Fairchild Alumni as Company DNA

"it was nolan bushnell who introduced Don to Steve Jobs. I’m not going to recount the entire story of the origins of Apple except to say that the computer company, with the exception of the founders, was built in its early years by men who had spent years working at Fairchild Semiconductor and National Semiconductor."

"Fairchild Semiconductor taught Don about the importance of large markets, technology, hiring, speed, aggression, frugality, outsourcing, marketing, and, as he used to say, ‘The two things in business that matter: high gross margins and cash flow.’"

"No company in the history of the industrial world has had the impact of Fairchild Semiconductor and, if there was an economic version of 23andMe, Fairchild would be in a class of its own – the progenitor of all the succeeding generations of Silicon Valley companies. Fairchild Semiconductor’s employees, towing their friendships, rivalries, feuds, and animosities, went on to start or play important management roles in dozens, if not several hundred, Silicon Valley companies and venture firms between the end of the 1960s and start of the 1990s."