Why Has Google Stopped Buying ‘Unicorns’?

Booming Tech Startups Have Just Gotten Too Expensive

How do you grow the most innovative company of tomorrow? Is it better to grow the business “organically” from within, or is it better to continually acquire outside companies (along with their talent and products) to stay ahead of the pack? That is one of the perennial questions asked in Silicon Valley and across the tech industry, and it’s a question that involves not just dollars and cents, but intangibles of culture and chemistry.

Apple has famously opted, for the most part, to grow organically. When Steve Jobs took …

Why Californians Are Such Suckers for Superheroes

From Onscreen Icons to Tech Stars, the State's Obsession With Larger-Than-Life Characters Is a Way to Avoid Inconvenient Truths

California faces a peculiar overpopulation problem: We have too many superheroes.

Missed this news in The Daily Planet? Fear not—your ignorance is understandable. California is not as closely associated with …

Let’s Play the Drought Blame Game

There Are Plenty of Guilty Parties During This Dry Spell—Even the Cows are Moo-ches

I hate to play the blame game, but let’s face facts: This drought is all your fault.

You are watering outdoors too much. You kept your lawn when you should have …

My Grandma’s Los Altos Garage Launched a Tech Revolution

Tourists Flock to the Birthplace of Apple Computers. But to Me, the Ranch-Style House Was a Place to Eat Peanut Butter and Watch Cartoons.

My grandma’s house is your typical white, one-story house in the suburbs of the Silicon Valley—it has rustic red brick accents, baby blue trim, and a perfectly manicured front lawn. …

Real Startups, Fake Stuff, and Pirated Property

New Books on Silicon Valley, Synthetic Biology, and Digital Copyright Law

In The Six-Point Inspection, Zócalo takes a quick look at new books that are changing the way we see our world.