SF exodus: heed the warning of Grass Valley Group #

In 1959, four Stanford PhDs decided they’d had enough Silicon Valley, and decided to move their technology company to Grass Valley. It became known as a “Pine Cone Startup” because employees could work at a world class technology company while simultaneously living in the forest and go kayaking on weekends.

My father was an electrical engineer at Grass Valley Group. He knew how fortunate and rare this was. He could live in a picturesque location, without compromising on his intellectual and career interests. His children could enjoy a childhood with abundant space to play and safe schools.

Things went amazingly well for Grass Valley Group for more than 30 years. They were considered leaders in video signal manipulation electronics. My father proudly would tell us about his hardware being used in the broadcast of multiple Olympic games. This intellectual and financial boom benefited the community. A small rural town suddenly had an abundance of engineers willing to invest in the community. Public schools improved. The tax base rose.

Unfortunately, things eventually ran out of steam and collapsed. Grass Valley Group suffered the same fate as most tech companies - slowed growth and layoffs. However, unlike Silicon Valley, there wasn’t a technology ecosystem to absorb and repurpose the talent. Those who were old enough to retire, did so. Those who were young and needed to work, had to move back to the Bay. Grass Valley as a town saw an intellectual brain drain.

In 2020, people who are excited about the current SF exodus need to heed the warning of Grass Valley Group. It is not sufficient to start a single company in a geography. You need to attract a critical mass of talent such that if a single company loses its mojo, employees can find alternative work without having to leave town.

If SF residents scatter uniformly, tech will all revert back to SF after the pandemic is over. You need to reach critical mass of talent concentration for it to be sustainable.

For those interested in learning more about the history of Grass Valley Group, the best source is an out of print self published book by a former employee: The Inscrutable Dr. Hare: A Legend of Grass Valley