EPISODE 84: SPRAWL 4 - 10 HEADQUARTERS TO SEE THE NEXT TIME YOU'RE IN SILICON VALLEY

In this week's episode of Living in the Sprawl: Southern California's Most Adventurous Podcast, host Jon Steinberg shares his list of 10 headquarters to see the next time you're in Silicon Valley. His list includes: The Tesla Factory in Fremont, Intel in Santa Clara, Electronic Arts in Redwood City, LinkedIn in Sunnyvale, HP in Palo Alto, EBAY in Palo Alto, Netflix in Los Gatos, Facebook/Meta in Menlo Park, GooglePlex in Mountain View and Apple in Cuppertino.

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Transcript

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Hello listeners and fellow explorers. This is living in the sprawls lovely and talented producer slash wife, Lisa Steinberg. I wanted to thank all of you for your continuous support of the show. As a new podcast on the scene, John and I self-support the logistics and research that go into the show. The number one way to support the show is to rate, review and share this podcast with everyone, you know, Many of you have been doing this and it has helped immensely. I also invite you to check out our website and the show notes for other ways to support the show. We are currently working with companies. We currently use ourselves. To get discount codes for our listeners and support the show in the process. These companies include. Every table, just CBD store, gold belly cats, botanicals, and so much more. By using the links on our website, you are letting them know we sent you an intern, supporting the show. You can also support us on Patrion and pod fan. Please check out the website@livinginthesprawlpodcast.com. For updates on companies we are working with our testimonies links codes and new living in the sprawl merchandise Again thank you to all of you our lovely listeners for tuning in every week and allowing us to do what we love Without further ado you're humble correspondent John steinberg Hello, and welcome to another episode of living in the sprawl. So the California's most adventurous podcast. I am as always your humble host and corresponded. My name is John Steinberg and I am joined in tandem by my lovely and tremendously talented producer slash my wife. Her name is Lisa Steinberg. We are the team here at sprawl enterprises, pretty to bring you yet another exciting foray into the vast expansive terrain that we have lovingly dubbed the sprawl. Except that this is a special. Sprawl. For vacation series episode. So we're actually going to be. Focusing. Our attention. On a region that is outside. Of our ordinary purview. That's right today. We check in. With. Our counterparts to the north. I don't mean San Francisco. nor do I mean. Crescent city, your Rica Humboldt. Not talking about any of that specifically today, we're going to focus our attention. On this sprawl for special edition of Silicon valley. And we're going to focus on. 10. Companies that are headquartered. In. The Silicon valley, 10 different places, different companies. All working. Toward that magical. Indescribable goal that the world understands. As progress. Or something like it. Though San Francisco. Has its fair share. Of technology companies. They're neighbors to the south. Have built an entire cottage industry. Around modern technology. Some might attribute it. Too. A happy accident. That took place. In a garage. In Palo Alto. Where HP was founded. Others might attach the regions connection to the tech industry. To Steve jobs and Steve Wazniak. The proliferation. Of bright minds. That comprise the area. Coming out of some of the state's finest universities. Silicon valley is the home of Stanford. Santa Clara. San Jose state. Nearby Berkeley. Nearby mills college nearby St. Mary's. And as such. Some of the world's largest corporations have set up shop. In the area. To better. Communicate. With similar companies. The fun thing about Silicon valley. Is that there really aren't any particular borders to it. More than a geographic region. It's kind of a state of mind. But for purposes. Of our discussion today. We are going to be focusing on 10 different companies headquartered. In 10 different portions. Of. Silicon valley. So let's begin. With our most unlikely entrant. At number 10. In the great city of Fremont. It's the Tesla automotive plant. Now Tesla. The corporation. Used to be based in Palo Alto. But Elon Musk moved the company to Austin a couple of years back. So what remains. Are the actual facilities or specifically this one facility in Fremont where Teslas are made. It once was home. To GM. And automobiles have been made. At the now. Tesla factory. For at least 60 years. If you drive to Fremont. And you attempt to scale. The actual size of the property. Your head will spin. It's that large. So even though. It's not the Tesla headquarters. And it's at the very Southern end. Of Silicon valley. We wanted to highlight this enormous facility. And it's contribution. Two. Not only American life. But to the global conversation. At number 10. The Tesla. Auto factory in Fremont. And number nine, the Intel campus located in the city of Santa Clara. The Intel. Penny and processor. Has enabled. Much of the tech community. To expand. And continue adding. To an idea that was really. Born. In places. Like Intel. Now there's a museum on the campus. When Lisa and I went to the museum happened to be closed. But it very much exists. And this is our first in. The mini tour. Of these gigantic. College sized campuses. That these corporations call home. Someone had the bright idea. Uh, basically going, Hey, why don't we just turn. Our corporate offices into Stanford. And Intel was one of the first places where that was really the case. Now. It's outright size has been dwarfed by some of the new. Companies. Which have emerged in the past couple of decades. But Intel in Santa Clara, very much holding it down. For the old school. Silicon valley. Tech. Industry. Number eight electronic arts. They're headquartered in Redwood city. Now Oracle. One of the largest companies in the world used to be located in Redwood city. They've also relocated to Texas. But fear not. Redwood city Denison's. Electronic arts is still very much in the fold. They produce. All of the sports games. That's your kids. Nieces and nephews play. They produce a lot of the video games period. That those same individuals play. Madden. NBA two K. MLB the show. All electronic arts properties, all engineered. At their massive headquarters in Redwood city. Comma Silicon valley, California. And number seven. The LinkedIn headquarters in Sunnyvale. Now, LinkedIn. Is it expansion of. The generic social media. The company. think. MySpace and Facebook. But it's also. A real head hunters paradise. I think. Indeed career builder. And any of the other job posting boards. That you've undoubtedly come across over the course of your life. Now the campus. In Sunnyvale. Is not quite as large as some of the other places that will be describing. On this list. But the LinkedIn headquarters in Sunnyvale. Are certainly a place. Where a business is happening. And ideas. Are being consolidated to ensure that we have. A wonderful working future to anticipate. And number six. The oh, gee. As it were. Hewlett Packard. Now just known as HP. With its headquarters. In the Stanford research park. In Palo Alto. HP sort of kicked off. The tech revolution in the United States. Bill Hewlett. And Mr. Packard. Came up with a way. To turn. Recordkeeping. And company maintenance. Into a worldwide juggernaut. And they came up with this notion. In a site that's now. They're for tourists to visit the HP garage. The Stanford research park. Is a cluster of prominent. Businesses. That have some connection to. Stanford. If you drive a couple miles. You'll find yourself surrounded by some of the most important companies. In the United States. And. Right. In the mix. Like two blocks away from the HP headquarters. Is the building that used to house Theranose. Where the disgraced. Elizabeth Holmes. Attempted to quote unquote, change the world. If you visit the area. I would urge you. To just get the address for the Theranose building. And see. Exactly how close it is to all of these entirely legitimate companies. And how easy it was for them to hide. Because, well, how could a fraudulent company be located? Right next to all of these industry Titans. Such as HP. Wouldn't believe it. If I saw it in a script and yet it actually happened. The HP headquarters in. Palo Alto. Definitely worth the side trip. And number five. San Jose. The nation's 10th largest city. Is home to the headquarters of E-bay. The friendly logo presents itself on the exterior of the building. Located in downtown San Jose. And E-bay. Which made competitive e-commerce. Uh, thing. Still very much. Holds the power. To create or nullify. Economic spending trends. E-bay. Gave the world. Uh, financial marketplace. Where you could actually make a profit on all those old baseball cards your mother told you to hold on to, or the beanie babies. That you lost interest in. After you hit the age of 13. It created a space. Where. A niche world. Could truly thrive. Exist. And connect to other niche, worlds and domains. San Jose is also home. To pay Powell. In a number of other. Very prominent. Tech companies. But it's the. eBay headquarters. That. Made us stop and think about what the world was like before. E-bay actually existed. So when you want to stop and think about, well, who actually went ahead and changed the world. It's companies like eBay. In places or really just a place like Silicon valley. Uh, number four, the Netflix headquarters. Located in Los Gatos, the cats. This. Massive. Flurry of buildings. In coastal Los Gatos. Is where the entertainment industry. Was changed forever. Netflix. Basically eclipsed Hollywood. Or at the very least. Made Hollywood change. Almost everything about its business practices. The once. Struggling. Male supported DVD system. Ushered in a new way to watch. Inexperienced content. The. Kickstarter. To the streaming era. Netflix. Has been at the forefront. Of innovation. In the last 15 years. Founder and CEO. Reid Hoffman. Has given the world so much. The binge. Content model. The Netflix and chill lifestyle. The pick. And choose. Business model. For young folks growing up. That never really experienced network television. Let me just tell you. You avoided a great many. Superficialis commercials. The Netflix campus. Is large. Intimidating. And indicative. Of where. The entertainment industry as a whole is really headed. Even though. Their stock price. Might've dipped this year. There could be no debate. That Netflix headquartered. In grand style and its campus in Los Gatos. Holds the key. To what. We all are going to be watching in the future. And number three, Facebook or Mehta platforms in Menlo park. See Facebook. Owns Instagram. As well as WhatsApp. And is now known as Metta platforms, the campus, which your humble host and correspondent. Was privileged enough to tour extensively a couple of years back. It was very much reminiscent of Disneyland. And I found out. That that was a decision. Which was not made by accident. Employees. Specifically. Took cues from Disneyland's main street to create a similar. Portion of the Mehta platform campus. As has become standard. In the tech industry. This campus operates very much like a college campus. It's designed so that you never have to leave. All of your needs are covered from dry cleaning to food. Babysitting. Music lessons. Sports leagues and workouts. It's all right there at the facility. Additionally, there are a couple of just really beautiful botanical gardens. On the campus one. That seems like it was air lifted straight from Japan, which exists. On top. Of an office building. An Oasis. In the valley, if you will. When I say that there are every kind of. Earthly cuisine that you can think of on campus. I mean exactly that. There are vending machines. That have. Items you don't typically see in vending machines. Like headphones, wallets. Key chains. Stuff that you would, I think more associate with a gift shop as opposed to a vending machine. Again, it's all designed so that employees never have to leave the campus. You have world-class food. First rate accommodations. Uh, main street stolen. From Disneyland. Why would you want to leave? At number three. Paving the way forward. It is the facebook slash Mehta campus in menlo park And number two. The Google Plex in mountain view. California. For those of you that saw the 2015. We'll call it a romcom, even though there's far less rum. Then there is calm. internship you'll remember Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn competing. To see who would. Obtain permanent employment at the Google campus. Now much of that movie was actually filmed in Atlanta. But the exterior shots were very much of the massive. Seemingly indestructable Google campus. There are. World-class sculptures that adorn the property's exterior. All of the accoutrements. I just mentioned. With respect to the Facebook medic campus. Those are all represented at Google. In even. More prominent ways. The workforce. At Google. Get to brainstorm. In an environment. That seems. Like something out of a Philip K Dick novel. Google really are. Paving the way forward. What started off as a search engine. Has now become. Well, everything. Google is the most visited website in the world. And shows absolutely no signs of stopping. Their campus in mountain view. Is gorgeous. Yes. It's adjacent to the shoreline amphitheater. One of the foremost amphitheaters in the entire country. There's a really wonderful. Museum of computers. That's adjacent to the campus that we highly recommend. And if you're lucky enough to get yourself on a tour of the Googleplex, you absolutely. Without question much obliged. And take the ride. At number one. The apple campus in Cupertino. Apple was. Formerly located in Palo Alto. But after Steve jobs, Rejoined the company that he founded. And gave the world the iPod. And the iPhone. Well, they needed some bigger digs. This sprawling. Campus. Has all of the requisite accoutrements that you'd expect. From any tech company worth. It's assault. This is apple though. One of the largest companies in the world. The main tech company in the world. The type of company that can create a streaming service. Who's billion dollar budget can be written off as a mere line item. In an overall budget. There's nothing quite like the apple campus. As is the case with all of these facilities, you do have to have special permission to be able. To check out the actual buildings. But. There's of course a gift shop. At the edge of the Cupertino property. Where you can buy all things. Apple. I don't mean like an apple store. I mean, more like an apple gift shop. Think. Apple Christmas ornaments, as opposed to. Folks Manning the genius bar. Bittersweet because Steve jobs never got to see the fully completed campus. But it was his vision. That transformed apple. From a company. Stuck. In the doldrums of the 1980s. Into the company. That would. Usher in. The very essence of our modern Technological age. There will never be another apple. You got to see the campus in Cupertino, even if you just drive around it. And that's going to do it for. Another episode of the program. We'd like to thank everyone for their continued support of the show. A couple of easy ways to demonstrate such support, hop on apple, iTunes, wherever you happen to be listening to the show, leave us a five star. Rating and a kind review helps us out a great deal. Follow us on Instagram. The handle is living in the sprawl podcast. Drop us an email. We do love corresponding with you. Our dear beautiful listeners. The address is living in the sprawl podcast@gmail.com. I'd like to draw your attention to our phenomenal website and it's on this website that you can get your hands on Merck living in the sprawl. Related merchandise. If you can think of it, it's possible to get it made. Our website is the place to snap it up. So it's on behalf of myself. I am as always your humble host and corresponded. My name is John Steinberg. Joined by my lovely, an immensely talented producer slash my wife. Her name is Lisa Steinberg thinking you again from the bottom of our hearts for listening to yet another episode. Of living in the sprawl. Southern California's most adventurous podcast. Talk to you all very soon.