008: "A Fast Horse"

By the early 1960s, Fairchild Camera & Instrument may have been the hottest stock on Wall Street, but internally, trouble was brewing.

In this episode, refusing to become “just another employee working in a research lab for somebody else,” Semiconductor co-founder Jay Last takes a stand, and inadvertently launches an entirely new Silicon Valley phenomenon, the “Fairchildren.”

Also, in this episode, Arthur Rock launches the first venture capital fund on the West Coast… and spots a new opportunity to play matchmaker.

Bob Noyce and Fairchild Semiconductor have one last card to play.  It could be “corporate suicide.” Or it could be a massive success.  Or it could be both.