Silicon Valley is the home of many technologies we know of today. It’s also home to many digital marketing agencies and industry giants such as Apple, Google, Facebook, and Netflix. It’s easy to forget that many of these companies started as start-ups, earning a fraction of what they earn now. Many of the CEOs and founders of these tech giants started with very little recognition.
They also started not knowing what is ahead of them. However, they knew that shortly, the world would rely on tech to keep everyone satisfied and happy. So they went to work and become the tech giants we know now. Let’s look into the Silicon Valley of Dreams and some millionaires who started small but ended big.
The Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley is located in the San Francisco Bay area and is considered one of the world’s richest places. People who live there are known to have triple the annual wage of the average American. Companies found there are known to earn billions of dollars annually. However, despite earning billions of dollars every year, the valley actually has its own list of HUBZone companies.
These companies are considered start-ups with very little chance against competitors, which is why they choose to become part of the HUBZone program. In the program, they are rewarded contracts by the Small Business Administration (SBA) to grow in the future. It’s a recent program, but programs like this existed before, and it helped George Lucas create one of the biggest franchises in the world: Star Wars.
George Lucas Revolutionizing Cinema
Star Wars is one of the biggest franchises in the world. It’s estimated to be worth $25 billion and continues to grow every year. But did you know that the first three episodes of the beloved franchise were under budget? George Lucas had to use his ingenuity to make it work together. Blasters had to be made from used pipes, and in some instances, props had to be made from cardboard boxes. Silicon Valley isn’t kind to those who can’t think on their feet, and thankfully, George Lucas could handle all the pressure.
Some of the budgets were designated for the special effects in the movie and the authentic costumes we see today. If we look back into it, now the first three episodes haven’t aged well for special effects, but that’s what made them so good back then. It had its own personality. Today, the lack of this personality is shrouded by over-budget special effects in a desperate attempt to increase movie quality. Star Wars didn’t need that because what it lacked in the budget is made up of pure ingenuity.
Mark Zuckerberg and Birth of Social Media
Mark Zuckerberg had the right idea when he started Facebook in the comfort of his dorm room in Harvard. He created a viral program that would make it easier for everyone to connect. But he needed money, and where else can he turn to but the great Silicon Valley?
Zuckerberg then started to work into the program for Facebook while growing his company in Silicon Valley. Zuckerberg is worth around $97 billion, and Facebook is worth half a trillion dollars. It continues to grow as more people join the world of social media, and it wouldn’t have been born if it wasn’t for this Silicon Valley giant.
Elon Musk, the Man of the Future
Elon Musk is not meant for this world; he is a man of the future, making his way there through his Silicon Valley company Tesla. Tesla is an electric-car manufacturer known to save the world from itself. Many of our carbon emissions come from gas-fueled vehicles, and these carbon emissions are destroying the world as we know it.
Tesla aims to reduce these carbon emissions by a reasonable amount, to the point that we no longer need to worry about it in the future. It’s planning to do this by releasing its legion of electrically-powered vehicles into the world that emits minimal carbon emissions and is considered more sustainable than gas.
Right now, Tesla is worth $600 billion in 2020 and is expected to grow drastically as demands for electric-powered cars increase. Furthermore, Musk himself owns a billion-dollar space exploration company known as SpaceX. The company dreams of making the moon a habitable place for human beings in the next ten years.
These are some of the most famous industry giants of Silicon Valley. Some of these companies started with very little to work with. Now they are worth billions of dollars. Dreams do come true in Silicon Valley, given that you work hard enough for it.
