Netflix
Mailed one CD to test it. Later, killed Blockbuster.
Blockbuster got one store left
Visit Netflix ↗
Stanford, 1996. A project called BackRub.
Check written to a company that didn't exist yet.
Page one of everything
Visit Google ↗
Palo Alto, 1998. Software for Palm Pilots.
PayPal
Beamed money between Palm Pilots. Produced a mafia.
The mafia funded everything
Visit PayPal ↗
1999. Pet food, but dot-com.
Pets.com
Shipped dog food at a loss. Bought a Super Bowl ad.
Dead in nine months
1999. An Oracle exec has an idea on sabbatical.
Salesforce
Hired fake protesters. Against software. To sell software.
Enterprise's landlord
Visit Salesforce ↗Web 2.0
2002–2009 Everyone's a user. Nobody's a customer.
Quoted too much for a Russian rocket, he does the math.
SpaceX
Tried to buy a rocket. Built one. Lost three.
Lands them now
Visit SpaceX ↗
2003. What if a car ran on laptop cells?
Tesla
Laptop batteries in a sports car. Christmas Eve survival.
Made EVs desirable
Visit Tesla ↗
2004. A Harvard dorm room.
Meta
Dorm-room directory. Then a pivot to legs.
3B users. Legs TBD.
Visit Meta ↗
Three PayPal alums above a pizzeria.
YouTube
Started as dating. Pivoted to elephants.
$1.65B in 20 months
Visit YouTube ↗