Silicon Valley was born in a nondescript garage at 367 Addison Ave. in Palo Alto, Calif. Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard started their company there, on a quiet residential street, in 1939.
It’s one of the many tech landmarks I’ve visited throughout the nation. While some really stood out, like Borland Software Corp.’s campus in Scotts Valley, many were ordinary buildings. It wasn’t the edifices or the geography that built the tech industry. It was people and ideas.
Cleveland businesspeople can take inspiration and even lessons from a tour of Cleveland’s greatest tech landmarks. Here are some of my favorites.
In 1887, Albert A. Michelson, a physics professor at Case School of Applied Sciences, and Edward W. Morley, a chemistry professor at Western Reserve University, conducted experiments that showed the speed of light is unaffected by the movement of Earth through space. This paved the way for Einstein’s theory of relativity. The Michelson–Morley experiments happened at what is now, of course, Case Western Reserve University.
The lesson? World-class, game-changing science doesn’t have to come from the coasts or Ivy League. Northeast Ohio’s universities were, and still are, one of our greatest strengths.
At East 55th Street and Harlem Avenue, just south of Superior Avenue, you’ll see a historical marker near the home where Garrett A. Morgan lived and worked. In 1914, the black inventor patented the safety hood, the precursor to the gas mask. He later invented the traffic signal and other innovations.
The lesson? Don’t listen if someone says you can’t be successful. Innovation knows no color.
The third landmark was built way out in the country, away from the bustle of the city. Nela Park was built on an abandoned vineyard a whopping seven miles from Cleveland, becoming the first industrial park in the world.
The lesson? With smart people involved, whether an enterprise is out in the country or in East Cleveland, it can become an international star.
Another landmark was the seismograph station started in 1900 at St. Ignatius College, now John Carroll University. This was the place for seismographic data, even though Cleveland is, thankfully, not known for seismic activity. TV crews would flock to the Rev. W. Richard Ott at JCU when an earthquake hit anywhere in the world. The Seismological Observatory was, unfortunately, shut down in 1992.
Two lessons here. First, don’t be limited by geography: You don’t need to be on a fault to study earthquakes. Second, when you have something world class, don’t let it get away.
Before high-speed Internet access, we used dial-up modems and Internet service providers. One of the biggest ISPs was APK, located in the landmark Keith Building in Playhouse Square and founded by Zbigniew Tyrlik. On my first visit, I was amazed that the entire operation fit into a 6-by-12-foot room. The Keith Building had all the phone equipment and Zbig and APK were close to it.
The lesson? Do what’s important for your business. The fancy office can come later.
With our modems, we dialed into bulletin-board systems (BBS) such as PC-OHIO. In 1985 Norm Henke started PC-OHIO with one telephone line on a used XT in his South Euclid bedroom.
It kept growing, and Norm and his wife eventually quit their jobs to run the 60-computer BBS at their new home in Lyndhurst. Picnics at Norm’s house always included a tour of racks of PCs and modems. PC-OHIO was named the best BBS in America, and the future looked bright until this thing called the Internet came along and BBSes disappeared.
The lesson? Technology changes and is changing faster every year. You cannot continually rely on your current business model or skills. They could soon be obsolete.
In 1984, Tom Grundner and others at the CWRU School of Medicine created St. Silicon’s Hospital, a free medical question-and-answer service. This evolved into the Cleveland Free-Net, which grew into a virtual city. The software was licensed to other cities (for $1) and free-nets sprang up all over. By June 1995, the Cleveland Free-Net had more than 160,000 registered users.
Heavy demand, the need for expensive upgrades and competitors with fewer busy signals led to the end of the original Free-Net.
Two lessons: Build with growth and success in mind. And you don’t get a free pass just because you were first.
In 1992, Charles Stack opened BookStacks, the first online bookstore.
“We started on the 22nd floor of the One Cleveland Center building in 1992,” Charlie says. “Suite 2260. We built a ‘data center’ out of bookcases, a plastic tarp for a roof and a portable indoor air conditioner that simply blew the hot air into the outer room. We did pick, pack and ship right in the office.”
The lesson? The Internet lets you become huge and global, even if you’re working under a tarp.
James Fergason invented the scientific basis of modern liquid crystal displays at the Liquid Crystal Institute at Kent State. More than 100 million LCD TVs have been sold — but KSU didn’t reap the rewards of the invention.
The lesson? Protect your intellectual property and turn it into products before anyone else does.
Vantage One’s first office in 1990 was in Tim Mueller’s back bedroom at 1215 Edwards Ave. in Lakewood. The first employee’s office was the dining room. The next worked in the living room.
“None of our clients knew the size of Vantage One back then, but we all had a feeling that something big was going to happen,” Mueller says. “Those were some of the most exciting days of the company, in that every piece of business was a big deal. We’d celebrate by ordering Danny Boy’s Pizza and chowing on my front porch.”
Mueller is now four years into an actual Silicon Valley tech startup, launched from an actual garage in Mountain View, Calif. “Most all of the money for this venture [$12 million] was raised here in Cleveland,” says Mueller. “Incredible.”
The new company reminds him of Vantage One, but “you can never truly have two first loves,” he says. “Those nine years were the most influential of my business career.”
The lessons? Keep your dreams and passion high and your operating expenses low. You’ll need cash reserves to grow.
Jim Cookinham was a volunteer at the Greater Cleveland Growth Association and was given a small cubicle to start NEOSA, the local tech-industry membership group. “I used my own e-mail,” he recalls, “and would have to disconnect a fax machine so I could use the phone line and my modem to get my e-mails out. Not very exciting.”
The lesson? Don’t expect your startup to have dream equipment and perks. Work with what you have until you are established.
Phil Alexander opened BrandMuscle’s first office in March 2000 in One International Place in downtown Boston. “I had a card table, a chair, a laptop and a whiteboard — and Mike O’Brien, a smart guy from the incubator on assignment to BrandMuscle.”
Alexander couldn’t find financing in Cleveland, but he knew that BrandMuscle would actually happen when, in the lobby of a hotel in Waltham, Mass., an investor, Pete Cowie, told him he would fund the concept.
The lesson? If Northeast Ohio turns you down, go somewhere else. But please come back, as Alexander did.
Bob Schmidt’s Orbital Research provided consulting services for the NASA Center for Commercial Development of Space, located in the Materials Science Building at CWRU. Schmidt moved Orbital into one of the graduate student offices in the White Building because of the close proximity to the NASA CCDS. Orbital’s Fred Lisy recalls, “The first official office address used on business cards was 11000 Cedar Ave., as part of the BioEnterprise incubator … which was very supportive to high-tech startups.”
The lessons? Take advantage of incubators and get as close to talent, customers and suppliers as you can.
NASA Glenn, Hyland Software, Aztek, CoolCleveland: There are many more Cleveland landmarks, stories and lessons to be learned. Tell me who I missed.
Dan Hanson (hanson@inside-business.com) started and remains in the landmark Magnum Building on beautiful Payne Avenue. The lesson? Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.