With a backer, a location, and the support of the ambitious Stanford Engineering Department, William Shockley recruiting efforts started in earnest.  But having burned his bridges at Bell Labs (and them some!), Shockley resorts to some unorthodox methods to find the scientists and engineers who will make up his research staff.

In this episode, William Shockley lures 20 of the country’s best and brightest young scientific minds to California to help him set-up the new company.  We meet those young men, most not even thirty years of age yet, who will be pioneers in the Silicon Valley revolution.

And we watch as the story of Shockley Semiconductor unfolds with the highest of highs when Shockley is awarded the Nobel Prize, only to tumble to the lowest depths as his “erratic behavior” alienates the research staff which has idolized him.

Having left Bell Labs to strike out on his own, William Shockley had some important decisions to make:  Who would be the backer for his fledgling company?  Who would be on his staff?  And where would it launch?

In this episode, William Shockley begins to assemble the key pieces of the company that would become Shockley Semiconductor, including its investor, Arnold Beckman, and the its soon-to-be-famous research staff.

We are also learn how close Silicon Valley came to being located in Pasadena, and how a few quirks of fate (and a certain Stanford professor) made all the difference.

After the meeting with Arnold Beckman, the state of Shockley Semiconductor just continues to deteriorate, and the Shockley research staff finally makes their own appeal to Arnold Beckman that something has to change.

In this episode, the Shockley research staff takes a shot in the dark and writes a fateful letter to a New York investment banking firm.  The letter asks if the firm knows of any companies who might be interested in hiring the semiconductor research staff as a group because they would like to continue working together if possible.

But the letter lands on the desk of a young banker named Arthur Rock who has another idea for what they can do.