Seeq Technologies was founded in 1981 by a collection in ex-Intel employees,
which included Gordon Cambpell, a well known
name in the area. A glowing review can be found here.
Seeq was one of the companies that fit well into the Silicon Valley name,
their dream was to produce EEPROMs.
Now many people have never heard of venture capital until the latest
tech bubble, but it's been arround for a while. The story of Seeq, was
one of how to spend $70 million dollars in 5 years and then have no product.
Up until the late 90's a feat not frequently reproduced.
So what's an EEPROM? Well it's a chip that normally looks like read only
memory, but when a system wants it can reprogram it. The technology functions
just like a flash memory. In the early 80's EPROMs were common, but to erase
the device you have to stick it under a UV lamp for 20 minutes. EEPROM
offered greater versitility.
In 1981 a group of middle managers and engineers inside Intel led by
Gordon Cambell thought the company wasn't going after the EEPROM market
strongly enough. On Junary 5th 1981 they resigned. Seeq was incorporated
a week latter, and within a month Intel sued. This gave Seeq a good
push to get going since they obviously had a hot item.
Seeq managed to raise $50 million dollars in venture capital, and another
$18 million through an IPO. Of course, they had to spend it. Their
spending spree included a new office building (delayed them 6 months to market),
and new furniture that cost 6 times more than the more normal office furniture.
They burried a time capsule in the front lawn that predicted that by
1992 Seeq would be a $1-billion company.
In a national advertising campain Seeq offered a Porshe to the designer
who could find the most ingenious use of their EEPROM. Ovens to make
IC chips normally take 6 weeks to install, so Seeq said if they could do it
in 2 weeks they'de buy the crew dinner at any restaurant in the bay area.
Realiseing they needed revenue until the EEPROM market expanded Seeq
started producing EPROMs. EPROMs boomed in the early 80's so they were well
off. Except, for one thing. In late 1984 128k EPROMs were $15/chip, by mid 1985
they were $2. It cost Seeq $5 to make them. The slide was on.
By May 1986 Gordon Campbell was long gone, Seeq had gone though many rounds
of layoffs. They now had $13,000 in the bank, had lost $4 million in the last
quarter, and $9.38/share last year. Things didn't look good at all.
They managed to survive 1986, just barely. They dropped the EPROM, embracced
EEPROMs and started to diversify their line. By the mid-90s they were doing
comunications chips (Ethernet, ATM, etc). In 1999 they were bought by LSI
for $106 million, a far cry for a planned $1-billion company.
More information can be found at:
http://www.inc.com/articles/finance/capital/vent_capital/6025.html
This is a 2 part cache. The first cache is a film canister with the
coordinates to the main cache which is a tupperware.
Part 1: At N37° 28.535 W121° 56.121. You are standing right behind the
Seeq Technologies headquaters durring the 1990's. I've tried my best to get
these as accurate as possible. Make sure to check out all cracks and crevices.
Part 2: Head to the coordinates in the film canister. I give a suggested
parking location, and you'll then have a half mile walk to the main cache out in a secluded and poorly known wildlife refuge.
If the film canister gets lost/unreable please let me know right away. I've
got a hint made up to replace it. You may want to do part 1 outside of business
hours.
Initial Contents:
- Log and Pen
- Camera (please take a picture)
- Where's George Dollar
- Sealed pack of Penguin Mints
- Gi-Jane travel bug
- Electronic Calculator thingy (working/brand new)
- Pencil Sharpener (take it to a cache with a pencil whose sharpner is missing?)